In late March, the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism released the write-up of a study performed at the University of Montana that found moderate amounts of fast food to be as effective refueling the body after fairly lengthy, intense exercise as certain sport-food supplements.

The researchers had 11 male cyclists ride for 90 minutes at a pace hard enough to rid the muscle cells of stored energy. Immediately afterwards, the subjects consumed either moderate amounts of fast food hamburgers, French fries, and hash browns or equal caloric amounts of Gatorade, Power Bar, and Clif products.Two hours later, they ate the same foods again.Four hours after completing the 90-minute ride, the cyclists rode a second time: as fast as possible for 12.4 miles. All eventually did the two rides twice, once consuming the fast food to refuel and once using the sports supplements.Regardless, the results remained the same. The speed of the all-out, 12.4-mile time trial did not change when the recovery fuels did. Moreover, all medical tests showed no variance.The blood tests taken 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, 150 minutes, 180 minutes, and 240 minutes after the first workout found the different recovery meals produced similar blood sugar and insulin levels. Muscle biopsies indicated that the amount of glycogen restored to the muscles to be similar, too.As a result of these results, dozens of publications commented on the study, including a number of highly regarded publications, such as the Washington Post, England's the Daily Mail, Runner's World, and Outside magazine. The articles that irritated Brent Ruby, the director of the center at the University of Montana that performed the study, were those that implied exercisers can eat liberally and worry free after exercise.In a media release, he said, "A lot of the articles out there are totally misrepresenting the study. We had participants eating small servings of fast-food products, not giant orders of burgers and fries. Moderation is the key to the results we got."You might expect me to be irritated, too, because the follow-up articles as well as the original study seemingly discredit my usual advice to you. But that isn't necessarily so.That's because all my personal experimentation suggests that eating inferior recovery food does the most damage the day after you eat the stuff. Eating inferior food after hard workouts also made me consume more total calories later.There was a time in the early 1990s when simple carbohydrates, which abound in fast food, were touted by some to be better for exercise recovery than complex carbs.While this ran counter to the studies I had read and the man's opinion I valued the most, I couldn't resist experimenting. For a half dozen weekends, I returned from my long, weekend bicycle rides and immediately ate "dump" cake - a low-fat, relatively low-calorie cake loaded with simple carbohydrates.It tasted great. Unfortunately, I would be absolutely ravenous about 60 minutes afterwards. As a result, I consumed more calories later in the day than when my after-exercise meal consisted of primarily complex carbs and protein.Even worse, I had subpar rides on Sundays. Six in a row after I changed a habit couldn't be happenstance.To rationalize how the University of Montana research and my personal experience could both be valid, consider what is called the glycogen window. Prolonged and intense exercise opens it so widely that contracting muscles can use sugar from the bloodstream without insulin "escorting" the energy, which is a must any other time.The opening of the glycogen window after such exercise is why I encourage you to eat as soon as possible after such exercise and also why any food, even fast food, could feed the body's need. Immediately after long and intense bouts of exercise, I eat foods like 100-percent whole wheat bread, vegetable soup, green beans, sweet peas, and squash, with a fat-free, high-protein cheese called cup cheese, and they work so well that the sting created in my quads from the muscles being tapped out of glycogen sometimes abate by the time I finish the meal and stand up to wash the dishes.One hour after prolonged or intense exercise, however, the glycogen window begins to close, which means you only have only about another hour to take best advantage of it. As a result, I eat again. Now, I consume foods that you'd consider sports-supplement foods, not so much for the high-quality carbs they possess, but because protein gets used as a tertiary fuel during long, intense bouts of exercise, and the products I use contain branch-chained amino acids and ample amounts of glutamine, the types of protein preferentially used as fuel.Additionally, I have never been a proponent of Gatorade or Power Bar products. The Clif company produces some great products to use as middle-of-the-day snacks, I don't feel they do an exceptional job of refueling spent muscles.Because of this, it could be possible that a second experiment using other sport-food supplements could produce different results that contradict the first.In short, although it's an idealistic goal, I'd rather not have you consume any fast food. Fast food is most often inferior food and inferior food keeps you from attaining superior health and fitness.End of story.