Feeling hungry after a workout yet conscious of the food you can eat?
Well, you will need to feed the hungry muscles the right nutrients after an exercise in order for your body muscles to recover quickly. As exercising will exhaust the glycogen stores in your body that provides the muscle's fuel resources, your muscles will be partially damaged. (1) Thus, it is particularly important to consume the right nutrients after your workout so as to rebuild the glycogen stores in your body and regrow the muscle proteins used up.
Are carbs good or bad for you? Do I need it after a workout?
There is actually a significant distinction between good carbs and bad carbs: Good carbs are important for health and fitness while bad carbs increase the risk of obesity and illnesses. (4) Eating more carbs is necessary after a workout to replenish the muscle carbohydrate and energy stones depleted. If you have just completed an intense workout session, you will probably need more carbohydrates for your muscle tissue to quickly repair. (5)
Research has shown that consuming 0.5–0.7 grams of carbs per pound (1.1–1.5 grams/kg) of body weight within 30 minutes after training results in proper glycogen resynthesis. (1) To find out the 12 high-carb food ingredients that are good for your post-workout recovery, click here!
Wonder how will a high-carb meal tastes like? We have tried a few high-carb meal prep recipes here that you can easily pick up and prep your meal in advance prior to your next workout! Here are some handpicked high carb meal prep recipes that we have specially FUSED for you:
1. Sweet Potato Salad (Review: 4/5)
Do you know that 100g of sweet potato will give you 20g of healthy carbs?
Sweet Potato Salad is one of the healthiest, heartiest, and easiest salad to make (recipe adapted from here). If you are always feeling famished after a workout, this salad is just right for you as it fills your body with the nutrients you need to recover. Serve the salad chilled for a greater taste!
This recipe simply costs you ~SGD 7 to prepare 3 days worth of lunch!
Overall,
Taste: 4/5 (add more cucumber/corn for a more refreshing taste!)
Cost of meal: 4/5 (worth it for the 3 days worth of meal)
Ease of preparing: 4.5/5 (with little ingredients needed)
Carbs count: 5/5 (little ingredients, but a great boost of carbs)
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Recommend?: Definitely YES if you are looking for a cheap yet highly nutritious fix!!
2. Scrambled Eggs with Sweet Potato (Review: 3/5 (because there is room for much more imagination!!!)
With the extra sweet potatoes you have, you can whip up many different combinations to get tastes that you have never tried before~~
The scrambled eggs with sweet potato recipe is easy to make and a great breakfast to have! If you are looking to add more protein and carbs to your recipe, you may add meat (chicken breast, beef), chickpeas, black beans, goat/mozzarella cheese for greater variety! There is so much more you could do with sweet potatoes.
Overall,
Taste: 3/5 (might be nicer if more ingredients are added into the sweet potato!)
Cost of meal: 5/5 (free if the extra sweet potatoes from the bunch are used)
Ease of preparing: 4/5 (time-consuming but not tedious at all!!!)
Carbs count: 5/5 (little ingredients, but a great boost of carbs)
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Recommend?: Definitely yes if you are looking for variations to make with sweet potato!! Be our own chef and add ingredients you like!!!
Points to take note:
- Try to avoid the consumption of fat during the post-workout period as it may slow down the digestion and absorption of protein and carbohydrates
- Research has suggested that the best time to consume a post-workout meal is 1 hour later. Any longer than 3 hours will compromise glycogen and protein replenishment (Tipton et al 2001, Levenhagen et al 2001).
This is why we strongly recommend you to consider meal prepping before exercising so that you will skip the hassle to find the foods with just the right nutrients you need. To recall the benefits meal prepping can give you, check this out.
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