Photo © Thomas Rosenau

Photo © Magen Petit

Confused as to what to eat after your workout? Simply put: carbs and protein.

You should try your best to make sure you’re getting this meal in immediately after your workout. The maximum length of time I’d go is an hour, but ideally within 30 minutes of completing a workout. Personally, I eat this meal as I’m leaving the gym, but then again, I always have food with me. Can’t go around starving! That would do nothing for my muscles or my metabolism!

What Kind of Protein?

The best source of protein for your body after a grueling working is a whey protein powder. I mix Gaspari Nutrition’s Probiotic Myofusion with water in my BlenderBottle®.

Liquid meals digest quicker than a solid food like chicken or tuna, and the whey protein powder is the fastest digesting form of protein out there. In the end, your muscles will be happier and thank you.

What Kind of Carbs?

First, you should know that not all carbs are bad, especially after working out. After your workout, carbs will help your body restore your glycogen levels that were depleted. Eating carbs will help build any muscle tissue that has been broken down.

Another thing to note: “good carbs” aka complex carbs (oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potatoes) contain fiber and other nutrients that slow down digestion. After working out, you want something that will digest quickly. Simple carbs do this, which means foods like white potatoes, white rice, or white bread are great choices for a carb source after your workout.

Of course, it’s even better if you can get it in a liquid form! The abovementioned will definitely do the trick, but if you want something that’s fast-acting, then I’d suggest dextrose. Dextrose is a type of sugar that is usually found in sports drinks.

Yes, you can actually have sugar, but in your post workout meal, which is when your body can handle this! My choice of dextrose, however, is not a sports drink. Instead, if you ever see me leaving the gym, you’ll notice I’m snacking on gummy bears. That’s where I get my dextrose. (The red ones are my favorite!)

About an hour-and-a-half after having my post workout meal, I’ll eat my next meal, which – for me – is usually my second-to-last or last meal before I head to bed.

Happy eating!

Lately, I’ve been on a quest to eat as much raw foods and as little processed foods as possible. I have found replacements for most of my foods, but one of the things I haven’t found a substitute for is the protein bar. Most protein bars you buy on the shelf are highly processed food products. Luckily, I found an awesome all natural protein bar recipe on reddit fitness that you can follow to create your own non-nonsense protein bar in your very own home. Here’s are the steps in writing so that you guys can print it out and bring it into the kitchen.

Ingredients

• 70g peanut butter
• 180g whey protein powder
• 90g rolled oats
• 30g ground flaxseed
• 20g maple syrup
• 30g whole almonds
• 150ml-200ml of water

Directions

1. Combine peanut butter, whey protein, rolled oats and flaxseed in one large bowl and mix it together.
   
2. Start adding water and keep mixing everything using your hand. Keep mixing until there is nothing dry left in the bowl and sticky batter is formed.
3. Add maple syrup with almonds and mix it thoroughly.
   
4. Put batter into a 1 gallon ziploc freezer bag (towards the bottom of the bag), flatten the batter, then fold the bag in half.
   
5. Put the ziploc bag into the freezer for 60-90 minutes.
6. Remove from freezer and cut into 7 equal pieces.

1 Bar Nutrition Content

• 25.7g of protein
• 12g of fat
• 7.1g monounsaturated fat
• 2.8g polyunsaturated fat
• 12.5g of carbohydrates
• 3.2g of dietary fiber

Lazy Man’s Tips

Since you have to keep this protein bar in the fridge anyway, it might make sense for you to skip steps 4 through 6 and just keep the mixture in a bowl in the fridge. Whenever you need a protein boost, just walk by the fridge, grab a spoonful of the mixture and you should be good to go. BAM!

SOURCE: Recipe and images from this reddit fitness thread

Three Important Types of Protein to Know

Whey (fast-absorbing)

Whey protein is found as a by-product of milk and cheese productions. This type of protein can be quickly ingested into the body quickly. Because of that whey protein shakes are the best protein shakes for post-workout recovery.

Casein (slow-absorbing)

Casein protein accounts for about 80% of proteins in cow milk and cheese. This type of protein has the ability to coagulate (gel or clot) in your stomach, which causes it to digest very slowly. I opt to use for Casein powder instead of milk is because milk contains fats and carbohydrates, which I do not need for my purposes.

Egg (medium-absorbing)

Egg protein is found in [you guessed it] eggs. These proteins take about one and a half to three hours to absorb into your body (medium absorption rate). As a side note, careful nutritional inspection will reveal that egg yolks are quite good for you too. Here is a comparison between egg white and egg yolk.

How to Take These Proteins

Whey Protein

Because whey protein can be absorbed quickly, it is best consumed immediately after a workout. After an intense workout, your body is in a state that craves nutrients. Failure to provide proper nutrition will force the body into a catabolic state (you do not want this). After a workout, you need simple carbohydrates to quickly push the body out of its catabolic state and whey protein to help your muscles rebuild. After my workouts, I drink a shake consisting of sugar and whey protein mixed at ~2:1 ratio. For example my post-workout protein shake consists of

• Water
• 50g of whey protein (usually 2 scoops)
• 100g of pure cane sugar OR 125g of honey

(About ~80% of honey is sugar, giving 100g of sugar total.)

I prefer using 125g of honey because it is more soluble it contains potassium which also aids in muscle recovery and helps prevent cramps.

Casein Protein

Because casein protein is absorbed very slowly, it is best to consume this protein before you sleep. The reason for this is because your body goes into starvation every night and runs on catabolism. Sleep is really the best time for your body to rebuild and recover, but it cannot do it if it is in a catabolic state. The slow release property of casein protein provides your body with a constant small source of protein to keep your body from catabolism. My pre-sleep shake is quite simple: water and casein protein (no other non-sense).

Egg Protein

Egg proteins fall in between the two extremes and it is also a truly natural gold-standard source of protein. Some people suggest drinking whey protein in the morning to combat catabolism from sleep, but I prefer to incorporate eggs into my breakfast. Why?

• One egg contains more than 6 grams of high quality protein containing all the essential amino acids our body needs to build and maintain muscle mass.
• I need my breakfast to keep me full longer than 2 hours. Egg protein take longer to absorb than whey protein. Eggs also contain several B vitamins required for energy production (good way to start your day full of energy).
• I don’t want to drink protein powders all day.
• Eggs is one of the best fat burning foods.

You shouldn’t eat more than 1 egg per day because of its cholesterol content. The good news is that cholesterol is only found in the egg yolk. So my optimal breakfast would contain, 1 whole egg (with yolk) + 1 egg without yolk, giving me ~10g of egg protein to start my day. I opt for 1 whole egg because the B vitamins and other useful nutrients are only found in the yolk.

Conclusion

Smart protein consumption is crucial to fitness success. I guarantee that if you follow this protein consumption plan, you will notice results quicker from your exercises. You will not be as sore during workouts, allowing you to workout longer. You will be sore less often, allowing you to exercise more often. You can even tweak your protein consumption (add more nutrients) to make them act like protein diet shakes and replace meals. Also, retaining more muscle mass will help you will lose fat quicker. As a bonus, check out my post on the best protein powder and optimize your protein consumption today!