The Magic Recipe For Post-Workout Nutrition

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Welcome back and happy fall . When this episode comes out , it will be fall , so you'll either be listening to it on the first day of fall or sometime when fall has gotten going .

In Florida , fall is sort of fake , but we get there eventually . We get there eventually . We've had some crisper mornings here in the recent days , so that's good , and if you are a pumpkin spice person , maybe you are full in already . I enjoy pumpkin spice , but I probably wait a little bit longer .

I'm like an October person , though you know apple is doing it for me right now like a fall apple , and I'm ready for the seasonal change . We're talking about post-workout nutrition today .

I'm going to name this episode the magic recipe for post-workout nutrition , in the same way that I sort of did the lies about protein , in that there is technically no magic recipe for post-workout nutrition .

Everyone is different , everyone's needs are different , everyone's training is different , but there are principles that we can use to guide our decision-making to make the most out of our nutrition , particularly post-workout . Why is post-workout so important ?

So , for me , when I'm working with clients and when I'm thinking about myself as well , but when I'm working with clients , my biggest nutrition philosophy is to approach the big rocks first .

So we start with sort of the biggest obstacles in our nutrition whether that be the way we think about certain things , the big realities of our life , like our schedule , like our obligations , that sort of get in the way of this idea of perfect nutrition , because there is no such thing as perfect nutrition .

And we address those big rocks first because they start to make way for all the little changes . So we're talking about more vegetables , more water , more protein .

Notice there's a lot of more here Finding foods that are seasonal and available , finding the right balance of food throughout your day so you have continued energy levels , stable energy levels throughout the day . Talking about those kinds of things , starting to take away little things that feel like they're not adding to your nutrition .

And there's something that you'd like to have a little less frequently . Again , notice it's not talking about supplements . It's not getting really caught up in lots of numbers at first , because those are smaller rocks that come along later and are less important if we're trying to think about sort of overall health , well-being and happiness .

So we talk about those big rocks at sort of the level one space . Level one here are the things that we're going to work on and some people that's all they're ever going to sort of change about their nutrition because they feel good about it . They're making decisions that work for them .

They have energy , they feel good in their bodies , they are performing at a level that works for them , for the amount that they can train . That's great . If you are a person who would like to beyond that , start to maybe improve your performance or change your physique or start to just optimize where you are , we start to address these littler things .

But I think that post-workout nutrition can be applied at all these levels .

So there are some things to think about at sort of and I call it level one because it's sort of the entry point and again , for so many people that's kind of the place we're going to stay , we're just going to be working on sort of making choices that improve our quality of life , and so we can make choices around post-workout nutrition that improves our quality

of life , and then we can also make decisions about post-workout nutrition that improves our performance , that decreases pain , discomfort , that kind of thing that makes small physique changes for us , that changes our energy and allows us to perform better the next time .

So that's why we're starting , or why I decided post-workout nutrition is a great entry point for a lot of people to start thinking about some of the decisions that they make post-workout .

And another thing that I think is so incredible about sort of consistent resistance training , consistent exercise habits is that it begins to snowball when you start making decisions that include regularly exercising , sleeping a little bit more caring for your body . It snowballs all the decisions for you .

So typically , for people who just trained hard or had a great workout , put a lot of effort in , they aren't all that interested in eating foods that are going to not aid in their recovery . They're not rushing out to eat foods that feel like they don't support what they just did .

There's something truly , I believe , both psychological and then physiological , that our body knows . Here is what we would help us more , and that's another part of what post-workout nutrition can do . It can take what the hard work we did and almost like seal it in or upgrade it so that we can continue on that path .

So one of the real benefits of making decisions that support your training in your post-workout meal building is that you sort of continue that cyclical avalanche style . I don't wanna say good decisions , but supportive decisions .

There's probably gonna be a time where you have to work out and then you have to go to a kid's birthday and you may eat that cake post-workout and it might not be the exact thing that you were planning to eat post-workout , but it doesn't make or break your training . We're talking about decisions over the long-term cumulative .

Anything that we talk about with exercise and nutrition is cumulative because it's not about one , it's about the general , the overarching . How many of these workouts did we get in ? How often are we supporting our nutrition ? And the more we do it , the better off we are .

So post-workout nutrition can be a big rock for people because they can feel overwhelmed about that decision and because if they do make a decision that's more supportive of the training that they just did , they will deal with less hangariness later . You know what I'm talking about .

