Whether you are hungry or not after a workout you have to refuel your body after you exercise. While know what to eat before you exercise is important, knowing what to eat after your workout is even more important when it comes to keeping your body strong and healthy.
What Your Body Needs
Your muscles need protein and glycogen (sugar) after you exercise. A meal with protein, complex carbohydrates, and a little fat right after you exercise provides the nutrients your body needs to recover from the physical activity.
About 60 percent of the calories of your post-workout meal should come from carbohydrates, 25 percent from protein, and 15 percent or less from fat. (Some workout pros recommend no fat at all after a workout.) Most people who exercise moderately need about 30-40 grams of carbohydrates after a one-hour workout. High intensity exercisers need more–about 50 to 60 grams of carbs for every hour of exercise.
The hour after your workout is called the “golden hour,” when your body soaks up the nutrients it needs. To take advantage of this golden hour you will need to refuel within an hour or two of finishing your workout. If you do not feel like eating soon after your workout, at least eat an energy or sports bar that has about five grams of protein and some carbohydrates to help your body recover. A sports drink will not give you the protein, but it will give you the carbohydrates, and that is what you need right away.
What to Eat after a Workout
Following are 18 foods and food combinations that are good to eat after your workout. Your pre-workout meal needs to be light so you can digest it before you exercise, but not so with your post-workout meal. After your workout is a prime time to eat up. Everyone has different food preferences, desires, and needs, but this list is a good place to start to figure out what is right for you.
1. Bread, a bagel, or an English muffin (preferably whole grain) with cheese, almond butter, or peanut butter;
2. Trail mix (dried fruit and nuts);
3. Cottage cheese with fruit;
4. Bananas;
5. Yogurt with fruit;
6. Hummus and pita;
7. Two eggs with whole grain toast;
8. Chocolate milk;
9. Whole grain cereal with milk;
10. Eggs and toast;
11. Eggs and pancakes;
12. Turkey, ham, chicken, tuna, or roast beef sandwich on whole grain bread;
13. Vegetable stir-fry with chicken, shrimp, beans, or tofu;
14. Crackers with cheese;
15. Rice cakes with peanut or almond butter;
16. Smoothie with milk, yogurt, and/or added protein (whey or soy) powder and fruit.
17. A protein or energy bar;
18. A regular meal with a protein source, whole grains, and cooked vegetables or salad. For example: salmon, sweet potato, and broccoli; tuna, brown rice, and a green salad; or chicken or tofu with mixed vegetables over pasta.
Working Out to Lose Weight
Some people are very hungry after a workout. If you are working out in order to lose weight, choose your food carefully. To shed pounds your workout meal or snack should provide about half the calories you burned during your exercise.
If you are trying to lose weight or are on a low-fat diet, choose reduced-fat dairy products and lean proteins such as fish, lean ham or beef, or white meat skinless turkey or chicken. These are, in fact, good choices for any healthy diet.
Remember, your body makes the best use of the nutrients in the food you eat soon after your workout. If you eat within an hour of exercising more of the calories will go to fueling your body than to fattening it.
Post-Workout Fluids
You lose a lot of fluids when you exercise. The amount of fluids you lose depends on your size, how vigorously you exercise, how much you sweat, and the temperature and humidity. On average, an individual loses about one quart (four eight-ounce glasses) of body fluid for every hour he or she exercises. You can replenish that fluid loss by drinking two to three glasses of water soon after you finish your workout.
Vigorous exercisers and serious athletes often weigh themselves before and after their workouts. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends drinking two to three eight-ounce glasses of water for every pound you lose during a workout, which works out to be about an ounce of water for every ounce of weight loss.
Water is usually all you need for rehydrating after a workout. However, if you sweat a lot you may want to down a sports drink to restore the electrolytes and minerals you lost from sweating. You may also want to drink a sports beverage during your workout to maintain the electrolyte balance and give yourself an energy boost.
Know Your Own Needs
Knowing what to eat after a workout is even more important than knowing what to eat before the workout. Your body needs to refuel and recover after you exercise, and it needs food in order to do that.
If you eat a healthy diet of whole grains, lean protein, and plenty of fruits and vegetables you may naturally know what to eat after a workout. Use the list of foods in this article to guide you, remembering that you need about twice as much carbohydrate calories as protein calories after a workout.
Not everyone agrees on the best foods to eat after a workout. Use what you have learned in this article as a guideline for figuring out what you need to eat and drink after you work out. You will get the most out of your workout when your food is in sync with your exercise.