What Should You Eat Right After You Work Out To Maximize Results?

The primary fuel for exercise is glucose, which your body produces from dietary carbohydrates. During bouts of prolonged exercise, your carbohydrate stores can become depleted. Proteins also help to supply some energy, but most important, your muscles are made primarily of amino acids that can begin to break down from the stress of exercise. Without refueling carbohydrates and protein stores, your body cannot properly adapt to exercise.

Carbohydrates

During exercise, especially intense exercise, carbohydrates are the main fuel. Your muscles store glucose as glycogen so energy is readily available. Activity can deplete these stores, and an adaptation of regular physical activity is to build these stores up. Immediately after exercise, your glycogen synthase levels are elevated -- this enzyme aids the body in storing muscle glycogen. But if you don't eat carbohydrates after exercise, your body will not be able to build up these stores and you will never adapt. Bryan Haycock of Think Muscle says to restore muscle glycogen, you must eat between 0.7 and 1.0 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight right after exercise.

Amino Acids

During exercise, your body uses amino acids sparingly for fuel. The main purpose of protein intake after exercise is to repair and build muscle. MRNA, an integral part of muscle building, is elevated immediately following exercise. To build muscle, your body must have amino acids readily available, which is where diet comes in. After exercise, you should consume between 1.6 and 1.8 g of protein per kg of your body weight for the best muscle-building results.

Fats

Prolonged endurance type exercise calls on fat, but unlike carbohydrates, it is nearly impossible to deplete your fat stores. Therefore, it is unlikely that you need to consume extra fat after a workout. Athlete or not, a diet that emphasizes complex carbohydrates is best.

The Perfect Combination

The perfect combination of carbohydrates and proteins for post-workout recovery nutrition may be chocolate milk, reports a study published in the "International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism" in 2006. Trained cyclists exercised doing an intense interval workout. Afterward, they were given either chocolate milk or a conventional carbohydrate-only replacement drink and four hours of rest. After rest, the cyclists exercised until voluntary exhaustion at a moderate intensity. Average heart rate and rating of perceived exertion were lower in the chocolate milk group. In addition, total work and time to fatigue were greater in the chocolate milk group. This combination of carbohydrates and proteins in chocolate milk allowed the athletes to exercise longer and harder.