The amount of protein that a person should receive with food, subject to regular training, is 1.4 g per kilogram of weight. Professional athletes and people who engage in heavy physical labor should increase this volume by one and a half times. This may seem strange to many, but protein foods contribute to both weight loss and muscle building. Therefore, those people who want to get rid of extra pounds, and those who go to training just to "pump up", protein shakes will be useful. We will explain in detail how to prepare them in our article.
Protein shake: drink before or after training
A question that still remains controversial: when to drink a protein shake? The use of an energy drink is allowed a couple of hours before the start of an intense workout or within 30-60 minutes after its completion. And even better, take half an hour before the start of classes a complex of amino acids, from which the body will receive energy during exercise, and not destroy muscle mass.
After a workout, drinking a cocktail is just what you need to regain strength. At this time, a depleted organism absorbs nutrients best of all, which ensures the consumption of protein drinks.
High Protein Shake
Most professional athletes prefer whey protein when preparing post-workout shakes. You can add protein in the preparation of homemade drinks, thereby increasing their nutritional and energy value.
The cocktail after training for muscle growth, prepared according to the following recipe, contains almost 132 g of protein in 1400 ml of the product. Given the fact that only 40 g of protein is absorbed at a time and drinking almost a liter and a half of liquid at once is rather difficult, it is advisable to divide the resulting volume into 3 doses, every 2 hours.
To make a cocktail with a high protein content and the addition of whey protein, you need to combine only six ingredients in a blender bowl. These are skim milk (400 ml), 2 cups of nonfat cottage cheese, 4 scoops of canned protein (16 g of protein in each spoon), a couple of tablespoons of Greek yogurt, raspberries (100 g) and a banana for taste. You don’t need to add protein powder to a cocktail, then the protein content in it will be about 64 g, which is also pretty good.
Egg shake with honey
Some athletes, after training, prefer to use egg shakes as an alternative to milk and sour milk protein drinks. This is due to the fact that egg protein is absorbed much faster than milk protein, which means that restoration of strength and muscle building will occur faster. There is no consensus on the correctness of this statement; therefore, these two types of cocktail can be easily interchanged or alternated.
To prepare an egg shake after training, you must:
- Hard boil 5 chicken eggs, cool them in cold water and peel them.
- Pour 200 ml of milk, 1 whole egg and 4 protein from the rest into a glass of an immersion blender. For taste, a teaspoon of liquid honey is added to the cocktail.
- All ingredients are thoroughly whipped, after which the drink can be considered ready to drink.
In such a nutritious cocktail contains 30 g of protein and 10 g of fat and carbohydrates.
Quick protein shake with cottage cheese
Most people after training prefer to prepare protein shakes based on dairy products. Milk, kefir, cottage cheese contain a sufficient amount of building protein in the composition. And this is just what you need to stimulate muscle growth after exhausting exercise.
The simplest protein shake after a workout can be prepared with just three ingredients. For this, milk (250 ml), cottage cheese (100 g) and ripe banana are thoroughly whipped in a blender bowl. As a result of simple actions in a few minutes you can prepare a healthy and nutritious cocktail. By the way, all the ingredients you need to choose with a minimum percentage of fat content.
An even more nutritious protein shake can be made if one of the ingredients in it (banana) is replaced with cocoa powder. As a result of intensive beating in a blender bowl, a delicious and nutritious chocolate drink is obtained.
To prepare a cocktail after training at home, you need to beat 100 g of cottage cheese in a blender, a glass of milk with a fat content of 1.6% and a tablespoon of quality cocoa in powder form. The protein content in the composition of such a drink is 28 g, fat - 4 g, and carbohydrates - 9 g.
Natural Banana Protein Shake
To accelerate muscle growth after training, many athletes prefer to drink such a cocktail:
- Pour 220 ml of milk with the lowest percentage of fat content into the bowl of the stationary blender.
- Add 50 g of low fat cottage cheese and hard boiled egg.
- Last of all, honey (1 tbsp), banana and olive oil (1 tsp) are added to other ingredients.
- All ingredients are thoroughly whipped, after which the resulting drink is poured into a glass.
After training, it is advisable to prepare such a cocktail immediately after training and drink it no later than 45 minutes after its completion.
Egg Protein Shake
Almost 35 g of protein is contained in a protein shake prepared according to the following recipe. It is prepared on the basis of egg whites with the addition of yolk, cottage cheese and banana. If you drink such a cocktail immediately after a workout, you can restore muscle faster. In addition, as you know, the protein contained in eggs is absorbed faster, which means that such a cocktail after training will bring maximum benefits to the body.
