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What you eat and drink after your workout – and when – can have a big impact on your next performance.

What do you eat first after a workout? Most athletes pay fairly good attention to what they eatbefore exercising, but afterwards – for some – it’s almost as if ‘anything goes”.

Eating the right foods and beverages after exercise does more than just replenish your draining fuel supply – it helps your body get ready for your next round of activity, too. So, if you’re the type who works out regularly (and fairly hard), what you eat – and when – can make a big difference in your overall performance.

Keep in mind that refueling is geared primarily to those who are doing extended and strenuous bouts of exercise. If your usual activity is a daily walk or brief swim, your regular meals and snacks should take care of your nutritional needs as long as your diet is healthy and well-balanced – but always stay on top of your fluid intake.

But, if you’re going the distance, what you eat after your workout is just as important as what you eat before you exercise. You’re not only helping your body recover from a bout of exercise – you’re also helping your body prepare for the next one.

What to eat and drink after exercising

Replenish fluids and salts after exercise

When you exercise, sweating causes you to lose important body salts – like sodium and potassium – that need to be replaced. Many advanced athletes get in the habit of weighing themselves before and after exercise, in order to figure out how much fluid needs to be replaced. For each pound that you lose during activity, you should drink about 2-3 cups of liquid (or about one liter of fluid per kilo of weight loss).

What to drink after exercise

Water is fine as a fluid replacer, since you’ll be eating afterwards – which means you’ll pick up carbohydrate, sodium (and likely some potassium) and from your foods. For those who don’t normally drink high-calorie liquids, this is the one time they might drink fruit juices, since they provide fluid and carbohydrate and – depending on the fruit – potassium, too. Sports drinks are great since they provide not only fluid and carbs (some even have a bit of protein – which your body also needs), but the right balance of salts that have been lost through perspiration, too. And, they usually have a mildly light, sweet taste that often encourages you to drink more.

Your body needs carbohydrate after you exercise

After a hard workout, your body has burned through a lot of carbohydrate – the primary fuel that keeps your muscles working – and it’s important to refuel as soon as you can. The recommended amount is about 1.4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight (or, 0.6 grams carbohydrate per pound of body weight). That’s about 100 grams of carbohydrate for someone weighing 165 pounds (75 kg). Healthy carbohydrates – fruits, whole grains and the natural carbs in dairy products – are a good place to start with post-workout snacking.

Your body needs protein after you exercise

A bit of protein is important in recovery, too, since it helps to stimulate muscle repair and growth after you’ve been working out. It doesn’t take much – about 10 grams of protein or so will do. The ideal post-exercise meal or snack contains a combination of healthy carbs and protein, which is why athletes often turn to foods like a sandwich on whole grain bread, a dish of yogurt and fruit, a protein shake made with milk and fruit, or specially formulated recovery beverages.

Meal timing is important after exercise

When you exercise, your muscles become very sensitive to the nutrients that are available – and that sensitivity lasts for a limited amount of time. That’s why many athletes who want to optimize muscle recovery pay attention to this “metabolic window” – the time period of about 30-45 minutes after exercise during which you should try to eat your carbs and protein. During this critical time after you exercise, your muscle cells are more sensitive to the effects of insulin – a hormone that helps transport amino acids (from protein) into your cells. Insulin also works to drive carbohydrate into the cells, where it is stored in the form of glycogen. This stockpile of carbohydrate can then be used to provide energy to working muscles during the next bout of activity. And, once you kick this fuel storage process into gear, you can keep it going for up to eight hours if you continue to provide your body with a shot of carbohydrate every two hours.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife. Herbalife markets sports nutrition products. Find out more about Herbalife24 – Nutrition for the 24 hour athlete.

If you think that just because summer is over, it’s time to pack on some winter padding…think again! Follow my fall workout tips to keep your summer body all year round.

Just because the weather is cooling down and you’re wearing additional clothing doesn’t mean that you should abandon your summer bikini body. Exercise should be done year-round because true health and fitness is achieved with a consistent plan.

Give my fall workout a try to add some fitness to your colder days and nights. It’s great for toning your arms, core and legs. This fall workout routine is also great for building strength and burning calories.

It should take you about 30 minutes to complete and can be done in the comfort of your own home. If you don’t have enough time to complete the entire workout, just do a few moves or one set to fit exercise to your day.

