The Essentials for Post-Workout

You just finished one of your best intense workouts. Do you know what—and when—you need to eat in order to maximize your results? The answer is in this article. With my earlier article focusing entirely on what to eat before exercising, I’d be remiss to not explain what you should be eating after your workout.

What’s the point of eating after exercise?

It’s all about two things: recovery and storage. You need to recover the losses you undertook during the exercise, and your body is simply better at storing that recovery fuel right after your workout. Sure, you can eat later—but the benefits won’t be as good.

The sports medicine pros at ESPN explain it: “athletes need carbohydrate and fluid to replace glycogen and water losses during the exercise. The muscles store more glycogen immediately after exercise than they do later”.

We’ll talk about what to eat shortly, but generally you want to stick to carbohydrates and protein. Why, exactly? Protein provides the amino acids necessary to rebuild muscle tissue that is damaged during intense, prolonged exercise. It can also increase the absorption of water from the intestines and improve muscle hydration. The amino acids in protein can also stimulate the immune system, making you more resistant to colds and other infections. While you might find some advice that suggests carbs will serve you fine on their own, one study found that athletes who refueled with carbohydrate and protein had 100 percent greater muscle glycogen stores than those who only ate carbohydrate. Insulin was also highest in those who consumed a carbohydrate and protein drink.

The Re-Hydration Essentials

There isn’t a ton of information on drinking water after exercise, and for good reason—it’s simply obligatory. That’s always your #1 priority, especially if you’ve gone for a run and haven’t had access to any water during it.

If you want to get really scientific about it, it is recommended weighing yourself pre- and post-workout, and using the difference to replace fluid losses. For example, drink 20-24 fl oz of water for every 1 lb lost. Of course, most of you will just hit that water bottle with abandon.

When to eat

Do we need to eat right away? You might say no, not exactly—you probably want to get some fluids into you, towel off, get changed, take a quick shower—whatever your normal post-workout routine is.

But the first 15 minutes are crucial: the enzymes that help the body resynthesize muscle glycogen are really most active in that first 15 minutes. The longer we wait to eat something, the longer it takes to recover.

If you can’t get to some proper food within those first 15 minutes, make sure you get something in your stomach within an hour, maximum,post-workout. You won’t get much increased storage at all if you wait longer than that.

What to eat—with real suggestions

Ah, and now the crucial question, where we move away from talk of abstract carbohydrates and protein, and into actual suggestions for the kind of things you should scarf down post-workout.

Sports drinks are better during a workout, but juices are better afterwards, when our body needs those carbs. One crucial notion is digestion: if our bodies aren’t used to processing food after a workout, it might be difficult to digest solid foods right away, especially after some long, serious endurance work. Columbia University comes at us with some real food suggestions: “eat a few slices of turkey on a wheat bagel, or have a large glass of protein fortified milk. The most important nutritional strategy post workout, though, is fluid replacement. Drink water, juice, or carbohydrate rich sports drinks to replace what you sweat out.” All good advice, although be careful of sports drinks that function more as sugar-delivery systems than workout tools.

The final bit of advice

Eating after exercise takes some time to get used to. Remember that if you’re working out just 2-3 times a week, it’s not as fundamentally important to concentrate on your post-workout recovery. But if you’re working out nearly every day—it’s essential.

And don’t think of your post-workout food as a proper meal: the portion sizes should never get that big: it’s a small amount – a fist-sized quantity, low-fat chocolate milk works very well. The goal is not a post-exercise meal. It’s really a post-exercise appetizer to help the body recover as quickly as it can. That’s a strange-but-perfect way to think about it: a post-exercise appetizer.

Keep these general principles in mind, eat clean and healthyabove all.

Article by Jessy Hamawi, Peoria Club Fitness Nutritionist and Personal Trainer