After reading the nutrition drinks thread, does anyone believe that eating protein bars after a workout, specifically during that "recovery window" is beneficial, or am I just buying into society's fad trap?
I have had the Powerbar Protein Power and I'm not sure if its good to eat afterwards or not. What do you think? Should I be eating this if I am trying to lose weight?
Serv Size 78g = 1 bar
Calories 300
Calories From Fat 50
Total Fat 6g 9%
Sat Fat 3.5g 18%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 5mg 1%
Sodium 210mg 9%
Total Carb 39g 13%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Sugars 19g
Protein 23g 46%
Former Member
I also checked fast food restaurants and found even MacDonalds restaurant some quick fixes www.dietfacts.com/fastfood.asp
Here is what you get when you eat a regular chocolate bar. Pick your bar and enjoy. I can buy them on sale 2 for a buck.
www.hersheys.com/.../hersheysbar.asp
Former Member
I believe there is good science behind the recommendations for recovery food. It is not just a fad. Google chocolate milk recovery and you will find studies to show that the carb/protein balance of chocolate milk is beneficial to recovery from strenuous exercise.
As for that protein bar - it is up to you to decide if an extra 300 calories per day is what you need. If your swimming is not particularly demanding the recovery food may be unnecessary or too many calories.
If you want to lose weight now and are making progress keep in mind that adding 300 cals 5 times per week is worth about 2 lbs per month. If you are not losing weight right now adding these calories will cause weight gain unless you eliminate those calories somewhere else.
Former Member
I'd stay away from protein bars like those if you want to lose weight. That's a lot of calories (and carbs). Drink water to rehydrate. If you need to eat immediatly following swimming, go with a low carbohydrate snack. You mentioned that you are attempting to minimize carb intake. That can be very effective. A combination of a low carb diet and swimming helped me to achieve and maintain a 40 lb weight loss. But, even 1/4 of one of those bars daily would be too much for me.
Since I'm not dieting to lose weight, I can't offer too much in the way of personal experience, but just a thought: good not- too-high cal sources of protein might be things like the above mentioned chocolate milk (can get it fat free) or also soy milk, nuts, yogurt (I've used yogurt with abt. a teaspoon of protein powder sometimes), etc.
I have to admit, though, that I'm partial to the bars b/c they're easy to take along with me to a workout. I like the Zone Perfect bars which have about 14-15 grams of protein. But I don't remember off-hand their calorie count.
