What Should You Eat After Working Out?
Your POST workout meal is the first meal you eat after your workout.
While the PRE (and/or during) workout nutrition phase is commonly
referred to as the “Energy Phase,” this POST workout portion of your
around-workout-nutrition is commonly referred to as the “Anabolic Phase.”
The Purpose of Post Workout Nutrition
The reason it’s nicknamed the “anabolic phase” is again pretty
obvious, as anabolism refers to the “building” (or even “rebuilding”) of
something.
Quite simply, your POST workout meal is the meal that plays the
largest role in supplying your body with everything it will need to repair, replenish, recover and adapt to the training stimulus that you just provided during your workout.
Specifically, the goal of the POST workout meal is to accomplish the following:
- Replenish muscle glycogen that was depleted during your workout.
- Reduce muscle protein breakdown caused by exercise.
- Increase muscle protein synthesis.
- Reduce muscle soreness and fatigue.
- Greatly enhance overall recovery.
- Reduce cortisol levels.
How To Do It
To make all of the above happen successfully, your body once again needs 2 things:
- Carbs
- Protein
Yup, the same 2 things your body benefits from before your workout
are the same 2 things your body benefits from after your workout.
So, your primary goal with your POST workout meal is to consume a significant amount of both carbs and protein in some form soon after your workout.
Why soon after? Because, after your workout, your body is absolutely
primed and ready to accept protein and carbs so it can immediately begin
putting these nutrients to good use doing all of the awesome things you
want it to be doing (such as the stuff on that list above).
Most people also feel that calorie partitioning (how calories are
used once they enter your body) is at its very best at this time, so
people often make this their largest meal of the day.
For all of these reasons, it’s most often recommended to consume your post workout meal as soon after your workout as you can.
I don’t mean put-down-the-weights-and-start-eating. That’s a bit insane. However, this meal should ideally be eaten within the first 60 minutes after your workout. Or better yet, within the first 30 minutes after your workout.
So, your biggest goal with your POST workout meal is to consume a
nice amount of both protein and carbs sometime within the first 30
minutes after your workout.
As long as you’re doing that, you’re doing it right.
Of course, we’ve once again reached the point where everyone wants
the overcomplicated specifics. Exactly how many grams of carbs and
protein, exactly what foods should they come from, and so on.
While I again find those kind of specifics to be mostly pointless, I won’t just leave you hanging with no guidelines at all.
A Recommended POST Workout Meal Protocol
Just like I did earlier with your PRE workout meal, I’ll going to again leave you with Alan Aragon's popular recommendation, this time for what to eat after working out.
Within 30 minutes post-workout, have either a liquid or solid meal containing…
Protein = 0.25g per pound of your target body weight.
Carbs = 0.25-0.5g per pound of your target body weight.
Amount of fat here doesn’t matter as long as your daily target is hit.
Again, that’s pretty self explanatory.
As for me personally, I usually go about this meal 3 different ways.
- Option A:
Sometimes I have a liquid meal consisting of whey protein powder as my
protein source (whey is the “fast” digesting protein, more about it
later), and dextrose (which is a type of sugar commonly used in sports
drinks) as my carb source. I just throw the appropriate amounts of both
into a shaker bottle, take it with me to the gym, and leave it in my car
or locker. When I’ve finished working out, I just pour in a bottle of
water, shake for a few seconds, and taaadaaa, I have an extremely quick
and convenient POST workout shake that I drink on the ride home.
- Option B:
Sometimes I skip the liquid meal described above in favor of a normal
solid food meal as soon as I get home. I normally go with chicken and a
big bowl of rice or white potatoes or another similar higher glycemic
source. As I’ve mentioned before, this is the one time of the day when
higher glycemic foods may have an advantage over lower glycemic
foods. I know a lot of people who prefer to eat their favorite junkier
cereals (Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, etc.) at this meal for this very
reason.
- Option C:
Sometimes I combine elements of previous 2 options. Specifically, I’ll
use whey protein powder as my protein source, and a higher glycemic
solid food as my carb source.
Exactly which option I personally go with or recommend you go with depends on a bunch of factors. For example…
Option A (the whey/dextrose shake) was once thought to be FAR
superior to anything else because they both digest faster than any other
source of protein or carbs (not to mention, a liquid meal digests
faster than a solid food meal).
However, if you already got your PRE workout meal right, then it
probably doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as some people make it
seem. Don’t get me wrong, I still use this option a lot, it’s just that
any supposed benefits over Option B or C are most likely insignificant
at best.
The real big advantage of this shake is the convenience of it. Just
mix it together and drink. That’s as quick and easy as it gets, and some
people might prefer that. Not to mention, some people just aren’t that
hungry after working out, so they might prefer to drink this meal rather
than eat it. It’s all about personal preferences.
Option B or C (the solid/semi-solid food meals) are definitely more
ideal for people who would prefer to chew their meal rather than drink
it. Some people just enjoy eating and love the idea of getting to eat a
nice big meal containing some of the higher glycemic foods they
typically avoid the rest of the day.
These options may just be more fun and enjoyable to many people,
especially those who are trying to lose fat (and are therefore eating
less calories overall and wouldn’t want to “waste” a meal by drinking
it), or people who just have problems controlling their appetite.
Again, as long as you get the gist of the meal right (eat a nice
amount of protein and carbs soon after your workout), exactly how you do
it is not likely to matter much in the end and should really come down
to your own personal preferences.
There’s no need to get any more complicated than that, and no need to obsess about the specifics.
