The Best Post Workout Meal – Don’t Let Your Workout Go to Waste

Now THAT’S a meal.

Want to build muscle fast? Or maybe you want to burn fat? How about both at the same time? Different goals require different post-workout meals. Whatever your goal, if you’re not eating the best post workout meal, you’re not getting the results you should be.

You work hard at the gym. If you’re smart, you’re training for your specific goal – either burning fat fast or building muscle (and hopefully avoiding these common mistakes).

With all that hard work and planning, it’s important to get the most out of your workouts. And that means you need to be eating the best post workout meal possible.

Here are the best post workout meals for each goal.

The Best Post Workout Meal for Building Muscle

This guy eats A LOT after workouts.

The critical points here:

• Eat immediately after your workout.
• Eat lots of protein.
• Replenish other nutrients necessary for building muscle (carbs and micronutrients).
• Eat a lot!

I want you to eat a lot after your workout. Think 1500+ calories within an hour. If you need to eat less the rest of the day to accomplish this, that’s fine.

We’re going to make sure you get ample protein, varied carbohydrates, and some fat to help absorb it. You’ll want to eat at least 100g of protein and 200g of carbohydrates.

Protein has been shown over and over again to help build muscle, especially whey protein right after a workout. This is not controversial. Occasionally you’ll hear people say that you can only absorb 30g of protein in one sitting. This is absolute bullshit.

Carbohydrate is not completely necessary for muscle building, but it helps a lot. Studies show that carbohydrate increases muscle gains and decreases recovery time.

Pro Tip: You don’t actually build muscle in the gym. That’s where you send the stimulus to build muscle, but the growth happens during the recovery phase.

So you’re going to eat right after you finish your last set. Start with a smoothie:

• 1 Heaping Scoop Whey Protein
• 1 Banana
• 1 Cup Blueberries or Strawberries (mix it up)
• 1 Packet Emergen-C
• 5000 IU Vitamin D
• 1 Raw Egg Yolk

Then get right to the real meal. Keep it Real Food, and get lots of protein and starch. Here’s my personal favorite muscle building meal:

• 1 pound of Grass-Fed Ground Beef
• 1 pound of Sweet Potatoes, peeled and sautéed in coconut oil.

Finally, finish it off with some dessert. This should be additional carbs and protein. I like:

• 4 cups of Rice Krispies
• Raw Full-Fat Whole Milk

And there you go. This meal ensures you won’t leave anything on the table by increasing muscle protein synthesis and supplying all the vitamins, minerals, and cholesterol necessary for absorption, transport, and hormone synthesis.

The Best Post Workout Meal for Fat Loss

After a workout, especially an intense one, fat oxidation is increased. This means that your body burns more fat in this time period. If your goal is fat loss, simply keep fat out of your post workout meal, and you’ll be burning off body fat during that time.

It’s a neat little trick.

As I discussed in the article on intermittent fasting, to burn more fat, you’ll still want to eat most of your day’s calories right after your workout. So that’s the same as the muscle building protocol. But now you’ll want to cut the fructose (a sugar found in fruit) out.

Pro-Tip: Vanilla Whey Protein and Orange Emergen-C tastes like a creamsicle. It’s fantastic.

Skip the fruit in the smoothie and just drink this instead:

• 1 Heaping Scoop Whey Protein
• 1 Packet Emergen-C
• 5000 IU Vitamin D

Keep the protein and starch in your main meal, but ditch the fat:

• 1 Pound Dry Chicken Breast (add mustard if you like)
• 1 Pound Baked Sweet Potato with no Butter or Cheese

No need for dessert on this plan, although a banana would be fine.

Wrapping Up Best Post Workout Meals

Now you know to go straight from the gym to the kitchen, and what to make when you get there. To optimize your results even further, sign up for the FREE MasculON Fitness Email Course. You’ll get highly actionable nutrition and workout advice, with the core concepts of perfect fitness in only 5 days – FREE!

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