JP Fitness Forums - View Single Post - What's the absolute minimum I need to eat Post-WO?

TITAN · 06-17-2009, 04:53 PM

This is my personal experience with food, late workouts and sleep.

I get revved up from working out. I'd be surprised if you could get to bed immediately after hitting the gym. Personally I need at least 5 hours to cool off enough to get my head down. If you can get to sleep your body will probably wake you up in the middle of the night to eat. It's a possibility so have some sort of a clean meal available to eat in the middle of the night. The danger is that you wake up at 3:30 AM starving and want to get back to bed ASAP so you eat a box of cereal or whatever. In the middle of the night when you are tired and starving is when you don't have the willpower or clarity of thought to avoid eating poorly. On the other hand you have zero junk food in the house and perhaps spend 90 minutes or more rolling back and forth in bed hoping that you fall asleep again but don't or you have to get up and spend an hour and 15 minutes preparing enough food to eat, eating and getting back in bed etc... this leaves you short on sleep which is bad since sleep deprivation and heavy exercise is a recipe for catching a cold.

I tend to fast after I work out. Exercise kills my appetite and I wait until I feel hungry to eat using the assumption that my body will let me know what it needs when it needs it. I also don't care about muscle growth so I don't feel an urgency to protein up to add mass. In my experience fasting after working out burns fat like crazy which is my goal. The caveat is that you need to be ready for it when the hunger comes because you will want to eat everything in sight so kick off with a chicken breast and you won't overeat calorie wise since protein makes you feel full very fast. If I have an early evening workout I always eat a full meal before I go to bed otherwise I can't get to sleep or I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep unless I eat enough.

In my experience catabolism is a non issue if you are a fitness lifter. Don't worry about it unless you are trying to get huge amounts of muscle mass. In my opinion the issue is exaggerated and can be ignored by anyone who is not trying to compete for development or strength. The human body adapts to its environmental demands which is why we can lift and get stronger. It's why my cousin who got a job on the assembly line got ripped from handling parts for 8 hours a day. All he did was eat clean meals 3x a day and ended up with a 6 pack and is obviously more muscular.

06-17-2009, 04:53 PM	#10 (permalink)
TITAN Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 46	This is my personal experience with food, late workouts and sleep. I get revved up from working out. I'd be surprised if you could get to bed immediately after hitting the gym. Personally I need at least 5 hours to cool off enough to get my head down. If you can get to sleep your body will probably wake you up in the middle of the night to eat. It's a possibility so have some sort of a clean meal available to eat in the middle of the night. The danger is that you wake up at 3:30 AM starving and want to get back to bed ASAP so you eat a box of cereal or whatever. In the middle of the night when you are tired and starving is when you don't have the willpower or clarity of thought to avoid eating poorly. On the other hand you have zero junk food in the house and perhaps spend 90 minutes or more rolling back and forth in bed hoping that you fall asleep again but don't or you have to get up and spend an hour and 15 minutes preparing enough food to eat, eating and getting back in bed etc... this leaves you short on sleep which is bad since sleep deprivation and heavy exercise is a recipe for catching a cold. I tend to fast after I work out. Exercise kills my appetite and I wait until I feel hungry to eat using the assumption that my body will let me know what it needs when it needs it. I also don't care about muscle growth so I don't feel an urgency to protein up to add mass. In my experience fasting after working out burns fat like crazy which is my goal. The caveat is that you need to be ready for it when the hunger comes because you will want to eat everything in sight so kick off with a chicken breast and you won't overeat calorie wise since protein makes you feel full very fast. If I have an early evening workout I always eat a full meal before I go to bed otherwise I can't get to sleep or I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep unless I eat enough. In my experience catabolism is a non issue if you are a fitness lifter. Don't worry about it unless you are trying to get huge amounts of muscle mass. In my opinion the issue is exaggerated and can be ignored by anyone who is not trying to compete for development or strength. The human body adapts to its environmental demands which is why we can lift and get stronger. It's why my cousin who got a job on the assembly line got ripped from handling parts for 8 hours a day. All he did was eat clean meals 3x a day and ended up with a 6 pack and is obviously more muscular.