Is Chocolate Milk After a Workout Really Good For You?

You’re staggering through the finisher’s area, legs unsteady like those of a baby deer. The nice volunteer slips your marathon finisher’s medal over your head. You stagger forward a few more steps, still basking in your accomplishment, then another hands you a banana, and another a chocolate milk.

That first gulp always goes down so nicely. Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t take a chocolate milk over coconut water seven days a week and twice on Sundays?

What if that chocolate milk was more than just a tasty post-race treat, offering significant recovery benefits to endurance athletes?

As a runner, post-run nutrition and recovery can be just as important as the actual training itself. From consuming the right ratio of carbs to protein after exercise, to adequate hydration and sleep, it all combines to reduce the stresses of training and build the foundations of the physiological adaptations undergone by our bodies through consistent and progressive training.

Chocolate Milk After A Workout: Overview

So what exactly is the science saying about chocolate milk? Let’s take a gander.

Put simply, milk contains key electrolytes:

• Sodium
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Potassium

For more on electrolytes, Coach Amanda did a deep dive and shared a recipe for a homemade electrolyte drink.

In combination with the protein and fats found in milk, these electrolytes keep fluids in the stomach longer, leading to slower urination and better absorption of nutrients. 

If you move on to chocolate milk, you get a carbohydrate-to-protein ratio of 4-to-1, which is optimal for post-exercise recovery.

This helps to quickly replenish the body’s glycogen stores, while the whey and casein protein offer both fast- and slow-digesting protein to help with muscle repair in those critical post-exercise hours.

Keep in mind that regular milk will not have the same recovery benefits due to the decreased amount of simple carbohydrates (sugar).

Professor Ron Maughan published a study on the hydrating effects of different drinks. The study investigated the effects of 13 different commonly consumed drinks on urine output and fluid balance when ingested in an euhydrated state. As shown in the graphic below, skim and whole milk both scored just below a generic oral rehydration solution, or what we runners would call LMNT, Scratch, or even Gatorade.

A meta-analysis done by the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, showed promising results for chocolate milk’s efficacy as a recovery drink. 

What Are The Key Benefits?

Two hundred participants across 16 different studies were analyzed. Weighted mean differences and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for outcomes specifying body weight, serum creatine kinase, lactate, myoglobin, cortisol, plasma glucose, and insulin. 

• When compared to other recovery drinks, the studies showed no significant effect on body weight or serum creatine kinase, an enzyme that assists in energy production in the cells of the musculature and the heart.
• Significant reduction in serum lactate in endurance athletes and in U.S.-based studies.
• Decreased cortisol levels in those same athletes and in U.S.-based studies.

The meta-analysis concluded that chocolate milk’s recovery benefits showed no improvement over other recovery drinks in terms of body weight and serum creatine kinase, but saw a significant reduction in serum lactate.

How Chocolate Milk Can Help With Recovery

Why is this so beneficial? Don’t we run tempos and threshold intervals to do just this? Yes, but training that physiological mechanism does produce blood lactate.

While it will naturally clear over time, chocolate milk is showing a measurable and significant effect on its overall reduction and how quickly serum lactate is cleared from the body, leading to more efficient recovery. 

While products like Skratch Lab’s Recovery Sport Drink might taste great and offer a lot of the same recovery benefits, the $3.50 per serving cost adds up. A gallon of Tru Moo retails for anywhere from $5 to $6, bringing the per-serving cost down to $0.63 to $0.75. And that’s a win-win situation because it leaves a lot more disposable income for the latest and greatest running shoes, reviewed by all of us here at RTTF!

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