What Should You Eat After A Workout?
This article is going to provide you with an optimal method for how to approach nutrition after your training session.
Especially after strength (resistance) training or HIIT cardio with a duration of at least 45 minutes.
Stress/Recovery/Adaptation Cycle
Resistance training done correctly breaks down muscle fibers and depletes muscle glycogen. That’s good stress to the body because in order to build muscle and become stronger, you need to move a load that is challenging to your system and follow it with nutrition that supports recovery. Those two steps, if done correctly, will help you adapt and grow.
What you feed your body after a workout will do one of two things, help or hurt. The benefits of proper post-workout nutrition include:
Improved recovery
Reduced soreness
Increased ability to build muscle
Improved immune function
Improved bone mass
Improved ability to utilize body fat
Reduced chance of injury
Improved performance
A question I receive often is what someone should eat after a workout and this is going to be frustrating for a lot of people but the answer is “it depends”.
If your goal is to lose weight, then what you eat after a workout has to fit the number one rule of losing weight: calorie deficit. This doesn’t mean your post workout meal should be low in calories. One component of proper recovery means getting enough calories to refuel your body. If you skip out on calories, you’re sabotaging results as well as performance the rest of the day. It’s hard to function in real life when all you can think about is food and hunger.
Some people strictly believe in whole foods and others believe in supplements (protein drinks); I believe a combination of both to be more optimal.
Why?
Digestion of nutrients is different when the source is coming from solid foods versus liquid foods. The breakdown and digestion of solid foods is much slower than the digestion of liquid foods. Some people are very hungry following a workout while others don’t have the hunger levels for eating. Either way, they both need nutrients to rebuild.
Nutrient timing is important, it is also somewhat overrated. You don’t need to eat immediately after a workout, however, that doesn’t mean you should overlook when you consume food after a training session. Overall calories and macronutrient distribution matters way more than when you consume calories or supplements for losing weight and body fat or gaining weight and building muscle.
Protein and carbohydrates play two different roles post-workout. If you leave one out of the equation, then you’re sabotaging your progress and results. For example, if you just have protein and no carbs, then protein can’t effectively build and repair muscle fibers because it now has the task of replacing muscle glycogen that was depleted from your workout.
For someone who is fasted or didn’t have a pre-workout meal, having a post-workout meal immediately following a workout might help you build more muscle. It also might not make a difference. Remember, overall calories will determine success or failure with body composition over time.
Is there a “Window of Opportunity”?
There’s a lot of studies that shows you should consume calories post workout immediately to maximize recovery and results. However, a study done (Here) on nutrient timing post-exercise concluded that total daily calorie consumption is a better approach to maximizing training adaptations than timing. The only time when timing outweighs total calories is if you’re training in a fasted state. Here’s what I personally like to adhere to:
Within 2 hours
I have a protein shake within 30 mins of my workout.
I have a full meal within 90 mins after my protein shake.
Within 2 hours post-workout, I’ve consumed two meals where most people have one or even nothing.
How Much Should You Have?
Brad Schoenfeld: Researcher/Educator on muscle building/fat loss.
Here’s what I consume after most workouts on average.
Protein Shake Macros/Calories
40g protein
51g carbs
2g fats
382 calories
Chipotle Macros/Calories
Brown Rice
Fajita Veggies
Chicken
37g protein
41g carbs
12g fats
424 calories
Total Macros/Cals
77g protein
92g carbs
14g fats
806 calories
Recommendations
Whatever you can afford consistently.
Whatever you can easily consume consistently.
Whatever tastes good FOR YOU and that you can stick with on a consistent basis.
I’ve tried everything at GNC and Vitamin Shoppe and they all made my stomach bloat, didn’t taste as good as I had hoped for and even made me break out (allergic to shellfish). If you’re still out there searching for something better, here is my suggestion.
I’ve been taking 1st Phorm supplements for two years now. Someone I looked up to in the fitness industry and trusted talked about what she takes so I tried it out. I can’t tell you how much happier my stomach is because of this decision and the quality of taste is high.
For my post-workout shake, I get their Vanilla Milkshake protein with Ignition, mix with water and it tastes like an ice cream shake from Nifty Fifty’s every time.
Here is the link to order it and try it out: Here
A couple things before you click that link.
I do get a small commission if you use that link.
You get free shipping.
I wouldn’t risk my reputation or integrity to make money. Your trust in me matters more than I can express.
Last but not least, it’s going to be THE BEST post-workout shake you try in your life. 110% money back guarantee
How To Lose Weight Without A Diet
What would change about your life if you lost weight?
More confidence? More happiness? More sex?
Are you looking for the fastest way to lose weight or the best way?
