Protein, supplements and recovery nutrition
Evidence: strong
Total daily protein beats timing, the “anabolic window” is overstated, and a balanced diet does most of what the supplement shelf is sold to do.
Not medical advice
This is a general knowledge base, not medical or dietary advice. If you are injured, unwell or weighing up a supplement or a change to your diet, speak to a doctor, physiotherapist or registered dietitian who knows your situation.
For most runners eating a varied diet, the gap that supplements are sold to fill is small. The evidence points consistently to a food-first position, with a handful of specific exceptions (Maughan et al. 2018).
Supplementation versus a balanced diet
The IOC consensus on supplements is blunt: most provide little or no benefit beyond a well-constructed diet, some carry contamination and anti-doping risk, and the small number with genuine performance support is short (Maughan et al. 2018). The aids with real evidence for endurance running are few: caffeine, dietary nitrate, sodium bicarbonate for the right events, and iron only when deficient. The rest of the shelf is mostly marketing; see supplements that do not hold up.
Protein: total intake beats timing
For recovery and adaptation, total daily protein matters more than when it is eaten. Apparent timing effects largely vanish once daily intake is equated (Schoenfeld, Aragon & Krieger 2013). The acute muscle-protein-synthesis response is maximised by roughly 0.3 g per kg per serving, about 20 to 40 g, with the higher end for older athletes (Aragon & Schoenfeld 2013).
The anabolic window is overstated
The narrow 30-to-60-minute “anabolic window” after exercise is largely a myth. A meal eaten before training leaves amino acids circulating well into recovery, so immediate post-workout protein is often redundant, and the practical window spans several hours (Aragon & Schoenfeld 2013).
When carbohydrate timing does matter
Rapid refuelling matters only when the next hard session is less than about eight hours away. For fast glycogen resynthesis, take roughly 1.0 to 1.2 g of carbohydrate per kg per hour, every 15 to 30 minutes; adding protein gives no extra glycogen benefit once carbohydrate is at that rate (Kerksick et al. 2017). For a runner with a day or more between hard sessions, this urgency disappears, and total daily intake is what counts.
A simple daily target
Aim for roughly 1.6 g of protein per kg of body mass per day, toward the higher end during heavy training or when dieting to lose weight, spread across three or four meals of about 0.3 g/kg each rather than loaded into one (Maughan et al. 2018). Most runners eating enough total food hit this from ordinary meals; a shake is a convenience for filling a gap, not a requirement, and it does nothing a chicken breast or bowl of yoghurt would not.