Drinking Chocolate Milk After Exercise: Benefits and Results

FToday, ITness “hackers” are everywhere. You have to be skeptical or you might drain your bank account buying weird gadgets and end up trying something crazy.

There’s one fad I’ve ignored for years: the hype surrounding drinking chocolate milk after exercise to recover muscles. Of course, drinking a sugary drink that tastes like a milkshake after a workout *actually* doesn’t do me any good, right?

Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to see for myself if there were actually any benefits to drinking chocolate milk after exercising during marathon training, chatting to a few nutritionists along the way.

The science behind drinking chocolate milk after exercise makes sense

It turns out it’s a trend with some legitimacy. “Chocolate milk actually has the perfect ratio of carbs to protein to speed recovery after exercise,” says Stephanie Hnatiuk, R.D.D.

Extra sugar is added when milk is turned into delicious chocolate, which means a cup of this drink contains about 8 grams of protein and 24 grams of carbohydrates. When you consume these nutrients within about 30 to 60 minutes of completing exercise (what experts call the “anabolic window”), you’ll replace the glycogen your muscles use for fuel more quickly than if you’d just finished one A particularly long or intense workout consumes a lot of glycogen, and you plan to hit the road for another workout in less than 24 hours.

“I like to say [chocolate milk] Have the three R’s of recovery,” says sports nutritionist Roxana Ehsani, RD, CSSD, LDN, She collaborates with the Every Woman Marathon sponsored by the dairy industry. This includes “hydration,” because chocolate milk is a liquid that contains natural electrolytes; “energy,” because carbs will replenish your glycogen stores; and “repair,” because protein helps rebuild damage during the run. of muscle fibers.

Ehsani pointed out, Old study from 2012¹ It was actually shown that when athletes drank two glasses of nonfat chocolate milk to rehydrate after a run, they were able to run longer in a subsequent time-to-failure test than when they drank another carbohydrate-based control drink. “We’re getting these carbohydrates, we’re getting these proteins directly into our bloodstream, and it’s doing its amazing job of hydrating, energizing and repairing,” Essani said.

It felt like I ended my run with a “little treat” that was actually good for me and made this runner even more excited to lace up my shoes than usual.

I See Firsthand the Benefits of Chocolate Milk After Workout

A few months ago, I accepted the number bib given by the “Ordinary Women’s Marathon”—— heavily Touting the benefits of dairy for athletes – so I thought I’d at least try chocolate milk during training.

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I started making it part of my post-run routine, having a drink before (or while) showering. I quickly became a fan. Because, let’s be honest, chocolate milk is delicious. It felt like I was ending my run with a “little treat” that was actually good for me and made this runner even more excited to lace up my shoes than usual.

One afternoon, I came home sweating from a run and took a big sip, only to find that the milk had gone bad. I quickly spit it down the sink and dumped the water in the bottle, later buying a new one – but the same thing happened again the next week. All milk goes bad quickly after opening the bottle, but I learned that the chocolate variety seems to have a particularly short shelf life.

After being burned so many times, I started smelling first, but sometimes I couldn’t tell if I was actually smelling something sour or if I was just imagining it out of fear. Every time I poured a glass of wine, I felt like I was on a trick-or-treating adventure. Will it be sour or sweet?

Eventually, I was assigned a story that had me testing various protein powders, so I ended up switching them into my post-workout drink (although I later learned from Hnatiuk that most protein powders don’t have enough carbs to Completely replenishes glycogen) runners need). After completing the program, I completely quit my recovery drink habit and stopped drinking anything but water after a run.

However, as I got deeper into my marathon training, my legs started to feel extra heavy, even on days when I was supposed to have more energy. Of course, I was dealing with the accumulated fatigue from the increased total mileage. But I’ve run a lot of marathons, and this is more exaggerated than usual. It seems like my muscles just can’t wake up. I found myself unable to hit my normal pace and often made excuses to cut back on my planned mileage.

Trust me, this is not a fun way to train for a marathon.

But Hnatic says this can happen if you don’t regularly exercise to replenish fuel. “Runners may find it difficult to train on consecutive days or recover from a weekly long run,” she says, adding that you may also notice “an increase in delayed-onset muscle soreness after exercise. As well as longer recovery times between hard workouts.

My body was clearly not recovering the way it had before. To be sure, experts say otherwise completely If you don’t exercise in the next 24 hours, it’s crucial to refuel during the anabolic window – as long as you eat regularly, your glycogen stores will return to normal levels throughout the day. But as a working mom who runs whenever I can, often with a late afternoon run followed by another the next morning, it’s not uncommon for me to work out twice in a 24-hour period.

“We’re getting these carbohydrates, we’re getting these proteins directly into our bloodstream, and it’s doing its amazing job of hydrating, energizing, and repairing.” —Roxana Ehsani, RD, CSSD, LDN

One Saturday, after a five-mile run with my baby in a stroller, I walked into a 7-Eleven for a drink and decided to buy a small bottle of chocolate milk. My pace was behind (again) and I was dreading my planned 17 mile run the next day. But as I set out along the river the next morning, I felt surprisingly refreshed.

Hoping it wasn’t a fluke, I bought more chocolate milk to take home and started making it part of my daily routine again. Over the next few weeks, I started getting in more good runs, and it became clear: being diligent about recovering fuel after a run could really change the way my runs felt.

Of course, chocolate milk isn’t the only way to recover, but it’s an easy, refreshing option that many runners find more appetizing than eating a full meal right away. “There are many other meals and snacks that can produce these macronutrients,” Hnatiuk says. “But chocolate milk is really good as a model for post-workout recovery.”

Hnatiuk just warns that chocolate milk shouldn’t be yours only A great source of fuel after a run because it doesn’t provide any fiber or the full 25 to 35 grams of protein we typically need for recovery. “I think chocolate milk is either something you eat just to sit down for a more complete recovery meal, or it’s something you eat as part of a meal,” she says.

For a more balanced option, she recommends adding some protein powder to the milk and serving it with a banana. (Also, FYI: Those who are lactose intolerant can choose lactose-free chocolate milk or chocolate soy milk, which have similar protein profiles and can get the same benefits, Hnatiuk says.)

Chocolate milk is by no means some special elixir; If I could eat solid food with protein and carbs quickly, I would skip it. But it’s hard when I just want something delicious and quick to eat while I’m cooling down. Especially since I’ve now convinced my husband that he needs to drink it too, so I can make sure we finish the bottle before it goes bad.