The Complete Guide to WHOOP Recovery Foods: What to Eat Based on Your Score

You wake up, check your WHOOP strap, and see your recovery score staring back at you. Green, yellow, or red — it's a daily verdict on how well your body has bounced back. But here's the question almost nobody asks: what should you eat based on that number?

Most WHOOP users treat their recovery score as a training signal. Push hard on green days, take it easy on red days. That's solid advice. But nutrition is the other half of the equation — and the half that most people ignore. After analyzing data from thousands of Plait users, we've identified clear patterns in how food choices correlate with recovery trajectories. The right foods can turn a yellow day into a green one; the wrong foods can sabotage even the best night of sleep.

This guide breaks down exactly what to eat in each WHOOP recovery zone, backed by peer-reviewed research and real user data.

Understanding Your WHOOP Recovery Zones

Before diving into specific foods, let's establish what your recovery score actually reflects. WHOOP calculates recovery from three primary inputs: heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (RHR), and sleep performance. These metrics are proxies for autonomic nervous system balance — essentially, how well your parasympathetic ("rest and digest") system is functioning relative to your sympathetic ("fight or flight") system.

Nutrition directly influences all three inputs. What you eat affects systemic inflammation, which modulates HRV (Minihane et al., 2015). It affects cardiac workload through thermic effect and blood glucose regulation, which influences RHR. And it profoundly impacts sleep architecture through neurotransmitter precursors and gut-brain signaling. For a deeper dive into how HRV and nutrition interact, see our article on the HRV-nutrition connection.

Green Zone (67–100%): Your body is primed. Autonomic balance is strong, inflammation is low, and glycogen stores are likely replenished. Nutritional goal: fuel performance and maintain the momentum.
Yellow Zone (34–66%): Partial recovery. Some systemic stress remains — possibly from training load, poor sleep, or dietary factors. Nutritional goal: reduce inflammation, support repair, and avoid metabolic stressors.
Red Zone (0–33%): Significant recovery deficit. Your body is under stress, and your nervous system is skewed sympathetic. Nutritional goal: aggressive anti-inflammatory nutrition, maximum nutrient density, and gut support.

Green Zone Foods: Fuel for Performance

A green recovery score means your body is ready. This is the day to push hard in training — and to eat in a way that supports high output. Your nutrition should emphasize energy availability, glycogen loading, and performance-oriented macronutrient ratios.

Carbohydrate Loading for Strain

On green days, your body can efficiently metabolize and store carbohydrates. This is the time to increase carb intake, particularly if you plan a high-strain session. Research shows that muscle glycogen availability is the primary limiter of sustained high-intensity exercise (Mata et al., 2019).

Best green-day carb sources:

Sweet potatoes: High in complex carbs with a moderate glycemic index, plus beta-carotene for immune support.
Oats: Slow-digesting carbs with beta-glucan fiber that supports sustained energy.
Rice: Easily digestible, low in anti-nutrients, and excellent for pre-workout glycogen loading.
Bananas: Fast-digesting carbs with potassium for electrolyte balance — ideal peri-workout.
Quinoa: Complete protein source with complex carbs and magnesium.

A good target on green days is 3–5 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight, depending on planned strain. Use our WHOOP Macro Calculator to dial in your exact numbers based on your body weight and training volume.

Protein for Muscle Protein Synthesis

Green days are when your body is most efficient at building and repairing muscle tissue. Leucine-rich protein sources trigger mTOR signaling, the master regulator of muscle protein synthesis (Morton et al., 2018).

Eggs: The gold standard for bioavailable protein (biological value of 100).
Chicken breast: Lean, high-leucine protein that's easy to digest.
Greek yogurt: Combines casein and whey protein with probiotics for gut health.
Wild-caught salmon: Protein plus omega-3 fatty acids — a recovery double-hit.

Aim for 0.4–0.5 g of protein per kg per meal, spread across 4 meals, to maximize muscle protein synthesis rates.

Strategic Fats

Don't neglect fats on green days. Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) provide rapid energy, while omega-3s keep inflammation in check even during high strain. Include avocado, extra virgin olive oil, and nuts in your green-day meals.

Yellow Zone Foods: Support and Repair

A yellow recovery score is the most common — and the most nuanced. Your body isn't fully recovered, but it isn't broken down either. This is where smart nutrition makes the biggest difference. As we've discussed in our analysis of why recovery scores drop after good sleep, sometimes recovery deficits come from unexpected sources — and diet is often the culprit.

