What To Eat After A Workout
8:56 pm in Weight Loss News by seph
You’ve just emptied your whole body into the work-out. You need to have something to eat to make the most of the work-out. What are you going to have? Eating after the work-out is important and aids your recovery time and your bodies’ anabolic response to the work-out. This anabolic window is usually open for about 45 minutes after your work-out.
Carbohydrates – The work-out will have stressed the central nervous system and your body should be in a growth phase, carbohydrates will play a part in this growth. The carbs that should be consumed will need to have high Glycemic Index ratings. This is because of relationship between your blood sugar level and insulin. The relationship can become quite hard to understand, but insulin is important in muscle growth. A primary function of insulin is starting protein synthesis amongst the body. The insulin spike by the high glycemic carbohydrates moves nutrients to the muscle quicker. The bad part about the insulin spike is that insulin is the main hormone for fat storage. To work-out how many carbohydrates you need to take, measure how much you weigh in kilograms and then aim to have half a gram of carbohydrates per kilograms. If you weigh around the 84 kilogram mark then 42 grams of highly digestible carbohydrates would be perfect.
Protein – Protein needs to be a part of your post work-out meal. It helps get the process of protein synthesis (Building Muscle) started. Amino acids are the building blocks of muscles and taking it within the post work-out ‘window’ will lead to greater increases in strength. How much you need to take will again depend on your body-weight. For every kilogram of body-weight you should aim to have a 1/4 gram of gram of easily digested protein. If your weight is 80 kilograms then you should be aiming to have 20 grams of protein. There have been studies proving the benefits of mixing carbohydrates and protein together for the post work-out meal. Taken together a key benefit was reducing the levels of cortisol floating amongst the body.
Fluids – Depending on how hard you work-out you can lose a lot of fluids. This puts the body in a dehydrated state. This is detrimental to the body and when dehydration is interfering with normal body functions it doesn’t allow for an optimal muscle building environment. As a way to monitor how hydrated you are you can use the colour of urine as your indicator. Ensure that the colour of your urine is clear or a light yellow. There are a number of diuretic drinks that will cause you to become dehydrated quicker. After you work-out try and stay away from tea, coffee and caffeinated drinks.
Excellent Post Work-Out Meal. About 45 grams of a high glycemic index carbohydrates and 22 grams of high quality protein. You can buy powders that have already done the carbohydrate/protein mix for you. You can add some essential fatty acids (EFAs) of organic flax oil or mix in some creatine. These give a bit extra to an already excellent post work-out meal. EFAs help eliminate excess fat, have strong anti-inflammatory properties, help in the decrease of migraines, prevent cancerous growth. The list goes on. Creatine is an excellent muscle building supplement which exploits are well known. One of the main benefits is that is helps with recovery.
For the remainder of the day it will be beneficial to carry on having meals every three hours, this will allow for a constant stream of nutrients. For the meals hours after the work-out there is no need to have high glycemic index carbohydrates. Aim for low to moderate carbohydrates mixed with some high quality sources of protein. Utilise the anabolic window that is open after your work-out and have a carbohydrate/protein mix with some EFAs and creatine. .
