Can drinking chocolate milk help you meet weight?
When you hear me say drink chocolate milk you must think, ‘Meg is a dietitian. Why would she be recommending that?’
Performance based nutrition is different to the standard ‘healthy eating guidelines’ for your next door neighbour. I obviously still want you to eat your fruit and and plenty of vegetables but as athletes there are benefits to using flavoured milk.
As Jockeys meeting weight can be a struggle. So many tend to not eat or drink and sweat, sweat and sweat some more. Sipping on different fluids across the race day can help improve your energy, focus, mental fatigue, hydration and cooling benefits without compromising your weight if you are riding light. But let’s talk about after your last race - when you can eat and drink - and how this can help you walk around at correct weight long-term. I want you to say (Yell!) out loud…go on say it, ‘No more wasting! No more sweat suits! Woohoo!’. You have a big smile on your face right now don’t you. Well so do I.
We are going to start with the nutrition after your last race. The pressure is now off to make weight for the day and your more likely to implement my advice. Aren’t you. That is why I am starting here. Remember like anything you have to practice this more than once. The amount you’ve wasted, how many horses you rode and weather will all change how you feel. Not just the food and fluid I recommend post race. So look at the whole picture.
So what should you do after your last race?
Getting the 3 R’s right is the start - refuel, rehydrate, repair. I will tell you what to eat and drink below but lets start with the WHY. By refuelling your energy, rehydrating and repairing your muscles post races will improve how you feel both physically and mentally. If you hit the 3 R’s you can manage your appetite hormones then-and-there and the days following the races. If you do no get the post race nutrition right - jockeys tend to binge eat. Not only that night but in the days following. It is not lack of willpower that is doing this to you, it is your body trying to protect itself.
If we can refuel your energy, rehydrate and repair your muscles after the races we can manage these appetite hormones and make your eating more consistent. You are now less likely to energy dense nutrient poor foods and drinks like a Big Mac. By improving your nutrition after the races you are more likely to eat better in the days to follow as well. When you think about it that is 30-40% of your week your nutrition has improved because you implemented the 3 R’s. Say out load - ‘Winning!’.
Another way to lose or maintain weight is good quality sleep. Ensuring we hit those 3 R’s will improve how you feel and subsequently improve your sleep. This is if you haven’t gone out drinking post-races. If you are going to drink alcohol be sure to rehydrate firstly as alcohol decreases sleep quality. To rehydrate adequately in a nut shell, if you lost 1 kg in sweat - replace 1.5 x the fluid loss. So you would need 1.5 litres of fluid (water…not alcohol…) and this can include a mixture of water, protein shakes or flavoured milk. Back to the sleep now - Good quality sleep means your body is rested and does not crave additional sugar or food to keep it awake and functioning the next day. That would mean extra calories, uncontrolled choices of food and fluid, changes in your metabolism and potentially excessive intake of caffeine that would effect your next nights sleep.
So what should you eat or drink after the races?
I suggest to my jockeys to have a small flavoured milk as soon as they walk into the jockey’s room after their last race. Flavoured milk has sugar (carbohydrates) to refuel your energy, protein to repair your muscles and keep you fuller for longer and fluid to rehydrate you. Added benefits - its easy to drink (Tasty!), has calcium (many jockeys do not meet their requirements reducing their bone strength), it’s cheap and you can pick it up from a petrol station on the way to the races.
A small Moove is a good starting point or half an Oak flavoured milk. You want to aim for between 15-30g protein and 15-45g of carbohydrates depending how you feel after your last race. Then again at dinner. You do not have to skull it. Sip on it and see how you feel. Most importantly practice this a few times as there are many attributes that can effect how you feel and how you tolerate drinks and food. After all you have just starved yourself for a day or days prior, overexercising and dehydrating. Be gentle to your body.
The reason I recommend you drink the flavoured milk straight after you walk into the jockey’s room is:
To start the recovery process.
You may get distracted by packing up or someone speaking to you forgetting to drink it and therefore delaying recovery. This may then increase the want to binge later as starvation is extended.
Drinking straight after your last ride extends the period you have to eat a second meal later. You reduce the risk of feeling bloated as you won’t drink and eat too closely together. Yes I want you to eat again later because you probably have not eaten anything all day except 1/4 of a sandwich, a piece or two of fruit and maybe a coffee with milk in the morning. So we need to ensure you meet your energy and protein requirements - which cannot be met at one meal.
An alternative would be to make your own smoothie if you have a luxury of a blender at the races or you take your own - blend 1/2-1C of fruit and/or milk to your protein powder or make peanut butter, banana, skim milk smoothie. If you are going to use a protein powder which has minimal or no carbohydrates - that is fine but eat 1/2-1C fruit or a banana to get your carbohydrate intake up.
Don’t like flavoured milk? That’s ok, go for a yoghurt i.e. Chobani or YoPro. Again yoghurt hits all the requirements - protein, carbohydrates and fluid. However top up with more water as obviously there is less fluid than in a flavoured milk drink.
Now they you are packed and heading home. If home is close by have dinner at home - meat/chicken/fish and three vegetables. Be sure to include some type of carbohydrate on your plate 1/2-1C i.e. rice, pasta, potato, sweet potato, peas. If you have a long drive take a sandwich provided at the races and pre-pack in an esky - yoghurt pouch or pot, a piece of fruit, 1/4 cup of nuts (any kind) or 1-2 tbsp peanut butter on corn thins/vita-weets or with cut up veggies, 1-2 boiled eggs and/or pre-cook your dinner the same as mentioned above. If you pre-pack food you are less likely to buy usually unhealthy food on the road. Plus you save money. Am I right!
I do not want you to eat all the food in the esky however it gives you options depending how you feel. I would aim for 2-3 options in the esky i.e. snack and the main meal OR yoghurt Chobani pouch and punnet of blueberries then wait till you get home for dinner.
Let me compare my recommendations for something you may choose on the road. A McDonald’s Big Mac = 565 calories. Instead you could eat for the same amount of energy…
Snacks: 1 medium banana + 1/4C almonds
Main meal: 120g white fish, 1/2C cooked rice, steam packet of vegetables
OR
Snacks: Granny Smith Apple
Main meal: 100g Grilled Chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise wholemeal wrap
Plus these are healthier options higher in fibre, healthy fats (unsaturated fat), lower in bad fats (saturated and trans-saturated fat), higher in anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals.
So what are you waiting for. Give it a go! Say out load ‘No more wasting! No more sweating! Woohoo!’
Please leave comments below and let me know how you went. Remember you have to eat more consistently to lose weight.
Meg Roberts (Accredited Practicing Dietitian & Sports Dietitian)
B. Nutrition & Dietetics (Hons)