We want the body we see on the internet only by doing 7-minute abs or a 3 week keto-diet because that’s what is promised to us by “fitness professionals” as achievable.
Anyone with a high social following has a lot of responsibility & for the majority of “influencers”, they are paid on how much they can sell, not how accurate their products are. They want to sell you something that is a quick fix because they have a quota to hit versus someone who takes the time to educate you on a long term sustainable weight loss process.
The fastest way to lose weight is built upon motivation.
The best way to lose weight is sustained through discipline.
This article is going to outline 3 principles to losing weight, they are:
Calorie Deficit
High Protein Intake
Strength Training
Calorie Deficit
A calorie deficit means you’re eating below your maintenance level in calories. Maintenance level is the amount of calories it would take for you to remain the same weight, anything below that is a deficit. There’s two ways you can create a calorie deficit, decreasing input of calories consumed or increasing output of calories burned. How big a deficit you should be in varies based on how aggressive do you want to take it. Someone who is overweight with a high body fat percentage can have a more aggressive calorie deficit compared to someone who weighs less. Why? Because speed is the one thing people manipulate and speed is the reason why most people quit their weight-loss journey. If you’re not overweight, an aggressive diet (more than 25% deficit) is too fast of a drop that it shocks your body & brain. There is such a thing as too few calories & if you eat too few, your body’s ability to function properly will be impaired. Your body is going to think “starvation mode” & your metabolism will shut off. Your body will spare muscle during this phase & hold onto fat because fat protects your organs for survival. Also, with setting too large of a calorie deficit, you get very hungry very fast & can’t maintain that low calorie intake for too long before you binge eat & gain all the weight you lost plus more. Nutrition is 80% of the change required to lose weight, Activity (workouts + non-workout movement) is 20%. Keep this in mind.
How Much Should My Deficit Be?
It depends on how much you want to lose & how fast do you wanna get there. There’s 3,500 calories in 1 lb. If you created a 500 calorie deficit & did that consistently for 7 days (500 x 7 = 3,500), you’ve just lost 1 lb. For example, I weigh 200 lbs, if my maintenance level is 2,500 calories & I only consume 2,000 calories/day (a 500 calorie deficit), I would be on pace to lose 1 lb by the end of the week. If you wanted to lose 2 lbs/week, you’d create a 1,000 calorie deficit & do that consistently for 7 days. With this information, there’s two types of people, one who sees 1 lb/week as doable, & one that sees 1 lb/week as not enough progress. But if you created a 500 calorie deficit & did that for 52 weeks, you’ve just lost 52 lbs. Still not enough progress? Just a reminder, there’s no finish line & you don’t get extra points for getting there the fastest.
How To Calculate A Calorie Deficit?
First you need to know what your BMR is. I’m gonna save you the trouble of explaining how many methods I’ve gone through over the years. I like using the Katch McArdle Formula because it uses lean mass instead of body weight in its BMR equation. Why is that important? Because the amount of body fat one has influences how big a deficit that person will be in. Remember earlier, If you have more weight/body fat to lose, you can set your diet more aggressively versus someone who doesn’t have as much to lose. Instead of trying to figure out the complicated computations you’d have to do in order to get a close-to-accurate deficit, download Mike’s Macros & it will change your relationship with food & your life forever. Another simple way of calculating calories came from my friend Jordan Syatt, multiply your goal weight by 10, 11 or 12. 10 is aggressive, 12 is moderate, 11 is in between.
For example, I weigh 200 lbs, my goal weight is 190 lbs so my calculations would be:
190 x 10 = 1,900 cals (aggressive)
190 x 11 = 2,090 cals (happy place)
190 x 12 = 2,280 cals (moderate)
Do Diets work?
Yes. If you google any type of meal plan for weight-loss, they all work, they’re not magic. The #1 factor that will help you lose weight is counting calories. Also, creating a deficit through nutrition is much easier than creating it through exercise. If you ate an apple every day for 30 days, its calories wouldn’t change. However, if you ran a mile a day for 30 days, you would burn more calories on day 1 vs day 30 because your body isn’t conditioned for it; but, as time goes on, your body adapts to the stress of running and you perform it more efficiently, burning less calories on day 30.
High Protein Intake
Now that we have a better understanding of what you need to focus on when setting up your calorie deficit, next priority is protein. More protein is going to help you feel sexy & strong, here’s why:
Boosts Metabolism
Reduces Appetite
Changes Several Weight-Regulating Hormones
How?
