Why Should You Eat Carbs After A Workout – For many people, post-workout recovery involves a dose of fast-acting carbohydrates. But do you really need carbs as part of your post-workout meal for optimal results?
I have a confession: I love to eat candy after a workout! If you’ve been following any of my diets, you already know that I’m a big advocate of eating high-glycemic, fast-digesting carbs after a workout.
Why Should You Eat Carbs After A Workout
Aside from typical low-carb phases, most of the nutrition plans I write about include post-workout carbs with supplements like protein, creatine, beta-alanine, carnitine, and betaine. I prefer dextrose as a post-workout carbohydrate source, found in supplements like Post JYM or in tasty candies like Pixy Stix and gummies.
Best Sources Of Post Workout Carbohydrates
I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about the importance of post-workout carbs. Some people are confused about how carbs affect recovery and growth, while others are concerned that carbs will stimulate fat gain. If you’re curious about the power of post-workout carbohydrates, this article will help you understand their place in your recovery plan.
The main reason to consume carbohydrates after a workout is to replenish the muscle glycogen burned during your workout. When you exercise, your primary fuel source is muscle glycogen. Glycogen is the storage form of glucose. It is made up of long strings of glucose molecules with many branches.
Glucose is broken down from glycogen chains as needed to make ATP, which transfers chemical energy and is important for muscle contraction. Research confirms that the best way to replenish muscle glycogen stores after exercise is to consume high-sugar (fast-digesting) carbohydrates as soon as possible.
Research confirms that the best way to replenish muscle glycogen stores after exercise is to consume high-sugar (fast-digesting) carbohydrates as soon as possible.
How To Eat Carbs For More Muscle And Less Fat
Some “experts” claim that during a typical weight training session, you don’t burn enough glycogen to worry about replenishing it. To which I say, “What?!” When you drain
Muscle glycogen levels, should you be concerned about replacing them – especially if muscle growth is your primary goal. If a coach claims that people don’t need to worry about glycogen replenishment, then that coach’s workouts are too low volume and too low intensity, or they haven’t done any research.
Research on glycogen use during resistance training shows that workouts lasting 6-20 sets and lasting about 15-30 minutes decrease muscle glycogen levels by 30-40 percent. Because my workouts are 60-90 minutes, force you to move quickly between exercises, and use high-intensity training methods like cardio and Tabata, they will deplete muscle glycogen stores by a good 60-75 percent.
Take your carbohydrate intake seriously and replenish your muscle glycogen stores. Not doing so is cheating your muscles and limiting recovery. In fact, delaying carbohydrate consumption by just 2 hours has been shown to decrease the rate of glycogen replenishment by 50 percent!
Post Workout: What To Eat And When
However, some experts argue that for most gym-goers it doesn’t matter at all because minimal evidence suggests that if you consume carbohydrates immediately after exercise or two hours later, glycogen levels are replenished within 24 hours. Again, the evidence for this is weak. do we
Of course, the fastest way to replenish muscle glycogen is to consume high-sugar carbohydrates immediately after exercise.
Replenishment of muscle glycogen levels as soon as possible after exercise is important. Glycogen stored in muscle cells draws water into those cells. It increases the volume of muscle cells and thus fills the muscle fibers.
You get a muscle pump during exercise, which also increases the water content in the muscle cells and therefore their cell volume, rapid replenishment of muscle glycogen levels helps you maintain high muscle cell volume for longer. This may be important because evidence suggests that greater muscle cell volume leads to changes in muscle mass that lead to long-term muscle growth.
You Asked: Should I Eat Before Or After A Workout?
Another benefit of consuming carbohydrates — especially high-sugar carbs like dextrose — is that you’ll be fueled immediately after an intense workout. Carbohydrates can take you from dehydrated and lethargic to energized and fueled after a brutal workout. Also, eating high-glycemic carbs after a workout will usually keep cravings for sugar or starchy carbs at bay without negatively impacting your diet progress.
I often recommend gummies for post-workout carbs, which many people find very satisfying. As an added bonus, post-workout gummies often help people “carry” through a strict diet for the rest of the day.
