During an intensive bout of exercise, your body can use up to 200 or even 250 grams of carbohydrates depleting your full store of glycogen, or stored glucose. Once your exercise is finished, those carbohydrates need to be replenished quickly to keep you at your peak athletic performance. Refueling your body and rebuilding stores of glycogen, or stored glucose, is the last critical step of training.

Replenishing Carbohydrates Post Workout

All athletes following an intense workout should refuel with high carbohydrate snacks and a large meal. This becomes especially important for athletes who will be required to compete again within the week or those who are training heavily daily. In these cases, it’s critical to build up stores of glycogen again before the next bout of activity.

To properly replenish carbohydrates following a workout, you should consume a large high-carbohydrate meal within the first two hours following exercise. Ideally, that meal should occur within the first hour, as this is the “magic window” for muscles to be most receptive to replacing glycogen stores.

Following a heavy workout, your muscles are very receptive to nutrients and glucose and glycogen. This is due to the increased blood flow in the body for the first 15 to 30 minutes following an activity. During these first few minutes, a quick snack of high GI foods such as bananas or dried fruit can help to restore some glycogen with the bulk of the restoration to come later in a full meal.

This first small window of time is also excellent for a high protein food to help build muscles. Eating a high GI food causes the body to release large amounts of insulin to counteract the glucose ingested. The high amounts of insulin stimulate a greater uptake of protein into the muscle cells along with the glucose. The insulin essentially ferries both glucose and protein along to the cells during their most receptive time.

Eating the Right Foods Post Workout

Glucose is blood sugar which translates to energy for the body’s cells. When the glucose is stored in the cells, it becomes glycogen. Eating the right foods before a workout can boost glycogen stores,  but these stores are depleted after 90 minutes of exercise. Longer periods of exercise can require refueling of the body’s glucose stores during exercise, but after training is finished, your cells are essentially empty vessels waiting to be refilled properly. Eating the wrong foods at these times can cause problems with energy stores and prevent proper recovery.

Carbohydrates Within 30 Minutes

The first 30 minutes of training gives you the best opportunity to replenish your stores and deliver protein to the muscle cells as well. During this first half-hour, try to eat at least ½ gram of carbohydrates per pound of body weight. If you weigh 160 pounds, you’ll want to consume 80 grams of carbohydrates in these 30 minutes. While protein is important in this period as well, the proper ratio of carbohydrate to protein is 4:1. For the 160-pound athlete, in 30 minutes you should shoot for 80 grams of carbohydrates and 20 grams of protein.

Carbohydrates Within 2 Hours

Within the first 2 hours following an intense workout, you should eat a large high-carbohydrate meal to restore the rest of the carbohydrates used in exercise. These foods should be mid to high GI foods including items such as fruit, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and perhaps even some simple sugars such as sports drinks.

Carbohydrates Within 24 Hours

It takes up to 20 hours in the best of circumstances to fully recover from a large scale athletic event. Carbohydrate stores, or glycogen, re-establish during these 20 hours provided you’ve consumed enough carbohydrates to replenish your stores.  It’s important to stay focused on eating the right kinds of carbohydrates during the day following training to fully restore all stores of carbohydrates, especially if you’re performing for hours each day.

Problems with Post Workout Carbohydrates

A common trick among many athletes focuses on a quick pick-up following activity by using recovery drinks and gels that have high glycemic index (GI) carbs. These simple sugars are effective to a point, but can cause problems in the long run. High GI foods immediately following a work-out stimulates insulin activity to deliver glucose and protein to the cells, but those large floods of insulin can also cause bouts of low blood sugar as the body compensates for such a quick release. Opting for medium release carbohydrates and avoiding pure simple sugars such as those in high GI foods can provide a more balanced replacement.

It’s also important to note that the recovery periods following workouts are ideal times for you to consume high amounts of carbohydrates and even protein, but not for fats. Be sure that you’re selected low-fat, high carbohydrate options to allow your body to restore itself most effectively.

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