But what if you eat a protein-hardy meal right after you lift?
Here is what you do post workout, this is the OPTIMAL nutrition immediately post workout to fuel recovery and supress cortisol the quickest and most efficiently.
Ingredients. This is assuming you are on a clean bulk
Whey Protein - 1/4 gram per lb bodyweight
Dextrose(glucose) - 1/4 gram per lb body weight
Maltodextrin - 1/4 gram per lb body weight
small amount of sodium/salt
Creatine - 5g
L-Glutamine - 5g
Mix all this in a ~90% water mixture (i use a liter of water).
spoon 5 grams of creatine into your mouth (do NOT mix it into the shake) and use the shake to swallow it down. Creatine is best when NOT mixed into a drink as doing so will cause it to break down into creatinine, which is useless. Creatine is absorbed quickly (within a couple minutes) and once it is absorbed, the insulin in your system (which should be spiked by the dextrose, maltodextrin, and sodium) will protect it from further degradation.
Wait about 15 minutes and let that settle on your stomach.
Now spoon 5 grams of L-Glutamine into your mouth. Swallow in the same fashion. Continue sipping at the remainder of your drink for the next 20-30 minutes.
Allow it to settle for 10-15 minutes before eating anything else.
The reasoning for the high levels of dextrose and maltodextrin(which are essentially just sugars), is to cause insulin levels to rise quickly. This is the ONLY time of the day you want hi glycemic carbs, but they are important post workout. After your workout, your blood sugar and insulin levels will both drop, and your body will release cortisol into your system to start taking proteins from your muscles and sending them to your liver to be converted into fuel for your body. This is obviously NOT good. Insulin is the most powerful suppresent of cortisol you have at your disposal post workout, so you need to get it released as fast as you can. Dextrose and Maltodextrin are very rapidly absorbed when diluted in a water heavy solution, so they are a great way to get insulin levels back up and stop the horrible catabolic process going on. This insulin will also serve another purpose by more rapidly rushing nutrients to your muscles, which are very hungry for them at this time.
It is far better to consume your post workout meal in liquid form than solid as it is digested and absorbed much much faster. Avoid fruit and fructose, as these wont serve to raise blood insulin levels, they will only raise liver insulin levels.
I don't like the idea of cramming a bunch of powders and shit into my system, trying to get my results naturally without complex math, expensive supplements and other crap that I simply can't afford or don't want to put in. Especially with all the varying information on the supplements. I do however keep hydrated throughout the day. I drink around 8 - 10 250ML glasses of water per day.
There is nothing unnatural about whey protein, creatine, glutamine, etc. These are all things that you get from food, just in isolated form. It's not different than taking a vitiman c pill in terms of 'naturalness'.
And somebody mentioned they had heard creatine is not good for you. As others have mentioned, creatine sucks water into your muscles. Any side effects are going to come from the user not drinking enough water to compensate, not from the creatine itself.
Hopefully this has helped some people.
A couple questions though.
