How long should you wait to eat after exercising?

IMHO, you should eat soon after you exercise.
If your goal is to build lean muscle mass and lose fat, go for some carbs before and protein after.
If you don't feed your muscles after working out, they won't grow and increase your TDEE.

I know some people aren't hungry just after exercising, so no comment for those, I do not have any experience in that area.

This is probably different for different people, but if you want to eat after exercising (i.e. are hungry), go for it, that is the best time to eat, because it will most likely be used to repair your muscles.

This is all what I know from my years of experience with exercising and eating, half of my (albeit short) life.

As a swimmer, they recommended chocolate milk because it had the right nutrients for a swimmer after practice. Most lifters say protein is a must after lifting. Both of those are supposed to be within half an hour.

Hope you get some more educated answers too!

I eat right away because I exercise so much and for so long that I am ravenous when I get done. I even eat a small protein snack, like Chobani or cheese or something before I go. Then when I come back I will have some more food. It works for me. Id say it goes by the individual. Listen to your body and eat when you are hungry.

Keep it simple.


Eat what fit in your macro, make you feel good and eat when you are hungry.

for the most part i complelely agree with this, but if there is any quirky tip that i subscribe to, its post exercise nutrtion.

obviously you are going to want to log that meal and keep it at or under cals/macros

Keep it simple.


Eat what fit in your macro, make you feel good and eat when you are hungry.

for the most part i complelely agree with this, but if there is any quirky tip that i subscribe to, its post exercise nutrtion.

obviously you are going to want to log that meal and keep it at or under cals/macros

Here is a good article.. Essentially, it may or may not matter, lol


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872189-alan-aragon-and-brad-schoenfeld-on-nutrient-timing

All depends on how I feel. Mostly I wait for about 2 hours but take today for example, 30 mins later I ate something and had a protein shake.

Listen to your body, it's the best advice giver.

From the research I have done, it depends on whether you are training for something or just exercising/toning for general health. If it is the latter, it seems to make very little difference. It makes absolutely no difference in calories burned. The first case, athletes in training, I will leave for some of the true gym rats to answer but I have seen studies that indicate there is some benefit to when you get carbs and protein around a workout.

well a lot of the articles i read said that its more for endurance atheletes and for workouts lasting more then 1 hr.

but the same articles say you need to depelete your glycogen stores for the effect to work, and even a 30 min weight session should be pretty good at that.

this is specifically for the 4:1 carb to protein ratio.

my biggest problem with the research i've seen is that all of the supporting evidence is sort of subjective.

they test how quickly someone can complete a 5k or so on a stationary bike, feed on group a post exercise meal, the other not, then put them back on the bike, test their times and basically ask them how they feel. the group getting the exercise meal generally does and feels better.

the real question is, does anything happen on a cellular level that is actually different post exercise thats going to make that meal any more effective then it would be at any other time.

i've never seen an article directly addressing that, although i probably wouldn't be able to really understand it anyway