Hey what's up everyone welcome to another video my name is Dylan I'm a cycling coach at CTS and today we're going to be talking about what to eat after your workout to boost your recovery. Does timing matter post workout? Should your post workout meal be high carb high protein or a mixture of both? And do post workout supplements and protein supplements work better or worse than real food? All that coming up. If you're new to this channel and make weekly training racing and gear related videos going over tips and tricks that I've learned in my 12 years of racing and training experience that have gotten me to the top of the Ultra Endurance mountain bike game in the US and as a cycling coach at CTS. If you want to learn how to get faster or just more about the science of training in general then be sure to subscribe and if you have a training question or a topic you'd like to see me cover in a future video be sure to leave it down in the comments section below. I do my best to get to all the questions in the comments. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what to eat post workout and let's start with protein. Many riders are of the belief that after a workout you need to consume a lot of protein and many riders use protein powders or other protein supplements immediately post workout. This mentality is probably borrowed from the lifting and bodybuilding community which is often protein obsessed. However protein powders and supplements are probably not the best thing that you can be consuming after you ride to improve your recovery. A systematic review on the effects of protein supplements for recovery found that high quality and consistent data demonstrated there is no apparent relationship between recovery of muscle function and rating of muscle soreness and surrogate markers of muscle damage when protein supplements are consumed prior to, during or after about of endurance or resistance exercise. But why? Doesn't protein help us rebuild muscle? Well the reality is that we probably get enough protein through our diet already. From that same study the data suggests potential ergotogenic effects associated with protein supplementation are greatest if participants are in a negative nitrogen and or energy balance. Negative nitrogen balance basically means not getting enough protein but how many people actually don't get enough protein. Well from this USDA survey the number of Americans who don't get enough protein is only 3% and clearly it's not the nutrient we should be most concerned about. This is certainly not what supplement companies would lead you to believe and it's very likely that most of that 3% that's not getting enough protein are on highly restrictive diets in order to lose weight. This doesn't mean that protein is an important you definitely want to be getting enough but this doesn't mean that you need a protein supplement especially as a post workout meal. Yo I just started taking this new protein powder that my bodybuilding friend recommended for me. It's called hypergain beast mode mask gain or raw addition in the cupcake flavor. Super good. I've started to notice a difference already. What's vastly more important than protein post workout is carbohydrate consumption and that's because cycling is a glycogen depleting activity. Glycogen being your stored carbohydrates. Replenishing your body's lost glycogen should be at the top of your list of priorities in a post workout meal. From this article on glycogen recynthesis after exercise they stated that to maximize glycogen recynthesis carbohydrates should be consumed immediately after exercise and if you weight two hours the rate of glycogen recynthesis is reduced by 50%. Right after you're done with a workout is when your body replenishes those carbohydrates stores the fastest meaning that you'll feel better in your next workout and the longer you wait the slower this process happens. That's why it's recommended that you consume carbohydrates immediately post workout. When it comes to choosing carbohydrates or protein for your post workout meal without a doubt you want to go with carbs but in the real world you don't have to choose either or you can combine the two. Would combining carbohydrates and protein lead to better recovery? After all there are plenty of recovery supplements that claim to have the magic ratio of carbs to protein so let's see what the science has to say. The use of a carb and protein mixture became popular after studies like this that had subjects consumed just carbs, just protein or carbs and protein together after a two hour ride. What they found was that glycogen recynthesis was fastest when carbs and protein were combined then when subjects consumed carbs only and consuming protein only performed significantly worse. Research like this spawned recovery supplement companies to start making drink mixes in what they claimed was the perfect ratio. For example in this study the ratio of carbohydrates to protein is 3 to 1. Many supplement companies advertise the 3 to 1 ratio. Let's slow down here for a minute though. There's one glaringly obvious problem with this study and other studies like it and that's that they didn't use equal calories. The carb group in this study ingested 112 grams of carbs and the carb plus protein group ingested 112 grams of carbs plus an additional 40 grams of protein. So that's roughly 450 calories versus 600 calories. It shouldn't come to much of a surprise that people consuming more calories recovered better after exercise. What they need to do is test the same amount