Protein Part 2: Do You Need Post-Workout Carbs With Your Protein Shake?

It has long been thought that adding post workout carbs to your protein shake is optimal. It's often cited that the carbs will spike insulin, which is an anabolic hormone and will lead to more muscle growth.

While it is true that insulin is an anabolic hormone, it's also true that whey protein alone already spikes insulin enough for an anabolic response.  

The studies that are often used to support post workout carbohydrate supplementation were performed on endurance athletes to support optimal glycogen replenishment in muscle tissue and the liver, not on strength athletes looking for optimal lean muscle and less body fat.

This glycogen replenishment is imperative for endurance athletes who often perform more than one training session per day, and who's primary goal is optimum performance at endurance sport, not necessarily lean muscle gain and minimizing body fat.

Furthermore, glycogen replenishment will happen with the consumption of carbohydrates throughout the day, so you needn’t add additional carbohydrates post workout if you only train once per day, since by your next training session your body will have used the carbohydrates from you normal meals to replenish muscle and liver glycogen.

I would like to share some eye opening new research from a 12-week study out of the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. 

In the study, three groups of men were all given the same diet and training routine. One group was given a post workout shake consisting of whey preteen only, one group was given carbs only, and one group was given whey protein and carbs together. 

• All three groups gained lean mass, however, the group that had whey protein only gained the most lean mass

• The group given only carbs lost no body fat

• The groups given whey and crabs and only whey both lost body fat with the most fat lost in the whey only group

• All three groups gained strength with no statistically significant difference between the groups

"This first long-term study supports the acute protein balance studies showing that adding carbohydrates to postexercise protein ingestion may not have a large effect on resistance training adaptations.

Whey proteins, however, increased abdominal fat loss and relative fat-free mass adaptations in response to resistance training when compared to fast acting carbohydrates."

"Therefore, if the main goal is to maximize fat loss responses to resistance training especially from abdominal area without compromising increases in muscle hypertrophy, whey protein instead of carbohydrates can be recommended for the postexercise nutrition.”

The bottom line is, a high-quality whey potein, like ISO-PF, is all that you need for post-exercise nutrition if your main goals is to build lean muscle mass and lose body fat.