What kind of diet is best for recovery?

Changes in the body

To fully understand how to optimize your recovery through the right food choices, you first need to understand what happens in your body when you exert yourself.

During exercise, many physiological factors are altered:

• Loss of water and electrolytes, notably sodium, potassium and magnesium. These losses will vary from person to person: there are those who sweat a lot and those who don’t lose a single drop of sweat even after 2 hours of effort. They will also vary according to the climate, duration and intensity of the effort.

• Alteration of the digestive system: when you exert yourself, a phenomenon known as ischemia occurs. The blood supply to your intestines is preferentially diverted towards the muscles to ensure proper muscular contraction. As a result, 20% of your digestive system’s blood supply is diverted to the intestines, compared with 80% to the muscles. When you stop exercising, the digestive system reperfuses, potentially creating micro-lesions which, over time, can lead to intestinal fragility or even intestinal hyperpermeability. This is all the more important in sports involving mechanical waves on the ground, such as running (VS cycling). In conclusion, practising a sport weakens your intestines, and even more so when it’s intense and involves ground shocks.

• An imbalance in the acid-base balance: intense physical activity predisposes to chronic excess tissue acidity, often resulting in recovery difficulties.

• Immune fragility (particularly in endurance and ultra-sports) associated with a pro-inflammatory context, which can expose you to more small viruses and make it easier to get sick.

• Increased oxidative stress: higher oxygen consumption during exercise leads to increased oxidative stress, but this is not necessarily harmful. When it is well controlled, it helps improve performance via cellular adaptation, but when it exceeds our antioxidant capacities, it can cause recovery difficulties and intense fatigue, among other things.

• Impaired muscle cell integrity: physical exercise, especially when intense or of long duration, leads to small tears in muscle fibers. To repair these fibers and promote muscle growth, you need proteins, which are the building blocks of muscle. Eccentric movements such as downhill running will expose you to more muscle damage

• Depletion or exhaustion of glycogen reserves: these reserves are your main fuel during exercise, and will therefore be used in greater or lesser quantities during your workout. How much you use these reserves depends on the intensity and duration of your effort, and your ability to use other energy sources, such as lipolysis, which saves part of your glycogen reserves;

The importance of the recovery meal and its timing

By reading these few lines, you will quickly understand the importance of the recovery meal , but also of the timing in which it is consumed.

You’ve probably already heard of the metabolic window, the period during which the body is inclined to reconstitute its pre-exercise nutritional status. In particular, it concerns the restoration of glycogen reserves and muscle rebuilding. This period begins as soon as exercise stops, and can last up to 48-72 hours. But it is most important from the moment you stop exercising, and for 4-6 hours afterwards.

Insulin is a key enzyme during this period. As your reserves are depleted, insulin is activated and works intensively to replenish energy stores. Glucose transporters are also increased, so that glucose enters cells more rapidly.

To put it plainly, your body creates an environment conducive to reconstruction and regeneration , which will be all the more effective if food is taken quickly after you’ve stopped exerting yourself. Now that you know the importance of eating as soon as you stop exercising, the question arises of how to compose your meal.

The 5Rs rule

This rule makes it easy to remember how to compose your recovery meal:

1. Rehydrate your body following sweat loss

Hydration plays a central role in recovery, especially as dehydration can slow down recovery and lead to fatigue. Water helps transport the nutrients needed to repair and restore your energy reserves. It also helps eliminate metabolic waste produced during exercise.

I recommend that you drink 150% of your losses as soon as you stop exercising, and for the next 5 hours. You can opt for still water combined with bicarbonated soda water such as St Yorre, Vichy or Badoit, which will partially offset the acidity produced during exercise and the sodium losses.

2. Recharge to restore your glycogen reserves (fuel for effort)

Physical effort, particularly long-duration or high-intensity activities, depletes glycogen reserves (the form of carbohydrate storage in muscles and liver). Carbohydrates must therefore be quickly reintroduced to replenish these reserves, hence the importance of carbohydrates in the post-exercise meal.

This means eating carbohydrate-rich foods, preferably with a high glycemic index, to further stimulate insulin.

