Snacking After a Workout May Mitigate Benefits

by Maggie Vink (Subscribe to Maggie Vink's posts)
Nov 16th 2008 10:00AM

Categories: Fitness, Nutrition & Supplements

My son has taken a recent interest in my workout DVDs. Usually we do them together, but the other night I was working while he was exercising. I heard him pause the DVD and I thought he went to get a drink of water. Instead, I looked over and saw him eating pudding while working out. I had to laugh. While it was incredibly counterproductive, I'll admit that I was a little impressed with his coordination!

Obviously snacking while working out doesn't make much sense, but research now says that a snack after working out doesn't do much good either (unless you're an elite athlete). During a recent study, participants walked on a treadmill for an hour (burning an average of 500 calories). Half of the group was given a high-calorie carbohydrate drink immediately after exercise; the other half had nothing. Those who had nothing had a 40% increase in insulin efficiency post-exercise. The benefit was completely wiped out in those who had the high-carb drink. Researchers saw similar results in a follow-up test using high and low-carb foods instead of drinks.

Your best bet after exercising is to just have a glass of water. Unless you've just participated in really intense, prolonged exercise, there's no need for sports drinks. And hold off on snacks unless you're feeling really hungry or weak.

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Comments (6)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

CJ 11-16-2008 @ 12:19PM

I disagree with this article ! While I agree that sports drinks are largely unnecessary for the average exerciser, food post workout is important, especially if one's exercise habit is continuous. The body needs to refuel after exercise - not necessarily immediately afterwards but within 30 minutes to 2 hours it is beneficial to eat a nutritious snack to replenish mucle glycogen stores. If the workout included weight training/muscle building work, some protein is important as well (not a lot).

Maybe my issue is that the title & the article seem at odds with each other. The title says snacking, but the article ends up talking about sports drinks - really two different issues !

Andrew R 11-16-2008 @ 4:55PM

CJ,

I wholeheartedly agree with you about eating after a workout. It's super important.

But with regards to the issue behind the study, I know why the results came out the way they did... YOU SHOULDN'T SNACK EVER!!! Snacking = unregulated eating. So people in the study were probably grubbing down huge snacks instead of eating properly portioned, good meals after a workout!

Thank you for the article, it does prove a point that you shouldn't snack at all!!!

All the Best,

Andrew R

Maggie Vink 11-16-2008 @ 5:01PM

If you look at the report, it's mainly talking about high-carb drinks and snacks (e.g. those convenience store foods that are packaged to look healthy, but are really catastrophes of refined sugar). When you snack on something high carb post workout you're destroying the boost in insulin efficiency.

For the average Joe or Jane, a snack truly isn't needed after a basic workout. Most people work out for around 30 minutes (or, for some, even less). Your body doesn't need replenishment after that. If the workout is intense, or includes some serious weight training, then it's be a different story.

u262f 11-16-2008 @ 8:29PM

I read the article all the way through. It's very misleading. The article actually says that it doesn't matter when people eat high-carb foods compared to when people exercise. Carbs reduce insulin effectiveness no matter when you eat them:

"That really didn't make a whole lot of difference, which surprised us," Braun stated. "What did seem to matter was whether you ate back calories, and whether those calories were mostly carbohydrates."

Here are more details about the third study:

"Brooke Stephens-Hasson conducted a study, also published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, in which she changed the timing of when the meal was given while keeping the total calories and carbohydrate content of each meal constant. She compared identical meals given before, immediately after, or three hours after 75 minutes of moderately intense bicycling. Once again, the effectiveness of insulin to clear blood sugar was better after any of the exercise conditions compared to a no-exercise condition. Although there were a few subtle differences, the results were similar among all three exercise/meal combinations, suggesting that timing of the meals was not an important consideration."

Basically, what's important that people exercise and what people eat. Differences in timing between meals and exercise don't matter.

The experiments involved merely "ten young, overweight" people each. The results might not apply to people who aren't overweight or people who aren't young, and ten people seems like a rather insignificant sample size to me.

Different people have different body types. Some bodies do better eating before workouts, other bodies need to eat after, and still other bodies may require other habits. I think the fact that we have so much fitness advice out there is that different things work better for different people. Furthermore, even if we're talking about the same person, what worked before may stop working as they age or have other things going on in their lives.

Finally, "mitigate" means to make a bad thing less bad. "Mitigate benefits" is a nonsensical combination of words.

CJ 11-16-2008 @ 8:29PM

Hmmm...I think snacking is necessary IF you have a high physical activity level. I'm a pretty active person and, although I'm hitting 40. I DO need to snack. In my other post I said that it is important to replenish if you are exercising consecutive days - in which case refueling is important. I know, for myself, I won't be up to getting some exercise (walking, running, weight training, etc.) if I don't refuel properly.

Of course, snacks should be defined. To me, a snack is a complex carb with some protein...probably in the area of 200-300 calories. Hmmm, such as an apple cut up with peanut butter spread on it. I am certainly not talking about a bag of Cheetos !

Ok, so maybe the average Jane/Joe doesn't need to worry so much BUT it is a lifestyle - best results with complex carbs and a mix of fat/protein/carbs every snack/meal.

FWIW, I would DIE without snacks. I'm a lean person with 19% body fat and I "graze". I learned this from my kids. High volume food (that's those complex carbs) and eating every 3-4 hours....and lots of water. I guess it goes without saying that my main meals aren't 5 course deals !!!!

smooshabug 11-17-2008 @ 7:42AM

My issue with this was they used people walking on a treadmill for an hour. How fast, and what incline?
Walking is better than nothing, but not exactly a 'workout'.
Try high intensity interval training for 20 minutes, followed by a circuit of weights, and THEN see what they say about needing to replenish the muscles and glycogen stores. In the form of natural wholesome food of course, not high fructose corn syrup.