The Best Science-Based Post Workout Meal To Build Muscle (EAT THIS!)

Sam I remember when I first started lifting I was always told that the post workout meal was crucial. If I didn't have one shortly after my workout, I'd feel as if my gains would slowly wither away and that the workout was basically a write off. Fortunately, over the years I was able to realize that post workout nutrition isn't as crucial as I made it out to be. But it still does have its merits since by consuming the right foods in the right amounts after your workouts, you'll be able to better improve your performance and recovery and build muscle that much faster. To start though, let's first cover what exactly a post workout meal is and what it aims to accomplish. So a post workout meal is simply the meal you have shortly after a resistance training workout or even an intense cardio session. But for example, a stroll in the park or any very low intensity activity wouldn't require a post workout meal. And this meal seeks to accomplish two major goals. One to replenish glycogen stores that have been depleted during your workout. This helps keep you energized for the rest of the day, provides your muscle with fuel for your next workouts and can also help prevent muscle breakdown and two to increase protein synthesis while decreasing protein breakdown, which is just the rebuilding process of repairing any damage caused by your workout and putting your body in an anabolic state to now build muscle. So how can we design our post workout meal to best accomplish these two goals? Well, in this video, that's exactly what I'll cover by going through what research has deemed as the optimal post workout meal along with various easy to make meal examples that you can implement right away. Let's start with protein. Protein is going to be the most important macronutrient that you'll want to include in your post workout meal since it will be responsible for kick starting muscle protein synthesis and the recovery and growth process for your muscles. As for the best types of protein to include in your post workout meal, you'll want to ideally stick with fast digesting protein sources since research has indicated that they promote post exercise anabolism to a greater degree and does so much faster than slower digesting protein sources. Therefore, your best option here would simply be whey or plant protein powders, but lean meats and egg whites are definitely viable options as well. And as for the ideal amount of protein to have, a 2016 paper by McNaughton et al. Found that 20 grams of a high quality protein such as whey is able to elicit a near maximal protein synthesis response following a workout. However, they also found that doubling the amount to 40 grams was able to significantly boost protein synthesis by 20%. What I'd recommend though, is simply aim to get at least 20 grams in your post workout meal and aim for 40 grams if you're on the heavier side, or if you would just like to ensure that you're stimulating maximum protein synthesis, or if this is going to be your last meal before bed, since this will better improve protein synthesis overnight. Just know that the difference in muscle growth this will make in the long run though is likely negligible given that your daily protein intake is sufficient. Now as for carbs, as mentioned earlier, they'll mainly serve to replenish any muscle glycogen that's been depleted from your workout in order to improve your performance and energy levels for your next workout, and they seem to best accomplish this when consumed within the post workout window. In fact, a study from the International Journal of Sports Medicine found that there's a super compensation of glycogen stores when carbohydrates are consumed shortly post post exercise, and delaying their consumption by just two hours reduces the rate of muscle glycogen resynthesis by as much as 50%. But this is likely only really useful if you were to train again in the same day, since research has also shown that so long as you eat enough carbs in the rest of your meals, your body will eventually fill its glycogen stores back up regardless of whether you had them post workout or not. However, despite this, I would still advise including carbs in your post workout meal since as shown in a 2007 paper from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, ingesting carbohydrates with protein following exercise increases growth hormone levels to a greater extent than when compared to ingesting protein alone, which the researchers stated leads to a more favorable anabolic environment for recovery. Therefore, including carbs as part of your post workout meal is likely optimal. And as for the best types of carbs to include, research such as this paper from the Journal of Applied Physiology indicates that high glycemic index carbs result in the most rapid increase in muscle glycogen following intense exercise and are thus ideal options. Some examples include white potatoes or sweet potatoes, rice cakes, white rice, and so on. And fruits are actually a good option to include as well, since research indicates that they seem to enhance digestion and fluid delivery when combined with glucose from carb sources that aren't fruit. Just make sure that you're not only consuming fruit since they replenish liver glycogen rather than the much needed muscle glycogen for your workouts. However, what's even more important than the type of carbohydrate you ingest is the amount you ingest within your post workout meal. A good idea is to get roughly 20 to 30% of your total daily carb intake within that meal, or at least 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrates in order to best replenish your glycogen levels and support an anabolic environment for growth. And lastly, as for fats, research is relatively unclear as to their benefits and drawbacks Regarding post workout nutrition, we do know that adding fats to a post workout meal does not further boost protein synthesis, but certain types may actually delay the digestion of carbohydrates, which does indicate that minimizing fat post workout may be ideal to replenish glycogen and promote anabolism the fastest while keeping the risk of GI distress low. But in my honest opinion, I'd say just do what you want with fats post workout because the difference between including them or not is likely insignificant. Now as for the timing of your post workout meal, this is something I'll have to cover more in depth in a future video, but for now just know that if you've had a pre workout meal with adequate protein and carbs at least a few hours before your workout, then the timing of your post workout meal now becomes less important and can be within even two to three hours after your workout. However, if you have not had a pre workout meal within that time frame or you're simply working out fasted, then in this case you'll want to ingest your post workout meal as soon as possible following your workout. So now that we know exactly what a post workout meal should consist of, let's take a look at a few quick to make yet effective meal ideas that implements exactly what I've covered. Foreign.

Keep in mind that post worker nutrition is just one of many aspects that you want to get right in order to build muscle most effectively. You simply aren't going to see the results that you're after if you're not optimizing all aspects of your training and your nutrition as well. This is exactly why within my Build with science programs I not only cover training, but I also show you exactly what, when and how much to eat based on your goal and your current body stats such that you can build muscle and lose fat in the fastest manner possible. And to get started today, you can simply head on over to builtwithscience.com and take the body type analysis quiz, which.

Is just going to determine what program.

And what approach is best for you. Anyways, as always, if you haven't already, I'd really appreciate a follow on Instagram. I post a lot of the daily meals that I have, the reasoning behind them on my Stories I, which I think a lot of you will find really useful. And if you enjoyed this video, then please don't forget to give it a like leave a comment down below as to what other topics you'd like to see me cover. Subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications as well as this all truly does help me out. Thank you so much everyone for the continued support. I really do appreciate it and I'll see you next time.