Best Post-Workout Meals and Food to Fuel Your Recovery

Whether you’re working out for overall better fitness or if you’re trying to add some bulk and definition to your frame, there are some things to consider beyond your weekly gym routines. Gentlemen, there’s no doubt about it. The fuel you put into your bodies can impact your success in the gym.

That’s because your physique isn’t simply a matter of stretching, building, and sculpting muscle, but one that incorporates overall health. What you eat matters, because your body uses those nutrients to build muscle, burn fat, and improve the appearance of skin, teeth, and hair. While you may not think that the last consideration is important, let me tell you, it is.

You can improve your success simply by adding any of the top 27 best post-workout meals and super foods which contain nutrients and energy-rich caloric loads. You’ll keep your body working to better itself even long after you’ve hit the showers. While it is by no means everything you should be eating, incorporating these foods into your diet will give you an extra boost when it comes to boosting your look, your health, and even your mood.

1. Tuna

While it isn’t the only source of essential Omega-3 fatty acids, it is a great and easy to purchase source. Additionally, it’s a fantastic source of selenium, a trace mineral your body absorbs with water. Packing an antioxidant punch, it aids your body in preventing damage caused by free radicals and also helps you process protein in your diet — for better muscles, hair, teeth, eyesight, and all-around great health.

2. Whole Wheat

Whether as crackers, toast, or pita bread, whole wheat is a great post workout carbohydrate boost for your system. This will help keep your blood glucose levels stable, rather than crashing as your body converts glucose into necessary energy for maintenance tasks in the wake of a workout. It also contains selenium and a host of other nutrients absorbed from the soil in which the wheat is grown, so eat up guys.

3. Egg Whites

If you’re one of the tiny fraction of the population who’s sensitive to dietary cholesterol, you can still derive much of the nutritive value offered by eggs by consuming egg whites. They’re high in protein, clocking in at 4 g per egg white, and naturally low calorie foods—around 16 calories a pop.

4. Cereal

Whole grain cereals — meaning things like oatmeal, not sugar-frosted everything — are powerhouses of phytonutrients, plant proteins, both soluble and insoluble fiber, and complex carbohydrates. They help maintain stable blood glucose, support an elevated metabolism, maintain heart and cell health, and they also prevent constipation. Chronic constipation leads to toxin reassertion from waste. A workout produces plenty of metabolic waste products. Do the math, boys.

5. Fruit Smoothies or Dried Fruit (Oranges)

Fruits are a great way to boost your health. Sterols and other nutrients are what provide fruits with their bright colors. They are also a sweet, energy packed treat laced with vitamins like A, C, K, and trace minerals. Find ways to incorporate plenty of fruit into your post-workout regimen. Oranges, with their high compliment of vitamin C aid in cell regeneration.

6. Milk (Plain or Chocolate)

While some authorities will push the skim issue, the truth is, you need the fat in milk to help balance out the metabolism of the lactose (a natural sugar) and also to aid in calcium absorption. Consider the bioavailability of the nutrients you consume—just because they’re in there, doesn’t mean your body is using them. You aren’t drinking gallons of milk every day. If fats concern you, limit your intake.

7. Quinoa

Commonly misidentified as a grain, this fruitlet contains twice as much protein as other grains with which it is compared. It is loaded with fiber, iron, and other essential nutrients to keep your body building muscle and burning fat.

8. Orange Juice

This incredibly refreshing post-workout beverage is perfect just as it is. Go for the varieties with pulp, so you can add a punch of fiber to this wonderful juice.

9. White Rice

It’s a carbohydrate powerhouse and often an acceptable substitute for other grains in instances of dietary sensitivity. You might also consider trying brown rice, since the germ and bran have not been stripped via processing and provide extra health benefits.

10. Corn

Commonly mistaken as a vegetable, this grain is dense in insoluble fiber, vitamin C and folic acid. The latter two nutrients are essential in the building and maintenance of healthy tissues.

11. Lentils

Lens shaped, these form the basis of many ancient diets for good reason. They are packed with protein, B vitamins, and zinc. What that means for you is excellent post-workout fuel for building healthy muscle and maintaining a healthy immune system so your energy levels don’t flag when you need stamina most.

