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Eating immediately after a workout and how much protein?


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Does anyone have trouble eating right after a workout? I used to be able to do this but now I find I am not ready till about 30 minutes or so, otherwise I feel like I might throw up! Today I had to wait about 30 minutes plus and then I ate about 60 grams of protein and a banana along with a granola bar and some popcorn, LOL.

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For years I've been hearing people talk about their "Post workout" protein needs and how incredibly important it is and for a long while I actually bought into it. But if you think about it a lot of nutrition experts recommend eating every two to three hours because that's how long it takes your body to absorb what you're shoveling down your gullet. That being said one would reason that the more important meal would be the one your eat 2-3 hours before you finish your workout. I make it a point to never train longer than an hour, so I eat about 1 1/2 to 2 hours before I workout and then yea I'll eat something afterwards, but I'm not going to rush to the locker room and go crazy trying to get some protein in my system.

 

In my opinion the best thing to get in your system post workout is some carbs from a nice sugary source (fruit is good), and a little protein. Carbs are incredibly important in the process of building muscle, but they often take a back seat to protein. And yea, protein is important, but I just think the emphasis that we in the Bodybuilding community makes us forget the importance of carbs. We become carbaphobes ......

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Hey Syn667, 2 hours sounds like a really long time (for me anyway). Do you do that often, and does that include some type of cardio or something?

 

My point wasn't that you shouldn't eat after your workout, obviously, I did mention that i usually eat afterward too. It's just that there's kind of a phobia among guys at every gym that if they don't rush out and get some protein in their system right away they are going to miss out on any and all gains, and I just don't think that's the case.

 

One of my old school bodybuilding hero's was Chet Yorton, and I once read that he would train for like three hours at a time, but it also said he would only lift weights once or twice a week.

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I never train longer than an hour with weights, sometimes I push it to an extra 15 minutes, but at the intensity at which I train, I am spent after about 60 minutes plus it is hell, hell on the central nervous system training much longer than an hour. I have had tremendous results always training about an hour a session. Plus, as a natural athlete I found it essential to not train too long, to avoid over training. I also eat a lot of carbs! Love me some carbs!

 

As a natural athlete I keep training sessions to 3-4X a week and an hour to maybe an aditional 15 minutes at a shot of weights.

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On off days the most important meal is breakfasts. Training days it's breakfast & your post workout meal (this can be effected by training times)

 

Once I'm done working out I immediately slam 50g protein, 50g maize starch (easy to digest carb), bcaa's, glutamine in a shake. Also however I have my creatine, powder goes in the shake or tabs. Again depending on workout times the post meal

Should be the biggest serving you have of carbs.

 

 

Also take a look how you train. Is it to much as over training can trigger the hormones epinephrine &  norepinephrine to be released which will destroy your appetite. Also just general over training can do this.

 

What is your appetite like in general? 

 

Meal portions/frequency is down to the person. I listen to my body when I need food, not because some article says we/I should be eating. No two persons the same. But post workout meal is important

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I haven't weight trained over an hour lately but I have 1 day a weeek that includes cardio, weights and endurance/agility training. That is 3 hrs of training. I usually have a good snack before the gym a around 3:30 and am at the gym 2 hrs later going all out. But I do an hour of cardio after weights. First thing I reach for after I am done is the glutamine tablets

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quote from Charlie Francis. “A body under recovery will always seek homeostasis. So it is always better to undertrain than to overtrain. You will still supercompensate, but not to the degree. Once you overtrain, your body will plummet and fight to retain a balance. Smaller CNS demands over a longer period of time result in more acceptance and greater improvement. While the rush to get more done leads to uncertainty down the road.”

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At 42 I am always on the lookout for signs of over training. 3-4 days a week seems to work well for me now.

4 days seem to perfect otherwise I have a tough time separating out shoulders and chest.