When you're hungry and you're angry , you get to the point where you're too hungry and you start making decisions out of what is the fastest thing that will feel better for my body . You make decisions .

If you're not fueling post-workout , you're getting to the point where you're so hungry because you haven't actually consumed enough calories , enough of the energy that you burned , that you're going to make that up later and the sensations that you're feeling of that sort of intense hunger are going to maybe make you over consume later .

Even if they don't make you over consume , maybe you are consuming things that , again , just don't feel all that supportive because they're the quickest . They're something that's gonna satiate you when you're angry like that . The other thing about post-workout nutrition is it really helps manage fatigue .

So you have put your body through stress during a workout and after that you are going to feel fatigue unless you are refueling and recovering . And that's where recovery is initiated , in that refueling stage .

So that's where some of our post-workout nutrition can be a big rock , because maybe you are training really hard and you're never seeing any change because you don't eat either soon after your workout or you don't eat the kinds of foods that feel like they are going to fill you up , or you're trying to be so calorie conscious conscious correct calorie conscious ,

that's a harder one to say that you are underfeeding post-workout and then overfeeding later . So those kinds of decisions can leave you in a place where you aren't getting the most out of your workout and you're feeling tired and you're not recovering fully , and then the next time you go workout you can't even push it hard because you didn't fuel the last time .

It goes back to that sort of avalanche kind of analogy .

So what we're going to talk about here are the principles that can guide your decision for your post-workout nutrition . I'm going to talk about it in terms of that sort of level one , level two , level three and that's not what I they're new miracle , because that's easy , but it's not like one is better than another .

Level one is just like what's the easiest thing , the most accessible entry point for most people , and you don't even have to go past that if you don't want to . So like what ? Level one ? What are the decisions we need to make post-workout ? Level two if I want to amp my performance a little bit and I want to make some other decisions .

What kind of things should I be thinking about ? And level three I want to perform elitely , or I have big , big goals , you know , or I've done all these other things already and I want to fine tune these details to take it to the next level . So I'm going to kind of talk in those terms , if that makes sense .

So here are the things that can set us up for success post-workout . We need three things post-workout . One is carbohydrates to replenish the glycogen we've used in the workout .

We need protein , high quality protein that's going to help us repair that muscle tissue that has been damaged during exercise that's the point of it and that protein is going to help to stimulate the muscle protein synthesis . And then we need hydration in most cases , because we have lost fluids through sweating in our exercise . So we need those three things .

How do we get those three things and when and how and why At that level ? One entry point you want to think about getting something to drink after your workout . Making sure you're drinking . Even a diet rich in fruits and vegetables will also give you some hydration because , remember , we get hydration from some of our foods as well .

So if you have a smoothie post-workout with some liquids and then some fruit . That's going to cover that , but generally at that level , one place . If you have been working out inside , you just need to be able to drink a little bit after and you can probably get it mostly from water .

If you have been exercising out in the hot heat , sweating excessively , you may want to add some electrolytes or choose an electrolyte beverage . So that's the basic .

Again , if we're moving to , if you're an elite , if you're training for a marathon and you're doing long bouts of endurance training , your hydration strategy post-workout is probably going to be a little different , because you are going to need those electrolytes .

You are probably going to need a hydration strategy within the workout , but for most people , what we just need to focus about on is getting that water back that we lost and again , if it was hot out and it was a lot of sweat , some of those electrolytes .

When we talk about our carbohydrates and protein , at our most basic level , you need some carbohydrate and some protein after you workout . Here are the ways in which you can think about that .

If you are going to go a long time between when you workout and when you eat your next meal , you probably want a post-workout snack , and when I say that , I mean if your next meal isn't going to be in the next one to two hours post-workout , you probably want a post-workout snack .

We know that protein intake sooner rather than later is more beneficial , but it's also going to be beneficial over the next 24 hours . So some of these guidelines are going to be about you making a decision that feels good for you .

You can manage your energy levels , you don't get angry , you don't get too stressed about food and you don't feel insanely ravenous around the two-hour mark , then you're probably fine to just eat at your next meal if it's coming within the next one to two hours , and then that meal is going to be just like a balanced meal that has a good source of carbohydrates

. Whether that be rice or grains or starches , things like that , you're going to get carbohydrates that way . Then you're going to have some protein and again , if you can wait until that meal , if that meal comes within the next one to two hours , having a meal that has a good source of protein in it is going to cover that post-workout nutrition .