12. Flaxseed

These tiny almond-shaped seeds are excellent sources of botanical Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. These must be obtained through your diet, and are essential in maintaining healthy bones, hair, and skin. As well, they help to regulate metabolism.

13. Kefir

Much like yoghurt, this is a cultured milk product that is fermented. It packs a protein punch as well as bringing a host of good bacteria that will amp up your body’s ability to process food for energy.

14. Bananas

These starchy fruits bring a wealth of potassium, manganese and other nutrients to your diet. Potassium helps your muscles contract and your body to maintain a healthy fluid balance. Be aware that potassium needs the right amount of sodium to work effectively.

15. Salmon

In addition to a huge helping of Omega-3s, salmon brings a bonus of vitamin D, B vitamins, selenium, and phosphorus to your diet. Phosphorus helps maintain hormone balances, regulates excretion and protein formation, energy extraction, and cell repair. It is often an overlooked mineral.

16. Blueberries

These tiny miracles bring a host of phytosterols, antioxidants, and nutrients. They help regulate healthy cell growth and body system functions, which will keep you in peak performing shape no matter how rigorous your gym routine. Indigenous populations of North America used these fruits extensively to supplement their diets and stave off ill health.

17. Hummus

Holy garbanzo beans, Batman! Made from chickpeas, hummus is a protein packed snack guaranteed to satisfy. It’s also naturally low in fat and packed with phytonutrients your body needs to heal and maintain itself in that post-workout glow. Chickpeas help to maintain healthy blood glucose levels and prevent the buildup of LDL cholesterol in the blood. Tahini, or sesame paste, is also high in protein and full of calcium complimented by moderate amounts of healthy fats. Olive oil is a perfect source of tocopherol—vitamin E—that is essential to cardiovascular, muscle, and connective tissue health as well as essential to the process of mopping up after a workout.

18. Tree Nuts

Because they are seeds, these foods are all packed with nutrients, proteins, and healthy fats. Consider almond or cashew butter with veggies or just the plain whole nuts. Any way you incorporate these wonders into your diet will be the right way.

19. Broccoli

And that’s how the Romans created an Empire—with broccoli. This cruciferous vegetable related to the cabbage packs an antioxidant punch worthy of a centurion. Not only does it help to fight cancer, it also boosts energy and metabolic efficiency, so you’ll build muscle with Caesar Speed.

20. Pineapple

Get out your grass skirts, guys. This tropical delight brings a host of important nutrients in addition to vitamin C, such as bromelain and salicylic acid that help maintain healthy blood, circulation, and muscle function.

21. Duck

This is a tasty alternative to chicken and offers a boatload of benefits. Lower in calories than skinless chicken, skinless duck breast contains high levels of excellent quality protein, vitamin B3, iron, and selenium.

22. Sweet Potatoes

These New World wonders offer you an almost unsurpassed load of beta-carotene—the primary nutrient your body uses to make vitamin A. Put a little butter on your sweeties, because your body needs the fat to convert the beta-carotene efficiently.

23. Avocado

It’s like buttah! These fruits are filled with extremely healthy fats that your body needs to create healthy muscle, skin, and other cells, as well as to maintain ordinary body processes. That’s what gives them their creamy texture. Try replacing butter on your toast with these gems for a delicious treat or whip up some guacamole.

24. Pork Steaks

Leaner cuts of pork contain less fat than chicken. Pork Steaks or pork tenderloin is the way to go for a tasty and lazy gourmet dinner. Try experimenting in the kitchen with this high protein, low-fat meat. Create a stunning meal with sweet potatoes, salad, and rice pilaf. Impress the ladies. Impress yourself.

25. Spinach

There’s a reason it was Popeye’s secret weapon. A single cup of cooked spinach contains 1100 percent of the daily recommended value of vitamin K, and is no slouch when it comes to vitamin A, most of the B vitamins, folate, magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, phosphorus, selenium, choline, fiber, Omega-3s, vitamin E, and tryptophan to name just a few of the heavy hitters. While it can be eaten raw quite easily, gently wilting it for a minute (steaming it) will leech away much of its compliment of oxalic acid, a less than desirable compound found in members of the chenopod family.

