Exercise is such an integral part of our lifestyle and mostly people take it as some burden rather than any other daily activity to have fun. But what becomes criminal for those who do exercise regularly is that they forget to eat the right kinds of nutrients after their workout. Your post workout diet is like a key factor if your body fat would burn and muscles would be energized or your body fat wouldn’t burn fast enough and your muscles wouldn’t be energized. I intend to make this fact crystal clear in your system once and for all.
Mechanism of your workout – When you begin any form of exercise it takes your body 10 – 15 min to warm up and by doing so its circulation speeds up, metabolic rate increases, heart rate increases, depth of breathing increases, vasodilatation occurs to accommodate the increased blood flow. Blood glucose is taken up in the cells much quicker than usual. At the peak of any exercise the body uses the muscle glycogen if the glucose in the blood is exhausted due to poor nutrition pre workout. Glycogen is a chain of glucose molecules which is stored in the body for precisely such situations of energy source depletion or starvation. Nevertheless the body fat although begins to burn only towards the end of the exercise and mostly post workout as the body would always prefer to spare protein and glycogen, but since fat takes a longer time to burn completely it needs to initiate the glycogen breakdown sooner until the stored fat breakdown begins. By the time your workout is through the body muscles have also had depletion of energy and breakdown of some protein while continuous exercise. At this point the body also faces immediate rehydration, fuelling to replenish the worn out muscles by shunting the blood circulation in the areas where the body has had rigorous training.
Why 45 minutes? – Within the first 45 minutes of ending your exercise whatever you eat or drink is directed towards your worked up muscles for repair and rejuvenation. This helps the muscle groups energize and get back to storing their depleted glycogen stores not to mention they also trigger fat catabolism after being energized which helps you shed down stored fat faster post workout. Now if this does not happen for some reason like you miss out on eating or rehydrating within 45 minutes or forget about it completely then the repercussions are well not exactly what you desire. If you eat an hour after ending your exercise you have just let all that energy in your post workout meal diverted all over the body including the parts of the body that weren’t worked up. Your muscles are not given first priority to be energized and thereby even the fat breakdown post workout takes slower time to burn.
What is the ideal post exercise meal? – Your post workout meal will depend on your body’s custom needs and exercise intensity. One needs to know however that meal needs to high in protein (20 – 25 %), high in carbohydrate, both simple (25%) and complex (30 %) and minimum in fat (15 - 20%). The meal needs to be complemented with 500 – 600 ml isotonic solution comprising of slightly cold water, glucose, sodium, potassium and magnesium apart from plain water.
Remember this mantra while you workout and you’ll be sure to never go wrong while staying fit through life. It’s a matter of just 45 minutes and either you’ll make gold out of your exercise efforts or throw it down the drain. Of course now you know better and if you need more in depth empowerment for your aspired lifestyle be it fitness training or diet or positive thinking be sure to discover Wellness & I for personalized wellness.
Wish you wellness.
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