Post Workout Meal

For all those people who go by the high GI meal after a workout , heres an interesting read

That thread just totally confused me.

Everything I've heard until now says high GI after workout. Is this guys post a bunch of BS? But it makes sense that constant insulin spikes are not healthy and I don't want a higher risk of diabetes. How many grams of sugar in one meal would cause an unhealthy insulin spike? I'm trying to come up with the proper post-workout shake for my bulking phase and this thread just totally made me second guess what I had originally come up with.

I know I had a headache after I read all of that . Both sides have good points , but it pretty much convinced me that low GI foods are better after a workout , so what I do is just put 1/2 cup of uncooked oatmeal , some water and 2 scoops of whey protein powder in a blender and just drink it as a shake.

Wow, that was some thread; I couldn't read through those studies, or I think I would have had a meltdown.

Well, I'm understanding now that I need some sort of carb to refill those glycogen stores (before, I was just doing the protein alone.)

I think a good compromise might be a piece of fruit. You get the simple sugars of the fructose, but with a more sustained level of release. In any case, I'm going to start adding some sort of carb to my PW whey...

ORIGINAL: wilsonx

I think a good compromise might be a piece of fruit. You get the simple sugars of the fructose, but with a more sustained level of release.

thats why you should'v read the entire thing ,the point of the thread is that food with lower GI (like oatmeal ) are better then high GI (fruit) after a workout

Until I here more on this, I think I'm gonna make my post-workout shakes consist of a mixture of Low and Hi GI carbs.....

Ok, it's time for me to rant about sugar-bashing again....

Yes, constant insulin spikes are PROBABLY unhealthy. But constant insulin spikes are more from eating Snickers bars and drinking sugar-laden sodas all day long, then parking yourself on the couch and pigging out on a bag of potato chips than from eating pasta or a banana. Insulin spiking of this sort MAY contribute to type II diabetes, but obesity (which doing these same things will cause) is a much clearer and bigger factor.

Exercise, even an apparently small amount of it, makes a HUGE difference in both your body's ability to react to insulin (more), and also in how much insulin your body produces (less). Therefore, worrying about putting oatmeal into your post-workout shake instead of a banana is missing the point. Most people who work out regularly are NOT scarfing down candy bars and swilling down soda all day long, instead they are eating more carefully selected meals with a good balance of lean meat, fruits and vegetables, and complex carbs. Also, carb digestion rates are influenced by other things in the meal, like fat and fiber, that's one reason why a candy bar is so much worse than a high-GI carb eaten with a balanced meal. The rate of type II diabetes among people who work out regularly is LOW...REALLY LOW!

After a workout, you want to get as much food as possible into your muscles as fast possible. This helps your body heal faster and better. Low GI carbs are good most of the time to provide as slow, steady release of blood sugar; but after a workout you want a rapid release and uptake of nutrients. I would think that a good low GI carb before bedtime might be good for reducing cortisol, too. Or at least it keeps me from getting up in the middle of the night and raiding the fridge! So a mix of low and high GI carbs in a post worjout drnk is probably a fine idea.

The whole low-carb diet thing has reached ridiculous fad level, and it's creating this notion that carbs in general are bad. That's simply not true. Different pieces of health information need to be placed in the proper context before they get translated into recommendations.

agreed

I avoid high GI foods all day long so when I'm done my workout the last thing I want to do is slam back 4 servings of oatmeal with a water chaser. Damn thats sick. Is that the reward for a good job at the gym. Screw it. Even if it is better (which its probably not), it couldnt be that much better overall. One insulin spike a day is not going to kill me at an early age. I see what people around me are eating all day long so I look at that banana ready to be pulverized by my blender after every workout and I just cant help but smile.

As much as I read of that thread I couldnt get the word "theory" out of my head. High GI after workouts has a ton of scientific backing behind it. Do what you want, but dont expect me to follow this guru to the holy temple.

(Something Inspirational)!!!

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i post over there pretty regularly. heres what alan aragon said about that thread

*sighs, shakes head*

no, there are not 2 sides. just 1 side that misunderstands the science, and is paranoid of sugars in general.

that thread merely shows how little people understand about the physiology of postworkout nutrition. that thread reeks of simple-mindedness & selective sectioning of abstracts. that thread reminds me of a group of toddlers playing in a sandbox, with a few adults attempting to supervise their infantile behavior and reasoning.

every last study cited in that thread was not bodybuilding-related. they are irrelevant. like i keep saying, you can't pick & choose sections of an abstract from which to base your opinions, because you can use those same set of abstracts to argue for both sides. but why on earth would you do that, when most of them are not dealing with bodybuiding at all. none of those studies DISCOUNTED insulin's role in skeletal muscle protein synthesis. BOTH amino acids AND carb-illicited insulin can synergize for this purpose (duh). the fact that the first stage of glycogenesis is independent of insulin means virtually nothing. there's no need to wait, since substrate absorption time must me factored in. this absorption time takes place during the non-insulin-mediated initial phase, and once the initial GLUT-4-mediated phase is over & the inslulin-mediated phase starts, you better have those insulinemic carbs ready to maximize anabolism & anticatabolism. glycogen gets replenished faster with hi-GI carbs PW, and the sooner these carbs are ingested, the better.

other than the numerous anabolic processes evoked by raising insulin concentrations PW, it is a definite advantage to maximize SPEED of glycogen replenishment, even if there's not much difference in DEGREE of glycogen replenishment (go ahead, re-read that statement). why? because it takes 24-48 hrs to fully replenish glycogen stores -- even in bodybuilders, especially those in precontest or high-volume phases, not just endurance athletes. ever train shoulders or upper arms or forearms or do upper extremity cardio (ie, jumping rope, heavy bag work, swimming) within 24-48 hrs of training chest or back? ever train legs or calves within 24-48 hrs of doing some sort of lower extremity cardio (ie, cycling, running, skipping your gay ass over to the low-GI carbville PW)? to reiterate the painfully obvious, there indeed is unavoidable & constant overlap in musclular work, hence the advantage of speedy glycogenesis by all counts. and the insulin resistance fear does not apply to athletes the same way it does to sedentary folks, and it certainly does not apply to the hypercompensatory, super-receptive PW state.

once again, that thread didn't convince me of jack crap, word to your grandmothers.

i can't believe how carbophobic bodybuilders are - at the same time i can understand why most don't reach their mass potential.

My post workout is a weight gainer with 10 grms 20 grms of sugar 45 grms of protein,some(usually 3-4) strawberries, 1 whole banana, 1 scoop of peanut butter.

Bench-305(5 partial reps)
Squat-450(4 reps)
deadlift-435(2-3 partials)
front squats- 225(6-8)
leg press-835(8reps)
at 19!
priceless
No Light f***in weights, if you complain just shut the f*** up and go home!!!! Fall 05 pledge class-SiGeP

10 grms 20 grms of sugar

20 grms of sugar my bad

Bench-305(5 partial reps)
Squat-450(4 reps)
deadlift-435(2-3 partials)
front squats- 225(6-8)
leg press-835(8reps)
at 19!
priceless
No Light f***in weights, if you complain just shut the f*** up and go home!!!! Fall 05 pledge class-SiGeP