After the gym, I really want to eat. Why do you want to eat after a workout? What to do if you really want to eat after a workout

Oh, if only the words that fitness experts repeat like a mantra were true!

Most of the celebrities from this area broadcast that training, they say, reduces appetite. But in practice, it turns out that we don’t have time to leave the gym, so hunger appears.

The same experts argue that it is not sports that are to blame, but we ourselves, or rather, improper and unbalanced nutrition for weight loss. However, this is not always fair.

Wait, how do you train in general?

Do you have a plan in which the time for rest and recovery is calculated, intense cardio and load power are “divorced” on different days? Or do you sculpt all your workouts in one day, and then wonder about the natural “symptoms” of overworked muscle recovery?

Answer these questions honestly for yourself:

  • Am I working out in the gym and then stepping into cycling, fitbox, level 2 step or zumba?
  • I spend more than 3 hours in a fitness club in a row, and it's not about visiting the sauna and hairdresser after a workout?
  • Am I lifting more than 50% of my body weight on one or more compound lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift)?
  • Am I running faster than 10 km/h for more than 20 minutes?

If you said yes to the first two questions, you should rethink your training plan.

In the Soviet weightlifting past, this approach to training was popular: do everything you can do and eat more. So it doesn't apply to weight loss.

“Eat” the same 500-600 kcal that you burned on Zumba after your gym is not difficult. For example, you order dessert and a glass of wine after dinner, and you're done. Or just eat a few extra spoons of garnish and not notice the piece of bread eaten before dinner.

In general, if training in an excessive style leads to "fullness", the style of training should be changed.

The norm is:

  • 3 strength training sessions no longer than 60 minutes each per week, with a minimum of 48 hours between them. You can stick to a breakdown of 48-72 hours between the first and second and second and third.
  • 180 to 200 minutes of cardio. Short 20-minute sessions can be done on the day of strength training, long ones in between. But interval cardio training in a group, when, for example, we jump on the step for 5 minutes, squat with a bodybar for 5 minutes, if you train in a gym, it is better to avoid. The combination of a power load with work on strength endurance gives fatigue to two types of muscle fibers at once. This is what causes hunger.
  • 1-2 hour stretches if needed or short 5-10 minute sessions at the end of strength and cardio sessions.

How to deal with hunger after a workout if you train short and hard

But in this case, an unbalanced diet is to blame.

Protein deficiency

As a rule, training with more than half of your own body weight in the basic exercise will seriously increase the need for protein.

Calculate how much protein you eat per day, and remember that the typical 0.8 g per 1 kg of body weight is only recommended for those who do something like Pilates and yoga, not strength fitness fans. Amateur athletes are recommended to eat at least 2 g of protein per 1 kg of their own weight.

It usually helps to "close" the protein window, that is, the use of a portion of a protein shake or even banal cottage cheese within the first 40 minutes after the end of a workout.

About carbohydrates

But the use of apples, juices, chocolates after exercise can, on the contrary, provoke fluctuations in sugar levels and an increase in appetite.

Running, HIIT cardio, and "all-in-one" functional activities such as CrossFit deplete glycogen stores fairly quickly, and a drop in blood sugar after them is a typical, normal phenomenon.

Hunger, of course, can be very strong, and in this case, professionals close the “carbohydrate window”. Within 20 minutes of your workout, eat an apple, pear, or berries, or drink a sports drink with simple carbs - no more than 30 grams of carbs per session.

However, this method is not suitable for losing weight, as it is better for them not to "close" the carbohydrate window for optimal fat burning after training. If you are losing weight, it is better to try to eat something protein, so you will kill your appetite and will not suffer all day after a workout.

In any case, if the body sends such strong signals, it is necessary to work on both the training program and the nutrition plan, because someone for whom a healthy lifestyle will not be violence will be able to achieve his goal.

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Unfortunately, many novice athletes do not pay due attention to proper nutrition. They mistakenly believe that for the growth of muscle mass, you just need to exhaustively train, and nutrition is a secondary matter. If you are one of these people, then we have to disappoint you: food before training and food after training plays a huge role in the process of bodybuilding! Here you can draw an analogy with the construction of a house: if workers during construction use cheap and low-quality materials, then they are unlikely to ever finish this house. The same is with bodybuilding: if a person eats everything, then he can forget about a beautiful and slender physique forever! The purpose of today's article is to tell you what to eat after a workout to gain mass or lose weight, as well as to bust a few myths associated with nutrition. Interested? Then we wish you a pleasant reading!

Why should you eat right after a workout?