26. Kiwi

It’s a bird! It’s a fruit! It’s delicious! This unassuming, fuzzy fruit packs a tropical punch of vitamin C and potassium, helping your body bounce back quickly from workout fatigue. It’s a delicious and refreshing addition to fruit bowls, smoothies, and also great on its own. There’s nothing quite so delicious as cool fruit after a workout and a shower. Help your body gear down from the adrenaline-saturated workout high with these tiny fruits.

27. Grilled Chicken

This tasty, low-fat meat is high in protein. It’s easy to buy, easy to freeze what you won’t use right away, and a cinch to grill with delicious spices. You can pre-cook a couple of chicken for use on salads, sandwiches, or as the main feature of an amazing dinner. Keep in mind that while grilling is great, there’s nothing complicated about using your oven, too. Baked chicken makes a great addition to any salad, rice dish, or with sweet potatoes and veggies.

Why Is Eating After a Workout So Important? 

So, you’ve finished your workout and now it’s time to relax, right? Not quite. If you’re a regular exerciser, your workout shouldn’t be considered complete until you’ve had your post-workout meal. But we’re not talking about a full-on meal, just a small portion of food to enhance your workout. Nothing strenuous, you’ve already done the hard part (phew). 

“Eating after a workout is considered important for two reasons. First, eating after a workout helps to replenish your glycogen stores. Glycogen is your body’s main source of energy,” says Serena Poon, Celebrity Chef, and Nutritionist. “Additionally, eating after your workout helps to rebuild and grow your muscles.” We bet we have your attention now. 

How Long Should You Wait to Eat After a Workout?

Like many things in life, timing is key, especially when eating after a workout. The time in which you should eat depends on the intensity of your workout which can be anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. If you seriously pushed yourself to the limit, (but be honest with yourself), you shouldn’t wait for longer than 30 minutes. 

“For glycogen replenishment, it is important to eat soon after your workout, within one to two hours immediately following your workout,” explains Poon. “One study found that waiting two hours decreased glycogen re-synthesis by 50%,” which is pretty drastic. So unless you didn’t break a sweat at all, waiting the full two hours is overkill. 

For athletes or intense gym-goers, Poon says the rules are a little different. Your muscles will have more damage control to do. “For muscle repair, some studies show that the most effective way to support this process is by eating up to 20g of protein every three hours during the 12 hour period following a resistance workout,” she says. While “others recommend that protein should be consumed within the period immediately following your workout” – this is the most widely followed method when eating protein post-workout.

What Should You Absolutely Avoid Post-Workout?

While it’s tempting after a workout to treat yourself as a reward, don’t let temptation win and prioritize foods that nourish your body and support recovery. “I would recommend avoiding foods known to cause inflammation post-workout,” Poon says.

“Foods such as processed and red meat, refined grains, sugar, and anything highly processed, like fast food, put added strain on your body,” which defeats the end goal of repairing and replenishing the body post-workout.

What Type of Food Categories Should You Eat After a Workout?

You should focus on refueling your body post-workout, so carbohydrates and protein are the way to go, but if possible, get your fix in the form of whole foods to reduce inflammation. They also add extra value with essential vitamins and minerals. 

“Carbohydrates are important to help replenish glycogen (aka stored carbs in the muscles) used up during the workout,” explains Mascha Davis MPH, RDN, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, founder of MiniFish.co and author of Eat Your Vitamins. “This will help keep your energy steady and also prepare you for the next time you workout. Ideally, you want to consume 0.5 – 0.7 grams of carb per lb of body weight within 30 – 60 minutes of the workout.” 

It’s recommended that you eat more protein than carbohydrates to help with muscle protein synthesis and inhibit muscle breakdown, around “0.14 – 0.23 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight,” she says, but within the same time frame.

You can even incorporate fats into your post-workout meals. Davis suggests adding in healthy fats to further decrease inflammation in the body and promote optimal recovery. But keep their proportion small in relation to carbohydrates and protein, they shouldn’t ever outweigh them. “Unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado oil, avocados, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, anchovies), nuts and seeds” are all good options. 

“If you engage in a long or particularly hot bout of exercises (generally over one hour), you may need to replenish your body with electrolytes lost through sweat, such as sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium,” says Davis. Put simply, electrolytes are charged minerals and compounds that do most of the heavy lifting in the body.

