Sport What amount of food do I need to consume post workout to prevent losing muscle?

[CarlaHelpMeGetFit]

I workout for roughly 45mins - 1 hour 3 times a week (with runs and gentle exercise at the weekend, but I like to rest up on these days).
My workouts consist of roughly 15min cardio, 20min full body (mainly HIIT, cardio + body weight training) and then I like to have a 20min workout focused on my core. I want to define and develop all my muscles, especially my abs. I know to do this, my body fat percentage needs to be at a certain place, currently, I believe it is around 15-16%. My abs are becoming more and more visable, so I do think this routine is working! I just don't want to waste all my hard work by not getting the right nutrition.

ALL ADVICE IS USEFUL! Unfortunately, I cannot count how many calories I consume each day, as I have previously battled an eating disorder, and I do everything in my power to avoid going back to that obsession! So I remember what I eat each day, and am careful with portions!

Thanks!

 

[CrazyOldMan]

The magical half hour window. The time after wokout when the body has still not flicked all of the genetic switches saying absorb nutrients for activity to the off position. Pretty much anything you throw into your body will be better absorbed and stored during this time, absolutely none of this process will prevent you from losing some lean mass as a reult of damage during workout, if it did there would be no recovery and with it no growth and muscular condition improvement.

Your body will want energy and water first and foremost, so something like bananas are great here, they are natures sports recovery food, containing a natural selection of simple through to complex carbs so perfect for post workout nothing man made has yet surpassed it. Isotonic drinks look great and yes they do absorb into the blood faster than pure water, but if you have been drinking throughout your workout the difference is minimal over 45 minutes. That said if you want to use them do so, jus tremember that these are basically water with glucose and salts, the other ingredients are largely irrelevant, you will need complex carbs to give the sustained energy recover needs. I didnt' say it but obviously throw in as much water as you realistically can.

Repairing the damage. Exercise damages the body, that is the whole point of it, to overload your muscles so they adapt, improve and potentially grow if there is energy to spare. They are repaired using the much hailed wonder food protein, and during this time the body can absorb more at a time than at any other, usually the amount of protein in a shake is more than you can get into your system in one go. Unlike energy the body will not be looking for this immediately which is fortunate as it takes a while to digest and get into place anyway. In the same way as when you tear down an old house to build a shiny new one the old damaged tissue has to be cleared out first, so the body will only need the influx of protein to rebuild by the time it is digested and flooding the system. The chances are that there will not be a massive amount needed in one hit either as repair takes a while, think about how long you ache for, so dumping a load of protein in will risk putting too much in and the body will have to get rid of any of this it cannot convert to lipoprotein (fat) in urine.

What you want ideally is a simple snack sized meal with normal balance. An example would be an egg salad sandwich with a banana and load of water or isotonic drink. Simple food that the body will break down easily and make good use of.

I won't need to tell you this but remember that what you eat here will need to be counted in among the rest of your food, especially as more of it will be absorbed than normal, not that the body misses much anyway.

 

[JustinRVA]

That half hour window is how sports nutrition companies make 90% of their money haha

 

[jack55555]

i usually have a fruit smoothie of fruits like banana or mango and though these sound heavy calories they make me feel fuller and soothe the innards. you can combine a smoothie or fresh juice with a light sandwich. and if you still feel hungry, just go on another light snack like lightly cooked scrambled eggs after a gap of about an hour from the first meal.