Another benefit of high glycemic carbs is the insulin spike they provide. Although insulin is considered an anabolic hormone, its role in muscle growth is now often debated. While it was once thought to be an important factor in initiating muscle protein synthesis and reducing muscle breakdown, some evidence now suggests that insulin is not important for muscle growth. Delivery of adequate amino acids to muscle cells from adequate protein appears to be more important.
Only recently have studies compared post-exercise protein consumption with post-exercise protein plus carbohydrate consumption. These studies show that in terms of protein synthesis, the carbohydrates in a protein shake do not increase muscle protein synthesis or decrease muscle protein breakdown to a greater extent than a protein-only shake.
Is It Better To Eat Before Or After A Workout To Lose Weight?
But insulin immediately after exercise is important. Insulin attaches to specific receptors on muscle cells. When this happens, it allows glucose and amino acids, as well as creatine and carnitine, to be taken up by the muscle cells. In fact, studies show that both creatine and carnitine are highly dependent on insulin to enter muscle cells and provide benefits.
Since you take these two supplements post-workout, if muscle mass is your primary goal, you want to maximize your insulin levels. That said, during a dieting period when you need to cut out all carbs—including post-workout carbs—a post-workout protein shake and BCAAs will spike insulin enough to drive those supplements into your muscles.
Consuming pure glucose – also known as dextrose – after exercise does not require your body to digest it. Because post-workout glucose can be absorbed into the bloodstream almost as quickly as it is ingested, it reaches the muscles you used as quickly as possible, resulting in the fastest and most complete replacement of muscle glycogen. This will keep your muscles full of enough glycogen for your next workout and will draw water into your muscle cells, maximizing your muscle size.
The sugar fructose—which makes up 50 percent of the sugar in many fruits, honey, and sucrose—is actually a low-glycemic carbohydrate.
The Best Carbs To Eat Before And After A Workout
Fructose is a type of sugar that the body does not use well. Because of its structure, it cannot be converted directly into muscle glycogen like glucose can. When you consume fructose – fruit or high fructose corn syrup – it is not immediately absorbed into the bloodstream like glucose/dextrose. Instead, the majority of it must go to the liver, where it can be converted to glucose and stored as glucose in the form of glycogen when the liver deems it necessary to maintain blood sugar.
Because it does not maximize muscle glycogen replacement, fructose is not a great post-workout option. This is one of the main reasons I recommend choosing gummy bears and Pixy Stix over fruit or other candies. Most candies use high fructose corn syrup or sugar as the primary sweetener. Table sugar (sucrose) is about 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, while high fructose corn syrup is about 55 percent fructose or more.
Wonka Pixy Stix are sweetened with 100 percent dextrose. Most gummies, such as the Haribo brand, use dextrose and corn syrup. Corn syrup is primarily glucose and is very different from high fructose corn syrup.
Many people worry that fast carbs after exercise will make them fat. However, the post-workout period is the time of day when you are almost certain that these carbohydrates will not be converted to body fat. Unless you’ve completely eliminated carbs from your diet, don’t risk unacceptable gains by skipping carbs post-workout.
Best Vegetarian Foods To Eat After A Workout
If you’re dieting to lose body fat and you’re consuming carbs in your other meals of the day, the last thing you want to do is get rid of those carbs after a workout. If anything, cut carbs from other meals and save them for after your gym session.
Perhaps you are concerned about carbohydrates after exercise because some experts claim that eating carbohydrates immediately after exercise can reduce the concentration of growth hormone (GH) and testosterone, but to prevent a decrease in growth hormone and testosterone, they advise to stop carbohydrates immediately after exercise. is seriously flawed. Why? Because growth hormone and testosterone levels peak during exercise; When exercise ends, they decrease rapidly.
Growth hormone and testosterone levels will decrease after exercise, whether you eat or not. So eat after your workout and don’t worry about low hormone levels beforehand.
To really maximize muscle recovery and growth, your best bet is to consume fast carbohydrates along with protein immediately after your workout. There’s no disputing how well this strategy works in the real world. The reason is to avoid post-workout carbs or increase muscle protein synthesis to avoid a drop in hormone levels
Should You Eat Before Or After Working Out?
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