The Power of the Post-Workout Meal For Muscle Growth

When your goal is to build muscle, you have to plan and model your diet carefully, so that you don’t end up getting fat or even worse – not eating enough and start losing muscle instead of gaining it. 

When building a muscle gaining eating program you have to know that meal timing plays a great part in what your final results will look like. The timing of nutrient consumption might even have a greater significance than the overall daily intake of nutrients.

One particular meal is very important and has the power to completely transform you if you eat right. That’s the post workout meal.

The post-workout meal is probably the most important part of your whole muscle building diet. To understand why, let’s first see what happens to your body after an intense weightlifting workout.

First: Glycogen depletion

The body’s glycogen levels are depleted. Glycogen is the primary source of energy for the working muscles.

Second: Micro tears

Your muscles suffered micro-trauma or micro tearing and need protein to repair themselves.

Third: The protein balance is negative 

The process of protein synthesis has slowed down and protein breakdown has taken its place.

What you need to do to “correct” these three situations is :

1. Consume a post-workout meal that will replenish the glycogen in your muscles,

2. Supply enough protein so that muscle repair can take place and also decrease the protein breakdown that happens during intense training.

Numerous studies have shown that if adequate protein and carbohydrate quantities are not consumed during the first 3-4 hours after the workout, the recovery process will be as well as muscle synthesis will be significantly slower.

Actually, if you don’t consume protein and carbs during the first 3-4 hours after the workout, glycogen synthesis and protein synthesis will be reduced by about 50 percent.

Why does this happen? Well, several hours after an intense workout the insulin sensitivity tends to drop to about 40-50% of what it was immediately after the workout. This means that muscle building potential drops significantly in the absence of the right nutrients a few hours after the workout.

A perfect post workout meal would consist of high glycemic index carbs, fast absorbing proteins like whey protein isolate and BCAAs that will help to further increase the insulin sensitivity and aid the anabolic processes. Some studies suggest that insulin is significantly higher when there are BCAAs added to the protein/carb shake after intense exercise.

Now that we have refilled the glycogen in the muscles, provided the right protein to repair the damaged muscles, we have helped our body to stop the protein breakdown process.

Related:

What to Eat Before, During and After a Workout ?

Practical Advice on Post Workout Recovery

6 Highly Delicious and Anabolic Post Workout Meals That Will Boost Muscle Growth