They work to keep the body hydrated, balance blood acidity and pressure, rebuild damaged tissue, and regulate nerve and muscle function. Electrolytes sound hard to replace, but they’re as easy as eating spinach, kale, beans, strawberries, oranges, yogurt, chicken, and olives. 

Don’t Forget to Rehydrate

We all know how vital drinking and replacing water loss throughout the day is. Davis reminds us that “water intake is important for body temperature and blood pressure regulation, nutrient transportation, and joint lubrication.” But after a super sweaty workout, we lose a lot of water in a short period of time through sweat and our breath which needs to be replaced asap.

“Lack of water intake and subsequent dehydration can lead to headaches, fatigue, muscle cramps, heatstroke, and heat exhaustion,” says Davis. “Losing only 1 – 2% of body water leads to impaired brain function and decreased performance.”

What Happens to the Body if You Skip Post-Workout Refueling?

Skipping it once or twice isn’t the end of the world, but regularly not eating after a workout will mean “you are more likely to be underfueling for your entire day which can lead to increased risk for nutrient deficiency, injuries, and illness,” says Davis.

“You may also end up extremely hungry at night and then eat past comfortable fullness which can impact sleep quality.” So if you value your sleep and putting on weight isn’t the kind of gains you want, make eating after your workout a priority.

According to Davis, not refueling after your workout could even hinder your progress in the gym as “undereating can actually cause loss of muscle since the body will begin to break down muscle for energy if there isn’t enough fuel.”

Post-Workout Meals Should be Part of Every Athletes’ Routine

“Muscle protein synthesis will still occur so long as an adequate amount of protein is consumed throughout the day,” says Louise Garner, MNU Certified Nutritionist and Online Fitness Coach at Bel. “Athletes may be different, of course. If an athlete is training for a particular event it is beneficial to consume enough carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores in plenty of time before their event or their next lot of training” for optimal performance.

Protein is also important for athletes to support muscle recovery after a workout. Without it, they have a higher chance of injury than the average person with more regular and vigorous sessions. 

Does What Workout You do Affect What You Should be Eating Afterward?

No matter what type of workout you’ve completed, protein and carbohydrates are a necessity. You’ll always need to consume both to replace your source of energy and help to repair muscle. The only thing that’ll be different is how much you need and when.

“For someone looking to build size in the gym, protein is super important, somewhere around 1.7 – 2.2g per kg of bodyweight is where they want to be,” explains Garner. 

If you’re aiming to lose weight and “doing lots of intense exercise such as short bursts of hard exercise, depending on how long the session is for, they may want to consume some form of carbohydrate during the session if the session lasts longer than 90 minutes or so,” she says. Something light and easily accessible so you can continue to workout without feeling full such as an apple, legumes, nuts or seeds will do the trick. If you’ve got 90 minutes in you, you’ll still want to eat good carbohydrates after your workout as well to prevent overeating later on and have all your hard work go to waste.

Carbohydrates are also needed to replace glycogen stores as they’re limited in the body and it’s down to us to replenish them, says Garner. “If you have had a really hard workout, consuming some form of carbohydrate may make you feel better quicker as you are replenishing those stores relatively quickly, but to augment muscle gain, the only thing we really NEED is protein.” So while electrolytes and unsaturated fats have added benefits, they’re optional.

Poon’s top 3 post-workout meals:

1. A piece of whole-grain toast with peanut butter, honey, and banana. This is a simple post-workout snack that will replenish your body with carbohydrates, protein, amino acids, and some electrolytes (potassium). Plus, it’s delicious. If you engaged in a workout that extended beyond an hour, treat yourself to a pinch of Himalayan pink salt.
2. A smoothie with high-quality protein powder, fruit, and spinach. Smoothies make great post-workout recovery snacks because they are convenient, easy to digest and you can mix in a lot of recovery-supporting whole foods. For my post-workout smoothies, I add a packet of my chocolate superfood powder with pea protein, Just Add Water, ice, a banana, a handful of organic, fresh spinach, a spoonful of almond butter, and a cup of almond milk to a blender and enjoy as soon as possible.
3. Chia pudding. Chia seeds are an excellent source of protein that contains a full amino acid profile. Place your organic chia seeds in a jar with the nut milk of your choice and place them in the fridge overnight. When you are ready to eat your chia pudding post-workout, top with sliced banana and pumpkin seeds for added nutrition and flavor.