 

Typically my appetite is great and having trouble eating right after a workout is not that often but it happened yesterday. I ate a protein bar and banana right after my workout but I felt I should have waited. Many times I will work out at lunch and need to get back to work so I can't do a shake. In that case I will just have a couple almond butter sandwiches on whole grain bread. I also tend to eat often. I have always been a grazer.

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True, it is not often, LOL. Well I guess I could throw some pro powder in a jug and take it with my, I used to do that. Right now, we are on a budget since we just bought a new car and paying for a two week vacation so I put all supplements on hold till spring or summer. Trader Joe's has cheap pro powder so I will probably go back there.

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Oh you mean money wise, that's fair enough...I'm in a similar position as my other halfs just finishing up her degree. Though I don't drink, smoke or run a car it means I have money for my supps. Be better once she's back working other than the wkend haha

 

If you do buy a powder just save it for training days. What type of milk do you drink?

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I realize that I'm the odd man out here, but I quit using all supplements a few years ago and really haven't noticed a difference at all, and although there are guy's much larger than I am, I'm still getting pretty good results. I don't use protein powders or any of that stuff. In fact I get most of my protein from fruits, vegetables, rice and beans. I'm 185 ibs with some bodyfat as you can see in my pic, but relatively low I've only trained with body weight the last six months, but before that I had a 315 ib (two rep) bench, 375 ib squat, and 405 ib deadlift. Those numbers aren't extremely impressive, but I worked up to them, and I sincerely didn't get better results when I was using supplements and rushing to my car after a workout to drink my post workout protein shake.

And I know that the post workout protein drinks is one of the biggest locker room gossip topics, just behind whether one should do high reps or low reps. But the science has shown us time and time again that it takes at least an hour or more for your body to start to digest and assimilate the nutrients that you ingest. That being said if you are taking that protein shake after a workout thinking that your body is immediately getting some nutrients then you've bought into the Muscle magazine myth. By all means eat after you workout, but just remember that if you workout at 6, finish at 7 and drink a shake your getting those nutrients somewhere between 8 and 10. But if you eat a meal at 5, your going to be getting those nutrients between 6 and 8. That's the science and I choose to take that as meaning that the more important meal is the one before a workout. Someone else could easily see in that where the post workout meal is more significant, but the beauty of the science is that it's objective and leaves no room for opinion. Our only opinion is in how we choose to interpret the facts.

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I don't drink or smoke either. My wife and I are comfortable financially but my daughter's summer camps are going ro be expensive this year and we are looking to move out of our condo and get a single home so trying watch money. I have expensive hobbies so rift now I am filtering money to other needs as I snowboard and just got back from a trip with our daughter skiing and boarding and were Disney World the last week of January, and just got a new car so I am trying cut out some things. I also am a musician and started a new band and need some equipment so it adds up.

Will he doing supps by early April! I want to get back to creatine.

 

I drink soy milk.

 

I wonder if I am getting enough protein. I can't get over my 218 lb body weight hump.

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I realize that I'm the odd man out here, but I quit using all supplements a few years ago and really haven't noticed a difference at all, and although there are guy's much larger than I am, I'm still getting pretty good results. I don't use protein powders or any of that stuff. In fact I get most of my protein from fruits, vegetables, rice and beans. I'm 185 ibs with some bodyfat as you can see in my pic, but relatively low I've only trained with body weight the last six months, but before that I had a 315 ib (two rep) bench, 375 ib squat, and 405 ib deadlift. Those numbers aren't extremely impressive, but I worked up to them, and I sincerely didn't get better results when I was using supplements and rushing to my car after a workout to drink my post workout protein shake.

And I know that the post workout protein drinks is one of the biggest locker room gossip topics, just behind whether one should do high reps or low reps. But the science has shown us time and time again that it takes at least an hour or more for your body to start to digest and assimilate the nutrients that you ingest. That being said if you are taking that protein shake after a workout thinking that your body is immediately getting some nutrients then you've bought into the Muscle magazine myth. By all means eat after you workout, but just remember that if you workout at 6, finish at 7 and drink a shake your getting those nutrients somewhere between 8 and 10. But if you eat a meal at 5, your going to be getting those nutrients between 6 and 8. That's the science and I choose to take that as meaning that the more important meal is the one before a workout. Someone else could easily see in that where the post workout meal is more significant, but the beauty of the science is that it's objective and leaves no room for opinion. Our only opinion is in how we choose to interpret the facts.

