What we eat before cycling classes is very important, but what we eat afterward is even more important. The main value of eating right after a class is that we recover well and can train well the next day. ACSM guidelines are clear that, while three days a week of exercise can postpone the inevitable age-related fitness decline, more frequent workouts are necessary for fitness improvement. So refueling is key.
If your students are anything like mine, though, the refueling meal — and “meal” is a generous term — might range from a banana to nothing but a latte. Neither of these offers the best post-workout fuel. Below are a few points on post-cycling consumption to encourage your students to eat the right stuff.
According to Maughan”™s Nutrition in Sport and other research, the best post-workout fuel is a combination of starch and protein, in a ratio of about 3:1. The original study by Zawadki et al. used a 2:1 ratio, and I've seen 4:1 used in others, but the generally recognized guideline these days is 3:1.
It”™s best to eat within 30 minutes after the class ends. For many students, that will mean eating in the locker room, so convenience is a factor, but we”™ll get to that in a moment. First let”™s look at three reasons that this 30-minute refueling window is critical:
- Glycogen replacement (repletion) is most effective within 30 minutes because the enzyme (glycogen synthetase) that facilitates it is in its most active form.
- Missing the 30-minute window can trigger transient insulin resistance that may persist for hours. If that occurs, later meals won”™t replace glycogen as effectively as if refueling starts within 30 minutes.
- The carb/protein mix stops the cortisol response, which otherwise tears down muscle tissue.
Actually, the above three reasons have refueling windows of slightly different durations, but it makes the most sense to eat within the smallest window to cover all bases.
For convenience, I recommend a slice or two (maybe three after a tough class) of a bread that”™s easy to find and store in a locker. It's Alvarado St. Essential Flaxseed bread. Here are a few points that make the bread a good choice:
- Alvarado flaxseed bread is whole grain (a good thing, of course) but has fairly large air spaces, raising its glycemic index. Carbs with a high GI provide faster glycogen repletion.
- The flaxseeds in it are whole, thus used by the body as fiber, rather than as fat. It's better to avoid fat in the refueling window because fat slows absorption of carbs. Fast absorption is key following a class.
- It's lower in calories than most bread -- 50 calories per slice vs. 80-100 in other breads.
Other foods can substitute for Alvarado flaxseed bread, but the combination of starch and protein is preferable to sugary recovery drinks, fruit (the wrong post-workout fuel altogether), or the recently touted chocolate milk, which contains mostly sugars.
Getting your students to eat starch and protein 30 minutes or less after class may help many of them recover faster and perform better in the next class.
Contact her at drjoan@foodaddictionsolutions.com
- New Year’s Resolutions: A Sugar Addict’s Survival Guide - April 15, 2024
- Motivation vs. Enthusiasm - October 12, 2023
- Why Exercise Shouldn’t Be Just One Thing - November 9, 2022
I’m a bit puzzled why you advocate a high glycemic index post-exercise replacement “meal” in the same context as the Alvarado St. bread. Given that the flaxseed/whole-grain/starch complex provides for a lower glycemic index than is what’s generally advised (starch and “fiber” are generally considered to be very slow digestable and absorbable carbs)
As much as I hate chocolate milk for taste and general consumption for the non-athlete, it appears to me to be a far better post-exercise glycogen replacement than the bread that’s recommended.
Vivienne
Hi, Vivienne.
Thanks for reading my post. The premise was that some cycling participants either don’t eat after a class, preferring to have just a latte (a popular choice, I’ve found), or to eat fruit (bananas being a popular choice in the fruit category). Because those aren’t optimal for refueling, I suggested one possible option that would satisfy the 30-minute refueling window criteria, and, as stated in the post, store in a locker for an extended period. That 30-minute refueling window will find many cycling students, especially women, still in the locker room after class, so my aim was merely to find something convenient that gets the refueling job done.
You’re correct that whole grains and fiber are not high-glycemic foods. The only part of the Alvarado St. bread that satisfies the high-GI requirement is the size of its air spaces, since that actually does change GI. (By contrast, pasta made with white semolina has a lower GI because it’s tightly compressed, especially if cooked al dente.)
I’ve discovered that encouraging students to eat junk within the 30-minute post-exercise period — or any time — is a bad idea because many will take it as an endorsement of junk, period. The advantages of the Alvarado St. bread are simply these:
1. It stores in a locker.
2. It doesn’t contain junk (and I’d include processed white flour as junk).
3. It contains very little sugar, a troublesome and/or addictive food for some.
4. It has a good carb/protein ratio for glycogen repletion.
5. It’s lower in calories than many breads, which affects the willingness of some students who may be concerned about weight management to eat it.
There are other food options for refueling, of course.
Fructose is not the best choice, whether in fruit or in a food bar, because muscle glycogen replacement is slow with fructose.
I steer people away from sugar (e.g., in food bars) because it’s unhealthful and addictive. As you probably know, sucrose is a disaccharide, containing equal parts glucose and fructose. Interestingly — and no debate on this appears in the science lit — it’s the fructose in sucrose that makes it unhealthful, not the glucose. So sugary foods and/or beverages would not seem to be the best post-training fuels, either, because they’re half fructose, and fructose is unhealthful and doesn’t restore muscle glycogen quickly.
As a rule, I don’t recommend chocolate milk because it requires refrigeration during the workout, thus isn’t convenient; lactose intolerance is common; allergy to chocolate is common; and sugar is unhealthful and/or addictive. If you prefer chocolate milk, and it works for you, that’s great. I’m aware of only one study on the recovery benefits of chocolate milk. In it, chocolate milk was compared to recovery beverages containing sugar. I haven’t found much in the lit on the repletion advantages of lactose per se, but I wouldn’t be surprised if chocolate milk compared favorably to recovery drinks mainly because of the sugar in the chocolate and for no other reason. Many clients of mine would grab it, however, as an excuse to consume sugar.
If pressed for an alternative to the Alvarado St. bread, I’d probably recommend potatoes (high GI) with some unsweetened protein powder mixed with water. Both store easily in a locker.
Thanks,
Joan
Thanks Joan! Great tips on nutrient timing!