Best post workout meals you can do to recover fatigue…

Well right off the bat, don’t forget the most important nutrient for training recovery: PROTEIN!!

YES, carbs are important to replenish the muscle glycogen you used during the workout (which is less than what most people think), a workout in which you do (let’s say) 100-120 repetitions will “use” around 20-30g worth of carbohydrates (maybe a bit more if most of these are big compound lifts). Furthermore, glycogen replenishment isn’t time-sensitive, meaning that as long as you have a sufficient carbs surplus during your day, you will replenish glycogen stores. Sure, ingesting them close to the workout will replenish the reserves faster due to an increase in insulin sensitivity and GLUT-4 activation. But at the end of the day, the glycogen stores will still be replenished if enough carbs are consumed.

Protein, however, is a bit more time-sensitive. Getting protein, especially fast-absorbed protein, ideally rich in leucine (like whey or casein) will increase muscle protein synthesis more than the workout alone. So basically, the workout increases protein synthesis (which is what leads to muscle growth) but adding protein right after the workout increases the magnitude of the protein synthesis even more (thus facilitating muscle growth).

Interestingly, adding carbs to the post-workout protein doesn’t further increase protein synthesis.

The bottom line is that your priority for immediately post-workout is an easily absorbed protein source.

You can add carbs to initiate glycogen replenishment, but it is less crucial than protein.

I favor a protein shake post-workout and will add an easily digestible carb source, I like pineapple, blueberries, oranges/tangerines or grapes. But dried fruits or a banana can work.

Now you gonna say that protein powder is expensive. Well, if you look at MD protein (the best you can find), it’s 50$ for 30 servings. So it’s around 1.70$ per serving.

Add some fruits or dried fruits to that and it might cost you a total of 2.50 – 3$, for the meal, which is nothing (less than a Starbuck coffee).

You can vary your carbs sources. But please, do not skimp on the protein.