Anti-Inflammatory Priorities

In the yellow zone, low-grade systemic inflammation is likely contributing to your incomplete recovery. Your food choices should actively combat this. A 2019 meta-analysis found that adherence to an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern was associated with significantly higher HRV across multiple studies (Jakulj et al., 2019).

Top anti-inflammatory foods for yellow days:

Blueberries: Anthocyanins reduce exercise-induced oxidative stress and accelerate recovery (McAnulty et al., 2011).
Tart cherry juice: One of the most well-studied recovery foods. 30 mL of tart cherry concentrate before bed has been shown to increase sleep duration and quality (Howatson et al., 2012).
Turmeric (with black pepper): Curcumin is a potent NF-κB inhibitor. Combine with piperine (black pepper) for 2000% increased bioavailability.
Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines): EPA and DHA directly resolve inflammation through specialized pro-resolving mediators.
Leafy greens (spinach, kale, arugula): Nitrate-rich greens improve blood flow and reduce oxidative stress.

Moderate Your Carbs

In the yellow zone, you want to be more strategic with carbohydrates. Blood sugar spikes can exacerbate inflammation and further tax your already-stressed system. Focus on low-glycemic carb sources: lentils, chickpeas, black beans, and non-starchy vegetables. If you're curious about how to optimize your overall meal timing around recovery, check out our guide on the meal timing hack that improved recovery by 34%.

Hydration Is Non-Negotiable

Dehydration is one of the most common — and most overlooked — contributors to depressed recovery scores. Even 2% dehydration increases resting heart rate by 3–5 bpm and reduces HRV significantly (Watso et al., 2019). On yellow days, aim for:

Minimum 0.5 oz per pound of body weight of water daily.
Electrolytes: Add sodium (500–1000 mg), potassium, and magnesium to your water, especially if you trained the previous day.
Bone broth: A recovery powerhouse — glycine for sleep, collagen for joints, minerals for electrolyte balance.

Red Zone Foods: Damage Control and Deep Recovery

A red recovery score means your body is under significant physiological stress. Your sympathetic nervous system is dominant, inflammation markers are likely elevated, and your immune system may be compromised. This is not the day for empty calories or inflammatory foods. Every bite should serve a purpose.

Foods That Accelerate Red Zone Recovery

Bone broth: Rich in glycine, an amino acid that supports both immune function and sleep quality. Glycine supplementation has been shown to improve subjective sleep quality and next-day cognitive performance (Bannai & Kawai, 2012).
Ginger: A potent anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea food that can reduce muscle soreness by 25% when consumed regularly (Black et al., 2010).
Fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir): The gut-immune axis is critically important during red zone recovery. 70% of your immune system resides in your gut, and probiotic-rich foods support its function.
Wild-caught salmon or sardines: The omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA are the building blocks for resolvins and protectins — molecules that actively resolve inflammation.
Dark leafy greens: Magnesium-rich greens support parasympathetic activation and improve sleep quality.
Tart cherry concentrate: Melatonin precursors plus powerful antioxidants. This is your single best red-zone recovery drink.

Foods to Avoid on Red Days

On red recovery days, what you don't eat matters as much as what you do eat. The following foods actively impair recovery:

Alcohol: Even moderate alcohol consumption reduces HRV by 15–22% and suppresses REM sleep by up to 20% (Pietilä et al., 2018). On red days, alcohol is the single worst thing you can consume.
Refined sugar and processed foods: These spike blood glucose, trigger inflammatory cytokine release, and elevate resting heart rate.
High-sodium restaurant/fast food: Excessive sodium increases blood pressure and cardiac workload, directly raising RHR.
Caffeine after noon: Caffeine has a half-life of 5–6 hours. Afternoon caffeine fragments sleep architecture and suppresses deep sleep by up to 20%.
Fried foods: Trans fats and oxidized oils are potent pro-inflammatory agents that elevate systemic inflammation for 24–48 hours.

Red Zone Meal Timing

On red days, front-load your nutrition. Eat your largest meal at breakfast or lunch, and keep dinner light and early (at least 3 hours before bed). Late, heavy meals elevate core body temperature and increase cardiac workload during sleep — both of which depress recovery further. This is consistent with the findings in our meal timing research.

Glycogen Replenishment: The Recovery Fuel System

One of the most important — and most misunderstood — aspects of WHOOP recovery nutrition is glycogen replenishment. Your muscles and liver store glucose as glycogen, and these stores are depleted during high-strain activities. Incomplete glycogen replenishment is a major contributor to multi-day recovery deficits.

