Pre and Post Workout Nutrition

Post workout nutrition and your ability to build lean muscle mass are vital for sustained fat loss. Find out why here…

It doesn’t matter whether you want to build a large, lean muscular frame with bulging six pack abs, or a tight, toned, svelte physique with a flat stomach. One attribute makes both goals possible – lean muscle mass.

Why Exercise And Lean Muscle Mass Are Important To
Losing Weight & Burning Fat

Obviously the way you train your muscles will be different depending on which goal you have in mind, but the overall rule is the same. Lean muscle increases RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate), helping your body burn fat.

By the way, the best exercises are always the most functional result producing, body changing exercises, no matter how much weight you lift – this never changes.

The best exercises will put your body in fat burning turbo drive for up to 48 hours post workout. (Yep, burn fat even while you’re not at the gym or working out!) But a lot of this depends on getting your post workout nutrition just right.

I can’t stress this point enough. If you don’t get this right then you’ll never achieve the results your efforts deserve. Whether you’re trying to get big, or trying to get lean and toned.

What Happens To Your Body After Exercise

Now we could go into some HUGE scientific detail about what happens in your body after exercise, but for the purpose of this article, let’s keep things simple. But you can read a more scientific explanation in this free report (science even I could understand!): What to NEVER eat post workout.

After an intense workout your body enters a catabolic state. Basically this means that the gylcogen in your muscles has all be used up, and your body is starting to break down your muscle tissue as a source of energy.

But wait a minute, didn’t I just say that lean muscle mass was important? So we don’t want our bodies breaking it down do we? Heck no!

And this is where proper post workout nutrition comes in. We need to get our bodies out of this catabolic state and back into a fat burning, muscle building anabolic state as quickly as possible.

Time For A Friendly Insulin Spike

OK, so now we’re at the really important part, the actual nutrition stuff. What should we actually eat and drink post exercise?

Well if you’re a regular visitor to this site you’ll know that we’re always aiming to regulate our blood sugar levels with slowly digested carbs, slow release proteins and healthy fats.

But for the post-workout meal we’re looking for the opposite characteristics; quickly digested carbs and quick release proteins. Notice I didn’t mention fats, as they slow the absorption of carbs and protein.

The purpose here is to elicit an insulin spike, which will send the nutrients to your muscles as quickly as possible. By doing this you’ve reversed the catabolic state, and your body can now use the quick release carbs and proteins to replenish muscle glycogen and repair muscle tissue.

Also remember to rehydrate post workout, with a water based (or just water!) drink. This is a very important point, not to be forgotten!

What To Eat And Drink Post Exercise

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you need to chomp down a candy or chocolate bar post workout to spike your blood sugar levels. And I’m not saying that you should add a few spoonfuls of sugar to your protein powder either.

We’re still going to keep things natural, and we’re going to be getting our quick release carbs from healthy sources. We’re looking for natural foods towards the higher end of the glycemic index (GI). Here are a few good examples:

Banana

Watermelon

Mango

Pineapple

Raw, Organic Honey

Organic Maple Syrup

Good sources of quick release protein are natural, fat free/ low fat yogurt and milk. But I get the majority of my post-workout protein from a top quality whey protein isolate.

Now here is where things get a little complicated. Most of the commercial whey protein powders, soy protein powders and post workout formulas are full of junk and xenoestrogens that ruin your post workout nutrition, stunt muscle growth and sabotage fat loss.

What you need to look for is a natural source of whey isolate, from organically reared, grass fed cows. While I’m in the UK I go for Pulsin Natural Whey Protein. I’m fairly sure they only ship to the UK, but haven’t tested.

Fortunately for those not in the UK, I’ve also heard amazing things about Prograde (also the guys who wrote the report I mentioned earlier). These are the guys recommended by countless fitness enthusiasts and personal trainers.

Your Workout Is Important Too

I hope this article has shown you that post workout nutrition is vitally important if you want to be lean, no matter if you want to build huge muscles or a toned physique. But I also want you to know that the type of exercise you do is important. If you just spend hours every week on the treadmill or elliptical trainer then the advice in this article will do nothing for you.

But if you really want to learn how to workout for a lean physique then watch one of the videos below to make sure you’re not working out the wrong way, or eating the wrong kinds of foods. This will blow your mind!

Back to the fat burning foods homepage.

Have you heard about negative calorie foods and the negative calorie diet?