You have been working out for long enough but you don’t see a drastic change in your body. You have been spending too much time on producing results, but you have forgotten another important ingredient to properly working out, nutrition.

Working out is undeniably a huge time investment, but all those hours spent in trying to be fit would be difficult without getting the proper nutrition that your body needs. Here are some reasons why you should be getting your post-workout nutrition.

Remodeling And The Post-Workout Period

If you want to get bigger or sculpted muscles, you will have to work your muscles out until they get damaged. Though the term "damage" sounds negative, they're not if you don't let it stay for a long time. Damaging the muscle is essential for it to grow and become stronger, but it is also essential that you let it recover. If you're feeling some muscle soreness, the need for extra sleep, and an increase in appetite, you might need to ease it up on your muscles and give them time to repair.

Exercise essentially tears down old, less adapted muscle to rebuild more functional muscle. This process is called remodeling. During this process, you will need to give your muscles the nutrition it needs, protein and carbohydrates.

Feeding Hungry Muscles

Feeding your hungry muscles is essential for muscle growth and repair. Your muscles need carbohydrates and protein.

All types of exercise use carbohydrates for energy. You will need to consume enough carbohydrates to promote substantial insulin increase. Insulin is responsible for transporting carbohydrates and amino acids to the muscles. This will lead to faster repair of the damaged or worn out muscle tissues.

Also, since muscle protein is degraded during exercise, consuming enough protein is necessary to help rebuild those damaged muscles. This is necessary as the body decreases its rate of protein synthesis and increases the rate of protein breakdown. Consuming enough protein has been shown to reverse the trend.

While your post-workout nutrition should be rich in protein and carbohydrate, this should be fat-free. Essential fats are part of the important daily intake but in the post-workout period, eating fat can decrease the effectiveness of your post-workout beverage. Fat slows down transit through the stomach. It may result to slow digestion and absorption of carbohydrates and proteins.

Finally, you need to consider the timing of your meals. Muscles are damaged during exercise. Naturally, your muscles will need to recover and after the workout is the best time to give them the nutrients they need.

Whole Food Vs. Nutritional Supplementation

Whole food has been the natural source of nutrients that we need. While some might say that whole food is superior to supplemental nutrition, you may need to reassess that for your post-workout nutrition.

Here are some reasons why you should add supplemental nutrition over whole food nutrition for your post-workouts.

1. Liquid meals are easier to consume.

   Consuming whole food after a big exercise may be quite difficult. You might not have the appetite to eat the food you need but you still have to eat after workouts to help your muscles recover from the damage that it took from your exercise. Luckily, there are liquid supplemental formulas that are easy to consume and are nutrient-dense. These have all the nutrition you need for muscle recovery and you can save your stomach from the hassle of digesting whole food.

2. Liquid meals are absorbed faster.

   Latest research has shown that liquid supplemental formulas containing fast digestion protein (whey hydrolysates and isolates) and carbohydrates (dextrose and maltodextrin) are absorbed faster by the body than whole food meals. Therefore, your muscles will also recover faster.

3. Liquid meals can help repair muscles faster.

   The faster that the protein and carbohydrates get to the muscles, the faster it is that your muscles will repair. Since liquid meals are absorbed by the body faster, your muscles will also get to repair themselves faster.

4. Liquid meals are better for nutrient targeting.

   In post-workouts, fats may slow down digestion and absorption of protein and carbohydrates. Having liquid meals is an easy way to stay away from fats while getting the nutrition you need.