Eat a good and nutritious first meal after working out


Fitness is naturally good for the body, and nutritional supplements after fitness are also very important. A post-workout meal is crucial for people after a workout. When properly consumed, carbohydrates can transform the catabolic state (burning muscles to supply energy) caused by training into an anabolic state (increasing muscle size).

The success or failure of post-workout nutritional supplements depends on how you consume carbohydrates. Consuming carbohydrates after exercise can promote the secretion of insulin, an anabolic hormone.

Insulin plays three important roles in muscle recovery:

1. It can "drive" sugar from carbohydrate foods into muscles to reserve energy for the next training.

2. It can "drive" amino acids from protein foods into muscle tissue to promote muscle growth.

3. It can inhibit the catabolic effect of adrenocortical hormone (a hormone secreted by the human body during intense training).

The average carbohydrate intake is 2-2.5 grams per pound of body weight per day for women and 2.5-3.5 grams for men. To maximize your post-workout anabolic opportunities, it’s best to consume 25% of your total daily carbohydrates immediately after your workout.

After exercising, consuming complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates in a ratio of 3:1 is beneficial to the rapid and sustained release of insulin and can avoid hypoglycemia. Don't just eat simple carbohydrates because they are digested the fastest and cause insulin secretion to peak and fall back quickly. The side effect is to stimulate the terrible catabolism, because in order to prevent the rapid drop in insulin levels, the body will secrete another hormone that can cause catabolism and destroy muscle tissue.

Heavy training will deplete the muscles' amino acid and glycogen stores (the latter is the main source of energy during training). As training progresses, the body continuously depletes the muscles' glycogen stores. If glycogen stores are too low, it forces the body to switch energy sources to use more protein as fuel. Some protein comes from food, while most comes from muscle tissue.

Protein supplement after fitness: The meal after fitness should avoid ingesting protein foods that are difficult to digest, such as chicken, beef, steak, etc. Instead, choose milk, eggs, high-protein and other easily digestible foods. The purpose of eating at this time is to deliver sufficient amino acids to the muscles and provide raw materials for muscle growth.