Recovery Nutrition Timing
By Laura Ulrich
Nutrient Timing
John Ivy, PhD, Professor of Kinesiology and Health Education at Texas, has spent more than a decade studying how athletes can time their eating across the course of a day to optimize their bodies' response to training. In 2004, Ivy and co-author Robert Portman published the results of this work in a book titled Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition.
"Over a period of 15 years, we looked at one main question: How does the timing of nutrition relative to exercise influence glycogen storage and protein synthesis?" Ivy says. "The answers to that question became the basis for the nutrient timing system."
Ivy's system breaks an athlete's day into three phases: the energy phase, the anabolic phase, and the growth phase. Each comes with its own set of nutrition recommendations based on what's happening within the athlete's body.
The energy phase: In nutrient timing parlance, the part of the day when an athlete is working out or competing is called the energy phase. During this time, the body is using high levels of three hormones—cortisol, catecholamine, and glucagon— to break down muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, and adipose tissue, sending them to hardworking muscles. This breakdown state is known as catabolism.
The main advice for nutritional intake during this phase is no surprise. "First and foremost, hydration is important," Ivy says. "Replacing carbohydrates and electrolytes is the next goal, so we recommend ingesting that fluid in the form of a sports drink containing four to six percent carbohydrate and a basic electrolyte combination.
"More specific nutrition recommendations during the energy phase vary somewhat based on what kind of exercise the athlete is performing and how intense it is," Ivy continues. "As a guideline, if the athlete is practicing or playing at 70 percent of VO2 max, he or she needs to consume about 200 to 300 milliliters of fluid every 20 minutes."
Ivy's next piece of advice, however, differs from standard protocol: He suggests focusing on drinks that contain some protein during exercise. "Not everyone agrees, but we've found that a small amount of protein during a workout helps reduce muscle damage and soreness and may actually improve performance," he says.
For an athlete in the weightroom, protein becomes even more of a focus. "Right before a weightroom workout, I recommend that athletes consume a carbohydrate-containing sports drink that is two to three percent protein," Ivy says. "It will reduce muscle damage and help protein synthesis post-exercise. During the workout, the athlete should continue hydrating by drinking water or a sports drink."
The anabolic phase: While the athlete works out, three key things happen in his or her body that prepare it for a transition from catabolism to anabolism. First, a large number of glucose transporters move to the outside of the cells' plasma membrane, ready to pick up any glucose that enters the bloodstream and transport it to the muscles where it can be used to replenish glycogen stores. Next, the athlete's sensitivity to insulin steadily increases, preparing muscles for even better glycogen storage. Lastly, the athlete's body gears up to synthesize new proteins, a function it can perform faster post-exercise than at any other time. "Thanks to these factors, even when the body is in a catabolic state, it's preparing for a period of intense anabolism, or rebuilding, right after exercise," Ivy says.
However, there's a catch. The body will not automatically transition from catabolism to anabolism when the athlete stops working out. "Post-exercise, catabolic hormones are still high and the body is still breaking down muscle protein," Ivy says. "It won't really start recovering until you do something about it—and doing something means putting the right nutrients in.
"If you provide the right nutrients immediately, you can convert the catabolic state to a highly anabolic state in which the athlete rapidly increases muscle glycogen and protein synthesis," he continues. "But if you delay the nutrients, even if you provide them later on, you'll never get the same effect. Once you miss the window, it's gone."
The size of the window is not an exact science. "We know that waiting two hours to provide the nutrients is way too long," he says. "But is half an hour better than 45 minutes? We're not sure. My personal belief is, the sooner the better. The quicker you interrupt the catabolic state, the better."
What are the right nutrients? After practices and competitions that focus on aerobic output, in addition to consuming enough fluid to replace 150 percent of what they lost, athletes need between 1.0 and 1.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight (depending on how hard they worked out). And they need 0.3 to 0.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. After weightroom sessions, the recommendations are essentially the same, but with a slightly higher emphasis on proteinצ.5 grams per kilogram of body weight.
Two hours later, it's important for the athlete to eat again. "This should be a light meal, and it should contain both protein and carbohydrate," Ivy says. "This keeps the process of anabolism going. Over the two hours since their post-exercise nutrients, the concentration of amino acids in the athlete's blood have dropped, along with insulin and glucose levels. The second meal causes them to spike again and keeps the recovery process going."
