Post Workout Meals
Submitted by David Weaver on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 7:29am
What do you normally eat after your workout? Are you taking advantage of your window of time?
What you eat after your workout and how soon you eat it, can GREATLY impact your recovery. Your post workout meal can also be starkly different from someone elses depending upon your goals. Robb Wolf has an excellent article here which discusses in more detail for those of you interested. I am not trying to write something new, but simply give you a shortened version of what the expert (Robb) recommends.
So what is your goal? Let's take weight loss first. If you are trying to lose weight, you don't want to constantly fill your glycogen stores (energy in your muscles). This means that you don't want to eat a bunch of carbs* post workout. Remember, for long term health and weight loss, you want to keep your insulin levels low. BUT, there is a trade off to eating low carb post workout. You will NOT do well on a moderate to long metcon workout. You will generally be fine strength training, but will not have enough glycogen for those longer workouts. So what do I eat for a low carb post workout? Protein, some fat and NO carbs. A protein smoothie would be a good choice in this situation (with no fruit!).
For those of you concerned with performance... You want to replenish those glycogen stores and top them off. You can shift many of your carbs from the day to post workout. There is a window of time (within an hour) after you workout to take advantage of replenishing your stores without effecting your insulin as much as normal. So when chasing performance over weight loss, you want to eat protein, carbs and little to no fat post workout. Recommended carbs for this situation are sweet potatoes (or yams) and applesauce (unsweetened).
No matter what your goal, you still want to take advantage of the hour window post workout. Get that protein into your body so it can start to repair right away. You will start to notice that you are not quite as sore the next day and you recover more quickly. How much you eat in these meals is completely up to you and YOUR specific needs. Experiment with different amounts after the same type of workout. My personal experience has taught me that short <12 min metcon workouts don't require alot of post carbs, but anything up in the 35min-1 hour range requires a fair amount. I usually eat a whole meal's worth of protein post workout.
Start paying attention to what, when and how much you eat post workout!
*When talking about carbs - I never mean pasta, rice, bread or anything of that nature. I am always talking about Paleo approved, nutrition packed, carbs (fruits and veggies).
What you eat after your workout and how soon you eat it, can GREATLY impact your recovery. Your post workout meal can also be starkly different from someone elses depending upon your goals. Robb Wolf has an excellent article here which discusses in more detail for those of you interested. I am not trying to write something new, but simply give you a shortened version of what the expert (Robb) recommends.
So what is your goal? Let's take weight loss first. If you are trying to lose weight, you don't want to constantly fill your glycogen stores (energy in your muscles). This means that you don't want to eat a bunch of carbs* post workout. Remember, for long term health and weight loss, you want to keep your insulin levels low. BUT, there is a trade off to eating low carb post workout. You will NOT do well on a moderate to long metcon workout. You will generally be fine strength training, but will not have enough glycogen for those longer workouts. So what do I eat for a low carb post workout? Protein, some fat and NO carbs. A protein smoothie would be a good choice in this situation (with no fruit!).
For those of you concerned with performance... You want to replenish those glycogen stores and top them off. You can shift many of your carbs from the day to post workout. There is a window of time (within an hour) after you workout to take advantage of replenishing your stores without effecting your insulin as much as normal. So when chasing performance over weight loss, you want to eat protein, carbs and little to no fat post workout. Recommended carbs for this situation are sweet potatoes (or yams) and applesauce (unsweetened).
No matter what your goal, you still want to take advantage of the hour window post workout. Get that protein into your body so it can start to repair right away. You will start to notice that you are not quite as sore the next day and you recover more quickly. How much you eat in these meals is completely up to you and YOUR specific needs. Experiment with different amounts after the same type of workout. My personal experience has taught me that short <12 min metcon workouts don't require alot of post carbs, but anything up in the 35min-1 hour range requires a fair amount. I usually eat a whole meal's worth of protein post workout.
Start paying attention to what, when and how much you eat post workout!
*When talking about carbs - I never mean pasta, rice, bread or anything of that nature. I am always talking about Paleo approved, nutrition packed, carbs (fruits and veggies).
Recipes
Cinnamon Muffins
These are a delicious alternative to cinnamon rolls for a quick addition at breakfast or part of brunch!
Ingredients:
Muffin mix-
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon coconut milk
1/2 cup honey
Glaze-
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix together all the dry batter ingredients. Add the wet batter ingredients and mix well with a whisk. Pour batter evenly into twelve muffin cups.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Mix all the topping ingredients in a separate bowl, and drizzle over the muffins.
*Recipe has been modified from original recipe from tropicaltraditions.com
