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I normally have a shake of protein powder and waxy maize starch right after a lifting workout. What are your thoughts on replacing the shake with some sort of solid food?

The reason I would like to eat solid food instead of a shake is that I wonder if having solid food will keep me fuller. I work out in the morning, so I eat breakfast at 6 am (oats and protein powder), am at the gym by 7:15 am, and am drinking my postworkout shake by 8:30 or 8:45 am. The problem is that I get ravenous by 9:30. That is way too early for lunch, so I have a snack, but I still get hungry by around 10:30. If I had solid food in lieu of a shake, would I stay full longer? And what would be some good choices - yogurt and a banana? toast and egg whites?

BTW, I live only 5 minutes from the gym, so I have enough time after I work out to quickly make a meal without losing the important 30 minute window for the postworkout meal.

My after workout meal is eggs and sausages. If you can tolerate carbs, go with the toast. If you're trying to gain weight, have your post workout shake and then have a full breakfast at 8:30. Also, there's nothing magical about the 30 minute window. The important thing is that you have something. If you're getting hungry, that's a sign you're not eating enough or you're eating the wrong stuff. You're probably ravenous because you eat high carb/low fat. (I base that on the oatmeal and egg whites which are typical high carb/low fat foods).

It sounds like the problem is lack of fat in your diet. Fat helps you feel full. Despite conventional "wisdom", fat is not bad for you. There is not one shred of scientific evidence to support that.

The Seven Countries study is what started this whole thing. However if you look at that, it starts with a conclusion and then uses cherry-picking to get results to support that conclusion. It also fails to have proper control and variable groups and it also does not separate it's variables. It does not have any evidence for the arrow of causation either. In other words the study fails in many many ways and is therefore not proper science at all. It is junk science.

More than that, eating a high carb meal leads to elevated blood sugar which is followed by a blood sugar crash which leads to hunger for more carbs therefore perpetuating the hunger/crash cycle.

ya, it amazed me how food cravings virtually went away when I stopped eating processed carbs and sugar

"Yogurt" especially is a red flag. Unless you're eating the real deal, it's usually mostly refined sugar.

Thanks for your replies. I actually do get a decent amount of fat (a lot of nuts and olive oil), but I avoid them in the morning (because i work out in the morning), as I heard it was not good to have fat shortly before or after a workout. I start eating fats mid-day.

Believe me, I avoid processed sugar at all costs - I should have specified that I eat greek yogurt, unsweetened. Would that be a decent post-workout meal?

Sounds fairly reasonable, especially if you're trying to bulk. Real yogurt is going to be nutritionally similar to milk, which is what Rippetoe et al rave over for gaining.

(I cut out yogurt when I went minimal carb to lose fat... If I ever get around to doing bulking I might bring it back. But it's faster just to drink the milk...)

When you think about it, what you have asked is, "is it OK to eat real food instead of a processed food substitute?" I think when it is phrased that way, the answer is obvious.

Listen to this man.