Q&A: Do Sports Foods Work?
Monday November 17, 2008
Q: In the grocery stores, the labels of sports bars and drinks say that I’ll get more out my workout if I use their products. Is it true?
A: Sports drinks and protein bars, for most people, don’t matter. It is true that if you are a performance athlete, timing your protein around your workout can add a few percentage points to your results (and in races where milliseconds separate first and second place, that matters a great deal). For the rest of us, we don’t really need these performance enhancing foods and drinks.
It always makes me sad at the gym when I see people who are there to lose weight drinking smoothies while on the treadmill. Sure, the smoothie has protein, but it also is about 400 calories. You would need to workout almost an hour on the treadmill to just burn the calories in the smoothie. These people, with their protein drinks, power bars and sports drinks end up doing a good workout and still gaining weight.
Unless your workout is over 2 hours long, you don’t really need any special foods. It is a good idea to have some protein after a strength building workout (a glass of chocolate milk is great). You don’t need special food before a workout unless you feel yourself losing energy during the workout. And don’t overdo the sports foods – they are all high and calories and frankly, if I’m going to have 200 extra calories, I’d rather have a scoop of ice cream than a protein bar.
Submit your own question to Dr. Mark Stibich at longevity.guide@about.com.
A: Sports drinks and protein bars, for most people, don’t matter. It is true that if you are a performance athlete, timing your protein around your workout can add a few percentage points to your results (and in races where milliseconds separate first and second place, that matters a great deal). For the rest of us, we don’t really need these performance enhancing foods and drinks.
It always makes me sad at the gym when I see people who are there to lose weight drinking smoothies while on the treadmill. Sure, the smoothie has protein, but it also is about 400 calories. You would need to workout almost an hour on the treadmill to just burn the calories in the smoothie. These people, with their protein drinks, power bars and sports drinks end up doing a good workout and still gaining weight.
Unless your workout is over 2 hours long, you don’t really need any special foods. It is a good idea to have some protein after a strength building workout (a glass of chocolate milk is great). You don’t need special food before a workout unless you feel yourself losing energy during the workout. And don’t overdo the sports foods – they are all high and calories and frankly, if I’m going to have 200 extra calories, I’d rather have a scoop of ice cream than a protein bar.
Submit your own question to Dr. Mark Stibich at longevity.guide@about.com.
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