Do you have to drink a protein shake after your workout?

[lmg210]

From the Blog: Female Fitness and Nutrition Scientist: Do you have to drink a protein shake after your workout?

I get this question all the time from readers:

"Do I have to drink a whey protein shake right after my weight-training workout, like you recommend in your books, or can I eat a whole food meal containing protein and get the same benefits?"

Well, the truth is that you don't HAVE to drink a whey protein shake after each and every workout, but there are benefits. The reason why whey is recommended before and after each workout is because of the special amino acid profile (amino acids are the building blocks of protein and each protein has a different profile) it contains. Whey is very high in the amino acid Leucine, (containing about 12% leucine) which is one of the essential branch chain amino acids primarily responsible for prompting muscle protein synthesis.

Following your weight workout, initiating muscle protein synthesis is important because, if you worked your muscles hard enough, you purposefully damaged them. This damage and repair process following a workout is exactly how you develop more muscle tissue and in turn, melt away unsightly body fat.

So, your goal after your workout is to help your muscles repair as quickly as possible so you can:
a) return to the gym sooner than later and continue your fat-burning, muscle-building process
b) prevent your muscles from feeling so sore that you never want to lift again



Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic is a recent PhD graduate of the #1 Kinesiology doctoral program in the U.S. from University of Connecticut. Her MS is in Nutrition & Metabolism from University of Alberta. You can also read more about her at cassandraforsythe.com