We have already briefly said that a good diet is necessary to build a beautiful physique, but now we will reveal this issue in more detail. Proper post-workout nutrition is the key to good recovery and muscle growth. Intense physical activity depletes the reserves of water and energy in the human body. In addition, while working with iron, the athlete's muscle fibers are destroyed, and high-quality products are needed to restore them. Some people who want to get rid of extra pounds at all costs mistakenly believe that if they do not eat at all after a workout, then this will benefit their body. In fact, such a serious restriction in food, on the contrary, can seriously harm your health! In order to have good health throughout the day and strength for the next workouts, you need to replenish your energy reserves.

Protein-carbohydrate window

Almost every athlete who is actively involved in strength training in the gym sooner or later comes across such a concept as a "protein-carbohydrate window". According to supporters of this theory, within an hour after a workout, it is imperative to give your body those vitamins and minerals that it "lost" during intense physical exertion. They believe that at the end of this time, catabolic processes are launched in the body that destroy our muscles, and do not contribute to their increase. It so happens that not all people have the opportunity to take food after training during this time. In such a situation, many athletes strongly recommend using some kind of sports nutrition (proteins, gainers, etc.). Many fitness portals and publications write about this theory, but is everything really as they claim? From here we smoothly move on to the next section, which has the answer to this question.

Post workout food for muscle growth. When should you use?

To answer this question, a group of athletes decided to conduct an experiment. They refused to consume the gainer immediately after exercise and instead began to eat regular protein food an hour after the workout. At the end of the experiment, its participants did not show any deterioration in the results, but, on the contrary, noted that such a meal after training had a positive effect on muscle growth. On top of that, the subjects noted that during the experiment they improved the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. We can easily find an explanation for this in medicine. The fact is that after intensive work with iron in the next hour, there is an outflow of blood from the muscles to the internal organs (including the gastrointestinal tract), which favorably affects the process of digestion.

Post workout food for weight loss

If your goal is to lose a few pounds of excess fat, then the first 40 minutes you are strongly advised to refrain from eating. And the point here is not only in the better functioning of the gastrointestinal tract (as we wrote earlier), but in the fat-burning processes that take place during this period of time. For the first half an hour, an exhausted body takes energy reserves from the fat layer, thereby reducing it in size. If at this time you eat tightly, then the body will burn the calories received from the food eaten, and not the extra fat, which the training was aimed at combating.

The main principle of proper nutrition for weight loss sounds like this: you need to eat fewer calories than you spend, but not less than you need for the full functioning of the body. For people who are shedding excess body fat, they should focus on eating high-protein foods (such as eggs, cottage cheese, or other low-fat dairy products) after a workout. You can also add protein shakes to your diet.

You should also not forget about carbohydrates (we are talking about slow carbohydrates, and not about fast ones, which are found in excess in sugar and sweets). In this case, fresh fruits, vegetables, berries and whole grain flour products are perfect. Do not forget about fruit and vegetable fresh juices, dried fruits and unsalted nuts.

When it comes to eating after workouts for weight loss in the evening, you can't help but say a word about fats. Many experts argue that fatty foods after exercise have a negative effect on your figure. In addition, fat and dietary fiber slow down the digestion process. And you know what? They are absolutely right! But despite this, you should not completely exclude this element from your diet. After exercising in the gym, it is recommended to consume fats in an amount of no more than 10 grams.

Gaining muscle mass: what to eat

Eating after a workout to gain muscle mass is a topic that interests many athletes no less than food for weight loss. In fact, the difference between these diets is that when gaining muscle mass, a person should not limit himself in calories, but, on the contrary, consume them in sufficient quantities.

Post-workout meals should contain enough protein, slow carbohydrates, not be too high in calories and, most importantly, make you feel full. This is especially true for people who play sports in the evening and eat before bed. Here is a list of the best post-workout foods to increase muscle size:

  1. Eggs (in the morning).
  2. Seafood.
  3. Yogurt.
  4. Cottage cheese.
  5. Boiled chicken.
  6. Herbal teas.

After a meal, you should not feel hungry, but this does not mean that you should overeat and forcefully stuff food into yourself.

What should not be eaten at night?

As mentioned earlier, most people tend to train in the evening, after the end of the working day. The list of foods that we mentioned earlier can be consumed 1-2 hours before bedtime, but there are some foods that are best avoided if you eat after a workout at a late time. Their use may not have a very positive effect not only on the figure, but also on the quality of sleep. These include:

  1. Meat products with a high content of calories.
  2. Foods high in saturated fat.
  3. Sweets.
  4. Mushrooms.
  5. Coffee and products containing cocoa.

