After work out

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Post-workout meals play as important a role as what you eat beforehand. "The more immediately after working out you eat, the better,"Arent said.

Getting food into the body helps it recover from exertion. After strenuous exercise, the carbohydrates stored in the muscles and liver may be used up, and the protein making up the muscles is partially broken down.Those nutrients need to be replaced.

The total amount of food someone should eat can vary widely based on their size, goals and exercise routine. The key is to find a balance so that you take in enough nutrients to replace energy and build muscle, but no tso much that your body converts the extra to unwanted fat, Arent said.

But this simple advice can be more difficult than it sounds. "People may not want to eat immediately because they are tired," Zhou said.

Further, it's the nutritional content, not the form of the food that matters, Arent and Zhou both said. Food in liquid form, such as a smoothie or fruit juice, is often easier to take in for people tired from exercise.

Unfortunately, these options rarely have any natural protein, which plays a vital part in increasing muscle mass. One option for getting more protein is to use protein powder supplements. While they work fine in delivering protein to the body,they shouldn't be treated as a replacement for proper meals, Arent said.

It doesn't take a lot of concentrated protein to get the benefits, and overdoing it carries the same penalties as overeating anything else, Arent said. "Too much, and you will increase weight," Zhou said, adding that the powder can also spoil the taste of the beverage.