Simple Steps to Optimal Post-Workout Nutrition John M. Berardi is a scientist and PhD candidate in
area of Exercise and Nutritional Biochemistry at University of Western Ontario, Canada. His company, Science Link: Translating Research into Results, specializes in providing integrated training, and nutritional programs for high-level strength and endurance athletes. Through his consulting businesses, John works with a diverse client population including high-level athletes wanting to win medals and championships. Furthermore, John will be completing his PhD with a specialization in exercise and nutritional biochemistry this fall. To say that this guy knows his stuff is an understatement.
In this issue, we decided to pick John’s oversized brain (no really, he does have an abnormally large head) to get his thoughts on a very important topic – Post Workout Nutrition.
grrlAthlete.com: John, what have you found to be biggest mistake in post-workout nutrition by athletes, and female athletes in particular?
John Berardi: The biggest mistake people are making is not doing anything at all about post-workout nutrition! Nutritionally, most people don’t plan for success – not even many of most elite of elite that we regularly work with.
I learned this lesson when I started working with a group of Canadian Olympians a few years back. When I spoke with them about their nutrition and supplementation I was flabbergasted with their lack of nutrition knowledge.
Now, prior to this time I would have anticipated nutritional ignorance or misinformation from average person but not from elite athletes. But I was wrong. In fact, athletes were just about as misinformed as general public.
GA: That’s too bad. What steps did you take after that?
JB: After re-evaluating my premises, I realized that because most athletes can stay lean and fit from high volumes of training their poor nutritional choices could be masked by a body that looks well nourished and healthy. Also, because they are already elite, they think they must be “dialed in”. It’s unfortunate that most of them never know just how outstanding they could be if they really took care of their nutrition.
So, once I get a hold of their programs, those already good-looking bodies usually change as their fat mass decreases and muscle mass increases. But even more importantly, they also improve their performance. This is why I spend a lot of time with my clients and athletes (even ones that already look great); educating them about making appropriate food choices and helping them improve timing of their intake.
GA: John, could you describe some case studies or examples?
JB: For example, most athletes don’t know that certain food choices before exercise can actually reduce their performance. Furthermore, few know that 6 hours after exercise are absolutely critical to recovery. My PhD work has focused on latter.
As a result of my academic training and my laboratory data, I’ve learned how to use food timing to maximize recovery after exercise. And while this is easy to do in athletes who don’t mind gaining weight (i.e. just eat A LOT), it’s much harder to do in athletes who want to lose weight (i.e. most female athletes and athletes in whom power to weight ratio must be high).
GA: So what types of things can someone do to maximize their recovery during these 6 hours?
JB: Well, for starters, there is a key principle at work here. Basically, muscles are most efficient at carbohydrate and energy uptake during this time. Therefore bulk of an athlete’s calories (especially carbohydrates) should come during this post-workout period.
Since fat is burned at high rates during post exercise period regardless of what food you eat, during this time most of ingested energy (protein and carbohydrates) will go to replenish depleted muscle energy stores and to enhance recovery.
Think of it this way. If you were to eat 100g of carbohydrates for lunch and 50g were to end up in muscle stores to promote recovery and 50g were to end up in fat stores to make you fatter, your body composition wouldn’t be improving and recovery wouldn’t be maximized. But if you were to save those 100g of carbohydrates until after exercise, all those carbohydrates would go to muscles for recovery with none of them going to fat cells. So which scenario do you prefer?
GA: Are you suggesting that athletes should only eat carbohydrates after exercise?
JB: Nope, what I’m saying is that you should minimize carbohydrate intake during most meals of day and feed body most of carbs during 6 hour recovery period. I’ve used this strategy with extreme success in all types of athletes from elite endurance cyclists to female fitness competitors who need to minimize total body weight and fat weight while recovering well and maintaining a high level of performance.
