Lose Fat With Proper Post-Workout Nutrition

Lose Fat using these ideas for healthy post-workout shakes and build muscle 

I am certain that you must have heard from a lot of people that your post-workout meal may very well be your most important meal of the day. Your post workout meal will play a great role in determining how you lose fat and build muscle. And show off your sexy six pack abs!

The reason is that when you’re finished with an intense workout, you’re entering a catabolic state where your muscle glycogen is depleted and increased cortisol levels are beginning to excessively break down muscle tissue. These conditions are not good and the only way to reverse this catabolic state (and promote an anabolic state) is to consume a quickly digestible post-workout meal (can be a shake or smoothie) as soon as you can after training. This will ensure that you lose fat instead of protein. This not only saves you lose your lean muscles, but actually helps build them.

The goal is to choose a meal with easily digestible quick carbs to replenish muscle glycogen as well as quickly digestible protein to provide the amino acids needed to jump start muscular repair.  The surge of carbohydrates and amino acids from this quickly digested meal promotes an insulin spike from the pancreas, which shuttles nutrients into the muscle cells.

The post-workout meal to help build muscle and lose fat should generally contain between 300-500 calories to get the best response. For example, a 120-lb female may only need a 300-calorie meal, whereas a 200-lb male may need a 500-calorie post-workout meal. Your post-workout meal should also contain anywhere from a 2:1 ratio of carbs:protein to a 4:1 ratio of carbs:protein to help you lose fat and build muscle.. While most of your other daily meals should contain a source of healthy fats, keep the fat content of your post-workout meal to a bare minimum, since fat slows the absorption of the meal, which is the opposite of what you want after a workout, that is lose fat and build lean muscle.

When choosing what to make for your post-workout meal, the first thing to realize is that you DON’T need any of these expensive post-workout supplement formulations that all of the fancy ads you see everywhere will tell you that you absolutely NEED!  I tend to prefer to make my own post-workout shakes from natural ingredients to help me lose fat and build body muscle, instead of using a commercial mixture, since many of them are low quality.

For the shakes that I make myself to help build muscle and lose fat, here are some things to keep in mind if you try it…

A good source of quickly digestible natural carbs such as frozen bananas, pineapples, honey, or organic maple syrup are perfect to elicit an insulin response that will promote muscle glycogen replenishment and a general anabolic (muscle building) effect. The more you can assist the muscle repair process, the more you increase your metabolic rate and can help you lose fat as well.

The best source of quickly digestible protein to help build muscle is a quality non-denatured whey protein and/or some fat-free or low-fat yogurt. Here are a couple ideas for delicious post-workout smoothies that will kick start your recovery process in your attempt to lose fat and build lean body muscle:

Chocolate Banana – blend together 1 cup water, ½ cup milk (I prefer raw grass-fed milk for max health benefits), one and a half frozen bananas, 2 tbsp organic maple syrup, and 30 grams chocolate whey protein powder – 38 g prot, 72 g carb, 1.5 g fat, 450 calories.

Pineapple Vanilla - blend together 1 cup water, ½ cup vanilla yogurt, one cup frozen pineapples, 2 tbsp honey (preferably raw), and 30 grams vanilla whey protein powder – 35 g prot, 71 g carb, 1 g fat, 430 calories.

When choosing a good whey protein, it’s important to note that the quality vastly differs between brands and types.  Most whey proteins are produced under high heat processes that destroy some of the fragile nutritional components of the whey.  The best whey that I’ve found are the ones that are made from grass-fed cows; they also has higher levels of muscle-building and fat-burning CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) that help one lose fat.

When looking to lose fat, keep in mind that post-workout meals should have the opposite characteristics of all of your other meals throughout each day. While post-workout meals should have quick high glycemic index carbs and quickly digested proteins to help you lose fat, all of your other meals throughout the day should be comprised of low glycemic index, slowly digested carbs and slow release proteins.

These are powerful strategies that help you build a lean muscular body and lose fat resulting with a low body fat percentage.  Another great thing about post-workout meals is that you can satisfy even the worst sweet tooth, since this is the one time of the day where you can get away with eating extra sugars without adding to your gut. Instead, it all goes straight to the muscles and help you lose fat! But ONLY if your workout was super-high intensity and involved resistance training for large portions of the body.  If all you did was some low intensity cardio, forget about doing this type of post-workout shake for building muscle and to lose fat.

Enjoy!

If you liked my ideas about how to lose fat and build muscle with post work nutrition, share this with your friends and help them too lose fat.

A more detailed and comprehensive nutritional analysis with more of these various powerful dietary strategies that help you lose fat, lose weight and build muscle are found in our best-selling #1 rated fitness ebook in the world, The Truth About Six Pack Abs.

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer, Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about Six-Pack Abs that helps you lose fat, lose weight and build muscle.

Please do share your recipes that help build muscle and lose fat Lose Fat