So , if you notice , I'm saying you don't have to stress and you don't have to create a whole new meal for yourself post-workout . If you are going to eat within the next one to two hours and this is particularly for people who train two to three times per week 30 to 45 minutes , maybe up to an hour .

If you start exceeding an hour , or if you train five days a week , or those 45 minutes to an hour are high-intensity exercise you may want to consider a post-workout snack . This also goes for if your next meal isn't going to be for another six hours , so if you want to supplement with a post-workout snack .

I don't like to give calorie ranges , but you could get this covered in that you know 200 calories , but also , depending on how you view nutrition , you can think about it in whatever way . Works just a small amount of food with that same kind of ratio ?

So we're talking about proteins and carbohydrates Somewhere along the line , and we could go through the history of diets and nutrition information .

In this country we demonize carbohydrates to the point where you're trying to avoid them all the time For post-workout , especially when we're talking about high-intensity , high-effort training and that also means weight training too , because while you may not be sweating as much you are , you are pushing yourself in that resistance sphere .

You need carbohydrates , you need them . So when we talk about that carbohydrate and protein in the post-workout , we're talking about if you are doing resistance training , strength training kind of you know , not endurance training we're trying to get at least a 2 to 1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein .

So if you have 15 grams of protein , you're aiming to have about 30 grams of carbohydrates for endurance training . So a lot of cardio , long bouts of time , things in which you are taxing your aerobic system for longer periods of time you are going to want to aim for a 3 to 1 ratio . So that's you know .

If you're having that 15 grams of protein , then we're talking about 45 grams of carbohydrates . Again , this is when we're starting to get into that level too , because if you are in that level one zone , you might be able to just look and go okay , I see that I can have two eggs and some toast and that basically covers my post-workout .

Okay , that's just a random thing I'm choosing at this very moment . Or , you know , what ends up being a really great post-workout is that you know , classic protein shake , because you have protein in form of either a protein powder or supplement . You've got some like maybe yogurt .

You got fruit and that's covering your carbohydrates and then you're getting fluid through it . Amazing , but those can be . You don't have to worry about being so strict to that ratio if you're just trying to improve a little bit . Now .

If you want to amp up those tweaks and start to get more out of your training , get more you can start to think about those ratios , especially if you're someone that's counting that kind of thing . But you can also see in your mind and kind of , as you learn more about what you're eating , you can get a good sense of how much you're taking in .

For most people we're not always the best at self-reporting slash Honestly understanding how much we're taking in . So if that seems to be a struggle for you , then maybe using those ratios a little bit more literally could be helpful .

The other thing I think about this that is important is there are people who limit the amount of total carbohydrates they take in . It's something that's worked for them Great . So if you are going to shame you from that or tell you that that isn't a good thing to do , for training purposes , we really need carbohydrates .

So if you are going to be a person who limits carbohydrates in their day . I would beg you to at least aim to put your carbohydrates post-workout so let's say you sort of try to limit the amount you have . You only have a little bit here and there .

If you're going to have some or you're going to have a meal that's a little bit more carbohydrate forward , as they say , do it at the one post-workout . So let me go back one more time and just remind you quickly about the meal versus a snack .

Again , for most people , if your meal is coming within an hour to two hours post-workout , you can do this in your post-workout meal and you don't have to create a whole new meal . If you get really hungry by that time , or if it's going to be a long time or you train intensely and you train really frequently , you might be adding in that snack .

And for those of folks who are tentative to add more food because I understand that there is a fear about like over-consuming If you're training hard and you want to see results from your training , sometimes you have to take in more than you think and it will one either even out , so you might be eating more at dinner than you think you actually are .

And once you start and I said , dinner , whatever the next meal is . Once you start to eat a little bit closer to post-workout , you might find that you're not eating as much . Later you might find that you are eating the same amount and maybe you just needed that .

So , again , I don't want to tell you one thing or the other of like you need to eat less than or eat more now If it's going to be a long time before you eat again . You want to consider doing that post-workout nutrition . Let me say those ratios one more time .

For that resistance training , strength training , we're talking about two to one , so double the amount of carbohydrates as protein . When we're talking about Pauseкий , the endurance style training , we're talking about a three to one ratio , so three times the amount of carbohydrates to protein .

One of the things that I was thinking about when I was putting this together is I went and looked at one of my protein bars . So I have a protein bars to kind of supplement the amount of protein that I need and I am a , I am just . Wei does not sit well with me . So when I supplement with protein , I always have a vegan one .

