When you’re working out, your muscles use up their glycogen stores for fuel. This results in your muscles being partially depleted of glycogen. Some of the proteins in your muscles also get broken down and damaged. After your workout, your body tries to rebuild its glycogen stores and repair and regrow those muscle proteins.
Eating the right nutrients soon after your exercise can help your body get this done faster. It is particularly important to eat carbs and protein after your workout.
But sometimes after burning all those tons of calories, the wrong foods we choose to eat after a workout doesn’t allow our body to reach the goal we set. While this is a bad move for anyone trying to maintain good health, it‘s especially harmful after exercising, since it will nullify all your hard work. If you are serious about being fit and improving your performance, you need to prioritise your post-workout meals.
To instantly satisfy the hunger signals after a workout, tons of us choose the wrong foods or reach for whatever is closest or luscious. Though getting in calories and nutrients quickly is key, to get the biggest bang for your workout buck, it’s crucial to limit calories from unhealthy foods loaded with fat and sugar.
- High-calorie fast food.
Avoiding fast food is the best move, but healthy snacks that are high in fats such as cheese, avocadoes and almonds can also make you sluggish. Why? The process of turning fat into energy is considered inefficient compared to carbs or protein. The complex process of digesting fats in the body can cause cramps and discomfort in the stomach. Choose rice, pasta, potatoes or meat that are processed as simply as possible. As a guide for eating before working out, use a carb to protein ratio of 4:1 for maximum energy
- Raw veggies.
- Salty snacks.
Craving salty food after exercise is common, as we often lose water and potassium through sweating, but instead of reaching for the crisps, going for a snack such as a banana is a great option for replenishing potassium levels.
- Soda
Never drink soda after a workout. Your body needs to hydrate, and soda won’t do that for you, moreover, soda may make you bloated.
- Milk Chocolate.
Not only is chocolate high in calories but it also nullifies the effort that you put to burn those calories during exercise, neither it won’t help you to repair those tired muscles or boost your metabolism.
- Cakes pastries or doughnuts.
You need carbs to replace the muscle fuel (glycogen) lost after a powerful workout, but not artery-clogging ones like these nutrient-deprived mega-fat carriers. Better carb options after a workout would be a bagel or whole-wheat toast with peanut butter or fruit preserves.
- Simple carbs.
Eating white bread and pastries is simply a bad idea. Because all the fat present in them slows down digestion, which will do the exact opposite of what you want to happen after working up a sweat, consuming high amounts of sugars also will work against you if you are trying to lose weight because it slows down your metabolism.
- Energy bars.
A lot of energy bars contain more than 200 calories and very little protein, they are same as a bar of chocolate. If your energy bar contains less than 10 grams of protein, it could lower your blood sugar level faster and make you feel tired faster as well. Pay attention to the nutrition table on the packaging. Choose an energy bar containing no more than 200 kcal with a 1:1 sugar to protein ratio.
- Fried foods.
Instead of fried foods, choose a baked or steamed protein such as fish or chicken, along with a complex carb such as boiled rice, baked sweet potato or grilled vegetables. This kind of meal is a great way to refuel your body and provide you with long-lasting energy and strength.
- Beverages
Caffeinated beverages such as coffee can be a beneficial energy boost before a workout and may even enhance performance. While I don’t believe caffeine is harmful, I avoid coffee immediately after a workout,” says the nutritional expert. “I find caffeine can dehydrate my body, so I stick to water to rehydrate after exercise.
- Sports drinks.
Although sports drinks are marketed as the perfect hydration and electrolyte replenishment, drinks such as filtered water, raw coconut water or a healthy protein smoothie are superior options that don’t contain the syrupy ingredients that spike blood sugar and zap energy,
- Spicy foods.
Spicy foods are hard to digest, and you’ll want to stay away from these choices. Your body just accomplished a major effort by shedding so many calories and is in a state of repair, it needs things that are easy to digest, a little protein, a little sugar to bring your sugar levels back to an even keel, and mostly carbohydrates to replenish your energy levels.
- High fibre foods.
Avoid high fibre foods especially salads with flax seeds or kale, as they may cause cramping and bloating. Instead, find what works with your body, which may be different on different days.
Any food that contains simple carbs and sugar in high amounts, including some “healthy” smoothies, only provides temporary energy, not the continuous energy needed for your workout. For the digestive system to work optimally, you need the help of good bacteria living in your bowel. By consuming too many artificial sweets, the growth of good bacteria is threatened, causing a disturbance in the absorption of nutrients.
- Sugary drinks.
Juices should be avoided at all costs because it contains high levels of fructose. It’s slow to digest, and it reduces the fat-burning effects of high intensity or fat-burning workout as it adversely promotes fat storage.
- Alcohol(beer/booze).
Alcohol tends to make you pee more, so it may not be very effective for rehydration and therefore could be harmful to recover from exercise. Drinking after training dehydrates you, reduces protein synthesis, and packs on empty calories.
- Protein
Protein and eggs stay in the stomach for a long time before being digested, which will make you feel heavier during your workout. Fried eggs are also not good to consume after working out. You’re guaranteed to get your fried eggs drenched in saturated fats, something you want to keep out of your diet right after a big sweat session. Raw egg contains salmonella bacteria that can cause stomachache and diarrhoea. It’s best to replace your egg menu with a cup of plain Greek yoghurt or cheese mixed with fruit salad.
- Prune juice.
This healthy drink actually serves as a laxative, something you don’t need post-workout. Running and other exercises can already have this effect on your body, so these foods would only exacerbate this undesirable situation.
- Black beans.
Stay away from black beans in any form, be it in soups or stews, or even in burger form. Black beans have a high fibre count of 15 grams, which slows down the digestive process, but worst of all, It’s likely that eating beans post-workout will just make you acidic.
- Heavy protein.
It is recommended to skip anything hard to digest like a thick, juicy steak. If you’re bulking up, you want to add a high carb ratio like tuna and rice; but if you are leaning out, you want to avoid carbs and drink a protein shake to retain the muscles.
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