What you’ll need:

• A chair
• A set of hand weights
• A mat

It is important to prepare your body for exercise! Spend at least 10 minutes warming up your body with cardio exercise. For example, you can jog for 5 minutes, followed by jumping jacks or jump rope.

Fall workout move 1: Arm and shoulder combination using weights
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart while holding weights down by your sides. Curl the weight up to work the bicep muscle; then rotate the wrist so palms are facing each other and press the weight overhead at shoulder height to effectively work the shoulder muscles.

Fall workout move 2: Plie squat with arm pull
This move works the legs, glutes, inner thighs and trapezius muscles. Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart with toes pointed out. Hold the weights with palms facing the body. slowly lower into a squat as if you are sliding down a wall keeping your back straight. As you come up to standing, pull the weights toward your chest leading with your elbows and repeat.

Fall workout move 3: Chair dip
This move works the triceps at the back of your arms. Sit in the chair and place your hands on the chair next to you. Place your feet out in front of you keeping your thighs parallel to the floor. Lower out of the chair, and as you bend your arms your elbows should go behind you, supporting your body weight. Finish this move by pushing back up to the starting position.

Fall workout move 4: Hands and knees balance
This total body move works your abdominal core muscles, arms and legs. Get onto the floor on your hands and knees. Position yourself so that your wrists are directly underneath your shoulders and hips over the knees while keeping your back flat. Then lift up one leg behind you and also lift the opposite arm out in front of you. You can hold this pose or crunch bringing your knee to chest and elbow to knee. Once you’ve done one side, repeat on the other side.

Fall workout move 5: Curtsey lunge with leg lift
This move works your inner and outer thighs as well as your glutes. Stand tall and place your hands on a chair for balance. Take a backward lunge step with your left leg, taking your back foot just past the mid line of your body. The knee on your front leg (right leg) should not pass the line of your toe as you lower your body. Keep your core muscles tight and back straight. Return to standing, keeping a flexed foot take your leg out to side.

Fall workout move 6: Bridge pose with chest press
This move will work your chest muscles, core and glutes. Start by lying on your back practicing the bridge pose. Squeeze your glutes and raise your hips up off the floor to make a straight line from the shoulder to the knees. Once you are able to hold this position, you can add in the chest press. Hold weights palms facing forward and in line with your chest. Press the weights up, hold for a second, then return to the starting position.

Do 10-12 repetitions of each exercise in this fall workout and then try to repeat the exercises for three sets. I hope you enjoyed this fall workout routine. Remember that fitness is not just for the summer it’s for life!

Written by Samantha Clayton, AFAA, ISSA. Samantha is Director of Fitness Education at Herbalife.

When you find that your weekly weight loss has stalled that’s often known as a ‘weight loss plateau’ and many dieters find the sudden lack of progress deeply frustrating. Herbalife’s Nutrition Expert Susan Bowerman helps you understand why your weight may plateau and give you some ideas to make sure you continue to meet your goals so that your weight will start moving again.

Five tips to move off the plateau:

• Use a food diary to keep track of your calorie intake - You may have been more careful when you started your diet — weighing and measuring everything that passed your lips — but you might not be as accurate as you once were. This will get you back on track.
• Replace two meals a day with a protein shake to help you stay within your calorie limit. When you make your shake, you know exactly what goes into it — and how many calories are in the protein powder, the milk and the fruit — so it takes the guesswork out of calorie counting. Use the shake for two meals a day, have a healthy third meal, and fill in with snacks of low fat protein foods, vegetables and fruits.
• Dine out less often - No matter how careful you think you are when you go to a restaurant, it's usually difficult to accurately estimate how many calories you're eating, because it's often hard to tell exactly how foods are prepared.
• Step up your activity, particularly strength training - If you've been working out for a while and haven't increased the intensity of your activity, you might not be burning as many calories as you used to. Add some new moves to your exercise routine, increase the intensity, and pump some iron.
• You might actually be at the right weight - If you can, get your body composition checked. Muscle is ‘denser' and takes up less space than body fat — so if you are carrying more muscle than the average person, you might weigh more than you think you should. If your body fat is within normal range, then you may not have much — if any — additional weight to lose