Breakfast is, of course, the most important meal of the day for everyone. It jump starts your body’s metabolic processes for the day. What is the second most important meal for athletes? Your recovery meal. For those who work out more than an hour, multiple times a day or find they are famished and can eat everything in sight after a workout, recovery is critical to getting the most of each workout.

First, a little background. When you workout you use fuel stored in your muscles called glycogen. Glycogen is the form of sugar your muscles use to contract and produce work. Most people have about 300 to 400 grams or 1,200 to 1,600 calories of glycogen stored in their muscles for use. There is also about 75 to 100 grams or 300 to 400 calories of glycogen stored in the liver. Of course, these amounts vary greatly depending on the type of individual (non-athlete to highly-trained athlete) (Dunford). As you workout, you use up your stored glycogen. If it isn’t replaced by your next workout, you may feel fatigued and “heavy.” Not a good way to workout is it? There are two keys when eating to recover – timing and ratio of carbohydrates to protein.

After you’ve finished your workout, your muscles are like a sponge when it comes to absorbing glycogen and protein. However, they only stay this way for a short time – about 30 minutes. If you miss this window, it can take your muscles days to get filled back up with glycogen. You should think about getting something in your stomach, and hence your muscles, as fast as possible after your workout. Personally, I have my recovery meal ready to go before I start my workout. That way I don’t have to prepare or think about it when I’m done.

The second piece of recovery eating is the carbohydrate to protein ratio. Many studies have shown that a ratio of 3 or 4 grams of carbohydrates to every 1 gram of protein is the optimum mixture for recovery. Many of the texts and articles recommend 1.5 grams of carbohydrate per gram of body weight. However, this usually results in a tremendous amount of calories which can cause problems if you are trying to maintain or lose weight. I’d recommend starting with 0.75 grams per kilogram (kg) body weight and see if you notice a difference in how you feel at your next workout.

So, exactly how much is 0.75 grams of carbohydrate per kg body weight? To figure this out, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 and multiply this number by 0.75. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds you would eat about 51 grams of carbohydrate ((150/2.2)*0.75). To figure out how much protein to eat, divide the grams of carbohydrate by 3 then by 4 and eat somewhere in that range. For our example above, this person would eat between 13 and 17 grams of protein (51/4 = 12.75, 51/3 = 17). The total calories for this meal would be between 256 and 272 calories. This amount can be adjusted up or down (but probably up). I would recommend trying it and see how you feel during your next workout. Do you feel better? Worse? No different? This is something you’ll have to tinker with to get the right amount. Try more or less and see if you notice a difference. To finish your recovery eating, eat a meal within two hours that is similar in content to your first recovery meal.

Now that you know how much to eat, here below are some ideas. Be sure and pay attention to how you feel after eating. You don’t want something that doesn’t settle well.
- Use a recovery drink such as low fat chocolate milk, Slim Fast or Endurox.
- Turkey sandwich(s). Each piece of bread is about 15 grams of carbohydrate and each ounce of turkey is about 7 grams of protein. A single sandwich would be two slices of bread and about 1.5 ounces of turkey for 30 grams of carbohydrate, 10.5 grams of protein and 162 calories.

Give recovery eating a try and see if you notice a difference in your performance during your next workout!