Besides Breakfast, Post Workout Meal
Is The Most Important Meal

Post Workout Meal, Anyone?

Do you eat it after your workout?

You don't eat?

Erm.................

You could have done a great disfavor to your body and muscle!

Because it's your most important meal of the day, besides breakfast, that is.

And it's the deciding meal - whether or not you refuel your body with the right combination of nutrients, to repair musclesfrom the breakdown of a workout and to keep your metabolism high .

This is because:

• When you eat your meal after every workout, you help your body to repair and build lean muscle. The more lean muscle you've, the higher your metabolism, hence you lose fat easier and faster and it's so much easier for you to stay lean (for life huh?)
• A post workout recovery meal helps you to lose more fat, hike up your metabolism and increase your strength

Well, go for a fast digesting carbohydrate source to elicit an insulin response, which surges nutrients and glycogen back into your muscles for repair.

You also need protein.

But very little fat (if any) as fat slows down the digestion of carbs and protein and glycemic response (blood sugar) which isn't what you want for muscle repair.

The ratios of carbs to protein?

Studies on this subject seem to agree to a ratio of about 2 to 1, carbs to protein. This looks like the optimal combination to maximize muscle repair and to boost your metabolism for long-term fat loss.

Contrary to the fact that carbs are "bad", they're extremely important in your post workout meal as they're used by your body to restore muscle glycogen.

Carbs also create an insulin spike which helps to move nutrients into your muscle tissue quicker.

If there's no carb in your said meal, your body may instead breakdown muscle tissue for the same purpose.

So, what carbs to take then?

Go for simple carbs because it gets absorbed into your body fast.

Try dextrose, a type of sugar...

Hey! This is one exceptional time of the day when you can actually eat "sugar".......

You might say egg whites, chicken and tuna fish are good sources of protein. Sorry, they aren't the ideal type of protein for your meal.....

Because they're whole foods and the protein in them get digested quite slowly.

After you've consumed them, by the time the protein is digested and finally ready to be used by your body, a long time would have passed by.

So, what protein to take then?

Take whey protein powder mixed with some types of liquids (water is the best) to make whey protein shake. It's the best choice because it's digested by your body very quickly (because it's liquid) and it's the fastest digesting protein around.

As soon as you can after your workout.

In fact, the sooner the better.

Try to capture the "window of time" that exists after your workout, which would be the most beneficial for your body to eat post workout.

If I were you, I would eat this meal within 1 hour, if possible, within 30 minutes would be even better. I have my meal about 20-30 minutes after my workout.

Studies show that the sooner you take your post workout meal (following your intense workout), you can benefit from better muscle recovery and a higher percentage of the carbs ingested for use in muscle glycogen replenishment.

So, eat your post workout meal, yeah?

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