POST Workout - High Protein/Low Carb Snack Ideas

Amanda_brookers

I've been leery of post exercise "snacks" because Iam not seeking to add bulk - but am concerned that I may be burning/damaging muscle since I've stepped up my exercise routine.

I've found the consensus is to build muscle do more of a 4:1 ratio with carbs being the 4 and protein being 1 and those who who want to lose mass and just keep muscles intact would want the opposite with the protein being 4 and carbs being 1 after working out.

Seeking suggestions for recipes for the higher protien/low carb outside of buying shake mixes?

wellbert

Unless your post workout snacks include anabolic steroids, I wouldn't worry too much about adding bulk.

eat some nuts? idk.

Determinednoob

post w/o anabolic window crap is crap. hits your macros for the day some time during the day. the end.

Amanda_brookers

Thanks for the feedback

DavPul

post w/o anabolic window crap is crap. hits your macros for the day some time during the day. the end.

I find it amusing that the loads of old studies saying there is a window have been tossed aside for a new study that says the old studies are crap. What is the deciding factor for deciding which study to go with? Publication date? Snark factor? I'd love to read this new study that throws 20 years of what I've been doing out of the window. Can you please post/send me a link so I can read it?

To the OP, Chocolate milk works, if you don't want to use a protein shake (or eat real food). For a pure protein snack throughout the day, beef jerky is number 1 on the list. Which surprised the holy hell out of me, because I had never eaten it in my life until a month or so ago. Now I'm hooked on Jack Links Peppered. 45 grams of protein a day, 0 carbs, and keeps me away from the candy machine at work.

marycmeadows

always eat a post work out snack. always. your body is craving food (carbs and protein) then so just eat.

Besides - you are a woman. You are not going to bulk up. just eat.

Determinednoob

post w/o anabolic window crap is crap. hits your macros for the day some time during the day. the end.

I find it amusing that the loads of old studies saying there is a window have been tossed aside for a new study that says the old studies are crap. What is the deciding factor for deciding which study to go with? Publication date? Snark factor? I'd love to read this new study that throws 20 years of what I've been doing out of the window. Can you please post/send me a link so I can read it?

To the OP, Chocolate milk works, if you don't want to use a protein shake (or eat real food). For a pure protein snack throughout the day, beef jerky is number 1 on the list. Which surprised the holy hell out of me, because I had never eaten it in my life until a month or so ago. Now I'm hooked on Jack Links Peppered. 45 grams of protein a day, 0 carbs, and keeps me away from the candy machine at work.

No one says what you have been doing won't work, just that it isn't needed. And to clarify what I said, the post wo anabolic window is more like 24 hrs vs the zomg mainline bcaas and maltodextrin within 5 minutes of last rep ideal. As long as you have eaten within 5 hrs or so (depending on how much) BEFORE working out, nutrients are being released into your blood already.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=131821473&p=678321011&viewfull=1#post678321011

http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/is-there-a-limit-to-how-much-protein-the-body-can-use-in-a-single-meal/

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=123915821

For anyone who doen't feel like looking through them all, a quote from Alan Aragon:

The postexercise "anabolic window" is a highly misused & abused concept. Preworkout nutrition all but cancels the urgency, unless you're an endurance athlete with multiple glycogen-depleting events in a single day. Getting down to brass tacks, a relatively recent study (Power et al. 2009) showed that a 45g dose of whey protein isolate takes appx 50 minutes to cause blood AA levels to peak. Resulting insulin levels, which peaked at 40 minutes after ingestion, remained at elevations known to max out the inhibition of muscle protein breakdown (15-30 mU/L) for 120 minutes after ingestion. This dose takes 3 hours for insulin & AA levels to return to baseline from the point of ingestion. The inclusion of carbs to this dose would cause AA & insulin levels to peak higher & stay elevated above baseline even longer.

So much for the anabolic peephole & the urgency to down AAs during your weight training workout; they are already seeping into circulation (& will continue to do so after your training bout is done). Even in the event that a preworkout meal is skipped, the anabolic effect of the postworkout meal is increased as a supercompensatory response (Deldicque et al, 2010). Moving on, another recent study (Staples et al, 2010) found that a substantial dose of carbohydrate (50g maltodextrin) added to 25g whey protein was unable to further increase postexercise net muscle protein balance compared to the protein dose without carbs. Again, this is not to say that adding carbs at this point is counterproductive, but it certainly doesn't support the idea that you must get your lightning-fast postexercise carb orgy for optimal results.

To add to this... Why has the majority of longer-term research failed to show any meaningful differences in nutrient timing relative to the resistance training bout? It's likely because the body is smarter than we give it credit for. Most people don't know that as a result of a single training bout, the receptivity of muscle to protein dosing can persist for at least 24 hours: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21289204

More from earlier in the thread:

Here's what you're not seeming to grasp: the "windows" for taking advantage of nutrient timing are not little peepholes. They're more like bay windows of a mansion. You're ignoring just how long the anabolic effects are of a typical mixed meal. Depending on the size of a meal, it takes a good 1-2 hours for circulating substrate levels to peak, and it takes a good 3-6 hours (or more) for everythng to drop back down to baseline.

You're also ignoring the fact that the anabolic effects of a meal are maxed out at much lower levels than typical meals drive insulin & amino acids up to. Furthermore, you're also ignoring the body's ability of anabolic (& fat-oxidative) supercompensation when forced to work in the absence of fuels. So, metaphorically speaking, our physiology basically has the universe mapped out and you're thinking it needs to be taught addition & subtraction.

