Useful food after a workout: for weight loss, muscle growth, weight gain

An active lifestyle requires a special diet from a person. Only in this case can you achieve the results for which, in fact, people come to the gym. There are enough ways to combine physical exercise and proper nutrition.

Healthy Food After Workout

Post-workout food should include proteins and carbohydrates in a certain ratio, which depends on the load.

After aerobic exercise, the ratio of protein to carbohydrates is 40:60. Carbohydrates are needed to restore glycogen, "muscle fuel." One hour of moderate exercise requires up to 40 g of carbohydrates, and intense exercise requires 50 g or more for each hour of exercise.

During strength training, the ratio changes: the body requires 60% proteins and 40% carbohydrates. In this case, protein prevents muscle breakdown and promotes tissue renewal.

Nutrition after training also depends on the time of day. Morning training requires taking low-fat protein food about an hour after completing it. The evening menu should be the same – depending on the time of training.

Fat is undesirable in any case. Coffee, cocoa and chocolate are also not recommended for two hours. Coffee lovers who train in the morning have to wait two hours to drink their favorite drink.

On the other hand, you can't abstain from food for a long time, even if it's food at night. A break of more than two hours, according to nutritionists, negates physical activity. Eating on time, on the contrary, is beneficial - both the mass grows and the muscles are restored.

Healthy Post-Workout Food:

• dried fruits and nuts;

• yogurt and fresh berries;
• fresh fruit juice;
• cheese canapes;
• sandwiches with dry meat;
• omelette with bread;
• milk with cereal;
• protein bar.

Eating the right food at the right time is the key to effective exercise.

Healthy Post-Workout Recipes

The post-workout meal excludes fats and cholesterol, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. The priority is pure still water, which replenishes the moisture loss that is inevitable during physical activity.

Healthy Post-Workout Recipes:

• Fitness cocktail

Blend 100 mm of orange juice and milk, 50 ml of yogurt, and half a banana in a blender. Use low-fat dairy products.

• Diet sandwich

Place a lettuce leaf, a piece of turkey fillet on a slice of bread, spread with avocado puree prepared in a blender, and top with chopped tomato. This sandwich is called Californian.

• Fitness Smoothie

Pour boiling water over the oatmeal, drain off excess water after ten minutes. Mix milk whipped with pineapple with oatmeal. Take a quarter cup of oatmeal, a cup of milk, three quarters of a cup of chopped pineapple per serving.

• Curd-peach mousse

Mash the fruit, beat the egg whites until foamy, add 100 g of low-fat cottage cheese, and stir the mixture gently.

• Dried fruit cookies

Grind 100 g of dried apricots and prunes, 50 g of raisins in a blender, add cashews and whipped egg white. Make cookies from the mass and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.

• Airy dessert

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

• Fruit salad

Cut an apple, two plums, a few grapes, and season with honey-yogurt sauce.

Post Workout Food for Weight Loss

Immediately after exercise, hormone levels rise and metabolism accelerates, so that calories in the body continue to burn for another half hour. During this time, you cannot eat, and, as practice shows, you don’t really want to. After all, the body does not immediately establish the digestive process.

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

Proper weight loss occurs when the body receives no more calories than it spends, but no less than it needs for life. After exercise, it is useful to eat:

• egg white,
• low-fat homemade cheese,
• kefir,

• chicken,
• white fish (boiled or steamed).

Food after a workout for weight loss saturates the body and at the same time is not stored in reserve, since proteins are unable to turn into fat. If you completely refuse food, the body will experience severe stress and begin to burn its own muscle cells, not fat reserves.

It is equally important to drink plenty of water after exercise to replenish the water reserves lost through sweating. It is estimated that about a liter of water is lost during an hour of intense exercise.

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

[ 1 ]

Post Workout Food for Mass Gain

If the goal of fitness exercises is to build muscle, then both regularity and post-workout nutrition are of great importance. The nutrition plan is as follows.

• It is necessary to seize the moment to use the metabolic window that opens half an hour after you stop exercising. Abundant consumption of protein-carbohydrate dishes during this period ensures active absorption of nutrients and muscle growth.

The best post-workout meal options for gaining weight are a protein shake and homemade cheese. These products are easily digestible, and this is exactly what the body needs: it wants to get what it needs “here and now.” Thanks to this menu, muscle recovery will occur and there will be no unwanted deposits in fat depots.

Sports nutritionists especially warn against consuming fatty foods and caffeinated drinks at this time, which “unauthorizedly” activate glycogen and do not promote muscle renewal.

It is recommended to go to bed some time after eating. This regime helps to avoid excess fat deposits.

Post Workout Food for Muscle Growth

Without the right food after a workout, the body has nothing to build muscle from. This requires three factors:

• energy (carbohydrates),
• building (protein),
• ensuring life activity (vitamins, minerals).

There are rules that must be followed to achieve the goal.

