So you just finished your workout and you're starving… what should you eat?!
If you’re an avid daily (or two-a-day!) exerciser, providing your body with nutrients to recover is vital.
This will help your body replenish glycogen stores (carbohydrates your body stores to use during exercise), repair and rebuild muscle, and help rehydrate.
Your body is working its hardest and fastest to replenish glycogen stores within 30 to 45 minutes after you finish a workout. During this time, it’s best to have a carbohydrate-rich snack with a smidge of protein. Protein helps your body store glycogen more efficiently.
For endurance athletes, this 3:1 or 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio is ideal.
Carbohydrate-Protein 4:1 Combo Recovery Snacks
Low-fat or fat-free chocolate milk
A bowl of cornflakes with fat-free or low-fat milk
8 oz orange juice and half a bagel
Low-fat or fat-free yogurt with a piece of fruit
A couple of slices of turkey with a slice of whole-grain bread
Low-fat cottage cheese and fruit
Cheese and crackers
Pretzels and a bit of peanut butter
Commercial Recovery powder with a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of carbs-to-protein
Nutrition quality is not as important during the immediate post-workout refueling snack because we're looking for speedy glycogen recovery. Simple carbs will be digested quicker and get into the muscle faster during this important post-workout window.
Once you're out of that window, revert to whole grains and less processed foods.
How much recovery fuel do you need?
This ultimately depends on the duration and intensity of your training session. Your body needs about 1 - 1.2 grams of carbs per kg of weight per hour of exercise performed (g/kg/hr).
Goal: For an hour-long workout, that might look like these amounts:
Women: 150 – 200 calories
Men: 300 – 400 calories
How to Recover after Strength Training
Recovery fuel is an important part of your diet if you're trying to build muscle.
Keeping you in the anabolic - or muscle-building - zone means taking in more calories than your body needs for maintenance. For this reason, you certainly do not want to skip this ideal opportunity to refuel!
Recovery needs differ slightly after strength. Your goal is to consume mostly, if not purely, protein. This will help maximize your muscle adaptations.
Goal: Aim to consume 20 to 40 grams of protein within the 30 minutes after your strength training session.
Do you always have to have a post-workout snack?
Refueling within 30 - 45 minutes of your training session speeds recovery and helps prepare your body for your next workout or competition. This is especially important if you're working out again on the same day or within 24 hours.
However, if your next exercise or training session is more than 24 hours away, you don’t necessarily need to worry about eating within 30 minutes. Your body will be able to slowly and naturally build back up your glycogen stores over the next 24+ hours so that you’re ready to go!
One last benefit of a post-workout snack
If your next full meal is more than an hour away but you aren't working out until the next day (ie: no immediate need for a recovery snack), think about grabbing a quality, balanced snack after your workout.
This will help prevent you from getting too hungry before your next meal, so that you're less likely to overeat.
Sources:
Kerksick C, Harvey T, Stout J, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: nutrient timing [published correction appears in J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008;5:18]. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008;5:17. Published 2008 Oct 3. doi:10.1186/1550-2783-5-17
Schoenfeld BJ, Aragon A, Wilborn C, Urbina SL, Hayward SE, Krieger J. Pre- versus post-exercise protein intake has similar effects on muscular adaptations [published correction appears in PeerJ. 2017 Aug 1;5:e2825/correction-1. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2825/correction-1]. PeerJ. 2017;5:e2825. Published 2017 Jan 3. doi:10.7717/peerj.2825
Murray B, Rosenbloom C. Fundamentals of glycogen metabolism for coaches and athletes. Nutr Rev. 2018;76(4):243-259. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuy001
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