Recovery Nutrition Guidelines After Hard Exercise

By Nancy Clark, MS RD CSSD
For Active.com

If you are an avid athlete, you've undoubtedly noticed the latest hype surrounding recovery nutrition. The sports supplement industry is bombarding us with commercial recovery foods and fluids that generally offer some combination of carbs and protein.

Questions arise: How important is proper nutritional recovery? And how essential are these products to your performance? The purpose of this article is to help you refuel appropriately after your workouts and optimize your performance.

If you are a fitness exerciser--an athletic person who works out three or four times a week for 30 to 60 minutes--you can be less focused on recovery nutrition than the athlete who works to fatigue one or two times a day. Your body does not become depleted during fitness workouts, plus you have plenty of time to refuel before your next exercise session.

But if you are an athlete who exercises to exhaustion, does double workouts and needs to rapidly recover from one exercise bout to prepare for the next one, your recovery diet deserves full attention.

A few examples include:

• Soccer players in a weekend tournament
• Swimmers competing in two events at a meet
• Triathletes doing two-a-day workouts

... and yes, even ...

The compulsive exerciser who spends too much time at the health club.

You'll be able to perform better during repeated bouts of hard exercise if you have planned your recovery diet and have the right foods and fluids readily available to adequately replace calories, carbohydrates, protein, fluids and sodium.

Calories

If you are tired, time-crunched and without a nutrition recovery plan, you might have trouble consuming enough calories (as well as carbs) and fail to replace depleted glycogen stores. A simple solution is to quench your thirst (and abate your hunger) by drinking less water and more cranberry, grape or any other appealing fruit juice. Juices provide the fluid you need, as well as carbs and calories.

If you are trying to lose weight by restricting calories, your best bet is to fuel adequately by day to ensure strong workouts. Then, have a lighter dinner and fewer evening snacks. Do not try to restrict by day and exercise on empty; you'll have poor workouts.

Carbohydrates

To replenish depleted blood sugar and muscle glycogen stores and recover from the demands of strenuous exercise, your should plan to consume carbohydrates as soon as tolerable, preferably within 30 minutes post-exercise. Muscles rely on carbs for fuel, so think again if you are on an Atkins-type low-carb diet.

Athletes who weigh 100 to 200 pounds need 75 to 150 grams (300 to 600 calories) of carbohydrates repeatedly every two hours, for six hours. The trick is to plan ahead and have the right foods and fluids readily available for frequent snacking. Otherwise, you may neglect your recovery diet by mindlessly eating nothing--or whatever is around: doughnuts, burgers, hot dogs, nachos, chips, and other high-fat choices that fail to refuel your muscles.