• Fatty foods are not consumed after a workout to increase muscle growth.
• It is useful to eat often, in small portions.
• If fat accumulates instead of muscles, you should eat less sweets and exercise more.
• It is important to listen to your body and its characteristics.

After physical exercise, the body first restores the energy needed for the functioning of important organs and systems. Therefore, the first portion of food, after a shower and changing clothes, should contain carbohydrates. This 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 both carbohydrates and proteins. Such a combination is observed in simple dishes: buckwheat porridge with fish or an omelet, a cup of milk, an apple.

Sometimes a special regime is required. If the body does not gain weight well, then during the day you should eat a lot of carbohydrates and proteins: meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, cereals.

If the body is prone to excess weight, then in the first half of the day it is necessary to saturate it with carbohydrate and protein dishes, reducing fatty and sweet to a minimum. Diet dishes are quite enough for the evening: low-fat cottage cheese, chicken breast, vegetables and fruits will be very useful.

[ 2 ]

Food after workout in the evening

Food after training in the evening should be rich in protein and slow carbohydrates; a low-calorie but nutritious menu is recommended. Before going to bed, it is useful to eat dishes made of rice, chicken, cottage cheese, as well as fermented milk drinks, cheeses, seafood, herbal teas. You need to eat a lot, until your hunger is satisfied, but do not overeat.

Some foods that are good for you during the day are not suitable for dinner after fitness. They can negatively affect your metabolism, sleep, and figure. It is not advisable to eat eggs, mushrooms, high-calorie meat, cocoa and coffee, fatty and sweet foods in the evening.

• Many products should be completely excluded from the diet of a person who is training to gain muscle mass. The list of prohibited products includes pasta and semi-finished products, soups from packets and sausages, all GMO products.

Nutrition after exercise is a very important part of the sports program and should be given maximum attention. If a full dinner is not possible, then sports nutrition, for example, whey protein, will help support the body.

The ideal nutrition option after an evening workout is cottage cheese, which consists of casein: it effectively nourishes muscles with amino acids, promoting their growth. Natural cottage cheese can be replaced with a pre-purchased casein mixture.

Food to eat at night after training

Sports activities require enhanced nutrition regardless of the purpose of the training. The appetite that appears as a result of active exercise is beneficial if the body receives timely and proper food after training.

• To restore the fluid balance, disrupted due to increased sweating, you need to drink plenty of fluids - clean water, unsweetened green tea or berry juice.

To obtain energy, fat reserves are used first, so the weight loss process occurs in the first hours. But muscle recovery requires protein, and it can only be obtained from food. The best product for a late dinner for an athlete is homemade cottage cheese. The portion should be moderate - up to 150 g. Half a liter of kefir is also a good food for the night after training.

There is a condition when you really want to eat and can't stand it. It is recommended to "kill" the unpleasant feeling of hunger with kefir, an apple or a sufficient amount of drink (water or unsweetened tea).

The main principles of rational nutrition are relevant not only on training days, but also in everyday life. They are simple: eat a little of what is healthy, and don’t eat anything harmful. In our case, harmful means flour, fatty, and sweet.

[ 3 ]

Protein Food After Workout

If the daily protein intake is calculated in a normal regimen at a ratio of 1 g per kilogram of body weight, then with intensive exercise this amount doubles. Firstly, protein is needed for muscle recovery, and secondly, for the transport of oxygen, which is also required more during exercise. To calculate correctly, it is important to know how much protein is contained in foods and how well it is absorbed by the body.

• Complete animal protein is found in meat, fish, dairy, seafood, and eggs. Each 100 grams of these products contains 15-20 grams of protein, so dishes based on them are excellent protein food after training.

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

Only fish can be fatty, since it is full of healthy fats, but it cannot be eaten fried. There is a kind of measure of protein food: it is enough to eat a portion that fits in the palm of your hand.

Best Post Workout Food

There are many post-workout meal recipes because nutrition depends on individual conditions, needs, and type of training. But there are general principles of post-workout nutrition.

So, it is advisable to eat within two hours after training. If the training was done on an empty stomach, then you need to eat quickly. If the training is scheduled for the afternoon and you have eaten well, then you can take your time to get to the table. If there is no feeling of hunger at all, then it is recommended to drink a smoothie.

For an ordinary person who does not aspire to any special athletic achievements, quality food and a balanced diet are enough.

Regarding the so-called anabolic window, which supposedly opens after physical exercise for the absorption of proteins and carbohydrates, some experts deny its existence and suggest a diet without taking this period into account.

Best Post Workout Food:

• protein dishes, cocktails;
• vegetables;

• carbohydrate products (carbohydrate, cranberry juice, fruits, cereals, pasta, bread, rice);
• fats (teaspoon),
• water.

Men need about two cups of the listed products, women need the same products, but in smaller quantities. In each individual case, the body may want different foods, and its desires should be listened to.

To achieve what you want, you need to correctly combine the intensity of your workouts and your diet: don't go to extremes, do everything without fanaticism, listen to your own desires and well-being. Your body will tell you what kind of food it will like after training.

[ 4 ]