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Researchers compared choices about your post-workout meal before and immediately after training. Would it make a difference to your discipline?
Post workout meal or post workout junk?
You’ve probably heard the saying: “Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry.” According to a similar principle, it might be wise to have your post-workout meal ready.
Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wondered if it would make a difference if you chose your post-workout meal before or after training. An apple or a brownie? Will you continue the good line of your training, or is the health hour over?
To answer this question, they divided 256 young men and women (avg. 22 years) into two groups. Both groups were given an accelerometer, ostensibly to calibrate it during their usual training such as cardio or strength training. However, it wasn’t about the accelerometer. One group was given the choice between an apple or brownie after training, “as a reward for wearing the device” beforehand. The other group was given this choice after training.
Apple or brownie?
About 74 percent of the participants who were given the choice beforehand opted for an apple. This was 55 percent in the group that was asked this question afterwards. The chance of choosing the healthy option was thus about a third lower. In the group that chose beforehand, 14 percent opted for the brownie. In the group that chose afterwards, this was 20 percent.
According to the researchers, the results suggest that making the simple choice beforehand may increase the likelihood of making healthier choices for what you eat after a workout.
If your goal is to lose weight, then I would say our findings support that you’re better off making the choice before you go to the gym.
Koehler, Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences.
Less hunger after training or moral compensation?
The researchers sought to find out which of the conflicting theories about eating after training hold true in practice.
One theory suggests that your appetite, immediately following a workout, is lower. The other theory assumes a tendency to compensate for your good behavior by engaging in less good behavior later. Such as making a less smart choice in what you eat.
We’ve described this second theory (and the studies that have demonstrated it) here before, such as the article on moral compensation. Many will also recognize it, both in training and nutrition, as well as in other aspects of life. You work out for an hour and sit down for coffee with friends an hour later. You accept the pastry that you would have passed up otherwise because you want to stick to a diet. “I’ve earned it.”
In addition to that ‘moral’ consideration, you may also simply be hungrier because you’ve trained. However, the researchers point to earlier research that has shown contradictory results in this regard. In a review from 1999, the outcomes of studies on eating behavior and appetite after a workout were compared [2]. An increased food intake was observed in only 19 percent of the studies compared. In most cases, 65 percent, no difference was observed.
Exercise-induced anorexia
In 16 percent of the studies, people ate less. The tendency to eat less, especially immediately after a workout, was demonstrated by the same researchers in 1999. Also referred to as ‘Exercise-induced anorexia’.
That sounds scarier than it is. A temporarily suppressed appetite possibly due to changes in levels of the ‘hunger hormone ghrelin.’
Personally, sometimes I can think about food halfway through a workout, and other times, after a grueling workout, I can have absolutely no appetite.
In the ‘apple or brownie study,’ the researchers also observed both theories in practice. There was a (modest) increase of 6% in people choosing the brownie after the workout. This seems to indicate compensatory behavior.
There was a clearer indication of a decreased appetite. There were also participants who didn’t choose any snack. In the group that chose beforehand, this was only 12 percent. In the group that chose immediately after training, 25 percent didn’t want a snack.
Meal prep
But whether you’re hungrier or not, your appetite remains an impulse. How you react to it can be influenced by planning. It’s no wonder that Tupperware containers are a staple ingredient of the average fitness account on Instagram.
For bodybuilders and fitness models, meal prep has been one of the most important factors for success for decades. Ensuring you have the right food on hand when you’re hungry. Turning your healthy food into fast food by preparing and planning it in advance.
Personally, I don’t do meal prep, but then again, I don’t compete. There’s one exception though, and that’s the shake I prepare for right after training. So it doesn’t really matter whether I’m more or less hungry right after training. In both cases, my immediate meal is the same.
To be continued…
In further research, the researchers want to learn more about the difference between people who exhibit compensatory eating behavior and those who eat less after training. They aim to approach reality more closely by offering a wider choice of food. Perhaps that brownie was rejected because a participant already had a pizza slice in mind.
References
- Christopher Gustafson, Nigina Rakhmatullaeva, Safiya Beckford, Ajai Ammachathram, Alexander Cristobal, Karsten Koehler. Exercise and the Timing of Snack Choice: Healthy Snack Choice is Reduced in the Post-Exercise State. Nutrients, 2018; 10 (12): 1941 DOI: 10.3390/nu10121941
- Blundell, J.E.; King, N.A. Physical activity and regulation of food intake: Current evidence. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 1999, 31, S573–S583.
- Bellisle, F. Food choice, appetite and physical activity. Public Health Nutr. 1999, 2, 357–361.
