you should include protein in your meals throughout the day, research shows that it’s vital to consume some immediately after training, specifically, within 30 minutes of your workout. Your second best option is to eat it within the hour, and your last choice is to eat it within two hours after you train. We encourage you to arrange your schedule so you can get protein in your system within 30 minutes, since your body so desperately needs it to repair all the “tearing” down you did. It’s never an option not to eat protein after your training. When you don’t refuel your body properly, the repairing phase might be incomplete or delayed, both of which puts you at risk of overtraining or getting injured when you use muscles in your next workout that have not yet recuperated.
Your Post Workout Needs
There are nutritionists who recommend you eat carbohydrates — such as a banana, apple, or a slice of nutrition-rich bread — after training to replenish your energy stores. We agree with this, but with an explanation. Yes, you do need to jump start your energy with carbs, but you also need protein to repair tissue damage done in your training. If your workout was mostly aerobic, such as high-repetition drills and lots of wind-sucking sparring, you should eat mostly carbs and just a little protein afterwards. If your workout consisted of weight training only, or your sadistic instructor made you do sets and reps of horse stance squats and lots of pushups, you need more protein and less carbs. Whatever the combination, the blend of carbs and protein compliment each other for faster absorption, which is why most protein shakes contain a small amount of carbs.
The best post-workout protein are those that are easily digested, such as eggs, lean fish, lean chicken, and whey protein shakes. Steak, on the other hand, while high in protein (and lots of bad fat) is hard to digest, especially when your body is already working overtime to recuperate from your workout.
Everyday Foods High in Protein
Here are some typical protein foods you want to include in your daily diet.
Meat, poultry and fish — 7 grams per ounce Beans, dried peas, lentils — 7 grams per 1/2 cup cooked One large egg — 7 grams Milk — 8 grams per cup Bread — 4 grams per slice Cereal — 4 grams per 1/2 cupVegetables — 2 grams per 1/2 cup
Many nutritionists argue that there is no real advantage to taking protein supplements, advice which few hard-training athletes adhere to. Dr. Susan M. Kleiner, R.D., Ph.D., a nutritionist and the co-author of Power Eating, says, “There’s no advantage to taking protein as a supplement. It’s not absorbed better. It’s not utilized better.”7 In fact, as co-author Christensen’s bodybuilding friend discovered the hard way, extra protein may over time put stress on your kidneys (one sure sign you are eating too much protein is when your kidney blows out your lower back and rolls down the street like a dislodged hubcap).
How we do it Here is how we use protein supplements: Demeere, who is on the run all the time visiting clients, likes protein milkshake replacement meals combined with a little fruit. He drinks them in the car while en route to a client, or at the end of a hard day when he needs some extra repair fuel. Christensen always has a scoop in a glass of water after a workout. On those days when he doesn’t eat meat, he sprinkles a tablespoon on his cereal or in his yogurt to get an extra 15 to 20 grams. We especially like that many protein supplements are fortified with vitamins and minerals, a nice plus when using them as a meal replacement or to punch up a container of yogurt.
Regardless of what the gym rat advises (the guy with veins in his forehead who goes “Huh?” a lot), if your calculations show you are getting enough protein from your food, you don’t need to take a supplement. However, it’s still a good idea to keep a container of supplemental protein in your cupboard for those days when your hectic lifestyle prevents you from getting the grams you need.
Fat Isn’t a Bad Guy
Besides its use as an energy source, you need fat to maintain healthy skin, carry fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) into your body, support your immune system, insulate you against the cold, cushion your internal organs, and make food taste better, which all adds up to mean that fat is not the bad guy some experts want you to believe.
Although fat has a bad reputation, it’s actually a secondary fuel source. When your body runs out of carbohydrates to use as energy, it draws energy from fat, which yields about nine calories per gram, compared to four calories per gram of protein and carbs. The average person has enough carb energy in his body to walk about 20 miles, but he has enough fat energy to walk from Boston to San Francisco three times (go ahead and do it; we’ll be here when you get back).
While your body likes to store fat as an extra “fuel tank,” far too many people, including too many martial artists, carry around fuel tanks that are much too large. This would be acceptable if you were running about on the plains tackling and killing bison for the village all day, but that is not the kind of life you lead (except perhaps for our Wyoming readers).
In an effort to keep things simple, let’s classify fat as either saturated or unsaturated.
Saturated fat is generally solid at room temperature and found in animal sources, such as dairy products, meats, fish, lard, butter, hard margarine, cheese, whole milk and anything in which these ingredients are used, such as cakes, chocolate, biscuits, pies and pastries. It’s also the white fat you can see on red meat and that stuff lurking underneath poultry skin. Consume an excessive amount of saturated fat, and you get an increase in “bad” cholesterol (LDL), which can lead to heart disease and cancer.
The so-called “good fat,” is usually liquid at room temperature and generally comes from vegetable sources. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are both included in this group. Unsaturated fat is a healthier alternative to saturated fat and can be found in vegetable oils, such as sesame, sunflower, soya and olive oil. It’s also found in oily fish, such as mackerel, sardines, pilchards and salmon. Peanut butter contains the good oil, too, as do most nuts. When choosing a peanut butter, get the kind that contains only ground nuts, and avoid the kind that includes several unpronounceable chemicals. Although all of these foods contain the good fat your body needs to stay in optimum health, you still need to eat them in moderation since they are so very calorie dense: nine per gram.
Free tip 1: Plan to gorge on a high-fat meal tonight? Think about this first. Studies show that several hours after you eat a meal containing 50 to 80 grams of fat, your blood vessels become less elastic and there is a dramatic rise in factors that lead to blood clotting. “The immediate cause of most heart attacks is the last fatty meal,” says William Castelli, M.D., director of the Farmington Cardiovascular Institute in Massachusetts.8 It’s much healthier for you to spread your fat intake over the entire day.
Psst, for males only: Studies show that a high-fat meal isn’t good for your love life either as it may lower your testosterone level. We aren’t going
