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Useful food after exercise: for weight loss, muscle growth, weight gain

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Active lifestyle requires a special diet from a person. Only in this case it is possible to achieve results for the sake of which, in fact, people come to the gym. There are enough ways to combine physical activities and proper nutrition.

Useful food after exercise

Food after exercise should include proteins and carbohydrates in a certain ratio, which depends on the loads.

After aerobic training, the proportion of protein to carbohydrates is 40:60. Carbohydrates are needed to restore glycogen, "muscle fuel." One hour of average training requires up to 40 grams of carbohydrates, intensive - 50 grams or more per hour of exercise.

With force loads, the ratio varies: the body requires 60% protein and 40 - carbohydrates. The protein in this case does not allow the splitting of the musculature and promotes the renewal of the tissues.

Nutrition after a workout also depends on the time of day. Morning exercises require the intake of low-fat protein food about an hour after their completion. The same should be the evening menu - depending on the time of the exercises.

Fat in any case is undesirable. For two hours, coffee, cocoa and chocolate are also not recommended. Coffeemans who train in the morning, you have to wait two hours to drink your favorite drink.

On the other hand, you can not long abstain from food, even if it's food at night. The break more than two hours, according to nutritionists, reduces physical activity to nothing. Food on time, on the contrary, is beneficial - and the mass grows, and the muscles are restored.

Useful food after training:

  • dried fruits and nuts;
  • yoghurt and fresh berries;
  • fresh from fruit;
  • canapé with cheese;
  • sandwiches with dry meat;
  • an omelette with bread;
  • milk with flakes;
  • protein bar.

The right food, taken on time, is the guarantee of the effectiveness of physical exercises.

Useful recipes after exercise

Food after exercise excludes fats and cholesterol, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. In the priority - pure non-carbonated water, replenishing the loss of moisture, inevitable during physical exertion.

Useful recipes after training:

  • Fitness cocktail

To bring down in a blender on 100 mm of orange juice and milk, 50 ml of yoghurt, a half-banana. Take low-fat dairy products.

  • Dietary sandwich

On a slice of bread put a leaf of lettuce, a slice of turkey fillet, grease the avocado puree cooked on a blender, top with a cut tomato. This sandwich is called Californian.

  • Fitness smoothies

Oatmeal is poured with boiling water, after ten minutes, excess water is drained. Milk, knocked down with pineapple, mixed with oatmeal. For a portion take a quarter cup oatmeal, a cup of milk, three quarters of a cup of sliced pineapple.

  • Curd and peach mousse

Fruit knead, squirch the protein, add 100 grams of low-fat cottage cheese, mix the mixture gently.

  • Cookies from dried fruits

For 100 g dried apricots and prunes, 50 g raisins to grind on a blender, add cashew and whipped protein. From the mass make a cookie and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.

  • Air dessert

To bring down 100 g of cottage cheese, add a handful of muesli and finely chopped apple; mix, add honey.

  • Fruit Salad

Cut the apple, two plums, a few grapes, fill with honey-yogurt sauce.

Food after weight loss training

Immediately after the load, the hormone level rises and metabolism accelerates, so that calories in the body continue to burn for another half an hour. At this time you can not eat, and, as practice shows, not very much and want to. After all, the body does not immediately establish a digestive process.

Food after exercise is consumed in about thirty minutes; it should contain enough proteins, but a minimum of fats and carbohydrates. At this time, the so-called. "Carbohydrate window," when food replenishes energy reserves, stimulates muscle growth and does not allow the formation of fat stores.

The correct weight loss occurs when the body receives no more calories than it consumes, but no less than it needs for vital activity. After exercises it is useful to eat:

  • egg white,
  • low-fat homemade cheese,
  • kefir,
  • chicken,
  • white fish (boiled or steamed).

Food after workout for weight loss saturates the body and at the same time is not put off for storage, because the proteins are unable to turn into fat. If the food is completely abandoned, then the body will survive a great deal of stress and start burning its own muscle cells, rather than fat stores.

It is equally important after drinking to drink plenty of water to make up for its supplies used up during sweating. It is estimated that about one liter of water is lost per hour of intensive training.

If classes take place in the evening, shortly before sleep, then for dinner it is useful to use only light meals: homemade cheese, kefir, vegetables with olive oil.

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Food after workout for weight gain

If the goal of fitness exercises is muscle building, then regularity and eating after exercise are of great importance. The food scheme is as follows.

  • It is necessary to catch the moment to use the metabolic window, which is open after half an hour after the termination of training. The abundant use of protein-carbohydrate dishes during this period provides active assimilation of nutrients and muscle building.

The optimal options for eating after a workout for mass gain are a protein cocktail and homemade cheese. These products are easily digested, and this is exactly what the body needs: it wants to get its "here and now". Thanks to this menu will be the restoration of muscles and there will be no undesirable deposits in the fat depots

Sports nutritionists especially warn against the consumption at this time of fatty foods and caffeinated drinks, which are "unauthorized" included in the activity of glycogen and do not contribute to the renewal of the musculature.

Lying down on the bed is recommended some time after eating. This regime helps to avoid excess fat deposits.

Eating after training for muscle growth

Without proper food after training, the body has nothing to build muscle. Three factors are necessary for this:

  • energy (carbohydrates),
  • building (protein),
  • providing vitality (vitamins, minerals).

