Yes.
And for pretty much the same reasons Matt cited in an earlier post.
Like Matt said, you should target carbs ( for any post workout ) that have really high GI scores ( usually with a ' score ' anywhere from 70 - 100 ) which means that they get into your bloodstream really quickly and trigger a high insulin response ( spike ). The spike in insulin not only optimizes your body's ability to get glucose into your muscles, but as Matt also pointed out, it also optimizes your body's ability to get protein/ amino acids into your muscles as well - which is a good thing.
As far as trying to figure out how many carbs you should take in after a workout, the minimum recommendation I see most often is that your post-workout nutrition should have
at least a ' carbohydrates to protein ratio ' of 2 grams of carbohydrate for every 1 gram of protein. That said, while a 2:1 ratio is a common minimum you see cited, a 4:1 is the suggested ratio I see most often recommended. However, there are many opinions out there as to what the ' optimum ' ratio actually is. There is certainly no ' hard & fast ' rule perhaps other than carbs grams should be at least equal to ( or exceed ) protein grams .....post workout.
In terms of absolute numbers, the norm I go by is is to take in about 0.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight post workout. Extrapolating based on this 4:1 ratio, that'd put protein at about 0.125 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight.
As for what type of carb you should take in, again, any carb with a HI GI score somewhere between 70 - 100 will help optimize the rate at which your body refuels itself. You mentioned maltodextrin earlier- which a good example of a carb with a HI GI score score ( close to 100 I think ). But, any HI Score ' carb will do. Simply a carb with a GI score of 80 or above would be a good way to go IMO. Some quick examples of some 80+ Score carbs you could store in your gym bag to have along with your protein shake would be......
- pretzels
- Rice / Corn Chex cereal
- Crispix cereal
- jelly bean candy
- gummi bear candy
- Rice cakes
- dates
As for your earlier comment ...."
it seems like I would be eating the same way to BULK as I would to cut after a workout? that sounds wrong to me "
I would disagree. It is a good idea to
have a post-workout shake regardless of whether you are trying too lose fat, add muscle mass or just maintain the weight you have IMO. From a nutrition point of view, bulking and cutting is primarily about overall calories - surplus and deficit respectively. And not so much about issues pertaining to post workout meal calories and or post workout meal macro nutrient breakdowns IMO - both of which make up only a relatively small % of one's overall calories and macro nutrients for the day.
I will defer to Matt and Derwyddon ( and their academic grounding ) on this for a more accurate explanation on the bio-chemistry of how your body refuels , but here is my layman's understanding of it.
You're right. Weight lifting - especially ' hard ' training - is primarily an anaerobic exercise. However, for the hour or so that you're lifting, you'll actually be burning off BOTH fat and carbs - not "
only carbs " as you suggested. When you are winded during your sets, most of your fuel will come from carbs / glycogen. When you rest between sets / exercise and you get your breath back, you'll burn proportionally more fat than carbs than when you were winded.
How your body goes about losing fat
after a weight workout is actually mired in detailed explanation of EPOC ( Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption ) - or your increase in metabolism due to increased oxygen consumption. Matt and Derwyddon can likely explain EPOC in much greater detail than I can.
However, my layman's my sense of it makes me think that trying to understand the relationship between weight training and fat loss might have more to do with what you touched on above. And that is, that your body
needs energy ( ATP ) in order fuel bio-chemcial processes
after you exercise. For example, after a cardio or weight workout, your glycogen stores are depleted somewhat and your body is primed to replace that glycogen. The best way to do that is to supply your body with carbs after a workout. After you ingest carbs, your digestive enzymes break them down into ( among other things ) glucose molecules. My understanding is that it's the chemical bonding of these glucose molecules that actually creates ( synthesizes ) glycogen. And, it's this bonding process of glucose molecules that requires energy - energy in the form of ATP. So, you need ATP energy to combine glucose molecules together in order to create / replace glycogen.
The most readily available source of ATP is the ATP that's stored in your muscles, but as I understand it, those ATP stores usually get used up during exercise. So, where do you get the ATP energy you need to create and replace glycogen ? From FAT. Your body will burn fat
after your exercise in order to get the energy - ATP - it needs to create glycogen. And here's where the oxygen ( EPOC ) comes in. When you burn fat, you require oxygen. Burning fat results in basically 3 things - ' energy ' ( ATP ) carbon dioxide, and water. The ' energy ' ( via heat ) and water is removed from your body by sweating. Carbon dioxide is simply removed in your breath by breathing.
So, in a nutshell, and in response to your question "
How does lifting help you lose fat ? " among other things, your body will breakdown fat - i.e thus you'll lose fat - in order to replenish your glycogen stores somewhat depleted from weight lifting. Perhaps Matt and Derwyddon can explain how ' fat ATP ' is used as energy for protein synthesis - "
energy to replace protien " - and other issues relevant to EPOC.
Again, I don't have an academic background in bio-chemistry or health & fitness like Matt and Derwyddon do - so I would defer to both of them to not only correct any errors that may be contained in my explanation above but to also help you further if you want a more detailed explanation of how fat is broken down in your body from a bio-chemical point of view.
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