Week 42 – Boost Recovery, Eat within 15 minutes of workingout

by | Dec 14, 2015 | Wellness

  1. The calories you eat after your workout will be used to replace energy stores in your muscles that got used up during your training session.
  2. Your body also uses any protein you eat to build and repair your muscles that were broken down as a result of you pushing them to their limits.
  3. Taking in nutrients within 15 minutes of working out is Ideal! In fact, research shows that your body’s ability to refill muscle energy stores decreases by 50 percent if you wait to eat just 2 hours after your workout compared to eating right away.
  4. Eating after your workout may also increase your body’s insulin sensitivity or its ability to use carbohydrates—an important factor for weight loss and health) for the following 24 hours.increase your body’s insulin sensitivity or its ability to use carbohydrates
  5. In this 15 minutes directly following your workout, have a liquid meal that does not require a lot of digestion, so the nutrients will get into your system fast, allowing for your body to jump-start the recovery process.558116_10200838741228891_1024012719_n
  6. If your training session lasts longer than 60 minutes, aim for a recovery drink that contains at both protein and low glycemic carbohydrates. Having a liquid meal is also convenient, as you can have it at the gym and many people can’t stomach a lot of food right after working out.
  7. But according to the New York Times Well Blog, those first 15 minutes are crucial: “the enzymes that help the body resynthesize muscle glycogen are really most active in that first 15 minutes. The longer we wait to eat something, the longer it takes to recover.”
  8. Forty-five minutes to one hour after your workout, eat a whole food meal, again containing protein and carbohydrates. For example, a piece of fish with quinoa and a green salad with olive oil would be a great meal to have at this time. 10524313_10204014173532714_5373662682823838447_n