What is your post-workout food?

Fruit or Kellogs special K Cereal with strawberry's (1 cup) (.50 cup of Silk-almond milk) I keep it light...

EAS CarbAdvantage protein drink - rich dark chocolate. Yummy reward for hard work.

Nothing--its well known that exercise is a natural and very effective appetite supressant--I like to take advantage of that.

chocolate milk

Banana .... I'm already eating it as pull out of the parking lot... then protein ... usually a protein bar.

Depending on my mood: Drink 1/2 cup of soy milk...eat a 1/2 cup of cereal...or eat a cup of yogurt.

Please share the black bean hummus recipe!

Normally, Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey shake mixed with peanut butter, fat free yogurt, and almond milk. Drink it with in 15 minutes after my work out.

Lately, I have ventured into home made black bean hummus with veggies.

Dinner. I work out after work but before I go home. I don't mess with worrying about how much protein or carbs I am getting, or downing some shake...my dinner covers all bases: protein, carbs, fiber, vitamins, nutrients...it takes away the guess work!

Below is a paraphrased research summary from Dr John Berardi at Precision Nutrition. It contains all the details behind effect post-workout nutrition along with the how and why:

"Generally, post-workout nutrition has three specific purposes:
1) Replenish glycogen
2) Decrease protein breakdown
3) Increase protein synthesis

In other words, athletes/exercisers want to: Replenish their energy stores, Increase muscle size and/or muscle quality and Repair any damage caused by the workout. In doing so, they want to increase performance, improve their appearance, and enable their bodies to remain injury-free.

When you work out intensely, you damage tissues at the micro level, and use fuel. This is what ultimately makes you stronger, leaner, fitter, and more muscular, but in the short term it requires repair. Repair and rebuilding occurs through the breakdown of old, damaged proteins (aka protein breakdown) and the construction of new ones (aka protein synthesis) — a process known collectively as protein turnover.

Muscle protein synthesis is increased slightly (or unchanged) after resistance workouts, while protein breakdown increases dramatically. We’re doing a lot more breaking-down than building-up. The relationship between these two parameters (rate of muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown) represents the metabolic basis for muscle growth.

Muscle hypertrophy occurs when a positive protein balance can be established during recovery — in other words, when we make sure we have enough raw materials available for protein synthesis to occur, so that it doesn’t lag behind protein breakdown. This is especially difficult with endurance athletes as protein synthesis drops and protein breakdown goes up.

Studies show that this trend can be reversed – specifically, protein synthesis is stimulated and protein breakdown is suppressed when you consume the right type of nutrients after exercise.

Protein is not the only concern, however. During exercise sessions, stored carbohydrates can be substantially depleted. Thus, during the post-workout period, we require both protein and carbohydrates.

The raw materials we give our body through the consumption of food/supplements in the workout and post-workout periods are critical to creating the metabolic environment we desire. In other words, in order for our bodies to use raw materials to rebuild and recover, those raw materials have to be available. And if they’re available, then our body is more likely to use them. Simply having the materials around can signal to our body that it’s time to rebuild.

Some refer to this workout and post-workout phenomenon as “the window of opportunity”. During this window, your muscles are primed to accept nutrients that can stimulate muscle repair, muscle growth, and muscle strength.

This window opens immediately after your workout and starts to close pretty quickly. Research suggests that while protein synthesis persists for at least 48 hours after exercise, it’s most important to get post-workout nutrition immediately, and within 2 hours afterwards.

If you feed your body properly while this window is open, you’ll get the benefits. If you don’t provide adequate post exercise nutrition fast enough — even if you delay by only a couple of hours — you decrease muscle glycogen storage and protein synthesis. As soon as you drop that last dumbbell, you should be consuming some post-workout nutrition.

What to eat:

Post-workout nutrition requires two things: Protein to aid in protein synthesis, and Carbohydrates to help replace muscle glycogen (and to enhance the role of insulin in transporting nutrients into cells)

You could certainly eat a whole food meal that meets these requirements after exercise, however, whole food meals aren’t always practical. Some people aren’t hungry immediately after exercise and whole food digests slowly, whereas you want nutrients to be available quickly.

On the other hand, consuming a liquid form of nutrition that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates (e.g., maltodextrin, dextrose, glucose, etc) and proteins (e.g., protein hydrolysates or isolates can: Accelerate recovery by utilizing insulin for nutrient transport into cells; Result in rapid digestion and absorption; and is often better tolerated during and after workouts.

Save your workout drink for weight training, interval, and endurance training lasting 45 minutes or longer. When performing energy expenditure work to burn energy or lose fat, a recovery drink is not necessary. If you’re prioritizing fat loss, performance and recovery from these sessions are not as important as creating an energy deficit.

Still, if overall energy intake is low from food intake, and lots of time is being spent performing energy expenditure work, consuming a branched chain amino acid (BCAA) supplement might be helpful.

With intense workouts/training, start by ingesting 30 grams of carbohydrate and 15 grams of protein (in 500 ml water) per hour of workout time. You can sip this during the workout or consume it immediately after.

You can either make your own post-workout drink or find a pre-formulated drink that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates (e.g., maltodextrin, dextrose, glucose, etc) and proteins (e.g., protein hydrolysates or isolates).

Once your workout is complete, have a whole food meal within an hour or two.

If priority #1 is to lose body fat, use only BCAAs as a workout drink. About 5 to 15 grams per hour of training (200 pounds or more = closer to 15 grams, 200 pounds or less = closer to 5 grams).

If you’re leaner but still want to lose fat, choose a smaller dose (like 1/2 dose) of the protein + carb combination, or opt for BCAAs."

For myself, I've recently changed my own habits to the GNC Advanced Recovery Protein which is a 35g carb/25g protein mix post workout and have found excellent results in my post workout recovery after intense training.

I'm currently looking into the BioSteel line which was developed by a old classmate and colleague of mine who's currently training Elite NHL athletes. It's a bit on the pricey side, but combines simple carb with BCAA's that falls directly in line with the research and recommendations from the above article.

Cheers!

chocolate milk

I've seen threads around this and alot of debate as to its validity.

500ml of Chocolate Milk contains a perfect mix of 40g Carb to 20g Protein and is quick and easily accessible to quickly down immediately after workouts. It totally fits within the recommended guidelines for beneficial pre and post workout nutrition and my own gym has a milk-dispenser machine which is nice to see.

The ONLY reason is it not widely recommended on a professional level, is because of the number of people who may possible have milk protein allergies, and/or lactose intolerance.

Otherwise, it's fits the bill wonderfully.