Nutrition for Exercise Recovery - Calorie Needs to Help You Recover Faster!

Calorie needs during recovery.

Energy needs increase during acute injury repair. In fact, basal metabolic rate (BMR) may increase by 15 to 50% based on the severity of the trauma.  For example, sports injury and minor surgery may increase BMR by 15-20% ,while major surgery and burn injury may lead to a 50% increase in BMR.
Of course, comparatively speaking, an athlete or exerciser will have to eat less during injury recovery than during training and competition. Yet if they return to baseline intake, they may be under-eating.
Thus, nutrition coaches must balance the increased energy and nutrient needs of injured and recovering clients with the reality of less activity.

One example of calorie needs

Let’s take the example of a young male athlete. He’s 14 years old, 5’6″ and 140 lb.

• Basal Metabolic Rate - 1611 kcal/day
• Energy needs when sedentary - 1933 kcal/day
• Energy needs with daily training/competition - 2739 kcal/day
• Energy needs during recovery - 2319 kcal/day (20% increase in metabolism due to injury)

As you can see, during injury repair, energy intake should decrease (2319 kcal) relative to training and competition (2739 kcal).  However, returning to sedentary baseline (1933 kcal) will lead to underfeeding.
Less physical activity means lower appetite. If an athlete is eating based on hunger cues, s/he may under-eat during recovery. S/he might lose lean mass, heal poorly, and progress slowly.
Thus while injured athletes should eat less during periods of injury, remember: They’re still athletes, and should eat as such. This includes things like eating every few hours, getting enough protein, balancing macronutrients, and getting enough important micronutrients.

Macronutrient needs during recovery

Protein

Injury repair requires more protein. Injured athletes should aim for 1.5-2.0 g/kg, up from the usual 0.8 g/kg. Many already do this.
To ensure a quick recovery, make sure to get this higher protein intake consistently. At minimum, injured athletes should be taking in 1 g of protein per pound of body weight.

Fat

We recommend balancing dietary fat by getting about 1/3 of total fat intake from each of the three types of fat. Most importantly, aim for more omega-3s and cut down omega-6s, to get an omega-6 to -3 ratio that’s at least 1:1 and preferably closer to 3:1.

Carbohydrate

While athletes need glucose for athletic injury healing, no specific carbohydrate recommendations have been established for injury periods. However, you should probably include enough dietary carbohydrate to ensure adequate micronutrient intake and stable insulin concentrations (which, as an anabolic hormone, may affect wound healing). In some athletes accustomed to a higher intake of carbs, not getting enough will be an additional — and unwanted — stressor.

These are recommendations for injury recovery for runners and all athletes! Taking in the right calories will help you recover that much quicker from injury!

Feel free to email with questions or make comments!

Happy Injury Recovery Running :)