SK-XO

"We’ve all heard that growth hormone (GH) does a ton of great stuff for our bodies including burning body fat, increasing protein synthesis, increasing nitrogen retention, and decreasing protein catabolism. (1) This means more muscle, less fat, and a happier, healthier, sexier you. So how can we maximize the effects and release of growth hormone we get in response to strenuous exercise?

Keep your post workout carbohydrate levels in check.

When we exercise, blood glucose and insulin levels decrease, and GH levels increase. GH levels can remain this way for an hour or more. (2) However, as soon as blood glucose and insulin levels rise, GH levels will drop back down, as insulin acts to suppress GH secretion. (3) Keeping carbohydrate intake to a minimum after exercise will keep blood glucose and insulin levels down and GH up for a longer period of time.

How do you boost GH levels and keep it elevated after a workout? Consider protein instead of carbs for your post workout nutrition!
- Ken Hess
CrossFit Trainer & Nutritionist


References -

1. Amino Acids and Proteins for the Athlete: The Anabolic Edge
Mauro G. Di Pasquale
CRC Press 2008 Pages 27-28

2. Plasma insulin, growth hormone, and blood sugar during exercise in man
Sawhney RC, Malhotra AS, Gupta RB.
Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 1982 Apr-Jun;26(2):119-24

3. Good Calories Bad Calories
Gary Taubes
Alfred A Knopf 2007 Pages 390-391"

Came across this article, im not claiming truth to it... however is this true? I've always been somewhat confused about post workout nutrition, insulin spikes afterwards and what not and best way to go about giving anabolism pwo.

Theres a lot of people on here taking mass amount of carbs after workout 100g+, some take simple such as dextrose and others even full on oats. Whats right and whats wrong?

ash1981

makes sense however im wondering about the pwo shake as it reccomended more than its not reccomended to have dextrose or the like straight after training

ive also always thought that pwo meal should be protein and carbs with minimal fats

SK-XO

I usually take my post workout meal an hour after, so generally I've already had my pwo shake. The whole ideology behind not having fats afterworkout as it can/will slow down the transition of the nutrients digesting and reaching your muscles to aid recovery.

ash1981

yea i understand the fat logic and i also have a meal an hour after workout but what about the shake, just protein?

SK-XO

IMO the protein is needed for recovery yeah and to feed muscles asap, however the carb source will help drive the protein to the muscle faster creatine protein synthesis.

Question is how many carb is to much?

ash1981

and the answer is.........

ParaManiac

Avoid convention and experiment for yourself

I take in carbs preworkout instead of post,it works well

SK-XO

Bumppp

SK-XO

Anyone?

anakaday

You don't need to boost GH after a work out. There is no reason to keep it elevated all the time. Your body needs food first, healing and growing second. Your body is tired after a work out and to tired to be thinking about growing. You grow mostly when you are sleeping.

You eat the carbs and some protein and vitamins or fruit. It's good to eat the carbs a couple of hours before but still good to eat some after. Insulin is the most efficient way to get nutrients to where they are needed instantly. So you eat all the nutrients you can at this time and then forget about it. The effect is temporary.

You then eat a high fat low carb meal. The fat will stimulate more production of growth hormone and you might make better use of the food you ate earlier.

hilly

hitting carbs pwo can also actually slow down and decrease the time of elevated protein synthesis caused by a workout. i posted a thread on this before.

I dont have any carbs for around an hour pwo just a protein shake and i havnt lost any gains at all.

Their are arguments for both. For lean gains when slow bulking/dieting and maintaining i really think you dont need hardly any if any pwo sugar and a small amount intra workout is much more beneficial.

However if trying to pack on size then pwo is a good time to get extra calories in the form of sugar and it will be utilised better than any other time of the day. sugar goes down easier than starchy carbs so will aid in getting in a few hundred cals more in your day

__________________
CON
"99% of all bulking thread creators will create another thread within 6 months asking about dieting advice bare that in mind"

SK-XO

How fkn confusing lmao. So eat all the nutrients I can pwo or you say hilly take zero carb or very little?

hilly

yes mate both have their advantages and disadvantages and work best in different enviroments.

if and when im going for all out mass then pwo is a great time to get in alot of liquid cals. the body is in a prime enviroment to use these high gi liquid carbs/protein and IMO the slightly negative effect on growth hormone product/protein synthesis is outweighted by the benefit of getting those extra cals in for all out growth.

If trying ti lean gain/maintain etc so cals are not as high or during pct for instance when your trying to get every extra benefit from things possible then i think their is no need for carbs immediatly pwo i usually take some in around an hour after. i have 15g malto during my workout with aminos/creatine etc which causes more than a sufficient insulin spike and then allows for natty increase in gh and protein synthesis to ride high that little longer. I am currentyl 7 weeks into pct and have been doing this and am actually up a lb on my starting pct weight

there are quite a few people currently actually following a protocol called carbless pwo which datbrue is a big advocate of. the idea is pwo you dont take in any carbs for for the next 24 hours basically. training every other day. you then load up on carbs for a set amount of time pre workout then go carbelss for the rest of the day and the following day. utilising this emthod along with some form of peptides helps elavate protein synthesis pwo with 1iu of insulin increasing this effect and allows protein synthesis to stay at very high levels for prolonged period of time. on carbless days off the gym you do fasted cardio etc and these days are dedicated to weight loss.

sorry im babling but just trying to explain that all things are beneficial depending on the enviroment you are after/creating

__________________
CON
"99% of all bulking thread creators will create another thread within 6 months asking about dieting advice bare that in mind"

big

Just IMO but you are over-thinking and worrying about stuff that really makes little to no odds for 99.999% of people

I would bet a lot of money on the fact that the difference between taking a PWO shake immediately after lifting, or having the same amount an hour or so after instead to allow you GH levels to stay high is non-existent

If you aren't sure, try it both ways and see. If it makes THAT much of a difference, you will notice significant visible changes within 3-4 weeks.

Personally I think that if you just had a protein shake after lifting, your body (which is crying out to replenish glycogen stores) will end up converting the protein to glucose anyway

So the option is to have nothing PWO or to have proper PWO nutrition

As has been said above, most natty GH release is in your sleep, so I genuinely wouldn't worry about what happens to GH levels immediately after lifting. I'd always favour proper PWO nutrition myself. Which is IMO (for a circa 90kg lean guy) a 75g/50g carb/pro split (pref vitargo/whey) immediately after lifting, and a "proper" low-gi carb/pro/fat meal around 90 mins after that.

Remember also that recovery from weights takes days. So although what you have PWO is important IMO, what you have the other 95%+ of the time is going to make a bigger difference.

Prodiver

Yes! The body has huge nutritional capacity.

__________________
Never do anything you wouldn't like to explain to a paramedic...