Fashionable nutrition myths: Hurry! My muscles need to eat

Hurry up, my muscles need to eat!

How quickly do you need to ‘feed’ your muscles after a tough gym workout in order to get the most benefit?

At one time, one of the main premises of exercise nutrition was that if you're doing resistance training then you NEED to make sure you feed your muscles very soon after you work out. Athletes believed that they needed an injection of protein and carbs in their system in order for their muscles to grow.

People even started taking special protein shakes with them to the gym so they could get calories in WHILE THEY TRAINED. They would then go and wolf down a meal in the changing room directly after their workout so as to avoid missing the 'magic window' of time.

This is still common practice, although it has largely been debunked in recent years

Even the guys who wrote the book on this have accepted it's not as important as they thought it to be then.

The bottom line is that you need to eat the right things to support your training and your body, but the timing of the calories really isn't that important.

If you feel ravenous after gym, eat something ... If you don't, don't. You are not going to fade away if you wait an hour or two to get your next meal in.

1. Prev:Tight, Toned Tummy Tips: THE best exercise for a toned tummy
2. Next:Exercise tips for weight loss: How long should you spend at the gym?