Recovery drink carbohydrate:protein ratio curiosity

buckles

First of all, I believe "real food is better" and have already heard the opinions that "recovery drinks are a waste of money if you're not a pro cyclist training twice a day multiple days in a row" and I should "have a pint of milk and some bananas instead" etc. so save yourself time by not telling me these things...

Just curious as to why so many 'sports nutrition' companies use a 2:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein.

I read recommendations (example) of consuming 1.5g of carbs per kilogram bodyweight in the 30 minutes after training, to maximise glycogen resynthesis. For me this would be about 110g. Also read that one should have 20g protein. For me then the carbohydrate to protein ratio would be about 11:2. Higher for heavier people and lower for lighter people.

However recovery drink powders such as SIS Rego have a carbohydrate to protein ratio of 2:1, and they recommend 1-2 x 50g servings after training. Which would be 33g Carbs and 17g protein or 66g Carbs and 34g protein. Unless you have a snack at the same time this doesn't seem ideal to me if the aforementioned recommendations are anything to go by - even 2 servings of the stuff would provide less than two thirds of the 1.5g/kg bw recommendation.

If you were mixing your own recovery drink should you simply copy commercial products such as Rego or should you mix whatever ratio results in 1.5g/kg and 20g protein?

sungod

depending on composition, i think the typical rate at which you can digest carbs is 60 or 90g/hour max - the higher rate is for a glucose/fructose mix, they are digested differently hence the potential increase

i assume the drink portion sizes are intended to avoid chugging more carbs than can be readily digested

personally i go for a serving of high5 2:1 choc early in the first hour and then follow up with proper food a bit later when i feel more like eating again

FatTed

I prefer to have a drink with about 20g Protein and a small amount of carbs, I do not want to put on weight. I only need to have a recovery drink if I am riding on consecutive days.

Zoomer37

FatTed wrote:

I prefer to have a drink with about 20g Protein and a small amount of carbs, I do not want to put on weight. I only need to have a recovery drink if I am riding on consecutive days.

Your diet is that tight your worried about taking in some carbs after a ride? :?

Suggest maybe looking at other times of the day to cut down on your carb intake if your dieting and start refuelling your body properly after a ride.

Herbsman

FatTed wrote:

I prefer to have a drink with about 20g Protein and a small amount of carbs, I do not want to put on weight. I only need to have a recovery drink if I am riding on consecutive days.

That's all fine and dandy but that's not what was asked.

Not sure about the average crap 3rd cat but as a crap 3rd cat myself I use between 6000 and 9000 Calories during a week of training. I'm not sure how 75-100g of carbohydrate (300-400 Calories) would lead to weight gain.

sloppyschleckonds

FatTed wrote:

Clue in username may be

team47b

4:1 carb to protein

100gm bread
25gm cheese

cheese sandwich.

recovery drink...cup of tea

buckles

I much prefer fish, rice and vegetables with a glass of diluted lemon juice. Bread is much too processed, cheese is too fatty and tea inhibits iron absorption.

SBezza

Buckles wrote:

First of all, I believe "real food is better" and have already heard the opinions that "recovery drinks are a waste of money if you're not a pro cyclist training twice a day multiple days in a row" and I should "have a pint of milk and some bananas instead" etc. so save yourself time by not telling me these things...

Just curious as to why so many 'sports nutrition' companies use a 2:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein.

I read recommendations (example) of consuming 1.5g of carbs per kilogram bodyweight in the 30 minutes after training, to maximise glycogen resynthesis. For me this would be about 110g. Also read that one should have 20g protein. For me then the carbohydrate to protein ratio would be about 11:2. Higher for heavier people and lower for lighter people.

However recovery drink powders such as SIS Rego have a carbohydrate to protein ratio of 2:1, and they recommend 1-2 x 50g servings after training. Which would be 33g Carbs and 17g protein or 66g Carbs and 34g protein. Unless you have a snack at the same time this doesn't seem ideal to me if the aforementioned recommendations are anything to go by - even 2 servings of the stuff would provide less than two thirds of the 1.5g/kg bw recommendation.

If you were mixing your own recovery drink should you simply copy commercial products such as Rego or should you mix whatever ratio results in 1.5g/kg and 20g protein?

That would be totally dependant on how much glycogen you think you may have used. A recovery product is a kick start product, there is no way your body could process 110gms of carbs in 30 mins, so pointless shoving this much in. You can only really process 60-90gms of carbs per hour anything more than this is just going to sit in the gut.

33gms of carbs and 17gms of protein seem prety decent straight after training, and then an hour later have another dose. I am pretty sure SiS recommend this rather than 2 x 50g servings one after the other. Or have one serving and then get changed showered/bathed and then an hour later when you have recovered enough to eat, just eat a proper meal.

The 2:1 or 4:1 ratio has been studied in tests and hence why these figures are used, but I would avoid the 1.5gms per kg of bodyweight of carbs in 30 min as it isn't all going to get processed that quickly, and glycogen replenishment has been shown to be quicker with protein in the meal

Setarkos

If you want it simple go for 1g carbs and 0.5g protein per kg body weight - start consuming within 20min of the ride and finish within 60min.
If you tend to build muscle mass rather quickly, reduce protein.

I normally have 250g of quark for simplicity (similar to cottage cheese) which is slightly less than 0.5g/kg for me and have carbs depending on the type of ride, appetite and what I had during the ride. Always a mix of quick and slow carbs (eg. whole wheat bread with honey or müsli) and then an actual meal (usually pasta) about an hour later - ideally with some chicken or salmon.