Recovery Nutrition: There is more work to do after your workout!

You may have finished your workout, but you are not done training! Recovery is crucial to maximize the benefits of an intense workout. Without proper recovery, athletes are more prone to injury, chronic fatigue, soreness and illness. Optimal recovery includes rest, stretching, sleep and good nutrition and hydration - this discussion will focus on the nutritional aspects.

Your post-workout meal may very well be the most important meal of the day. After a workout, your body is in a catabolic state - your muscle glycogen is depleted and increased cortisol levels are beginning to break down muscle tissue. To reverse this downward spiral of degradation, eat a meal with quickly digestible carbohydrates and amino acids to promote muscle repair and replenish glycogen stores. Avoid fat in your immediate post-workout meal; fat will slow nutrient absorption delaying the repair process.

Macronutrients: Carbohydrates and Protein
Your post-work out meal should consist of 300-500 calories within 1 hour of completion of activity, depending on your size, intensity of workout and your planned intake for the rest of the day. General recommendations suggest a 3:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. More specific suggestions for endurance athletes indicate optimal post-workout intake should be approximately 0.8 to 1.2 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram (2.2lbs/kg) body weight and 0.2 to 0.4 grams of protein per kilogram body weight. This means a 154 lb man will need 56 to 84 grams of carbohydrate and 14 to 28 grams protein immediately after a workout. Including protein in the recovery diet may increase the insulin response to carbohydrate, thereby increasing the rate of glycogen synthesis.

When selecting carbohydrates, choose moderate to high glycemic index (GI) foods. The carbohydrates will be more readily available than low GI foods. This means immediately after exercise you should select foods like fruit, fruit juice, sports drinks, sports bars or gels, bagel, baked potato, or granola bar and avoid very low glycemic index foods like All Bran cereal, oatmeal, multigrain or pumpernickel bread and legumes. The low GI foods are very nutritious, so be sure to include them in your diet at other times throughout the day.

Planning your entire day's intake around your workout and recovery schedule is important as well - this will ensure you are not overeating. I will use myself as an example, a 132 lb (60 kg) female - while training for IM Coeur D'Alene I did the majority of my workouts in the morning between 5:30 am and 7:00 am. During my 90 to 120 minute weekday morning workouts I would drink only water. Immediately post workout - prior to even showering I would eat a banana (120 calories, 30 gm of carbohydrate). Between 8 and 9 am I would have breakfast, an Odwalla Bar, 1 cup 1% fat cottage cheese with 1 tablespoon jam, and a large mug of green tea (430 calories, 50 g carbohydrate, 44 grams protein). My total post workout/breakfast nutrition regimen contained 550 calories, 80 gm carbohydrate (1.3 gm/kg), and 44 gm protein (0.7 gm protein/kg). Although this is slightly above the recommended intake per kilogram body weight, it worked well for me, as I had no time to eat between breakfast and lunch. Again, it is critical to incorporate your recovery nutrition into your daily intake. In my personal example, to have ingested 500 calories immediately post-workout followed by breakfast would have resulted in excess caloric intake. Alternatively, if you train in the evening, have a light mid- afternoon snack and combine your post-workout meal with dinner.

The following foods provide 75-100 gm of carbohydrate and some protein:
12-17 oz of fruit smoothie made with yogurt
90 grams of a sports bar
2 cups of most breakfast cereals and 1 cup skim milk
Bagel with low-fat cream cheese or peanut butter

Branched Chain Amino Acids
Current research indicates branched chain amino acids (BCAA), leucine, isoleucine and valine, may have an anabolic effect on muscle protein - increasing the rate of synthesis and decreasing the rate of degradation. The best food sources of BCAA are dairy protein, including whey protein, as well as eggs and red meat. Whey protein is commonly available as a powder to add to smoothies, yogurt, baked goods, etc - be sure to choose whey protein isolate over whey protein concentrate. Whey protein isolate contains higher quality protein compared to whey protein concentrate.

Vitamins, Minerals and Antioxidants
Endurance exercise subjects the body to high levels of oxidative damage. Incorporating antioxidant rich foods and beverages or supplementing your diet with antioxidants will aid in recovery. Antioxidants include Vitamins C and Vitamin E, and the mineral selenium. These will be amply provided in any standard multivitamin and mineral supplement. Fruits and vegetables rich in carotenoids are another excellent source of antioxidants. Examples include broccoli, kale, spinach and other dark green vegetables; and sweet potato, winter squash, carrot, mango, papaya, apricot and other bright orange fruits and vegetables. Other antioxidant rich foods include blueberries, strawberries, legumes, and green tea.

Hydrating after Exercise
To best understand your personal hydration needs it is recommended to do a sweat loss study. Weigh yourself pre-workout and post-workout. In general, bodyweight should not decrease by more than 2%. In replenishing lost fluids, aim for 16 - 24 ounces per pound of body weight lost. Not all of that fluid need come from water though - there is a great deal of fluid in many foods, especially fruits and vegetables.

A proper recovery nutrition plan that includes some of the above suggestions will help your overall performance and allow for more productive training days. In many respects, what you eat post-workout can be as important as the training itself!

By Molly Gerster, MS, RD

Tarnopolsky M, Protein requirements for endurance athletes, Nutrition, 2004, (7-8): 662-8.

Reed MJ, et al, Muscle glycogen storage postexercise: effect of mode of carbohydrate administration. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1989;75:1019-23.

Ivy JL, et al, Muscle glycogen synthesis after exercise: effect of time of carbohydrate ingestion. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1988;6:1480-85.

Burke LM, et al, Muscle glycogen storage after prolonged exercise: effect of glycemic index. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1993;75:1019-23.

Molly Gerster, MS, RD is a sports nutritionist for NYC Triathlon Consulting Services. She received her Masters in Nutrition from New York University in 2002, while completing a one-year dietetic internship at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She graduated from Bates College in 1999 with a Bachelors of Science in Biology. Molly has extensive experience in developing nutrition plans to promote optimum performance and achieve desired body weight. While training for and competing in numerous triathlons, Molly has become acutely aware of the unique and powerful effect of proper diet on triathlon performance.