Short answer (sorta): During high-intensity exercise, your body burns glycogen in the muscles for fuel. Once your muscles are out of glycogen, you have to replenish it immediately so you don't lose muscle tissue. The quicker you replenish it, the better, and the best and fastest way is a quick hit of sugar. (So, within half an hour or so of finishing your workout, although some of us in month 2 in particular drink some during the workout).
It's pretty much the only time your body really needs a sugar infusion. Beach Body has found that adding a very small amount of protein to it in a ratio of 4:1 (simple carbs to protein) increases the effectiveness of it by several hundred percent. The drink also has a small amount of salt to restore your electrolyte balance (sodium).
I make my own, which closely matches the nutritional value of the Beach Body formula, and it's worked really well. No, it doesn't count as a meal because the calories are not that high. Of course, it depends on how much of it you drink, but it's pretty much just to help your body start repairing. I usually need to eat about an hour or so later. Recipe makes 1 quart:
1/2 cup 100% juice of your choice
4 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 scoop protein powder
3 1/2 cups water
Shake up. Each 8 ounces of this contains 65 calories. In month 1, I drank 8 ounces, and in month 2 I'm drinking 12 ounces. To give you a reference, though, the Beach Body drink is 220 calories, so you may need to drink more of it. Until I started using a recovery drink, I was completely wiped out.