There are rules that need to be adhered to to achieve the goal.

  • Fat food after training for growth of muscles do not use.
  • It is useful to eat often, in small portions.
  • If fat accumulates instead of musculature, you should eat less sweet, and move more.
  • It is important to listen to the body and its characteristics.

After exercise, the body first restores the energy necessary for the activity of important organs and systems. Therefore, the first portion of food, after showering and changing, should contain carbohydrates. It can be porridge or fruit.

The next meal should consist of proteins. Evening classes, after which there is no time to eat twice, require a special approach: dinner should combine carbohydrates and proteins. This combination is observed in simple dishes: buckwheat porridge with fish or an omelette, a cup of milk, an apple.

Sometimes a special regime is required. If the body is not gaining weight badly, then in the daytime one should eat a lot of carbohydrates and proteins: meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, porridges.

If the body is prone to being overweight, then in the first half of the day it must be saturated with carbohydrate and protein dishes, minimizing fatty and sweet. For the evening there are quite enough dietary dishes: low-fat cottage cheese, chicken breast, vegetables and fruits will be very handy.

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Eating after workout in the evening

Food after exercise in the evening should be saturated with protein and slow carbohydrates; a low-calorie, but nutritious menu is recommended. Before going to bed it is useful to eat dishes from rice, chicken, cottage cheese, as well as sour milk drinks, cheeses, seafood, herbal teas. You need to eat tightly, until you are hungry, but do not overeat.

Some of the products that are useful during the day are not suitable as a supper after fitness. They can adversely affect the metabolic processes, sleep, shape. It is inappropriate to eat in the evening eggs, mushrooms, high-calorie meat, cocoa and coffee, fatty and sweet food.

  • Many products should be completely excluded from the diet of a person engaged in training for muscle mass. In the list of banned - pasta and convenience foods, soups from sachets and sausages, all products of GMOs.

Nutrition after exercise is a very important part of the sports program and should be given maximum attention. If a full dinner is impossible, then support the body will help sports nutrition, for example, whey protein.

The ideal variant of nutrition after the evening training is cottage cheese, consisting of casein: it effectively nourishes the muscles with amino acids, promoting their growth. Natural curd can be replaced with a previously bought casein mixture.

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Eating overnight after workout

Sports loads require a strong diet, regardless of the purpose of the classes. Appearance due to active exercise appetite is beneficial if the body receives timely and proper food after training.

  • To restore the balance of the liquid, broken due to increased sweating, you need a copious drink - pure water, unsweetened green tea or berry juice.

To obtain energy, first use fat reserves, so in the first hours there is a process of weight loss. But to restore muscle, you need protein, and it can enter the body only with food. The best product of a late dinner for an athlete is a home-made cottage cheese. Portion should be moderate - up to 150 g. Half a liter of kefir - also good food for the night after training.

There is a state when you strongly want to eat and suffer unbearable. It is recommended to "kill" an unpleasant feeling of hunger with kefir, an apple or enough drink (water or unsweetened tea).

The main principles of rational nutrition are relevant not only during study days, but also in everyday life. They are simple: there is little useful, it is not harmful to use at all. In our case, harmful - it's flour, fatty, sweet.

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Protein food after exercise

If the daily protein norm is calculated in the usual regime in a ratio of 1 g per kilogram of body weight, then with intensive exercises this amount is doubled. First, the protein is needed to restore muscle, and secondly - to transport oxygen, which, when loads are also required, more. For the correct calculation it is important to know how much protein is contained in the products and how well it is absorbed by the body.

  • Full-value animal protein contains meat, fish, milk, seafood, eggs. In every 100 grams of these products, 15 to 20 grams is protein, so the dishes on their basis are excellent protein foods after training.

It should also be taken into account that the food after the workout should be lean: chicken fillet, but not legs, egg whites without yolks, veal - better than beef and pork. The same applies to dairy products

Fat can be a fish, since it is saturated with useful fats, but it can not be consumed in fried form. There is a kind of a standard of protein food: it is enough to eat a portion that fits in the palm of your hand.

Best food after training

There are many recipes for eating after exercise, because nutrition depends on individual conditions, needs and type of exercise. But there are general principles of nutrition after exercise.

So, it is advisable to eat for two hours after classes. If lessons were spent on an empty stomach, then you need to eat quickly. If the training is scheduled for the afternoon and you have eaten well, you can not rush to the table. If there is no feeling of hunger at all, then it is recommended to use smoothies.

A normal person who does not pretend to special sporting achievements, enough quality food and a balanced diet.

Concerning the so-called anabolic window, which seems to be opened after physical exertion for the assimilation of proteins and carbohydrates, some experts deny its existence and offer a diet without taking this period into account.

Best food after training:

  • protein dishes, cocktails;
  • vegetables;
  • carbohydrate products (carbohydrate, cranberry juice, fruit, cereals, pasta, bread, rice);
  • fats (a teaspoonful),
  • water.

Men need about two cups of the listed products, women get the same products, but in a smaller amount. In each individual case, the body may desire various foods, and its desire is to listen.

To achieve the desired, it is necessary to competently combine the intensity of classes and diet: do not go to extremes, do everything without fanaticism, listen to your own desires and well-being. The body will tell you what kind of food after training it will be to his liking.

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