Your Interview

As protein is essential for muscle recovery after exercise, and as I have difficulty in ingesting a protein source post-exercise, and given that my diet is, generally speaking, sound, do I have 'stores' of protein that I may draw from, post exercise? Or does my muscle recovery actually require a fresh source?

Monique Ryan:

Your muscle recovery, in terms of muscle glycogen, which is the fuel that we use endurance training, really requires carbohydrates in the hours after training to replenish muscle glycogen stores. So, protein is not the top-priority nutrient. Fluid will be, of course, needed because you have to re-hydrate.

If he goes out for a bike ride or a run or a swim, I want him to come home and have about 1.2 grams of carbohydrate per 1 kilogram of body weight. Some people can throw a little bit of protein in there afterwards, like 10 or 15 grams, but it shouldn't replace the carbohydrate, because it's really the carbohydrate that's going to replenish muscle glycogen. If it was a hard workout, where he feels like he has a little muscle repair to do, he can have protein in his next meal.

Are my vitamins doing nothing more than giving me expensive urine? If not, what are my most important choices as a female runner at 40 yrs. old?

Monique Ryan:

If you have a really well-balanced diet and you don't need those vitamins, it is giving you expensive urine, but you could buy a low-cost vitamin that's perfectly fine, that gives you 100 per cent of what you need each day. If you take a vitamin and you think you have a good diet, don't spend a lot on your vitamin.

For a 40-year-old female runner, I would definitely check on calcium and vitamin D. We know that as women get older we really want to make sure they maintain their bone mass, and calcium and vitamin D are two key nutrients for that. Even if a women doesn't need a multivitamin, she might need a calcium supplement and she should take a calcium with vitamin D.

Vitamin D is something we do best with making it from sunlight, but even as far south as the 40th parallel you don't make very much vitamin D from sunlight from September to April or even longer, depending on where you live in certain parts of Canada. You can also get vitamin D from fortified milk but we probably need more vitamin D than most people get from drinking milk.

With all this heat in Calgary I've been suffering from frequent heat cramps towards the end of my soccer games/long runs - particularly at a full power sprint or acceleration. I've upped my salt, water and potassium intake without any improvement. Any suggestions on when/what to eat?

Monique Ryan:

With muscle cramps, sodium and fluid are the two things we look at, but she could also be experiencing some glycogen depletion. What I always recommend if you're training in the heat is a sports drink because that will give you the sodium, carbohydrate and the fluid. It sometimes gives you a bit of potassium, magnesium and calcium, but probably sodium is the most important electrolyte in there.

She could be what we call a salty sweater. Those are people who, when they're out in the heat exercising, have lots of salt residue on their body and they need to have a higher sodium sports drink. They are out there. You can compare labels of different sports drinks and see which ones have a little bit more sodium in them.

She might just need some time to get acclimatized to the heat. It can take a good 14 days to get acclimatized.

I ususally ride my bike to work (April - November), about a 28km round trip. I rise at 5:10, and begin my 35 minute bike ride around 5:50. To support weight loss and general fitness, do you think it is better to eat a smart breakfast before or after my exercise?

Monique Ryan:

If he doesn't have breakfast during his morning commute, he's not going to burn more calories, but probably more of the fuel he burns will come from fat than from carbohydrates. But, in the long run, weight loss is really about calories in versus calories out, so it's good that he's doing the commute and that he's trying to eat healthfully.

The question is how does he feel when he's riding that early in the morning? He probably has lower blood glucose levels and low liver glycogen stores. Is he hungry? And is it a miserable commute because he hasn't had breakfast? It really is based on how he feels, because in the long run, I don't think it's going to make a huge difference in his weight loss efforts. Personally, I would find it really difficult to bike like that with no fuel.

Which impact has the source of protein (fish, chicken, beef, vegetables, etc) during training and on the recovery after long training runs or marathons? Can I enjoy my steak or is it rather a guilty pleasure?

Monique Ryan:

We really want you to have protein as part of your recovery and we know that after endurance training there's going to be some muscle repair and rebuilding that needs to take place, especially for a marathoner. Immediately after training, the emphasis should always be carbohydrates, but you can include small amounts of high-quality protein in the mix. Endurance athletes do have slightly elevated protein needs, so a lean steak would be fine. It's really a matter of how much you need. Now, I'm assuming that Canadians are a lot like Americans. We probably consume plenty of protein on a daily basis. I always like to joke that Americans eat as much protein as Olympics athletes. We're not all training for an Olympic event, however.

Water or sport drink? When running a marathon (or even during shorter races) is there a standard recommendation you can make about opting for water or a sport drink at water stations?

Monique Ryan:

I'm definitely in favour of the sports drinks. Research shows that when you have a flavoured drink, you're likely to drink more, you more optimally hydrate. Most of us are going to experience some degree of dehydration during our workouts.

The sports drink is also going to empty from your stomach just as quickly as water. It's usually a six to eight per cent concentration. It's well absorbed through the small intestine because the glucose and the sodium in the sports drink use carriers in the small intestine that pull the fluid through. You really can really optimally hydrate with a sports drink.