Research shows that the optimal window for glycogen replenishment is within 30–60 minutes post-exercise, when the GLUT4 transporters on muscle cells are most active (Ivy, 2004). During this window, aim for:

1.0–1.2 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight
A 3:1 or 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio for optimal glycogen resynthesis
Fast-digesting carbs: White rice, potatoes, fruit, or a quality carbohydrate supplement

Missing this window doesn't mean you can't replenish glycogen — it just takes longer. Full glycogen replenishment can take 24–48 hours without optimal timing, versus 4–6 hours with it. This is one reason why users who skip post-workout nutrition often see depressed recovery scores the following morning.

The Hydration-Recovery Connection

Hydration deserves its own section because of its outsized impact on WHOOP metrics. Plasma volume directly affects cardiovascular efficiency. When you're dehydrated, your heart has to work harder to circulate the same amount of oxygen-rich blood, which elevates resting heart rate and depresses HRV.

The WHOOP community data is clear: users who track hydration and maintain adequate fluid intake see 8–12% higher average recovery scores compared to those who don't track hydration.

Optimal hydration strategies by recovery zone:

Zone	Water Target	Electrolytes	Extras
Green	0.5–0.7 oz/lb	Standard mix	Coconut water peri-workout
Yellow	0.6–0.8 oz/lb	Enhanced (add Mg, K)	Bone broth, herbal teas
Red	0.7–1.0 oz/lb	Full spectrum + trace minerals	Tart cherry juice, bone broth

Supplements That Support WHOOP Recovery

While whole foods should always be your foundation, certain supplements have strong evidence for improving the biomarkers that WHOOP tracks. We've covered this extensively in our article on supplements that actually improve WHOOP metrics, but here's a quick summary:

Magnesium glycinate (300–400 mg before bed): Supports parasympathetic activation, improves sleep quality, and has been shown to increase HRV.
Omega-3 fish oil (2–3 g EPA+DHA daily): Reduces systemic inflammation and improves HRV by 5–12% in multiple studies.
Tart cherry extract (500 mg or 30 mL concentrate): Natural melatonin precursor with potent anti-inflammatory properties.
Vitamin D3 (2000–5000 IU daily): Essential for immune function and has been linked to improved recovery metrics in athletes who are deficient.
Creatine (3–5 g daily): Beyond its performance benefits, creatine supports brain recovery and reduces markers of muscle damage.

How Plait Automates Recovery-Based Nutrition

Everything in this guide is useful — but it's also a lot to manage manually. That's why we built Plait. Every morning, Plait reads your WHOOP recovery score, sleep data, and planned strain, then generates a personalized meal plan that applies these exact principles automatically.

Green day? Plait increases your carbohydrate allocation and suggests performance-oriented meals. Red day? It shifts to anti-inflammatory, nutrient-dense foods and adjusts your meal timing to front-load calories. Yellow day? It finds the optimal middle ground based on your specific metrics.

You can learn more about the overall dietary approach in our guide to the best diet for WHOOP users, or explore how to convert your WHOOP data into precise macronutrient targets with our WHOOP nutrition plan guide.

Putting It All Together: A Sample Recovery Day

Here's what a well-structured yellow recovery day might look like in practice:

Morning (within 1 hour of waking): 3-egg omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and avocado. Side of blueberries. Water with electrolytes.
Mid-morning: Handful of walnuts + tart cherry juice (30 mL concentrate diluted).
Lunch: Wild salmon over brown rice with roasted sweet potato and a large mixed green salad dressed with olive oil and lemon.
Afternoon snack: Greek yogurt with turmeric, honey, and black pepper.
Dinner (3+ hours before bed): Bone broth soup with chicken, ginger, garlic, and vegetables. Light and easy to digest.

This day provides approximately 2,200 calories with a macro split of roughly 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat — adjusted, of course, based on individual body weight and strain levels. Run your specific numbers through the WHOOP Macro Calculator for a personalized target.

Key Takeaways

Your WHOOP recovery score should dictate your nutrition strategy, not just your training intensity.
Green days = performance fuel. Emphasize carbs, protein timing, and energy availability.
Yellow days = anti-inflammatory focus. Berries, fatty fish, turmeric, and hydration.
Red days = damage control. Bone broth, fermented foods, omega-3s, and strict avoidance of alcohol and processed foods.
Hydration has an outsized impact on every metric WHOOP tracks.
Post-workout glycogen replenishment within 30–60 minutes dramatically accelerates recovery.
Meal timing matters — especially front-loading calories on low recovery days.

Your WHOOP strap gives you the data. Your food gives you the lever. Use both, and you'll recover faster, train harder, and perform better than you ever thought possible.