Macro partitioning
Post-exercise carbohydrate intake of approximately 1.2 g/kg body mass per hour for up to 4 hours is essential for restoring glycogen reserves, supporting immune system energy needs, and facilitating tissue repair.
After your workout, eat about 1.2 grams of carbohydrates for every kilogram of your body weight each hour for the next 4 hours. For example, if you weigh 70kg, aim for 84g of carbs per hour. This helps refill your energy stores and supports your immune system. Don't fear carbs here; they are essential for recovery.
Carbohydrate intake (~1.2 g/kg body mass per hour for up to 4 h post-exercise) is essential not only in restoring glycogen reserves but also in supporting the energy needs of the immune system and facilitating tissue repair.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple professional organizations (IOC, GSSI, UEFA, ISSN) and cited meta-analyses/reviews.
Source
The 4Rs Framework of Sports Nutrition: An Update with Recommendations to Evaluate Allostatic Load in Athletes
Diego A. Bonilla et al. · Life · 2025
DOI 10.3390/life15060867
More from this paper
- Post-exercise ingestion of high-quality protein (0.3–0.5 g/kg body mass) stimulates net muscle protein anabolism and contributes to faster tissue growth and repair.Good
- Pre-sleep nutrition, specifically casein- or protein-rich meals with slow digestion rates, has a restorative effect on the musculoskeletal, endocrine, immune, and nervous systems.Good
- Allostatic load (AL) represents the cumulative physiological stress and cost of adaptation, and can be measured using an Allostatic Load Index (ALindex) to guide nutrition and exercise interventions.Moderate
Related findings · Macro partitioning
- Total daily protein intake of 1.6 g/kg/day is sufficient for maximizing resistance training-induced muscle gains, with an upper confidence interval of 2.2 g/kg/day.Strong
- Resistance exercise training combined with sufficient dietary protein intake acts synergistically to maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, with protein intake saturating around 1.6 g/kg/day for general populations and potentially requiring 2.0-2.2 g/kg/day for resistance-trained individuals.Strong
- Trans fats should be completely eliminated from the diet, as they increase LDL cholesterol, decrease HDL cholesterol, and are directly associated with increased coronary risk.Strong
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