If you're doing a nice long workout, you really need the carbohydrate anyway to give you a fuel source when you're training.

I've heard that a period of fasting and drinking only water, is beneficial perhaps as a method of detoxifying our bodies. Is this true? And if so, how often and how long of a fast do you recommend?

Monique Ryan:

I don't recommend a fast and there's really no research to support that. You have to realize that your body is always working at detoxifying. Your liver is always doing some work at that and your gut is, as well. Fasting on water for a few days isn't going to improve things at all.

I'm a vegetarian starting to train for triathlons, so i trian 30 mins daily. What are the best forms of protein for me and how much should i have daily.

Monique Ryan:

She should probably have as much protein as anyone else. So, an endurance athlete at the high end needs about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, at the low end might need 1.1 grams per kilogram of body weight.

What she wants to appreciate is that plant sources of protein are just not as concentrated per portion in protein as some animal sources are, so depending on the kind of vegetarian that she wants to be, she could emphasize soy, dairy, yogurt, dried peas and beans and lentils, like pinto beans, kidney beans, chick peas and different kind of lentils are good source of protein. You also get protein from the grains and vegetables you eat, but enough of them should come from these high-quality plant proteins and from the dairy products, if she's still including those in her diet.

I workout between 3-5 days a week for about 1.5 hours each time. In my workout routine I also do some cardio. I’ve hit a roadblock. I believe I am at the max of what I can lift, bench, squat, etc. I have read various health and fitness magazines and they all talk about taking protein shakes. I tried taking shakes for a while but didn’t like the taste and I seemed to have retained a lot of water. Any suggestions about what I should take after my workout. What is in a protein shake? Are protein shakes safe to consume?

Monique Ryan:

First of all, real food that you have in your house and in your fridge works just as well as the commercial supplements that you might buy. It's just a matter of choosing high-quality protein. We know that before and after weight-lifting, consuming about 20 to 30 grams of high-quality protein with about 25 grams of carbohydrate is optimal for muscle building.

Are the supplements safe? It really depends on the supplement. There are so many different protein supplements out there, but we know that one very high quality protein supplement out there is whey protein. And you don't need to purchase a supplement that has lots of extras in there. It's such a concentrated source of protein that one scoop of most products has 20 grams, sometimes 25 grams, of protein in it.

You could also just get a yogurt out of your fridge and mix it with fruit and have some juice with that and it would be close to the same thing. You might not get as much protein. Real food works just as well, like chicken or fish to have as a snack before weight training. You really want to have that within 30 minutes before weight training and within an hour after weight training.

The researchers have a number of theories of why this works. They've done experiments with timing and they find that, for some reason, providing that protein and carbohydrate mix before the weight training gives the muscles something to work with in terms of repairs and recovery that just seems to work better than having it afterwards.

I am a Clydesdale runner that is capable of doing a 3hr 15 min marathon, but yet I am 220lbs and 6 foot 4 inches. I compete in many Olympic triathlon events and usually complete them in just over 2 hrs. My question is, most diets are for runners that are 160lb and not for people in my category. I try to follow diets listed in many running or triathlete journals, but find that I am always hungry and my performance declines. Any suggestions for the Clydesdales.

Monique Ryan:

Probably getting your own sports nutritionist or sports dietician to give you a personalize plan is the best thing you can do. My book has different meal plans and menus in it and it does allow you to calculate your energy and carbohydrate needs based on your body weight and your training. He might just need someone to sit down with him and show him what he needs to eat for a day to meet his energy needs for his different training days.

Vegetarians can get complete proteins by consuming particular combinations, such as beans and rice. How close together do they need to be consumed in order to be effective? Does it need to be at one sitting, or can one be at lunch and one at dinner?

Monique Ryan:

They actually don't need to be consumed very closely together. One of the key things when you're consuming plant protein sources is to consume enough calories for the day. The protein that you do consume does to protein things: building muscle, body tissue and repair, keeping your immune system strong. In other words, you don't want to use that protein and convert it to glucose because your carbohydrate needs weren't met.

As an athlete, they need to be aware of what their calorie needs are, what their carbohydrate needs are and what the good vegetarian source of protein are. If you look at a lot of vegetarian dishes that we enjoy eating, like a bean burrito, there would be rice in the burrito, or bread with the burrito. So, a lot of times, you do consume plant protein that do "complement" each other, but it's not necessary to be meticulous about it.

I have IBS, which means many of the items I eat cause GI distress (bloating, cramps, gas, some constipation/diarrhea). I'm also an endurance athlete so am trying to find a ways to eat enough, get my nutrition and minimize discomfort. Any suggesions or recommended resources?

Monique Ryan:

I see a lot of people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and I would encourage her to find a dietitian who knows about sports and also knows about GI problems, and to really sit down with somebody and iron that out with them because there are different supplements she could take. Without knowing her specifically, I can't really go into details about what supplements might be good for her.

Sometimes we have people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome take probiotics, like acidophilus. Sometimes getting more fibre in their diet can be extremely useful, but she'll have to figure that out around her workout.

I am in the process of training for my first marathon. I like to think I eat healthy, balancing all the foodgroups, including desert.