Do you need sports nutrition?

This topic causes a lot of controversy among both beginners and professional athletes. Some argue that it is impossible to do without sports nutrition in bodybuilding and fitness, while others talk about its uselessness and absolute uselessness. Still, do you need to use sports nutrition? In fact, the answer to this question is as simple as 5 cents. Protein, gainer, creatine, etc. are all sports supplements (the key word here is "supplements"). If you are able to provide yourself with good food containing a lot of proteins and high-quality carbohydrates, then there is not much point in buying a sports nutrition. But if, for example, you live very far from the gym and get home for a long time, or you have a busy work schedule in which you can’t even make time for yourself to eat fully, then sports nutrition can really help you.

Protein: myths and reality

The importance of protein in the process of bodybuilding, we think, no one will dispute. Many beginners are ready to absorb tons of it so that their biceps increase at least a centimeter. Some athletes believe that after a workout you need to take a shock dose of protein, because only at this time it is well absorbed. In fact, both proteins and carbohydrates are normally synthesized by our body throughout the day, and therefore there is not much difference when exactly you take your protein product. This can be done both an hour after work in the hall, and during the next day.

The best product for the night

We have previously mentioned how important this product is, complete casein protein, which is ideal for a night's sleep. Casein fills muscle fibers with amino acids for 8 hours, promotes their growth and significantly slows down catabolic processes. As an alternative to cottage cheese, you can use a special casein mixture.

Importance of water

During exercise, the body loses a lot of water through sweat. In addition, the greater the mass of a person, the more fluid he will release during training. With the departure of water from the body, the athlete gets tired faster, which is why productivity gradually decreases. Therefore, it is very important to drink enough liquid both during classes in the gym and after them.

We have already discussed with you the topic of food after training, gaining muscle mass and losing weight. Now it's time to give you some very important tips:

  1. Make a diet based on your physical data, and not the data of other people. Do not forget that each person is individual and each needs a different approach in terms of nutrition and training.
  2. Don't drink alcohol after your workout. Studies show that alcohol drunk after working with iron accelerates the catabolic processes of the body by 40%.
  3. If you feel that changing your diet is getting worse every day, then be sure to consult a doctor! It is very important to consult with a specialist on the topic of dietary changes from the very beginning in order to avoid problems in the future.

Your attention was presented an article on the topic: "Food for muscles after training." We hope that in this publication you have found a lot of interesting information that answered your questions.

The appetite-regulating neurons in the brain sense body temperature.

Those who are actively involved in sports or fitness know that after you give your best on the simulators, you don’t want to eat for a very long time. Obviously, after exercise, some mechanism is activated that suppresses appetite and hunger. But what is this mechanism?

Jay-hoon Jong ( Jae Hoon Jeong) and his colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine came up with the idea that it was all about an increase in body temperature - we warm up quite a lot due to physical activity.

Thermoregulation, like appetite, depends on the hypothalamus, a small area in the brain that controls a variety of physiological processes. Each process has its own group of nerve cells, but maybe the hypothalamic neurons that regulate eating behavior also sense temperature?

Cells that suppress appetite are found in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus; their peculiarity is that they are able to directly feel the hormones and other substances that float in the blood (the brain, as we know, is protected from direct contact with the blood by the blood-brain barrier).

To see if these neurons could respond to heat, the researchers treated them with the alkaloid capsaicin, found in hot peppers, which acts on heat receptors (which is why we feel the peppers burn). In an article in PLoS Biology it is said that two-thirds of the cells of the arcuate nucleus felt capsaicin - that is, they have heat receptors and they are active.

From experiments with cells, they moved on to experiments on mice. When the animals were injected with a burning substance directly into the hypothalamus, into the region of these very neurons, the mice lost their appetite for 12 hours - they continued to eat, but ate noticeably less than usual. If heat receptors on neurons were blocked, then capsaicin did not suppress appetite.

When mice were run on a treadmill for 40 minutes, their temperature rose rapidly (including in the zone of the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus) and remained elevated for an hour - and mice after “fitness” also ate half as much as mice that did not exercise. But if mice ran on a treadmill with disabled thermal receptors on neurons, then they did not have any changes in their appetite - physical education did not affect their appetite.

That is, the hypothesis was confirmed: brain cells that suppress appetite really respond to heat. (To explain why this is necessary, for example, you can do this: a lot of physical activity happens when you have to run away from someone, and the desire to eat a hearty meal here would be inopportune.)