of calories from just carbs versus carbs and protein and that's exactly what they did. In this study on carbohydrate and protein intake during recovery they had three groups. One that consumed carbs and protein, one that consumed the same amount of carbs as the first group but without protein, and one that consumed just carbs but matched the calories of the first group. Following recovery subjects ran to exhaustion at 70% of maximal oxygen uptake and here's what they found. Just like with the previous study, carb plus protein performed better than the same amount of carbs without protein. However, when they equalize the calories, the carb only mixture actually performed the best. The study concluded that inclusion of protein in the solution was no more beneficial than when ingesting a more concentrated carbohydrate solution of equivalent energy content and further research has confirmed these findings. When it comes to your post-workout meal, carbohydrates are the most important component. Yes, you need a sufficient amount of protein throughout the day but a protein supplement post-workout is not what you're looking for. Now let's get into recovery supplements versus real food. Mystery powder or a PB&J, which is going to make you feel the best on your next ride. From this paper on basic recovery aids, eating whole foods seems to be as beneficial as consuming specifically engineered recovery foods or beverages. Many of the commercial calorie replacement products are quite expensive and are not any better than whole foods. Additionally, they are typically dense in macronutrients but poor in micronutrients. And that's the key here. In addition to paying more for something that doesn't work better, these supplements aren't nutritious. Nutricious? What do I look like? I shop at whole foods for being sprouts and ingredients for my next juice cleanse? What does that matter for my recovery? Because nutritious whole foods high in antioxidants have been shown to improve recovery. A study looking at the effects of tomato juice on oxidative stress took 50 male track athletes and divided them into two groups, a control group and an experimental group that drank tomato juice after their workouts. They tested both groups in a 12 minute time trial before and after and found that those drinking tomato juice ran significantly farther than they previously had while the control groups on no improvement. The tomato juice drinkers also showed a reduction in markers of oxidative stress leading to the conclusion that the antioxidant like a pain in the tomato reduced oxidative stress and improved performance. These sorts of findings are all over the scientific literature. A study on lemon juice and exercise induced oxidative stress found the same thing, concluding that the lemon did not block the cellular adaptive response but also reduced cellular oxidative damage. Cherry juice has been shown to increase antioxidant capacity after a marathon leading to aided recovery and in another study reduced symptoms of exercise induced muscle damage. That study showed that strength loss after eccentric exercise was 22% with a placebo but only 4% when subjects consume cherry juice. Blueberries are another rich source of antioxidants and have been shown to reduce inflammation after 2 and a half hours of running. These recovery promoting antioxidants are severely lacking in recovery supplements which is why I recommend going with whole foods. Something that's high in carbohydrates and high in antioxidants is ideal. A go-to for me is oatmeal with high antioxidant fruits. Another thing to think about when it comes to post-ride nutrition is whether or not you should consume one large meal post-ride or space it out over a couple hours. In this study on the frequency of carbohydrate feeding on muscle glycogen storage they had subjects either consume 4 large meals between workouts or consume the same amount of food but space it out so that they were eating hourly between workouts. They found no significant difference in muscle glycogen storage between the two groups. The study concludes that there is no difference in post-exercise glycogen storage over 24 hours when a high carbohydrate diet is fed as small frequent snacks or as large meals. So to conclude the sooner you can eat after your workout the better and you want your post-workout meal to come from whole foods that are high in carbohydrates and high antioxidant. While getting enough protein in your overall diet is important, using a protein supplement post-workout is significantly less effective than eating a high carb meal and supplements in general are probably less effective because they lack the micronutrients that have been shown to aid in recovery. These supplements can be expensive too. Save your money and shop in the produce section not the supplement section. When replenishing your carbohydrate stores it doesn't seem to matter whether or not you eat one large meal or space it out over a couple hours but make sure you get something in immediately post-workout. Thanks for watching and I hope you guys found this information helpful. If you like this video be sure to give it a like share it with a friend and subscribe and if you want to see more training and racing content be sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and if you want to follow my training be sure to check me out on Strava. If you're interested in getting a coach if you sign up through CTS be sure to use my code CTSDJ to save $40 by waiving the registration fee. Details are down in the description.