To prepare an egg cocktail, you need to beat 1 raw egg and 5 proteins, cottage cheese (50 g), banana and 100 ml of water in a blender bowl. The resulting drink should be drunk immediately after preparation. Since raw eggs are used for the cocktail, care must be taken to thoroughly process them with soda before use.
Spicy cocktail after training
In the next cocktail, not fruit or vegetable is added to the main ingredients, but a real burning paprika. And it is useful in the content of biologically active substances that positively affect the circulatory system, thinning the blood and preventing the formation of blood clots. In addition, paprika accelerates the absorption of nutrients.
An acute cocktail after training with burning paprika is prepared in the following sequence:
- 200 ml of water is poured into the blender bowl.
- 400 g of low-fat cottage cheese spills out from above.
- Lastly, a teaspoon of ground red paprika is added.
- All ingredients are whipped until a homogeneous, moderately dense mass is obtained.
A spicy cocktail is ready. It can be used both after training and during the day.
Strawberry Flavored Protein Shake
After training, it is important for people who work out in the gym to restore both protein and carbohydrate, or energy, reserves. Therefore, when choosing a protein shake recipe, it is important to pay attention to its nutritional value. Ideally, the protein and fat content will be high, and the fat content low. This nutritional value is provided by a cocktail prepared according to the following recipe. It contains 34 g of protein, 26 g of fat and less than 4 g of carbohydrates.
To prepare a delicious protein (protein) shake with a rich strawberry flavor, you need to whip only three ingredients in a bowl of an immersion blender. To restore the protein balance, you will definitely need 1.5% milk (200 ml), cottage cheese (200 g) and 100 g of fresh or frozen strawberries. Such a cocktail will not only fully restore strength, but also give a good mood for the whole day.
Oat smoothie with cottage cheese and apple
Almost 800 ml of a high protein cocktail can be obtained by preparing it according to the following recipe:
- Oatmeal (100 g) is poured with water for 10 minutes so that it swells well.
- Apples (2 pcs.) Are peeled from the core. The peel can be left as it is an additional source of fiber.
- Prepare 200 g fat-free cottage cheese.
- Now all prepared ingredients (oatmeal, cottage cheese and apples) are loaded into the blender bowl and beat thoroughly until a homogeneous consistency.
After a workout with oatmeal, the protein shake contains 45 g of protein, 110 g of carbohydrates and 7 g of fat. It can be drunk in 2 doses. The first time - half an hour after training, and the second - with the next meal after 2-3 hours.
Blueberry smoothie with yogurt
This cocktail can be called not protein, but carbohydrate. The explanation is very simple: the protein content, like fat, is low in it, and carbohydrates is as much as 60 g. Its use is recommended for athletes to restore energy reserves after performing physical exercises.
After a workout, a home-made cocktail is prepared very simply and quickly:
- 60 g of dry oats groats "Hercules" are poured into a blender bowl.
- Next, peeled banana and 60 g of frozen blueberries are added. You can also take fresh berries, but with a frozen cocktail it turns out more refreshing.
- At the very end, oatmeal and fruit are poured with natural yogurt with a low percentage of fat and no additives. In total, about 300 or 400 g of this dairy product will be needed. You can add less yogurt, then the drink will be more like a smoothie than a cocktail.
Slimming Cocktail After Workout
The following 2 cocktail recipes not only contribute to weight loss after exercising in the gym, but also positively affect the functioning of the entire digestive system. This is explained by the presence of fermented milk products in the composition and a high fiber content.
Cocktails after a workout at home can be prepared according to the following recipes:
- In a bowl of a stationary blender, 300 ml of coconut milk is poured (can be replaced with the usual one with a low percentage of fat content), 1% kefir (200 ml), a tablespoon of liquid honey and peeled and cut into small pieces of kiwi. Then all the ingredients are thoroughly beaten until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. The protein content in such a cocktail is 21 g, fat - 17 g, carbohydrates - 10 g.
- Using a submersible blender in a deep glass, fresh raspberries (150 g) are crushed to a puree state. Then milk and yogurt with a fat content of 1.5% (200 ml each) are poured into the berry mass. The ingredients are again well beaten, after which the cocktail can be poured into glasses. The protein content in it is 17 g, fat - 6 g, carbohydrates - 24 g.