ESPExercise can damage muscles in a good way, meaning they grow back stronger. Protein provides the amino acids to help repair the damage, helping the muscles grow back stronger. Extra protein helps speed up muscle repair and glycogen replacement, helping you to recover faster.
Ordinarily most adults need around 0.75g of protein per kilo of body weight per day (for the average woman, this is 45g, or 55g for men). That’s about 2 portions of meat, fish or tofu per day.
When exercising nutritionists say you should try and include a portion of protein with every meal to help your muscles grow and repair. Try using your hand as a guide to portion size – palm of your hand for red meat and whole hand for white meat and fish.
If you exercise for less than an hour, the advice is to have regular healthy meals over the day containing protein to meet nutrition requirements rather than worrying about eating protein before or after exercising.
If your exercise session is longer than an hour, then having extra protein afterwards is useful. But the key is taking it at the right time and in the right amount, alongside carbohydrates.
Eating extra protein seems to be most effective within a 60min window following exercise. Protein synthesis, your body’s process of building new muscle, and muscle glycogen uptake is most effective during this time. The recommendation is between 15-30g protein.
