How to Refuel After Exercise Like a Pro Athlete
Nutritional Strategies to Improve Post-exercise Recovery and Subsequent Exercise Performance: A Narrative Review
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
After hard exercise, your body needs food and drink to recover fast, especially if you have another workout soon. Eating the right amount of carbs and protein helps your muscles heal and refill energy. Some extra ingredients like special sugar mixes, baking soda, or coffee can also help in certain cases.
Surprising Findings
Caffeine with carbs can boost glycogen resynthesis by up to 66% under low-carb conditions.
Caffeine is usually seen as a pre-workout stimulant, not a recovery aid—this flips the script.
Practical Takeaways
After a hard workout, eat 3–5g of carbs and 1.2–1.5g of protein per kg of body weight within the first few hours.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
After hard exercise, your body needs food and drink to recover fast, especially if you have another workout soon. Eating the right amount of carbs and protein helps your muscles heal and refill energy. Some extra ingredients like special sugar mixes, baking soda, or coffee can also help in certain cases.
Surprising Findings
Caffeine with carbs can boost glycogen resynthesis by up to 66% under low-carb conditions.
Caffeine is usually seen as a pre-workout stimulant, not a recovery aid—this flips the script.
Practical Takeaways
After a hard workout, eat 3–5g of carbs and 1.2–1.5g of protein per kg of body weight within the first few hours.
Publication
Journal
Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.z.)
Year
2025
Authors
A. Naderi, J. Rothschild, Heitor O. Santos, Amin Hamidvand, Majid S. Koozehchian, Abdolrahman Ghazzagh, Erfan Berjisian, T. Podlogar
Related Content
Claims (5)
After working out, eating carbs and protein—about 3–5 grams of carbs and 1.2–1.5 grams of protein for every kilo you weigh—helps your body recover better.
Having caffeine with carbs after a workout might help your muscles refuel faster and boost your next performance—especially if you didn’t eat enough carbs—but too much caffeine could mess with your sleep, and results aren’t always clear.
If endurance athletes eat a specific amount of carbs right after a workout—especially a mix of glucose and fructose—they’ll probably refill their muscle energy faster, especially if they’re not eating a lot of carbs overall and need to recover quickly for their next session.
If endurance athletes eat some protein with less-than-ideal carbs after a workout—especially when they have less than a day to recover—it probably helps their muscles refill energy faster and boosts performance a little bit next time.
Taking baking soda after a tough workout might help your body recover faster and boost your performance if you have to go hard again soon—especially if you only get a short break.