Gainer

Good day, Mr. Jelínek,

Due to time constraints, I often train in the evening, sometimes arriving home before ten o'clock, and I have to get up for work in the morning. Since I don't want to burden my body with a "main" meal, I resort to post-workout nutrition with a gainer, after which I can go to sleep peacefully without feeling heavy.

Is this a viable option? Or would you still recommend a full meal even at the expense of potentially poorer sleep quality? I believe sleep is also very important.

Thank you for your response.

When considering a gainer, always view it as a substitute that can never be equivalent to whole food. It does offer the advantage of easy digestibility, which natural food cannot compete with; however, it is an artificially created product with several shortcomings and disadvantages. While consuming them in a given situation is a solution, it is always beneficial to question how meaningful it really is. The body still has to process the individual components, so consuming food shortly before bedtime will always be a burden.

If health is also a priority for you in sports, I would rather opt for natural foods and leave gainers to the professionals in strength sports who cannot do without these products. In post-workout nutrition, you need to provide the body primarily with proteins and carbohydrates with a smaller share of fiber and fats, "packaged" for the best achievable digestibility especially in the late evening hours. Try, for instance, a combination of potatoes (or sweet potatoes or rice) with low-fat fish (like trout). Another interesting option is bone broths with miso paste, potato, and nutritional yeast.

If you are aiming for sleep quality, also consider the volume of the last meal, which determines the overall burden on digestion.