Between Meals and Post-Workout

Having long finished Thrive and zeroed in on my diet, which, to my surprise, has solved a lot of issues (sleep, recovery, immune health, body composition, etc.). I have one follow-up question as I slowly break the habit of supplements and supplementation, I wondering what are people's thoughts on post-workout protein smoothies. I've read lots of conflicting information, but being that Thrive doesn't seem to have any skin in the game I felt that maybe @Jeff Serven might be able to provide me with an objective opinion on these? Is it as essential as they say it is (I already know it is not), but then if I'm not 'taking' anything post-workout a la a protein shake, what then SHOULD I take? Fruit? Certain types of fruit? Just water to hydrate and then eat dinner when hungry? Etc. Just curious about this last piece. I've come to love the simplicity of the meal planning and now it's so routine and habitual I don't even really have to think about it (except when I'm at the grocery store and I'm either trying to fix which salad/raw veggies fixings I want or am measuring the number of sweet potatoes I buy based on how many I can hold in two hands, haha). 

Good question. My answer will be a bit over simplified. 

The more glycolytic the more of a demand for carbs. Example; 5000m Olympic runner. 

PWO is also determined by how far you want to take it. I sometimes feel like when I eat 2hr before a workout and then an hour after I am just consuming useless calories. But, I'm not a 5000m Olympic runner. There is value to PWO but the claims are largely over exaggerated. 

If you are interested in fat burning then PWO carbs is where that fat burning ends. If you drink a high glycemic carb solution - odds are you will burn that instead. Before someone brings up some world clas athlete that's ripped and takes carbs; ask yourself; are you on that level? The even better question is do you want to be on that level? I don't. I don't want to be a slave to training I want to do it to have fun. 

In the end a little BCAA never hurt anyone. 

Gotcha. So essentially, stick with Thrive, if needs be have some BCAAs after my workout. But really, eat when hungry and follow what I've been doing? An upvote is as good as verbal confirmation here, lol. If that's the case this may be the last of whey powder I buy, which I'm not at all upset over saving money on.

Volek et al. has an interesting, newer study on pre and post workout fuel in the fat burner vs. carb burner. As usual, he studied endurance studs, but the glycogen recovery and different types of shakes were interesting. Check out page 102, 2nd to last paragraph for the fat shake vs. carb shake. Very interesting the way the fat burner depleted glycogen similar to the carb burner  (and similar to other basic, resistance exercise studies I compared them to) and surprisingly had similar glycogen "repletion" rate without receiving the carbs post workout; Like what Jeff mentioned. I listen to an interview by the authors of the study and they mentioned all athletes both the carb and the fat burners were in very good shape; It's basically up to the individual on what they want to burn.

I know what extra substrate I have available and I am hoping to burn and tap into that. .

Here is some enjoyable and digestible reading to add to the discussion. 

http://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(15)00334-0/abstract

It links to the open access PDF. 

13 minutes ago, Ryan Bailey said:

 

Volek et al. has an interesting, newer study on pre and post workout fuel in the fat burner vs. carb burner. As usual, he studied endurance studs, but the glycogen recovery and different types of shakes were interesting. Check out page 102, 2nd to last paragraph for the fat shake vs. carb shake. Very interesting the way the fat burner depleted glycogen similar to the carb burner  (and similar to other basic, resistance exercise studies I compared them to) and surprisingly had similar glycogen "repletion" rate without receiving the carbs post workout; Like what Jeff mentioned. I listen to an interview by the authors of the study and they mentioned all athletes both the carb and the fat burners were in very good shape; It's basically up to the individual on what they want to burn.

I know what extra substrate I have available and I am hoping to burn and tap into that. .

Here is some enjoyable and digestible reading to add to the discussion. 

http://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(15)00334-0/abstract

It links to the open access PDF. 

 

TL; DR eat an avocado unless you're insanely low in body fat then do what you'd like?

16 hours ago, Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

TL; DR eat an avocado unless you're insanely low in body fat then do what you'd like?

Seriously man? Haha. I explicitly spelled out the 2 sentences in the study to read so no one would say "TL;DR".

Its an article I introduced to the discussion; not as a recommendation, but as to the science of what the body is capable of. 

Ok...

Teeny-bop version: 

Basically, those who ate no carbs and had a shake of Heavy Fat Cream, Olive oil, and Whey Protein

Vs. Those who ate a lot of carbs, 

Both refilled the lost glycogen the same.

So:

1) How did they refill glucose stores without eating post workout shake with carbs? Liver gluconeogenesis, as a conditioned fat burner? How does this happen? How long does this take? 2 weeks? 6 months?

Lol, dude. I was being facetious. My comment was based on the conclusions of the article you posted, which I found quite interesting. 

1 hour ago, Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

Lol, dude. I was being facetious. My comment was based on the conclusions of the article you posted, which I found quite interesting. 

Ok. Sorry. You hit my TL;DR pet peeve button; and that really gets me steaming.  

2 hours ago, Ryan Bailey said:

Ok. Sorry. You hit my TL;DR pet peeve button; and that really gets me steaming.  

TL;DR Ryan needs to eat his lunch carbs.

Good stuff here. 

Yea the thing with Volek's stuff is you need to be deep in ketosis to get similar results. Luke is familiar with a glucomiter and how to test. 

Also, the fat group replenished glycogen faster because their gas tank(carbs) is smaller. 

I believe all of Volek's fat group is above 3mm/dl. Odds are if you eat any carbs or too much protein you won't be able to achieve his same numbers. 

I really like Volek but I've got a small bit of keto hater in me.