The best post-workout meal for bodybuilding

4 min readDec 1, 2020

Let’s start off with the post workout meal definition. A Post workout meal is the first meal you eat after your workout. So in this article, I’m going to share my favorite post workout meal for bodybuilding and explain why this meal is so important.

When we workout we do a lot of things to our bodies, we use our glycogen storages to fuel our workouts, we damage our muscle tissue in order to repair and build muscle. Therefore you need to understand how important the post workout meal is.

There have been many people claiming that a post workout meal has to be eaten within 30 minutes post-training. Rushing home in order to make your meal or immediately after training to drink your protein shake. This was called your anabolic window, but that ‘myth’ has been debunked for a while now.

That doesn’t mean that you’re post workout meal isn’t important anymore… it just means that you don’t have to eat anything 30 minutes post-training.

Your post workout meal should be a meal that consists of eating the right amount of carbohydrates, healthy fats, and of course protein to recover the damaged muscle tissue.

Why you should include carbs in your post workout meal

During your workout, your muscles use their glycogen (stored energy), and glucose (usable energy) for energy. These energy sources have to be replenished, and you do that by feeding your body with good healthy whole food carbohydrates.
When your blood glucose and glycogen levels get so low to the point where you can’t exercise anymore. Your hormone cortisol is secreted, this hormone cortisol is your stress hormone.

What cortisol does is eat up muscle tissue for protein and convert it into glucose. A process called gluconeogenesis ensues, producing glucose from these amino acids in the liver. The net result is a loss of muscle tissue.

This is where the post workout meal comes into play. The post workout meal prevents this from happening. It also releases insulin, this as any of you might know is one of seven anabolic hormones in your body!

The best carbohydrate sources

Rice
Pasta
Potato regular or sweet potato
oatmeal
quinoa
rice cakes
whole grain bread
whole grain cereal

The best protein sources

cottage cheese
eggs
Greek yogurt
turkey or chicken
salmon or tuna
peanut butter
protein shake (plant- or animal-based)
tofu

The best fat sources (healthy fats)

Olive oil
avocado
coconut oil
flax seeds
nut butters
nuts

Post workout macro set up

How much carbs, fats , and protein should be in your post workout meal for bodybuilding. Well, the ratios aren’t that difficult to explain.

When it comes to carbs, weight and training intensity are two factors that play a role here. Most sources suggest .25 (cutting) to .50 (mass gaining) per pound of lean body mass.

Protein should be in a ratio of 2 to 1, so if you have a lean body mass of 160 lb, this would mean 40 grams of carbs and 20 grams of protein if you are cutting, and 80 grams of carbs and 40 grams of protein if you are in a mass gaining cycle.

The best Post workout Meal

I’m assuming I got my point across about eating high glycemic carbohydrates after a workout…Now, what does a complete post workout meal for bodybuilding look like?

I don’t want to give you the ‘standard bodybuilding’ meal which is rice, broccoli, and chicken. But in all fairness, this is a meal you can use, or you play around with it. For example, replace the rice with pasta or any other high glycemic carbohydrate.
For your protein sources, you can replace the chicken with another type of meat or eggs for healthy fats.

My own post workout meal looks like this.

100 grams of oats, with a banana
6 egg omelet ( 4 egg whites and 2 whole eggs)

You can see why this works really well. I get the carbs from the oats, the banana is a high glycemic carb source. The protein and healthy fats are from the eggs.

The best supplement for after workout

There are also great supplements out there that you can use for post workout. supplements like, Nutrigo Lab Regeneration.

Nutrigo Lab Regeneration is a dietary supplement for professional athletes who want to support the body’s regeneration process after training. Due to a large dose of proteins, amino acids, and casein, the product reduces muscle pain and accelerates its build-up. The product is very popular with professional athletes regardless of the type of discipline they practice.

Check it out here: