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For several years now, post-workout nutrition has been studied rather extensively. These studies have shown that intaking a shake (consisting of simple sugars and whey protein) immediately following your workout greatly assists in muscle recovery replenishment.

The results of these studies have shown such positive results from using these shakes, I doubt that you can find a fitness expert who doesn’t advocate their use regularly. Is this the best protocol for everyone to follow? Let’s look at this objectively and answer this question once and for all.

In my experience, I have found that post-workout nutrition is very important for the reasons mentioned above. If your goal is to gain weight, these shakes are a great way to consume a lot of “clean” calories at a time when your body is least likely to store these calories as fat.

You see, following an intense workout, your muscles are depleted and are thirsty for replenishment. Therefore most of the calories ingested at this time will be soaked up by the muscles, making less calories available to be stored as fat.

But we want to burn body fat at the fastest rate possible! Will drinking a sugar laden shake enhance our fat loss efforts? Of course not. To the contrary, I have found that these shakes could be detrimental to your fat burning efforts.

After reading through all of the research, I’ve learned that these studies were not performed on subjects whose goals were fat loss specifically. So I experimented with these shakes on myself and my clients. The rate of fat loss slowed across the board. These are real world results and unlike some lab study, these findings are accurate. So to burn fat at the fastest rate possible, you must lose those high sugar post-workout shakes!

I’m sure you’re saying, “Alright, but what should my post-workout meal consist of?” The answer to this question is much less complicated than the supplement companies want you to believe. All you need to do is eat a solid meal! This meal can be structured exactly like any of your daily meals. I do believe however, that this meal should be eaten within one hour after your workout.

Remember, your rate of fat loss will always be faster when you eat healthy, solid meals. So if you want to lose your excess body fat as fast as possible, ditch the post-workout shakes. Just eat a meal instead and get a lean body in no time.

Last 5 posts by John Alvino

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Tags: Nutrition