What to Eat Straight After Intense Workout
What should you eat straight after your gym workout or an intense / strenuous exercise to help with fast and efficient recovery? No candies or chocolate bars for sure but foods that will meet your post-exercise needs and what are these foods? Within the half hour after your workout your focus should be on nutrient-rich foods that are easy on your stomach, that contain carbs, proteins and minerals and that rehydrate your body. With your intake of good quality proteins straight after the gym within 45 minutes- and this can certainly be a protein powder as well, with the quick protein intake you will get an instant supply of amino acids in your blood and you will be nourishing muscles, whereas slow proteins can take several hours to be effective.
As you may already know, the first most essential thing is water as you will have lost quite a bit of water during your workout and drinking water will be the first reserve to turn to for rehydration and you need twice the amount lost during workout, which is like for half a kilo you lose during exercise you need a liter of water and 2 liters for a kg lost and you will get the lost minerals back as well with the bottled water. Milk is another form of liquid drink you should consider as it contains two types of proteins to rebuild and maintain your muscle mass.
Milk is also made up of 90% water and is good to drink after gym. And by rehydration with milk, your intake of protein, carbs and minerals are also enhanced. Cottage cheese is very rich in dairy protein and will fill you up with not many calories and giving you a good intake of protein and other nutrients. Dried fruits– apricots, sultanas, bananas are also good for you but they are much more concentrated form of fresh fruits so they give you more carbs and they taste great with how sweet they are and nice texture, they are certainly a better version of candy bars but you still shouldn’t eat too much as they are highly concentrated fruits. Any kind of fruit– apple, pear, banana, strawberries, melon- is good after your workout- highly recommended due to their high water content, instant energy source that is also stored as glycogen and good carbohydrates and minerals. If you only do moderate or light exercise proper hydration and a well balanced diet will do in most cases.