i cycle to work. I go hard out over a hilly 15km route at around 29-30km/h. I’m doing the 16/8 fasting and so would normally start filling my face at midday. Most protein/recovery shakes advise to take within 45 mins of finishing. So, my question is, should I have the shake when I get to work at 6am or wait till midday?
Discussion
This is my favorite probiotic, a Slavic/Baltic beverage made from fermented rye bread. You got to be a little brave to drink this at the start. Has a taste that feels like it will put hairs on your chest thus it takes a little getting use to but well worth the health benefits. Mainly due to kombucha becoming mainstream and a little "Hollywood" its my natural inclination to go for an alternative and root for the underdog. Give it a try and see what you think. Kvas with blueberry is my favorite.
Thanks for the question! The recommendations you're referring to are 20 years old. The old philosophy was that your muscle receptor sites were more open to receiving amino acids in the 60min window post-exercise. Recently the new science on fasting has produced a different recommendation.
Why? The recommendation pertains to strength exercise and not endurance sports.
Specifically, heavy compound training produces IGF, which signals testosterone to modulate the uptake of amino at the muscle cell. However, my understanding is FASTING provides the same outcome, potentially better, without the need for heavyweight stimulus, thus squashing any requirement for protein post-exercise.
The caveat here is that we all have different and unique bodies. If anything, an amino acid drink may be warranted due to the heavy endurance component to what you're doing.
If your goal is to lean out, then stick with the fasting protocol and have protein shakes at the start of your window (midday). Or, if your goal is to improve performance, then use a 60 min window protocol so you can continue to blast faster times and speeds back to back.
Does that help?
Coach G
Hello again! This just in from Sean, Lead Nutritionist:
I'm with G on this one. It's absolutely fine to wait to eat after exercise. Post exercise most of your blood is in your muscles anyway and not in your digestive organs so uptake isn't as efficient anyway. The only thing one needs to worry about with recovery in relation to performance is that within 1 hour after exercise is when your sugar store replenishment in muscle is best. The longer after exercise that you refuel on carbs, the worse the recovery is. Protein also is absorbed better with some sugars mixed in with it, so also helps there for absorption. To summarise: For performance/recovery it's best to take his shake WITH carbs (could be a piece of fruit) within 1 hour after exercise. If focused on results like weight loss or muscle gain, then he should stick to the 16/8 fasting.
Thanks. Makes sense.