I've been doing a bit of running 3 times a week – 5-8km varying on how much time I have. Also been doing a couple of gym sessions a week – 1.5hrs a time and a good all day ride on a Sunday. Attempting to loose some body fat and maybe some general mass.

5'11" – 15 stone – quite large (wide and bulky) generally so would like to be about 13 stone and toned with good all day riding fitness.

Ive been getting really tired a few hours after any exercise – normally fall asleep on the sofa – sometimes during the day if ive been running at 6:30 am also get really hungry for the remainder of the day or the next day – I can also get really grumpy and snappy with mrs carbon.

Went to a supplement shop and the lady recommended Protein shakes for after riding, running and gym. She reckons I should also take creatine capsules to aid endurance. I don't want to end up too bulky or heavy so should I been using protein?

Does anyone else use it after exercise or am I going down the wrong route?

ta

1. Eat food your granny would recognise
2. Get lots of sleep
3. Don't eat too much of 1.
4. Carry on with 2.

You MAY not need supplements – i am not a doctor.

Aim to be as 'normal' as you can – your body will accomodate and nature will take it's course.

I'll be interested in the answers, carbon337. I'm wondering something very similar.

You should not need supplements for running 5-8km a few days a week.

You don't say what your current diet is. Look at that before supplementing – they are suppose to supplement – the clue is in the name!

Jamie,

Depends how hard he is running, if steady I agree but if hard then I think a protein drink would help recovery

carbon337
I have used this:
http://www.muscleform.co.uk/Store/Protein-Sources/AVI$9PRO-94-Whey-Protein-Isolate
After racing and it boosted my recovery for certain, I didn't suffer from bulking up, though if your objective is to lose weight you are probably better off with lots of fresh fruit and veg.

The grumpiness is an odd one and I get this from time to time, I would probably speak toy your doc about this, could be low blood count or similar.

M

rest days are just as important as exercise, incorporate one or two days a week where you do nothing or considerably less to allow your body some recovery time. I was led to believe protein builds muscle which if your well built you might already have enough of.

could also be general over training …. depending onhow long you have been doing this ? i trust you take rest weeks etc

protein helps, a recovery drink like SiS rego worked better for me. I don't beleive its all about diet although obviously this helps, i've just started upping my exercise again, biking to work and really trying to push myself on the bike, running a few times a week in the evening and a bit of weights, a recovery drink definitely helps my legs feel fresher the next day.

I drink a soya protein shake every day after the gym. It makes me feel buff, and stops my muscles twitching after a hard workout. Protein = good, especially when it comes to stripping fat/building lean muscle.

(I speak from the experience of losing 3 stone, and toning right up over the last 9 months)

evening exercise –
breaky -porridge
Lunch – wholemeal bread sandwhich (ham, cheddar cheese or chicken),
Exercise between 5 and 7
Evening meal – mostly decent – no ready meals ever – quite large portions though but im normally hungry.
Not big on puddings or biscuits to be fair

Partial to the odd pastie but cut them out since October – possibly reduce garlic bread intake.

Morning exercise –
nothing before run or gym,
Maybe some beans on toast at 10/11 ish – wholemeal bread again
banana at 3 and meal at night at 6.

Weekends – none riding

late breakfast english muffin and scrambled eggs
maybe a bit of cake
Decent posh meal at night – fillet steak oven chips, red wine

Riding day
Porridge,
garage sarnie
Flapjack
Sunday roast

A high protien diet is the best there is. If your wanting to cut you simply eat less calories than you are expending keep protien high to try prevent muscle wastage. For bulking just eat more calories. So in your case eat less calories made up from healthy high protien foods. To much sleep is also bad and can make you grumpy around 8 hours is best. Have a rest day every week. As for whey it's great I take it all the time for cutting and bulking but as mentioned above it is only a supp. So if your diet ain't sorted it prob won't do much. Myprotien.com is good and cheap the best I have used for cutting was sci mx lean grow as a meal replacement. Hope this helps

I find a chocolate milk drink does me good after I've had a lot of exercise. Mix of protein and carbohydrates. Cheap chocolate milk is supposed to be better than the bought supplement things – there has been a bunch of research on this. The wacky (and expensive) supplements, maybe if you're body building they might help, but probably not otherwise. I wouldn't use creatine either, not without advice from someone with some kind of medical qualifications, rather than someone selling creatine.

I've only started doing the milk thing when I upped to doing quite a lot of exercise, I ride about 800-1000km in a typical month at the moment, and that is getting to the amount where you really need to think about getting a bunch of extra food, and milk is a cheap and easy way to get 500 or so calories in one hit.

How much sleep do you get? That is one of the biggest things that you find when you up the exercise level – I've gone from 6 hours to 8 hours a night over the years, and it massively helps. Much more so than eating well, although I eat pretty well (vegetarian diet makes that much easier for me). I find 9 times out of 10, if I am falling asleep, that is my body telling me that I'm tired, not because I haven't eaten enough / taken enough supplements etc.

Joe

Recovery drink and supportive protein.

You need to find how much you need of what and see if your normal diet is enough.

I find I need 103grams of protein and eating healthy -it's difficult to stomach it in. I use proteins shakes.

But make sure your calcium is higher too as too much protein can bind free calcium.

Try allowing a good recovery period between workouts. I wait 36hrs after a really tough workout.

Moderate and heavy exerise general rule is you should have a protein(whey or soya, whey slightly better) drink within 20 mins of the end of exercise and a proper meal within a couple of hours. Your meal times/frequency are a bit off, smaller and often is better. Breakfast,small snack mid morning, lunch, small snack mid afternoon, evening meal and if your hungry in the evening after your meal fruit or yoghut is best option. Meals made up of 60% carbs, 30% protein and 10% good fat. I know it seems strange eating more frequently but your body becomes more efficent at burning fuel as long as its smaller meals of good quality foods.

I used to take it after training. I was 16.5 stone. I pulled a calf muscle playing rugby so stopped. I'm not playing rugby again yet but my bike fitness is back or better than it was and I haven't been taking the protein drinks. Strangely my weight is up half a stone yet it's not fat I've put on. I'm confused! 🙂