Make sure you're getting the results you earned. How to refuel your body correctly post workout.
Too many times we see clients workout and then get caught up in the day and not refuel their bodies post workout. They drive home, shower, start checking emails and its 10am or 11am before they eat anything (they worked out at 6am). In this post, we are going to talk about why you need to refuel your body post workout and how to do it!
There’s a lot of information in here so if you just want to know how much to eat and when, scroll down the bottom. ;)
First, let’s get to the why.
During your workout you damage tissue at the microlevel and deplete energy stores in the body. This is what ultimately makes us stronger, leaner, fitter, and more muscular, but in the short term it requires repair.
In layman’s terms, we need to get protein synthesis to kick in to start rebuilding and repairing then we need to stop the breakdown process. To do that, we need to refuel our bodies. Want to learn more about what’s actually happening, check out this article by Precision Nutrition.
As soon as you hop off that rower, stop that HIIT class, spin class, drop that last dumbbell, you should consume something!
These benefits seem to work for everyone, regardless of gender or age.
There are two macronutrients we could be looking at consuming post workout, carbohydrates and protein and here’s why:
Improved recovery
Less muscle soreness
Increased ability to build muscle
Improved immune function
Improved bone mass
Improved ability to utilize body fat
Those are some of the reasons we workout, right? So let’s refuel properly so we can get the benefits!
CARBS:
ACSM says 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour of exercise. A blend of minimally processed whole food carbohydrates, like fruit restores glycogen equally over a 24-hour time period and it might lead to better next-day performance. We need to replenish what we just burned! Most of us will be sitting on that light to moderate side. Note: this is per day. Not all post workout. ;)
Protein is important not only for daily life and aging, but also for recovering from the activities that we are doing. So, we know that the general recommendations from ACSM or the American College of Sports Medicine is 0.8-2.0 grams per kilogram of fat-free mass per day, which is about 22g of protein post workout.
But recently, there was an article that came out that was properly designed to look at resistance-trained women to see how their body responded to different protein doses and how their own lean mass improved and how they adapt it to resistance training.
And what they found is that pre-menopausal female athletes who are resistance-trained need that average of 2 grams per kilogram of fat-free mass, not that lower end. And for those who were doing some kind of calorie restriction for sport or weight loss that protein need increases.
The other thing to remember is that sex differences become greater as we get older, so both in response to feeding, protein feeding and to exercise. So, what I mean by that, is as women get older, they need to do more resistance training and have a little bit more protein intake in order to get the same stimulus for muscle protein synthesis and recovery as men do even if the men are fitness and age-matched.
Unfortunately, women return to baseline a lot faster than men, so our recovery window is shorter, it is around 30-45 minutes as opposed to men's 18-21 hours. And we also have dosage differences. So we hear the chocolate milk 4:1 (carbs to protein) ratio is fantastic for recovery. And that 4:1 is that 60 grams of carbohydrate to 20 grams of protein.
That's fine for men. But we know that “women, younger women, pre-menopausal younger women in their 20s and 30s eat around 30 grams post-exercise” to get that muscle protein synthesis and recovery and shut down that catabolic state.
But we know that “peri and post-menopausal women, because they're losing the effect of estrogen that stimulates muscle protein synthesis at the basal level of the muscle cell we actually need closer to 40 grams” post-exercise in order for the body to get that stimulus to get muscle protein going and recovering and repairing itself.
BCCAs (branched chain amino acids) also play a role in recovery. We need essential amino acids, specifically leucine, to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Whey protein, casein protein, and cow’s milk all contain leucine but when we start to get into the plant based options of soy, pea, quinoa, hemp they do not.
We need leucine to stop the catabolic effect of protein synthesis.
Take a look at your whey protein. Does it contain BCCAs? If not you may want to start adding it during your workout or post workout especially if your goal is to build muscle.
Can’t handle whey protein? Then look to adding some fermented vegan branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs).
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
What to eat:
Carbs: high glycemic fruits or dried fruits such as bananas, dates, figs, pears, melon, watermelon, pineapple, mango, prunes, raisins, sweet or white potatoes.
Protein: go for the highest and purest if you can handle dairy such as whey isolate. Prefer whole foods? Chicken, turkey, or egg whites are also great sources of protein that contain leucine.