For many people , wei is the gold standard . It's very supportive for you , very good for you , fast move in all of that and can be great post-workout Wei protein . I just Wei protein isolate . I just can't digest it , it just doesn't work for me , and so I do the vegan , and that's the other thing .

Some of the things that I'm suggesting might work for you , but if you don't , if you can't eat that kind of food or it doesn't feel good for you , you have to experiment for yourself . But I say this to say I went and looked at the bar .

I don't eat it typically as , like my post-workout food , I just kind of supplement here and there or I'll have it at breakfast or something . But I looked at it because it was one of those . It's also advertised as low carbohydrate and that isn't the point that it wasn't the reason I purchased it , but I remembered that .

So I went and looked and it was 20 grams of protein in the protein bar with 26 grams of carbohydrates . So if you're thinking back to what I told you here , that isn't going to be ultimately your best thing to go to for your post-workout because there weren't enough carbohydrates .

Now I could eat that protein bar and something with a little bit more carbohydrates and it would be a perfect post-workout snack , but that bar alone doesn't have that ratio . So this is the other thing that we have to think about . There isn't one answer . It's a piece of a puzzle . And if you're like me , I can eat Like I get into one food .

I think they're calling it these days , everything has a label and the label is hyperfixation food . I can get hyperfixated on a food and then I can eat it , eat it , eat it , and then one day I turn around and I'm like I cannot eat that food ever again . And I go through these phases .

So you might find your perfect post-workout meal , your perfect post-workout snack , and then all of a sudden it doesn't work anymore . So you have to get creative . You have to think of these things and you have to think about sort of , what are sources of carbohydrates , what are sources of protein and where are the things that I like ?

How do they fit into my post-workout ? And then also not feeling attached to any one style . So I mentioned the shake because oftentimes it's the most convenient . It hits all the things that we're like looking for , but if you don't like that , you don't have to eat that . And then you also might find that and I've said this .

I think I said it in the protein episode but like there are these weird labels that , like , this food is a breakfast food and this food is a lunch food . If your post-workout needs to be a turkey sandwich at 8.30 in the morning , that's also okay . So we're going to start to think about our nutrition more , not as strict rules , but kind of constantly .

How can this improve my life , how can this help support the things that I want to do ? And then the decisions and the options . They just start to open up and you have all this freedom and you have all this , you know , excitement .

And then you , you know , you do get to the day where , like , you finished your workout , you had your shake , you went to the birthday party , you enjoyed the cake . You have all of the elements of nutrition , the stuff that supports your performance , the stuff that supports your health , the stuff that supports your emotional joy . We need all of that .

We need all of that . Lastly , I've mentioned it before . I believe I've certainly mentioned it to clients , but one of the most researched and most supported facts that we know about post-workout nutrition is that tart cherry juice helps to reduce the feelings of muscle soreness and inflammation in the body .

We don't necessarily , like you know , we need inflammation , especially post-workout , but if you are training regularly and need to return to exercise , you are going to be benefited by consuming some tart cherry juice post-workout .

I think it's one to two ounces of the concentrate or eight ounces of the non-concentrate , so just regular tart cherry juice , 100% tart cherry juice . I have found that it helps me a lot . There are my clients have found that , so that's another thing that you could add . I mix it personally .

I mix it into my post-workout shake because it's very tart and it just works for me in that way . But you can decide what works for you . You don't have to have it .

That's probably one of those like little rocks where you're like okay , I'm to the point where I'm training so much , I've got everything dialed in and now I just want to kind of manage this soreness so that I can continue to train . That's something that you can do .

So you have a lot of possibility when it comes to post-workout nutrition and you can take all of these things and you can build your own magic recipe and then , as your training changes , you can change it . And if you ever need support or guidance on these kind of things , let me know .

You can email me , betsy , at bfosterstrongcom , or you can find me on Instagram at foster underscore strength . I am really quick to respond there because I'm spending a lot of time putting content out there and communicating with people . The email is one that I'm working on getting a little faster on .

If this was helpful to you and you think somebody else could use it , please feel free to share . We got a review in . I'm hoping to get some more reviews and the easiest sort of lowest stakes thing that you can do is slide down on that . Apple podcast hit that rating . I don't know what it is for .

Maybe they don't have ratings on Spotify or reviews on Spotify . I probably just have to look at that . But , as always , I'm so appreciative that you would listen . I hope this helps . I hope you get a lot out of it . Until next time , go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you soon . Bye .