Recovery nutrition

[Ellen]

Howdy all,
As a sports dietitian, I highly recommend this article (URL below my name). It has excellent technical as well as practical advice from sports nutrition researchers on nutrition for recovery and promotes eating "real food."
A great substitute for expensive recovery drinks -- 1% fat chocolate milk Fruit flavored yogurt is good, also.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/healt ... 0&emc=eta1

[Hikin_Jim]

An RD that prescribes chocolate? Now how cool is that?!

Ellen, you're the greatest.

HJ

[Zé]

"Even if there are effects of protein and carbohydrates, they are not important to most exercisers, these researchers say. Serious triathletes and elite runners, who work out in the morning and at night, need to eat between training sessions. But people who are running a few miles a few days a week don’t need to worry about replenishing their muscles, Dr. Phillips said.

Dr. Rennie agreed. “If you are a superathlete, hundredths of a second matter,” he said. “But most Joes and Janes are just kidding themselves,” he said."

I'm sorry, but way to overgeneralize. This is not about shaving a second off of some personal record, this is about having sufficient energy (glycogen).

If you work out hard for a sustained period of time, it is in your best interest to eat several hundreds of calories of carbohydrates in the few hours afterward. Not just because you are much more sensitive to absorption then which will recuperate you faster, but so you don't feel like CRAP.

Yes you can take the next day off to recuperate, but that's because you have to because you will feel lethargic. Eat some after you workout, and you won't feel lethargic.

Of course, a lot of people aren't working out that hard, but some are. Its nice for them to know that they don't have to feel like crap afterwards.

[zippetydude]

Personally, I like my present regimen of a couple of cold beers and some chips! After a 2 or 3 hour workout, I very seldom do another run/workout the same day, so recovery on those days is not an issue.

However, on weekdays, I might well do a quick, hard 3 miler in the morning, then follow up with an hour bike ride that evening, so I do the carbo reload thing on those days.

I can't say as I feel any different though, but eating something tasty rewards my exercising behavior, so I'm trying to use Pavlovian behavior modification on my subconscious.

Interestingly, it seems to work in a weird sense. I like German beer, and it sometimes has that "skunky" aroma. Now, when I'm driving down the road and smell a skunk, I think, "Hmmm! That makes me hungry! Some chips sound good right now!" My kids say that's gross, but I think it's evidence that my clever conditioning strategy is beginning to work!

z

[Hikin_Jim]

Oh, so that's what you mean when you say you've been doing a lot of conditioning lately.

[Ellen]

Howdy Ze,

Since you asked for specifics (information below is from my continuing education course on sports nutrition):

When there is less than 8 hours between workouts or competitions that deplete muscle glycogen stores, the athlete should start consuming carbohydrate immediately after the first exercise session to maximize the effective recovery time. The athlete may be more comfortable eating small amounts more frequently (e.g. every 30 minutes). During longer periods of recovery (24 hours), it doesn’t appear to matter how intake is spaced throughout the day as long as the athlete consumes adequate carbohydrate and energy.

During the early period of recovery (0 to 4 hours) after glycogen-depleting exercise, the athlete should consume 1 to 1.2 gm of carbohydrate per kg each hour. Recovery meals and snacks contribute towards the athlete’s daily carbohydrate requirements of 5 to 12 g of carbohydrate/kg/day.

Adding protein to the recovery feeding does not enhance muscle glycogen storage when the amount of carbohydrate is at or above the threshold for maximum glycogen synthesis – 1 to 1.2 g/kg/hour. However, consuming protein with recovery snacks and meals may help to increase net muscle protein balance, promote muscle tissue repair, and enhance adaptations involving synthesis of new proteins.

The athlete’s initial recovery snack/meal should include 10 to 20 g of high quality protein (about 6 to 12 g of essential amino acids) in addition to carbohydrate. Recovery meals and snacks count towards the athlete’s daily protein requirements of ~1.2 to 1.7 gm of protein/kg/day.

Howdy Z-dude,

While I don't share your speed, I do share your love for good beer, especially German beer. The tram bar now has Red Hook ale on tap, which tastes really good after Skyline. I bring my own baked Nacho Cheese Doritos for the salt. Yum!

Howdy Jim,

Triathletes I've worked with said they like my views on chocolate, ice-cream, and beer

Miles of smiles,
Ellen
Rising like the Phoenix from the ashes