Your brain has many functions, one of it is hunger control. Our brain processes information all day, & it changes after consuming food. We have satiety (appetite reducing) hormones & hunger hormones. The more protein you eat, the less hungry you become. Out of all three macronutrients, protein, carbs, & fats, protein is the one macro that takes the most amount of calories to burn through digestion & metabolism. What does this mean? There’s this thing called TEF (Thermic Effect of Food), & protein has the highest TEF ranging between 20-30%. Let’s say for example, you had a meal that contained 100 calories of protein, 20-30 of those calories are going to be burned through digestion. Metabolism is the process of converting the food we digested into the fuel/energy we need to live. A high protein diet helps us achieve that. Protein helps build & maintain muscle mass, maintaining muscle mass burns more calories at rest than maintaining fat mass does, therefore, by increasing protein intake & building our muscles, we’re boosting our metabolism.
How Much Protein Do You Need?
This is tricky because the best answer for you is “it depends”. The Dietary Reference Intake is only 46 & 56 grams for women & men, respectively. That’s insane but then again, this is the minimum amount to prevent deficiency. What we’re interested in is building muscle & losing fat & for that matter, let’s talk numbers. Men & women process protein differently meaning, men have a slight advantage when it comes to consuming protein (I realized this from working with clients, I don’t have a scientific explanation for it). How much protein you need is based on preference. Some people can eat a lot, some can’t. It’s also harder if you’re vegetarian/vegan. The easiest way to get more protein in your diet is protein shakes so if you’re not at least getting one, one a day is going to make a big difference in your physique over time.
Aim for your goal body weight in grams of protein/day & go from there. For example, my goal body weight is 190 lbs so at the minimum, I’m aiming for 190 grams of protein every day. Keep in mind, the lower your calories go, the higher your protein intake should be. The reasoning here is protein is going to help build or retain as much muscle as you can, the more muscle you have, the less body fat you have as well, & the more calories you burn at rest. The biggest issue with being in a calorie deficit is losing muscle along with weight and the reason why we don’t want to lose much muscle mass is to avoid the “skinny fat” look. Your goal isn’t just to lose weight, it’s to lose weight & look sexy naked. You will avoid “skinny fat” with developed muscles.
Strength Training
"How important is strength training for weight-loss?"
"If I only did cardio, is that good enough to lose weight?"
The truth is you can lose weight doing both.
What’s going to get you there the fastest?
A combination of both with a focus on lifting supplemented with cardio.
If you had to choose? Strength training > cardio.
Strength training 2-3x/week with the right amount of intensity is what you should aim for. What people don’t understand about working out with weights is the calories you burn is not confined to just your time in the gym. You’re burning calories after the gym while your body is recovering, about 24-48 hours. Strength training builds muscles, which in turn boosts you metabolism, & muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. The benefits of strength training is not limited to body composition. The stronger you become, the better you look, the more confidence you gain, the happier you feel & the better you treat people. Strength training is what led me here. Years of depression & insecurity about how I looked was diminished when I saw the results of consistency. I’ve been blessed & fortunate to help others in their weight-loss journey through paying attention to their own nutrition & working out 2-3 times a week.
Cardio can be supplemented 2-3x/week with varying intensities. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio can be performed 1-2x/week, one example is sprints performed for 30 seconds with 60 seconds of rest with multiple sets. There’s a different type of cardio you can do called LISS (Low Intensity Steady State). LISS is cardio performed at a low intensity meaning your heart rate isn’t working hard. An example of LISS would be walking on the treadmill at an incline & speed that’s not too challenging (5% incline, 2.5 speed). What I love about this type of cardio is it’s a form of active recovery so for people that “need to do something everyday”, this is a great option. It’s an easy way to burn calories & recover from workouts faster.
While most people choose cardio over strength training for weight-loss, what I want you to get from this article is that the progress you want to see is not going to happen overnight. Ads you see about fat-burning pills, new diets, “fat burning workouts” are designed to prey on the weak-minded individuals who are impatient & looking for a quick solution. If you’ve tried to lose weight before & didn’t succeed, it’s not your fault. To the uninformed, everything looks like it could work but the truth is, changing your body, which took you months or years to get into this shape is not going to be solved in days or weeks. You’ll win this game if you have patience, if you can be consistent, & not quit every time you “fail”. You can’t fail if you keep going. You’re going to have many setbacks because life isn’t perfect, but the people I’ve seen become a success story, are the people who never gave up.
Action Steps You Can Take Now
Start tracking you calories for weight-loss today! Learn how here
Hit your Goal Body Weight in protein every day. Find your protein number here
Strength Train 2-3 times a week. Have 1 Day of cardio if you want. Don’t have a routine? Send me an email & I’ll give you a FREE 4 week program here: abel@aymhigher.com with the subject “4 Week AYM Higher Program”