Yes, eating junk food can ruin your workout by draining energy, impairing metabolism, contributing to weight gain, and raising your risk of chronic diseases with an insulin spike.
Have you ever had that feeling after a workout where you’re so hungry you could eat a horse? Well, it happens and it’s a matter of self-control to not fall for wrong eating at this point.
A successful fitness program is always built around good eating habits which junk food is not.
But just because you’re working out doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy fast food. Exercise and fast food can coexist. You only have to stay away from bad options.
No matter how hard you workout, if you follow it up with binge on junk food, the results can be nil.
4 Ways Eating Junk Food After Workout Ruins It:
1. You Lose Out On The Healthy Benefits Of Working Out
Fitness junkies know that their workouts aren’t complete without a healthy meal afterward. That post-workout meal gives them energy and helps in recovering best.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of fast foods are not ideal for supporting physical performance.
Many of them contain ingredients that are actually harmful to your body and overall health. When you eat junk food, it directly impacts your performance in three important ways:
- It damages muscle tissue by increasing inflammation and reducing blood flow to the muscles;
- It slows metabolism, making it more difficult for you to burn fat; and
- It impairs the ability to maintain focus and concentration.
So whatever workout you did, bad eating afterward can ruin it.
2. You’ll Put On Fat
Junk food is loaded with sugar, salt, and other unhealthy ingredients that make you gain weight, even with exercise.
If you want to lose weight and have a healthy lifestyle, the first thing you need to fix is your diet because according to Dr Eric Berg in a short video below, exercise only helps you 15% in weight loss, the rest of 85% is dependent on diet, sleep, rest, and recovery.
3. Your Workout Can Become Completely Useless
The common idea that junk food has no effect on physical activity is wrong.
Junk food, especially the one with high-fat content, may cause an increase in the absorption of glucose by fat cells and make workouts ineffective.
When you exercise, your body burns fat for energy. But when you eat fatty foods just before exercising, your pancreas increases its production of insulin to help move the extra glucose out of your bloodstream and into your muscle cells.
The result: Your body won’t burn as much fat during exercise, because it already has a lot of energy from that glucose.
As a result, working out becomes a completely useless thing.
4. Junk Food Can Decrease The Appetite To Drink Water
With junk food, people usually don’t want to drink water and prefer sugary drinks.
Even individually these two are not good, but together they are ruining your workouts.
The Benefits Of Eating Healthy Food After A Workout:
Eating healthy food after a workout can provide numerous benefits for your body, including:
- Muscle recovery: After a workout, your muscles are in a state of repair and recovery. Eating healthy foods that are rich in protein can help to repair and rebuild muscle tissue that has been damaged during exercise.
- Refueling energy: Consuming healthy carbohydrates after a workout can help to replenish glycogen stores in your muscles, which is the primary source of energy for your body during exercise.
- Improved hydration: Drinking water and consuming hydrating foods like fruits and vegetables after a workout can help to replace fluids lost during exercise and prevent dehydration.
- Boosted metabolism: Eating a healthy meal after a workout can help to increase your metabolism, which can help you burn more calories throughout the day.
- Reduced inflammation: Some healthy foods, such as those rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, can help to reduce inflammation in the body, which can occur after intense exercise.
- Enhanced immune function: Eating a healthy and balanced diet after a workout can help to strengthen your immune system and reduce the risk of illness and infection.
Before you go…
If you’re trying to gain muscle mass or bulk up in general, junk food is still not good to eat. While it may cause you to gain weight, the added pounds will not be healthy.
Instead, try incorporating our recommended list of foods to gain weight.