521DIVA

is that the same as a slim jim?

Amanda_brookers

LOVE that suggestion for protein snack! Who'd have thunk?! Thanks for sharing!

DavPul

post w/o anabolic window crap is crap. hits your macros for the day some time during the day. the end.

I find it amusing that the loads of old studies saying there is a window have been tossed aside for a new study that says the old studies are crap. What is the deciding factor for deciding which study to go with? Publication date? Snark factor? I'd love to read this new study that throws 20 years of what I've been doing out of the window. Can you please post/send me a link so I can read it?

To the OP, Chocolate milk works, if you don't want to use a protein shake (or eat real food). For a pure protein snack throughout the day, beef jerky is number 1 on the list. Which surprised the holy hell out of me, because I had never eaten it in my life until a month or so ago. Now I'm hooked on Jack Links Peppered. 45 grams of protein a day, 0 carbs, and keeps me away from the candy machine at work.

No one says what you have been doing won't work, just that it isn't needed. And to clarify what I said, the post wo anabolic window is more like 24 hrs vs the zomg mainline bcaas and maltodextrin within 5 minutes of last rep ideal. As long as you have eaten within 5 hrs or so (depending on how much) BEFORE working out, nutrients are being released into your blood already.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=131821473&p=678321011&viewfull=1#post678321011

http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/is-there-a-limit-to-how-much-protein-the-body-can-use-in-a-single-meal/

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=123915821

For anyone who doen't feel like looking through them all, a quote from Alan Aragon:

The postexercise "anabolic window" is a highly misused & abused concept. Preworkout nutrition all but cancels the urgency, unless you're an endurance athlete with multiple glycogen-depleting events in a single day. Getting down to brass tacks, a relatively recent study (Power et al. 2009) showed that a 45g dose of whey protein isolate takes appx 50 minutes to cause blood AA levels to peak. Resulting insulin levels, which peaked at 40 minutes after ingestion, remained at elevations known to max out the inhibition of muscle protein breakdown (15-30 mU/L) for 120 minutes after ingestion. This dose takes 3 hours for insulin & AA levels to return to baseline from the point of ingestion. The inclusion of carbs to this dose would cause AA & insulin levels to peak higher & stay elevated above baseline even longer.

So much for the anabolic peephole & the urgency to down AAs during your weight training workout; they are already seeping into circulation (& will continue to do so after your training bout is done). Even in the event that a preworkout meal is skipped, the anabolic effect of the postworkout meal is increased as a supercompensatory response (Deldicque et al, 2010). Moving on, another recent study (Staples et al, 2010) found that a substantial dose of carbohydrate (50g maltodextrin) added to 25g whey protein was unable to further increase postexercise net muscle protein balance compared to the protein dose without carbs. Again, this is not to say that adding carbs at this point is counterproductive, but it certainly doesn't support the idea that you must get your lightning-fast postexercise carb orgy for optimal results.

To add to this... Why has the majority of longer-term research failed to show any meaningful differences in nutrient timing relative to the resistance training bout? It's likely because the body is smarter than we give it credit for. Most people don't know that as a result of a single training bout, the receptivity of muscle to protein dosing can persist for at least 24 hours: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21289204

More from earlier in the thread:

Here's what you're not seeming to grasp: the "windows" for taking advantage of nutrient timing are not little peepholes. They're more like bay windows of a mansion. You're ignoring just how long the anabolic effects are of a typical mixed meal. Depending on the size of a meal, it takes a good 1-2 hours for circulating substrate levels to peak, and it takes a good 3-6 hours (or more) for everythng to drop back down to baseline.

You're also ignoring the fact that the anabolic effects of a meal are maxed out at much lower levels than typical meals drive insulin & amino acids up to. Furthermore, you're also ignoring the body's ability of anabolic (& fat-oxidative) supercompensation when forced to work in the absence of fuels. So, metaphorically speaking, our physiology basically has the universe mapped out and you're thinking it needs to be taught addition & subtraction.

The links are much appreciated. I read thru them all. Unfortunately, none of them say what you're promoting. Well, the leangains one does, but he's selling something. There's a big difference between saying a person has a 5 hour window and saying "anytime in the next 24 hours". And the Aragon stuff specifically puts emphasis on pre-workout nutrition handling the business. Neither the OP nor you mentioned anything about what was eaten pre-workout. Seems important.

Lastly, I sort of agree with Aragon and his large, 5ish hour window hypothesis. But that makes nutrition work very similarly to how Vicoden worked for me when I had my last knee surgery. I needed to take it *before* I was at the end of my window or I was SOL. Getting the calories sooner rather than later (God forbid 24 hours later) seems like a good way to avoid reaching the end of this 5 hour window and not crashing because there's no nutrition in the pipeline. Just like if I waited to feel pain before popping my next Vicoden would leave me in crushing pain for several hours if I had just taken the pill earlier.

JustJennie1

If it's crap then why does my friend, who is a serious athlete, say that it is important to have proteins and carbs within an hour after you work out to help with the muscle repair?

To the OP: I make a fruit smoothie with protein and creatine post-workout. It's really good and fills me up. Also, you won't "bulk up" if you eat and lift weights. The only way a woman can ever bulk is by taking steroids.