Post-workout Diet Plan

Post-Workout Diet to Enhance Results

After you’ve been in the gym for an hour or two, the last thing that you want to do is to ‘undo’ all that good energy you just put into your workout. And what you consume after your workout is probably the most important combination of food that you’ll eat all day long.

The reason that your post-workout meal is so important is because you have just spent time working those muscle groups to the point of breakdown so that you can replenish them and the muscle tissue will slowly grow stronger. What happens inside the muscle is that the glycogen has been depleted while the cortisol levels have increased to the point where they are breaking the muscle tissue apart. It is not good to keep your muscles in this state. That is why it is important
to take particular care in the food you have right after training.

A post-workout meal that is quickly digested and easily metabolized is the answer to building the muscle tissue back up. You would want a meal that is high is carbs because this will replenish the muscle glycogens that you have lost and at the same time expedite repair on those muscles. By taking in the carbs and amino acids (protein) your meal will digest and promote an insulin spike. and this reaction will then cause all the nutrients you’ve taken in to go directly into the muscle cells.

Some Points to Remember in a Post-Workout Meal

• The meal should only be 300-500 calories: a 120 lb woman- 300 calories and a 200 lb. man – 500.

• The meal should be a 2:1 – 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein; keep it in-between.
• Do not include fats. Fats actually slow the absorption of the nutrients and you want quick recovery.
• Keep healthy fats in your other meals.

The best ideas for foods to consume after your workout are natural ones. Natural always beats anything else. In workout or nutrition magazines you’ll see expensive supplements that profess to do miracles, but aren’t necessary at all. The best quickly digested proteins are foods like raisins, pineapples, frozen bananas and using honey or organic maple syrup. These carbohydrates are perfect for bringing about the increase to the insulin level that we talked about in the previous paragraph. Because these foods are quickly absorbed, they also help other foods that are eaten with them to be more quickly absorbed also. You want to produce a muscle-building that will counteract the muscle-workout that you just gave them. This is called an anabolic or muscle-building recovery. To combine with the carbs, you need to add 1 part protein and the best way to do that is with quality whey protein powder which can be found in health food and nutrition stores.

Some Ideas to Follow

Strawberry Pina Colada – 1/2 c. water. ½ c. pineapple juice, ½ c. Almond milk, ½ frozen banana, 5-6 strawberries, and one scoop of vanilla whey protein powder to make 30 g. protein, 450 cal.

Chocolate Banana – 1 c. water, ½ c. skim milk, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 2 tbsp organic maple syrup, and 30 grams chocolate whey protein powder – 38 g protein, 440 c.

Pineapple Vanilla – 1 cup water, ½ cup vanilla yogurt, one cup frozen pineapples, 2 tbsp honey (preferably raw), and 30 grams vanilla whey protein powder – 35 g. protein, 425 c.

Blend these ingredients together in a blender and add 4-6 ice cubes, if you like.

To loose body fat is usually the goal. Under 16% is considered competition percentage, under 21% for a male and under 23% for a female are considered very good, but if you want to loose more body fat, your work-out meal will be the opposite of your other meals. Your other 3 or 4 smaller meals will consist of foods with a low glycemic index that have more staying power. There are plenty of the glycemic index charts to be found online; look up your favorite foods so that you know what they are and can create healthy meals.

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