Foods such as rice, potatoes and diet cookies like Gerblé meet this need quite well. In addition, it’s a good idea to combine carbohydrate sources, such asfoods rich in fructose. Foods such as fruit, fruit pastes, dried fruit, compote, syrup and honey can help to meet these needs.

For those who find it harder to eat after exercise, a recovery drink rich in high-glycemic maltodextrin can be an interesting option.

Bear in mind that the sooner carbohydrates are consumed after exercise, the greater the quantity of glycogen synthesized. This speed of resynthesis is decisive, particularly in the case of repeated efforts. If you have a race on Saturday and are back on the start line the following Wednesday, it’s essential to optimize your recovery intake.

3. Repairing muscle and tissue damage

To achieve this, you need to consume protein-rich foods that promote the release of growth hormone and thus optimize muscle recovery, particularly when you’re working out one after the other.

It’s also worth noting that the combined intake of protein and carbohydrates increases the speed of synthesis and the level of glycogen synthesized. In other words, if you consume carbohydrates and protein, you will replenish your energy stores faster and to a greater extent than if you had consumed carbohydrates alone.

Protein quality is also a determining factor, and you should eat foods rich in BCAAs, which are branched amino acids (valine, leucine and isoleucine) found mainly in animal proteins such as eggs, fish or meat. However, as meat is a major waste product, it should be limited during this period.

4. Remineralize

Perspiration causes losses of essential minerals such as sodium, potassium and magnesium. You’ll need to eat foods rich in these, such as fruit and vegetables.

Some recovery drinks rich in citrates or bicarbonates are particularly interesting for this purpose. Brands such as Overstim, Authentic Nutrition and Apurna offer quality products. Or simply make your own recovery drink by adding a little maltodextrin.

5. Rebalance acid-base balance and oxidative stress

As stated above, intense exercise causes an imbalance in favor of excess tissue acidity and oxidative stress. We must therefore consume alkalizing foods, rich in antioxidants.

That’s why I advise you to consume a good source of vegetables during your recovery meal. If your digestive tolerance allows, you can include some raw vegetables and/or steamed vegetables (to preserve minerals and antioxidants). You can also supplement your diet with fresh fruit .

In addition, avoid acidifying foods such as cold meats, cheese and bread during this recovery meal.

Recovery in practice

Drink as soon as possible

Drink as soon as possible after you’ve stopped exercising. Plain water and sodium bicarbonate water such as Vichy, St Yorre or Badoit.

Eat within 30 minutes to 1 hour after stopping exercise

You then have two options within 30 minutes to 1 hour of stopping your effort:

• or you can eat your recovery meal directly;
• or it’s not possible, and you’ll have to opt for a small snack.

Option 1 – Eat a snack

The snack will consist of

• or a recovery drink containing an average of 15 to 20 g of BCAA-rich protein and medium-to-high GI carbohydrates (dextrose, maltodextrin, glucose, fructose, etc.). It should also contain deacidifying citrate and/or bicarbonate.
• or, if you prefer a solid intake, a protein-carbohydrate snack with dried fruit, a ripe banana, compote, fruit paste combined with fromage frais and a few oilseeds.

Option 2 – Recovery meal

For the recovery meal, it must consist of

• A carbohydrate source: 150 to 250g (cooked) rice, quinoa, potato, sweet potato
• Protein intake: 100 to 120g of fish or 2 to 3 eggs
• Raw and/or cooked vegetables: according to digestive tolerance
• A source of raw fat: rapeseed oil (+/- oilseeds)

Remember to add salt to your plate, especially if you’ve been sweating a lot, and then continue to nibble on carbohydrate foods in the evening (your choice of 1 ripe fruit, 1 compote or 1 rice pudding, 1 semolina pudding, a few diet cakes…).

Conclusion

In short, for a good recovery, don’t wait to eat or drink. Drink plenty, at least 1.5 times your losses, and insist on a diet rich in proteins for muscle repair and carbohydrates for energy reserves. Complement your diet with alkalizing plants that are a source of antioxidants and good fats with anti-inflammatory properties, and you’re all set!