 

 

 

I haven't got time to give a detailed response to some of your points as I'm just about to leave for a mini holiday...But I shall when I can.

 

I the mean time:

 

I always advise people not to buy into the marketing of the next best supplement. I always inform food reins supreme & to get diet in order. However I keep my supps to what I know works for me, That being the key. What works for the user, not what a company/article or a study says. As an eg I hate pre workout shakes & the like, I think they are pointless & there's better natural alternatives. Also I gained a lot of muscle/weight eating 4 times a day....

 

What I will say is don't paint people who choose to use supp's with the same brush like most who believe everything they see/read regarding supps. None of us here are sheep, We wouldn't be here in the first place if we were

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[quote name="

What I will say is don't paint people who choose to use supp's with the same brush like most who believe everything they see/read regarding supps. None of us here are sheep' date=' We wouldn't be here in the first place if we were [/quote]

 

 

I wasn't just trying to be a dick in saying that or anything. It's just that I wasted a lot of money over the years on stuff that just didn't work for me. And I hate to see someone who's saying their trying to build muscle on a budget throw their money away on supplements when they would do better with real food.

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What music Boardn10? I use to do vocals for death metal bands, I can play bass a bit to & drums.

 

Protein wise If it's maintaining current weight 1g per body pound is a good bench mark.

 

Music? Well I have been in hard rock and modern metal original bands. I also have done cover gigs, classic rock to 80s to 90s and current. I went to college in the early 90s so when grunge broke, it meant a lot to me. We are doing a 90s cover band...hard rock and grunge from the 90s.

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So here's my basic response to your post Jason. Nothing aimed at you personally  just the points you made.

 

I train for great results, not pretty good. I'm currently still gaining & I ve gone from 132lb to 187lb in 9ish months.

You are right saying an immediate protein shake is not entirely needed but what is needed is amino acids in the blood from previous meals, up to 24hrs before.

 

The body responds almost immediately when foods consumed, even more so with sugar & the insulin response. So anything in the blood stream & in the stomach will almost immediately begin being shuttled to the muscle (exercise increases glut-2 expression on muscle cells, down regulates it on adipocytes=bonus).

So creatine passing the gut without being actively transported, amino acids either in raw form or from quality proteins pass the gut quickly & enter the blood. Also aminos already in the blood pass.

 

Recovery obviously takes hours, days so post workout  nutrition is just as important as pre workout.

 

If you're aiming at just protein shakes all I can say is that if they help you in your every day life eg myself I work 12 hr days/nights. I can't keep going off to eat so a shake is convenient. That's how I treat them as convenient, not an actual protein source which I depend upon.

 

If you have ever used bcaa's, creatine,leucine, taurine & a number of quality supps the majority of people will see the difference in adding/removing them & actual body composition. I do agree that some people do not respond to some things like myself using pre workout shakes/energy drinks/shakes,They do nothing for me & I'd prefer coffee, banana covered in peanut butter.

 

A med protein, high carb/bcaa/lecuine & creatine shake towards or after training Is great. Especially on a low carbs (fasted/semi fasted  not a deplete)

 

You are right but...supps do work. They key is experimenting & seeing  what works for you. I buy my supps in raw form eg bcaa's glutamine ect & mix my own shakes. I'd never consider buying some of the crap that's peddled on sites/mags. Just don't be so quick to dismiss some, you seem an intelligent guy so do a bit of experimenting/research. 

 

Don't wanna go back & forth over this, you said your bit I ve said mine.

 

Ps if anything has been "auto corrected" or something doesn't quite make sense I blame my iPhone

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