Nuun Recover - 30g of Protein from 6g?

I have been trying to fuel my after workouts better and have come across Nuun Recover Nuun Recover and am wondering two things?

  1. Is anyone familiar with this and realizing benefits from it?
  2. How do they get 30g of protein from 6g?
    Not sure how then to calculate a good 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of CHO:Protein as it really looks like this only has 5g carbs and 6g protein or am I reading this wrong?

Looks to me like is really isn’t all that good of a recovery drink for us cyclists then is it?

I think it has 6g of BCAAs in, which they equate to being as effective as 30g of protein (casein/whey etc…who knows).

No idea of this holds true, but doesn’t pass my sniff test.

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@Dr_Alex_Harrison - any thoughts here on their claim?

Can’t really speak to the nutritional aspects, but I also found the “delivers the benefits of 30g” to be a bit dubious. As for the results, this was the first recovery drink I tried several months ago when I was learning to fuel workouts properly during and after, but not having any prior experience with recovery drinks, I can’t really say if it had an impact.

None of that is very helpful, so I’ll provide the one piece of helpful information I have: the blackberry lemon flavor is absolutely awful! Tastes nothing like blackberry nor lemon, just kind of a vaguely artificial grape-y flavor.

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Far less effective than whey protein as doesn’t contain all essential amino acids.

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I found their Kona Kola to be rather disgusting too. A lot of people seem to like it though :man_shrugging:

Since Nuun got bought out by Nestle, I sought out to find an alternative. I made the switch to Skratch Hydration and it works far better for me.

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thanks for the feedback - especially @evanreyes - top notch :rofl:

I have a decent discount that I could use, but I guess I won’t bother on the Recover.

Thanks @Dunk for the article!

Considering the serving size is 17g it seems like the correct protein content is the 6g (in the nutrition facts) and not 30g (from the description)

Total garbage. They’re twisting a scant few studies findings in very specific contexts (ie… restricted protein consumption, and complete fasting) in the face of a bounty of other evidence.)

It’s just marketing hoopla. And it’s dishonest, or embarassingly uninformed.

BCAA thoughts:

For endurance performance:

There is some limited evidence that BCAA ingestion alongside pre- or intra-workout beverages might enhance cognitive or motivational ability during endurance exercise. I have a list of supplements that I recommend for endurance sport. BCAA is on the very bottom of the list, but it does make the “maybe” list. But barely. There are half a dozen other things to take first, for endurance performance enhancement over BCAAs.

For health, and body composition:

Whey protein is derived from milk, and makes up ~20% of the protein found in milk. For the purpose of making whey protein powder, they just filter out the whey protein and either put it straight into a jug or do some additional filtering to make it finer and more easy to digest (this is where the names “concentrate, isolate, and hydrolysate” come from). In all types of whey protein, ALL of the amino acids are left in the protein in roughly their natural state. There are 20 of them. These 20 amino acids make up all the protein in your body. They serve as the building blocks for the proteins that are used to build muscle and perform most of your cellular functions. Three of these have been especially identified to be associated with muscle gain. They are leucine, valine, and isoleucine. Together, as a class, they are called the branched chain amino acids (BCAA) because their “side chain” (the thing that identifies each of the 20 amino acids) is branched.

In the absence of BCAA’s, muscle growth is limited, as compared to when they are present sufficiently in the diet pre-, intra-, and post-workout, and throughout the day. Whey protein has BCAA’s in it (more than most protein sources, actually), as does lean meat. Interestingly, whey protein and meat have enough BCAA’s in them such that the supplementation of BCAA’s doesn’t do anything additionally for hypertrophy or muscle retention during fat loss phases. Only during phases of incredibly tight caloric restriction, and in the slight absence of protein, are BCAA’s useful for preservation of muscle mass. If you’re eating whey protein before, during, or after your training session, and are eating at least .75 grams of protein per pound of body weight from lean meats/eggs/seafood ect, per day, there will be no measurable benefit to taking BCAA’s.

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Sorry if this is off topic, but should one add BCAA’s if using vegan protein suppliments?

The product site has a Questions section where somebody asked the same thing:

Citation needed, clearly. It’s a vegan product, so my guess is they’re assuming you’re not getting BCAAs from whey or the rest of your diet?

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Maybe, but probably not. Certainly won’t hurt anything but your wallet.

Thanks for posting this. That’s probably an incorrect assumption. And an even more incorrect assumption that the jumpstart of the recovery process matters at all, chronically. It does not appear to. And I’m definitely of the marginal gains mindset.

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@Dr_Alex_Harrison is this needed to maintain muscle mass?

Maybe, maybe not. Probably not if you’re nowhere near your genetic proclivity for muscle mass gain.

I’m down 30 pounds, most of which has been intentional muscle loss. I could probably eat 50g protein per day and maintain muscle pretty well. I’m a very peculiar situation with over 200 pounds of lean mass at one time.

In general, for optimal body composition and health, that’s a good recommendation for protein amount per day, for endurance athletes who care about performance and fitness. Could do 0.6 or could do 1.0g/lb, and be fine too. More discussion of the tradeoffs at play in my book in the recommended reading post here on TR forum.

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Thanks - much appreciated. I’ll have to check it out!

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Even as an ambassador, I do have to say it doesn’t provide the same benefit as my full whey protein shake with 2% milk as my liquid base. However, I have found it to be a great addition to my protein shake when I can’t have my shake immediately after my workout (not at home right away, can’t eat, super dehydrated, etc). It helps me kick start the rehydration process for me, especially after big and hot days and extends out the post-recovery fuel window for me so I can get back home in time to make my protein shake.

There might be a huge element of placebo in there, so take this with a grain of salt. I also agree that the taste is not great. It took me months to get used to it, but even then I have to just go for it and chug it as quickly as possible.

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I just drink milk and add a scoop of maltodextrin and a scoop of protein powder. Super simple and so much cheaper than a ‘propper’ recovery shake. Oh and it works just fine.

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We all know the best recovery shake is a glass of chocolate milk :muscle:

Plenty of carbs, bit of protein, tastes amazing and dirt cheap.

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