Most likely, the same mechanism has remained with us, and here you can come up with different options for how to use it to reduce weight. Although what is there to come up with - you just need to go to the gym.

Those who are actively involved in sports or fitness know that after you give your best on the simulators, you don’t want to eat for a very long time. Obviously, after exercise, some mechanism is activated that suppresses appetite and hunger. But what is this mechanism?

Jay-hun Jongu (Jae Hoon Jeong) and his colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine came up with the idea that it was all about an increase in body temperature - we warm up quite a lot due to physical activity.

Thermoregulation, like appetite, depends on the hypothalamus, a small area in the brain that controls a variety of physiological processes. Each process has its own group of nerve cells, but maybe the hypothalamic neurons that regulate eating behavior also sense temperature?

Cells that suppress appetite are found in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus; their peculiarity is that they are able to directly feel the hormones and other substances that float in the blood (the brain, as we know, is protected from direct contact with the blood by the blood-brain barrier).

To see if these neurons could respond to heat, the researchers treated them with the alkaloid capsaicin, found in hot peppers, which acts on heat receptors (which is why we feel the peppers burn). An article in PLoS Biology says that two-thirds of the cells in the arcuate nucleus have sensed capsaicin - that is, they have heat receptors and are active.

From experiments with cells, they moved on to experiments on mice. When the animals were injected with a burning substance directly into the hypothalamus, into the region of these very neurons, the mice lost their appetite for 12 hours - they continued to eat, but ate noticeably less than usual. If heat receptors on neurons were blocked, then capsaicin did not suppress appetite.

When mice were run on a treadmill for 40 minutes, their temperature rose rapidly (including in the zone of the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus) and remained elevated for an hour - and mice after “fitness” also ate half as much as mice that did not exercise. But if mice ran on a treadmill with disabled thermal receptors on neurons, then they did not have any changes in their appetite - physical education did not affect their appetite.

That is, the hypothesis was confirmed: brain cells that suppress appetite really respond to heat. (To explain why this is necessary, for example, you can do this: a lot of physical activity happens when you have to run away from someone, and the desire to eat a hearty meal here would be inopportune.)

Most likely, the same mechanism has remained with us, and here you can come up with different options for how to use it to reduce weight. Although what is there to come up with - you just need to go to the gym.

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Many women and men who are losing weight notice that after cardio training they really want to eat. As a result, some begin to eat and weight loss does not occur. Why this happens and how to overcome yourself we will tell further.

Causes of hunger after cardio training

Cardio training includes numerous exercises for all muscle groups. With them, it actively uses both legs and arms. As a result, after an hour of practice, there is hunger.

As a rule, this is the result of burning a large amount of energy. Sometimes this is the result of doing fasting cardio, that is, doing exercises on an empty stomach and on an empty stomach.

It often happens when before cardio a person saturates his body with empty calories, that is, he does not include proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates in his diet. Also, after exercise, those people suffer from hunger who overload their body, not allowing them to relax.

As a result, not only the stomach suffers, which did not receive the necessary trace elements, but the muscles also suffer the next day. It is important to approach training competently, it is better to connect professionals for this business, working with them.

Attention! Often physical hunger comes from emotions, stress, poor health. Losing weight and maintaining a beautiful figure is impossible without an appropriate positive attitude towards classes. Only with cheerfulness and happiness in the eyes can you achieve what you want. It is best to do cardio with your friends or to good uplifting music.

How to eliminate hunger and not get better?

After cardio training, there is a high risk of gaining weight as a result of eating baked goods or various diet bars. which they are not in fact. To prevent this from happening, you should take this moment into account in advance and collect a container of food for training in the gym or prepare breakfast or lunch with dinner on the table in advance.

Often the body after a workout is deceived, telling a person that he is hungry. In fact, he wants water. It is necessary to drink a glass of warm non-carbonated water 10 minutes before eating.

For a snack, it is best to use a salad filled with coarse fibers. , complex carbohydrates in the form of fruits or vegetables (it should be remembered that some fruits and vegetables are very high in calories, see the calorie table).

You can replace the salad and carbohydrates with nuts. 100 grams of nuts of different varieties will quickly satisfy your hunger. You can also try to make a fruit or vegetable fresh cocktail with a blender, but, as a rule, not everyone can eliminate their hunger. For saturation, you need to chew everything thoroughly.

Generally, cardio exercises involve all muscle groups and expend a large amount of energy . As a result, a person wants not only to drink, but also to eat. To help your body and at the same time not suffer from hunger, you can use a light snack with complex carbohydrates, as well as drinking plenty of water.