April 2, 2020 2 min to read
Post-workout nutrition: learn what to eat after physical activities
Category : Food, Health, Lifestyle
The studies have shown that physical activity has so many benefits that it would seem almost silly not to workout at all. It doesn’t matter if you prefer to jog in the park or lift heavy barbells over your head.
Exercising has positive effects on your mood, memory, cognitive performance, and energy levels. It makes you more productive, but it could also save your life!
Our society is getting progressively more overweight, which leads to many life-threatening diseases. It means that no matter what lifestyle you lead, you should implement some physical activity into your schedule.
Okay, so if you already workout several times a week, you probably want to maximize your results. No matter how often do you lift weights, you won’t see much progress if you don’t care much about your diet.
In a second, you’ll learn what you should eat after your workouts. Let’s go!
Endurance training
If you are mostly concerned with endurance training – jogging, swimming, or even kayaking, you should choose food that is rich in carbohydrates.
That’s because you will use the glycogen stored in your body during the physical activity, and you’ll need to replenish it.
Other types of physical activity – like weight lifting also uses up the glycogen reserves, though not at the same rate.
Ideally, you should consume both carbohydrates and protein after training in a 3:1 ratio. This way, you would increase the speed at which the glycogen gets replenished.
It is especially important if you exercise frequently. You will need to eat a lot of carbohydrates to help your muscles have the energy for the sustained effort.
Resistance training
If you don’t do much cardio and focus on weight lifting instead, then you should focus more on protein. Your muscles will be tired after intense training, and you’ll need to provide your body with a lot of protein.
Without it, your body won’t be able to repair the damages. You shouldn’t worry about it – once you eat meals rich in protein, your muscles will start repairing themselves, and they’ll become a little bit stronger.
What about fats?
Even though you have probably heard that you should avoid eating foods rich in fat, that’s not true. Many of the vitamins are only soluble in fat.
It means that even if you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, and avoid fat, your body might not be able to absorb them efficiently…
Continue reading the article and learn more about post-workout nutrition on Life Is An Episode website.