Chocolate Milk For Runners

I signed up for a Couch to 5K. This was the first weekend for it and one of the first things the trainer told us was to drink 8 oz skim chocolate milk to recover from your run. I am on a low carb eating plan (30 net carbs a day). Skim chocolate milk contains 26 net carbs! I'm thinking I could do this for race day- or as I get closer, as my running sessions get longer- but right now I'm only running 1 minute, walking 90 seconds. I'm only burning about 325 calories in a 25 minute session- I'm for sure not burning off all that sugar.

If you are an experienced runner can you please weigh in on this- in particular- I need to continue weight loss. I'm 11lbs away from my goal- so with that in mind- how do I incorporate this into my diet- or do I select something different and save it for longer, more strenuous runs?

Thank you

I don't see how you're burning 325 cals in 25 minutes. I'm 185 pounds and I burn about 147 cals/mile. When you look at net calorie burn, I'm only burning about 100 cals/mile.

I bring that up because dieting is very error prone and I'd hate to see you gain weight for something this simple. The rule of thumb for running is miles x weight in pounds x .76 = calories burned. That's for running at speeds > 5 MPH. For walking it's lower and the net calories burned is about 0.5 instead of 0.76.

Insofar as drinking chocolate milk, it's a good recovery drink for runners but my thinking is that you're more of a "runner in the making" so I'd continue with weight loss and start using chocolate milk when you switch over to running rather than run/walking.

I'm pretty conservative on this. One reason is 'cause I'm cheap and I did far more exercise in the Army on much worse food than I have now and I had no problems with diet or fitness. The other factor that influences me is that we tend to confuse what's "nice to have" (that's how I ended up at 295) with what our bodies need ( (that's how I ended up at 185).

<feeling a little curmudgeonly this morning>

I'm not a HUGE marathon runner but I do run at least 4 miles everyday. I NEVER drink chocolate milk after a run...never have. I'm still alive, kickin & able to run just fine everyday. Not sure if this answers your question, but this is just what I do and it seems to work.

I don't run, but I am doing P90X and I have to say the best recovery drink EVER is Chocolate milk with skim milk. I'm not nearly as sore and its a nice "Good Job" drink! And I'm losing weight.

I only have some sort of recovery drink for a run that's over 6 miles. I've ran races all the way up to marathon distance and there's no need for it. There are a lot of forums about recovery and running on runnersworld.com as well! Happy training :-)

I don't see how you're burning 325 cals in 25 minutes. I'm 185 pounds and I burn about 147 cals/mile. When you look at net calorie burn, I'm only burning about 100 cals/mile.

I bring that up because dieting is very error prone and I'd hate to see you gain weight for something this simple. The rule of thumb for running is miles x weight in pounds x .76 = calories burned. That's for running at speeds > 5 MPH. For walking it's lower and the net calories burned is about 0.5 instead of 0.76.

Insofar as drinking chocolate milk, it's a good recovery drink for runners but my thinking is that you're more of a "runner in the making" so I'd continue with weight loss and start using chocolate milk when you switch over to running rather than run/walking.

I'm pretty conservative on this. One reason is 'cause I'm cheap and I did far more exercise in the Army on much worse food than I have now and I had no problems with diet or fitness. The other factor that influences me is that we tend to confuse what's "nice to have" (that's how I ended up at 295) with what our bodies need ( (that's how I ended up at 185).

<feeling a little curmudgeonly this morning>

^^ I think this is good advice ^^

I regularly run 6 miles and on a weekend I've been recently running around 13 mile training runs. Before a 13 mile run I might eat a small banana, and take some jelly babies or runners gel out with me for the 10 mile mark but other than that I eat normally. I've never specifically had chocolate milk for recovery.

So, training for 5k I'd say stick to your normal eating plan without adding any special foods in. Whether you eat your exercise cals or not is up to you and where you are on your weight loss journey.

Best wishes

ditto to what a few others have said. Chocolate Milk is the time-tested recovery drink for runners, but there is a difference between cranking out hard, abusive miles on the body, and easing into it. I'd say skip it for now. When you get up to 10 miles of non-stop running, then you may incorporate a recovery drink (or if you start doing intervals). At that point, you won't be concerned about a few measly calories since the run itself will but over 1000. Good luck!

Chocolate milk is a great way to get the fat and protein you need to recover from a run. You need to get It within 30 minutes of the end of your workout. I have founf my recovery from my long runs (10 miles or more) is faster if I drink Chocolate milk. But I only use water if I run 5 or less miles, I just use a sports drink for anything else.

You don't need a recovery drink until you are running for longer periods of time. I usually only use chocolate milk on runs that are really intense (long distance or high intensity). C25K is not really all that intense in the beginning. Chocolate milk is the right balance of carbs and protein to aid in recovery. I love it, but I don't think you need it yet.