As you have most likely heard before, your post-workout meal could terribly somewhat be the most significant eating of the day. The reason is that after you’re finished with an intense workout, you are getting into a catabolic state where your muscle glycogen is depleted and increased cortisol levels are beginning to excessively break down the muscle tissue. These conditions don’t appear to be sensible and the sole means to reverse this catabolic state (and promote an anabolic state) is to eat a quickly digestible post-workout meal when you finish your workout. The goal is to decide on a meal with quickly digestible carbs to replenish muscle glycogen also quickly digestible protein to supply the amino acids required to begin muscular repair. The surge of carbohydrates and amino acids from this quickly digested meal promotes an insulin spike from the pancreas, that gives nutrients into the muscle cells.

The after workout meal needs to typically contain between 300-500 calories to get the best response. For instance, a one hundred twenty lb woman may only need a three hundred-calorie meal, whereas a two hundred pound man may need a 500-calorie after workout meal. Your post-workout meal ought to conjointly contain anywhere from 2:1 ratio of carbs:protein to 4:1 ratio of carbs:protein. While most of your daily meals needs to contain a source of healthy fats, keep the fat content of the post-workout meal to a clean minimum, since fat will slow down the absorption of the meal, which is the alternative of what you would like when your done training.

When you’re choosing what to eat for your post-workout meal, the first factor to comprehend is that you DON’T need any of those expensive after workout meal supplement formulations that magazines (who advertise for them) preach to you that you just absolutely NEED these! Like any nutritional strategies, natural is always better. A good supply of quickly digestible natural carbs just like honey, raisins, frozen bananas, pineapples, or organic maple syrup are good to elicit an insulin response that can provide muscle glycogen replenishment and a anabolic (muscle building) effect. The simplest source of quickly digestible proteins is a quality non-denatured whey protein isolate and/or some fat-free or low-fat yogurts. Here’s a couple of ideas for delicious after workout smoothies that will begin your recovery process:

Chocolate Banana – mix together one cup water, cup skim milk or non fat milk, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 2 tbsp organic maple syrup, and thirty grams chocolate whey protein powder – Here’s the nutritional value of this smoothie shake – thirty eight g protein, 72 g carbs, 1/2 g fat, 440 calories.

Vanilla and Pineapple – blend together one cup water, cup vanilla yogurt, one cup pineapples, 2 tbsp honey (preferably raw), and thirty grams of vanilla flavored whey powder protein – Here is the nutritional value of this smoothie shake – thirty five g protein, seventy one g carbs, 1/2 g fat, 425 calories.

When you’re trying to lose body fat, bear in mind that post-workout meals should have the opposite characteristics of all your main meals throughout every day. Whereas post-workout meals should have quick high glycemic index carbs, quick digested proteins, and minimal fat, all of your other meals throughout the day need to be comprised of low glycemic index, slow digested carbs, slow release proteins, and ample healthy fats. These are powerful strategies towards gaining a lean muscular body with a low body fat percentage. One more nice factor regarding after workout meals is that you will satisfy even the biggest sweet tooth, since this is the only part of the day when you can get away with eating additional sugar while not adding to your gut. Instead, it all goes to the muscles! Hope you enjoy the smoothies!

Enjoy… and good luck on your lean healthy body!

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