Copyright 2010 LifeHealthSecrets

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.

Copyright 2010 Life Health Secrets

In some cases, the glucose arriving in the body’s cells are stored for later use. This is particularly true of the liver and muscle cells. In these cells, excess glucose is stored as glycogen for later use. As discussed previously in regard to the best pre-workout meals, eating carbohydrates before exercising is a great way to prepare for a bout of exercise.

Glucose and Glycogen

When you eat a medium to high GI rich food prior to working out, your glucose levels will be affected. The high amounts of insulin released to handle the carbohydrates you just ate will cause blood sugar levels and energy to drop. This condition is temporary, however. Within 15 minutes of beginning an exercise program, the body has effectively processed the bulk of the the carbohydrates and glucose levels return to normal levels while insulin levels fall off.

To avoid the ups and downs of eating carbohydrates directly before exercising, plan to give your body time to properly digest and normalize the food you’ve eaten. Consuming high GI foods within an hour of a competition or intense workout can lower glucose levels and energy as well. Giving your body a bit more than an hour to properly digest foods you eat before a workout will result in a more even distribution of glucose and result in more stable energy supplies.

Glucose and Exercise

Your best option to normalize glucose levels is to eat a low to medium GI food a bit more than an hour before working out. This tops off supplies of glucose and glycogen giving your body the maximum amount of burn time while exercising. Carbohydrates before exercising are likely exactly what you need to perform at your best.

Copyright 2010 Life Health Secrets

Carbs are stored as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and in the blood as glucose. Glycogen stores provide about 1,800 to 2,000 calories worth of energy, or enough fuel for approximately 90 to 120 minutes of continuous vigorous activity. If you don’t replenish your supply of carbs pre and post workout, then your body can’t replenish its own supply of glycogen. This means that the fuel you need isn’t there when your body needs it, and performance suffers. Also, your brain is fueled by glucose, which comes from breaking down carbohydrates. Considering your entire body depends on your brain for coordination, you want to keep it running well.

Are you getting enough carbs?

Making sure you have enough carbs isn’t just about eating a bowl of pasta the night before the big game. As an athlete, your daily diet should consist of 60% carbohydrates (the other 40% is divided equally between protein and fat, but we’ll get to that later) in order to ensure that you consistently have enough glycogen stored for training. If your glycogen stores are depleted, then you’ll have less energy, and your training won’t be as productive, so don’t skimp on the carbs. How much you need depends on your body weight, level of activity, and whether you’re male or female.

Here’s a quick formula for approximately how much you should be getting daily:

Your body weight in kilograms x carbs in grams per kg of bodyweight (see chart below)

= your daily carbohydrate needs

Daily carbs in grams per kg of bodyweight            Training Level

3g                                                                                      no training

4-5g                                                                                  3-5 hrs/wk of moderate exercise

5-7g                                                                                  6-10hr/wk training

7-9g                                                                                  10-15hrs/wk training

more than 10g                                                               15+hrs week

The first number corresponds to females, the second to males, though you can adjust it to what feels right for you.

So, for example, a male weighing 177lb or 80.29kg (to convert to kg, multiply by 0.4536) who trains 6-10 hours a week will require

80.29 x 7  = 562.03 grams of carbohydrates per day, maximum

A female weighing 135lbs, or 61.234 kg, who trains 3-5 hours a week will require

61.234 x 4 = 244.94 grams of carbohydrates per day, minimum

To give you a rough idea of what this translates into, 1 cup of pasta translates into 40g of carbohydrates, 1 cup of brown rice 45g, 1 cup of pinto beans, 44g.

To continue to Part II:  Part II Carbohydrates: The Body’s Core Fuel For Energy

Copyright 2010 EliteSportsandFitness.com