The Paleo Diet for Athletes (10 page)

There are five goals for this brief but critical window of opportunity.

Goal #1: Replace expended carbohydrate stores.
During highly intense exercise, especially if it lasted longer than about 1 hour, you used up much of your carbohydrate-based energy sources. Even though you may have taken in fuel during the session, you were unable to replace all that was expended. Muscle glycogen stores are now at a low level. These can
best be restored by taking in carbohydrates that are high on the glycemic load scale for quick replenishment, along with sources that are lower on the scale to provide for a steady release of carbohydrates into the blood. Glucose, the sugar in starchy foods such as potatoes, rice, and grains, is a good source for quick recovery, while fructose, the sugar in fruit and fruit juices, provides a steady, slowly released level of sugar into the bloodstream. Take in at least three-fourths of a gram (3 calories) of carbohydrate per pound of body weight from such sources. This recovery “meal” is generally best taken in liquid rather than solid form, partly because solid foods often aren’t very appealing at this time. A liquid meal also is absorbed more quickly and contributes to the rehydration process. Good sources are commercially produced recovery drinks. Or you can make your own “homebrew” recovery drink, which is much cheaper and exactly designed to suit your tastes. (See
Table 4.5
.)

One of the highest glycemic load carbohydrates is glucose. By adding glucose to the homebrew, you replace the body’s expended carbohydrate stores more quickly than by eating fruit and drinking fruit juice alone, because these foods are rich in fructose, which the body takes somewhat longer to digest. Pure glucose, sometimes referred to as “dextrose,” is difficult to find, although it is typically in commercial sports and recovery drinks. You can purchase glucose from various sources on the Internet, such as amazon.com, bulkfoods.com, carbopro.com, honeyvillegrain.com, iherb.com, and nuts.com. As of this writing it cost about $3 per pound.

Goal #2: Rehydrate.
Chances are good that you are experiencing some level of dehydration following a long or hard workout or race. Losing a quart of fluids an hour—about 2 pounds—is fairly common, especially on hot days. At the greatest sweat rates, an athlete may lose around a half gallon (1,800 milliliters) of sweat per hour. That’s about 4 pounds. Among the highest sweat rates ever reported in the research literature was about 1 gallon per hour in one of America’s best all-time marathoners, 147-pound Alberto Salazar. That would be about 8 pounds—roughly 5 percent of his body weight. Replacing such high rates of fluid loss during exercise is difficult, if not impossible, potentially leaving the
athlete in a dehydrated state as the postexercise stage of recovery begins.

To replenish fluid levels, begin taking in 16 ounces (500 milliliters) of liquid for every pound lost during exercise. You probably won’t accomplish this in 30 minutes, especially after a long session on a hot day, so plan on continuing throughout the next few hours into Stage IV. You may need to take in 150 percent of what your weight indicates you lost just to keep up with your body’s ongoing need for fluids in the hours following the workout or race. Thirst also plays a role here just as it did during exercise. When it is quenched, whether you have replaced all lost body weight or not, reduce or stop your intake of fluids. Forcing down fluids when you are not thirsty is never a good idea.

Goal #3: Provide amino acids for resynthesis of protein that may have been damaged during exercise.
In an intense 1-hour workout, it’s possible to use 30 grams (1 ounce) of muscle protein for fuel. With even longer exercise sessions, the protein cost of fueling the body is likely to rise. As carbohydrate is depleted in the working muscles, the body begins to break down protein structures within the muscle cells to create more glycogen. In addition, cells may have been damaged during exercise, and consuming protein immediately after will hasten their repair while diminishing or even preventing the delayed onset of muscle soreness.

Protein, particularly sources that are rich in the branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine), should be taken in at a carb-to-protein ratio of about 4:1 or 5:1 over the 30-minute recovery period. The research is clear on the need for protein after stressful sessions; the exact amount is not clear, however. We’ve found that 4 or 5 parts carbohydrate to 1 part protein seems to be palatable and effective. If you are using a protein powder to mix a recovery drink, the best sources of protein are egg or whey products, which contain all of the essential amino acids and a healthy dose of branched-chain amino acids, as can be seen in
Table 4.1
.

Table 4.2
provides a breakdown by body weight of the caloric components of a recovery drink with a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein. You may feel the need to take in more or fewer calories depending on how intense or long the workout was, your nutritional
status prior to the session, what and how much you took in during exercise, and how good eating sounds to you at this time. Even if you don’t feel up to taking in this much immediately after your workout, at least begin to sip the recovery drink, and spread its intake over a longer period. The research on recovery meals isn’t conclusive as to how long the window is open. But 30 minutes is known to be an effective duration. The workout or race conditions may also influence how much you take in. For example, as it does with fluids, heat increases the need for both carbohydrate and protein.

TABLE 4.1

Branched-Chain Amino Acid Content of Selected Foods

TABLE 4.2

Recovery Drink Calories by Body Weight

Goal #4: Begin replacing electrolytes.
Electrolytes are the salts sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, which are found either within the body’s cells or in extracellular fluids, including blood. Dissolved in the body fluids as ions, they conduct an electric current and are critical for muscle contraction and relaxation and for maintaining fluid levels. During exercise, the body loses a small portion of these salts, primarily through sweat. So an imbalance between electrolytes and fluids occurs while sweating, with their concentrations increasing. Following exercise, as you begin to drink, you will gradually return body fluids levels to a more normal level. This will result in a low concentration of electrolytes if they aren’t taken in now.

Most of the electrolytes are found in abundance in natural food, which makes their replacement fairly easy. Drinking juice or eating fruit will easily replace nearly all of the electrolytes expended during exercise—with the exception of sodium, which is not naturally abundant in fruits and juices. Two or three pinches of table salt may be added to a postexercise recovery drink for sodium replenishment.
Table 4.3
lists good juice and fruit sources to use in a Stage III postworkout drink for the replenishment of sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Chloride is not included, as there is limited research on its availability in these foods.

TABLE 4.3

Electrolytes in Juices and Fruits Used during Recovery