The growth phase: What about the rest of the day? Four hours post-exercise, the athlete should eat another light meal. Then, over the next 16 hours, he or she needs to eat every few hours, focusing on basic healthy nutrition. "Simply maintaining a balanced diet of carbohydrate, protein, fruits, and vegetables during that time is all that's needed," Ivy says.
Making It Happen
Wright's first step in implementing the nutrient timing system with his athletes is educating them—but he doesn't give a lecture on cortisol, glycogen, and metabolism. "When you start talking that way, you lose them," he says. "Instead, I use analogies they can quickly understand and I break down the recommendations to make them simpler."
To encourage athletes to fuel throughout the day and during workouts, Wright tells them to think of their bodies as racecars. "A car needs to start the race fully fueled and the driver needs to keep fueling to maintain performance," he says. "I explain the recommendations about carbs and protein by telling them they can't just put anything in the gas tank—the fuel has to be the right formula or the car won't run well."
To help athletes focus on fueling during the anabolic period, Wright describes the post-exercise time as a window that's closing. "I tell them, ‘At the end of your workout, all the windows in your muscles are wide open for about 45 minutes. When you put nutrients in then, they can accept them and replace all the energy you just used up,'" he says. "‘But as the 45 minutes tick away, the windows start to close. When you put nutrients in after that, it's like trying to push them through a closed window—it just doesn't work.'"
To ensure that they take advantage of the window, Wright provides a sports drink with both carbohydrate and protein to each athlete immediately after practices and workouts and makes sure they drink it. "They're thirsty and probably don't feel like eating, so this is the best way for them to get the nutrients they need," he says.
Bob Seebohar, MS, RD, CSCS, a dietician with the U.S. Olympic Committee who served as the University of Florida's Director of Sport Nutrition in 2005-06, agrees that getting athletes to consume post-exercise nutrition can be difficult. "They don't feel like eating, and scheduling can be a problem, too," he says. "When they leave the field, they go to get treatments, sit in an ice bath, or take a shower—and then they're ready to eat. But by then, they've missed the window. So it's important to have something available with carbs and protein that's easy for them to consume immediately."
Seebohar's solution at Florida was to provide liquid recovery meals immediately after practice, including powdered drinks and milk-based fruit smoothies. "A lot of things will work, as long as they are convenient and the athlete can tolerate them," he says. "A protein-containing energy bar works great, and so does a lean-meat sandwich."
Paul Goldberg, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD, Strength and Conditioning Coach for the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, believes it's also important to focus on mental recovery during the anabolic phase. "If a player is stressed from an intense game, his cortisol levels are going to remain high, which will hamper his physical recovery," he says. "We focus on bringing those catabolic hormones down by getting players to relax through stretching, massage therapy, or talking about what happened during the game. The mind and body are connected, and if a player is still stressed from the game, his stress hormones are not going to come down."
For the growth phase, or the time period before the next workout or game, Wright reminds players to eat healthy foods at regular intervals by asking them to envision their metabolism as a campfire. "We tell them they need to get the fire burning first thing in the morning by throwing some fuel on it," he says. "And unless they put more nutrients in regularly, the fire will burn out, so every two or three hours, they need to throw another log on by eating some healthy food.
"It's also helpful to provide them with some ideas for healthy meals and snacks that combine protein and carbohydrate," Wright continues. "I give them lots of examples of foods to have two hours post-exercise, as well as tips on what to look for in a healthy dinner."
Goldberg has taken it a step further, gathering menus from 60 to 70 restaurants in the Denver area and other cities where his team frequently travels. "I keep them in my office," he says. "My players come in and say, ‘We're going here to eat,' and I can tell them exactly what they should choose and what to avoid."
Giving athletes a chance to experience the results of properly timing their nutrients can often be the best way to convince them of its value. "If you can get them to give it a try, even for a short period, they'll usually buy in," Ivy says. "In the short term, they'll see even after a few days that they're recovering better from their workouts, are less sore, and have more energy for their next workout. In the longer run, after about three months, they'll see big strength and performance gains."
Laura Ulrich is an Assistant Editor at Training & Conditioning. She can be reached at: lulrich@MomentumMedia.com
Source: Training & Conditioning