I run 5 out of 7 seven days a week and would like to know whether consuming beer ( in moderation) will help or hinder my training and therefor performance?

Are the complex carbs in beer nullified by the alcoholic content. Will the net effect leave me thirsting for a drink ( non alcoholic)?

Monique Ryan:

In moderating it should not hinder your performance. Moderation is a relative term, so you have to decided what's really moderate. It will not help your performance.

For skiing I often have 2 training sessions in one day, sometimes being up to 5 hrs of total exercise time. When are the most important times to be consuming carbs vs. protein in respect to breakfast, the recovery period between 2 sessions, as well as during the evening?

Monique Ryan:

A really nice, warm, high-carbohydrate breakfast, like a nice hot cereal, and fruit and juice beforehand. Having carbohydrates in the morning is actually important if you're going to train in the morning because when you wake up in the morning, your liver glycogen stores are low. You need to replenish them because this is one of the fuels that supplies blood glucose. Blood glucose is also a fuel supply when you run low on muscle glycogen. If those workouts are reaching about two hours or more, you're going to deplete your muscle glycogen stores. At anywhere between 75 and 90 minutes, you're going to reach some significant level of depletion. It depends how hard he's skiing.

He also has to consume carbohydrates during skiing, which can be tricky in cold weather. What some winter athletes do is warm up their sports drinks and they find a convenient way to carry the sports drink. They do make inflatable bottles that help keep the fluids warm. You don't want them to freeze on you. He also might want to carry some carbohydrate sources, like gel or even an energy bar that's not going to get too rock-solid in the cold.

What are your opinions on dairy products in a balanced diet? Much of the literature I have been reading discourages dairy products but I find including yoghurt, cottage cheese, low-fat hard cheeses are good sources of protein/carbs.

Monique Ryan:

I think you'll find literature that encourages the use of dairy products as well as literature that might discourage use. I think for the most part, dairy products can be part of a well-balanced diet. Some people might find they have some degree of lactose intolerance and there are certain dairy products they need to shy away from. Other people might find out that they're allergic to milk and that's something they need to work out with their physician. It really is an individual thing. If you're someone who likes dairy and tolerates it, it actually is a wonderful source of protein. Yogurt and milk are also good sources of carbohydrates, which endurance athletes need, and of course, they're a great source of calcium, which is extremely important for our bone health.

I've read in several places (all relating to body building) that there is a 'golden hour' after moderate-to-intense exercise, where a meal of protein and carbs will do the most good in terms of replenishing glycogen stores, minimising muscle damage, and making use of natural growth hormones. Is this true? And if so, is it beneficial to endurance athletes too?

Monique Ryan:

Yes, what she's talking about is really for endurance athletes. This goes back to the 1.2 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight to replenish muscle glycogen after moderate to hard training. Glycogen is more important than the protein at this point. Some studies have shown that carbohydrate alone is fine. Other studies have added small amounts of protein and that is still helpful, but not essential, like the carbohydrate is. The protein could be good for a little bit of muscle repair if it's been a tough workout. But carbohydrate is still the priority nutrient to replenish glycogen.

I am 45 years old, training for my 8th Ironman. In general terms, (considering long workouts are done at ever lower heart rates as we age) are there types of products that are better suited to the 40+ crowd for fuel on long runs/rides? e.g. higher fat and/or protein content?

Thanks!

Monique Ryan:

I can't say that there's a lot of age-specific research on that topic, but from what we can see, it's really a matter of meeting your carbohydrate needs during the race and working with products you tolerate well. She doesn't need more protein or fat just because she's a little bit older and there's lots of people her age doing Ironmans, so it's not unusual anymore. I wouldn't change the recommendations too much, except to say that, just like for anybody else, it's a personal thing in terms of how you do your race nutrition and getting it fine-tuned for you is the most important thing.

I have stopped eating meat and dairy for over 1 year now and am on a seed and grain diet ( flax, teff, oats, quinoia, etc.)
I am stronger now than before lifting weights more than my body weight.
Is there anything I should worry about on this kind of diet? I get my food source from other natural products as well.

Monique Ryan:

Probably getting enough B12 because B12 is really just in animal products. He might be purchasing some plant products that are fortified with B12. He needs to keep an eye out for that. Probably making sure that his iron stores are adequate and that he's getting enough calcium in his diet. He's getting calcium from probably green leafy vegetables, but you have to consume a lot of those to meet your calcium needs. So, really just checking on calcium intake, iron intake, zinc intake, B12 and also vitamin D.

Other than leafy green vegetables other meats and beans, are there any other foods that are iron-rich that you would recommend for someone who does not eat red meat. I am a mid-twenties female and I run half-marathons and race in triathlons as well. My iron levels have a tendency to dip and I am looking for some variety.

Thanks

Monique Ryan:

Dried apricots are a good source of iron. Raisins are also a source of iron. Another source is iron-fortified cereal, such as Cream of Wheat. Extra-firm tofu will have some iron in it. Whenever you consume a plant source of iron, it can be helpful to take it with a source of vitamin C to improve iron absorption.