Recovery drinks..

richa

I have some quite aggressive training and weight loss targets and am looking to add some sort of recovery drink after my morning workouts.

What are the performing ingredients of a recovery drink? How much of each is required?

I have identified three potential recovery drinks which I thought would be worth putting against each other in a kind of nutrient pepsi challenge.

So, which would be best for recovery (where weight loss is also a key factor) and why:

Drink A = 248 KCals; 16g Protein; 46g Carbs; 1.5g Fat.
Drink B = 165 KCals; 25g Protein; 13g Carbs; 1.3g Fat.
Drink C = 196 KCals; 19g Protein; 28g Carbs; 0.6g Fat.

Look forward to your votes & views...

stjohnswell

Cant bring myself to vote unless you put beans and toast up as the real food option

1/2 can heinz beans
151kcal
10g protein
27g carbs
0.4g fat

1 slice of hovis seeded wholemeal toast
113kcal
4.4g protein
24.2g carbs
2.1g fat

richa

Beans on toast is good...

But not that easy to make/consume as I walk the 5 mins from the gym to work.

arnie-77

Is the source of protein whey or soya?

Noclue

After a hard work out you need carbs to reverse the effects of cortisol, up to 1g per kg of body weight i believe, if you take in insufficent carbs your body will just try to convert any protein you take into carbs to refuel muscles, repair comes later. So i voted A.

richa

arnie-77 wrote:

Is the source of protein whey or soya?

They are all milk-based products.

arnie-77

I think for optimum recovery you want ratio of roughly 3:1 carbs to protein, and the protein source is ideally high quality whey. On the weight loss, if you recovery properly you can train hardand more often so weight loss will follow naturally.

Option A gets my vote.

Frank the tank

As refered to in another thread I quite like for goodness shakes,


















Or four/five pints of GUINNESS

Bhima

arnie-77 wrote:

I think for optimum recovery you want ratio of roughly 3:1 carbs to protein,

Isn't it 4:1?

I read that it's 4:1 on the side of a bottle of that Mars Milkshake you can get... There's loads of info on the side of the bottle about how it's "proven" and that it's the choice of recovery drink for the world's best cyclists etc...

http://www.marsrefuel.com/product/mars_refuel.aspx

Read it next time you see a bottle of it in the shops...

Bhima

By the way, is it best to drink a recovery drink slowly - like over a 5 minute period - or really quickly? I usually ram it down my throat but i'm a bit concerned that it's probably the wrong way because your body has a limit to how fast it can absorb nutrition...


?

Frank the tank

If for instance you drink FGS as I do, I consume it over 10-15mins.

arnie-77

Pretty sure its 3:1, the '1' part being high quality whey protein. Absorbs faster than Soya and has other benefits too apparently. Not sure I believe either the 4:1 recovery ratio or or the pro rider endorsement on the Mars drink. But I may be wrong on all counts...

arnie-77

Also I don't think the whey powder in that Mars drink is quite the same deal as the quality whey protein powder you would find in say an SIS Rego Rapide.

stjohnswell

stjohnswell wrote:

Cant bring myself to vote unless you put beans and toast up as the real food option

1/2 can heinz beans
151kcal
10g protein
27g carbs
0.4g fat

1 slice of hovis seeded wholemeal toast
113kcal
4.4g protein
24.2g carbs
2.1g fat

I need to retract this comment because in a weak moment I've just gone and bought a tub of torq recovery from wiggle

RichA - you owe me £35.

arnie-77

After doing some googling for recovery drinks I came across Bikefood, an energy and recovery all in one drink, looked like it's worth a punt. Best bit is the website 'bottle offer', I have sent them my old SIS bottle in exchange for a new Bikefood one. Nice!