Eat Before Exercise?

When you wake up from overnight, your glycogen stores (carb stores) are pretty low. It seems logical that since your glycogen is low that you should then use fat for energy if you go and work out. If only it were that easy we would not have the epidemic of obesity that we have! Instead of your body using stored fat to fuel your workout, your body decides to use muscle instead of fat. It wants to hang on to fat, just like you like to hang on to your savings account. Your body treats your fat stores like savings and does not like to have to use them.

In addition, whenever you put your body into significant low energy, it thinks it is starving and that just teaches the body to go into survival mode and hang on to fat. Not only will you store fat, but you also won’t get a good workout. If you have ever hit the wall or felt really low on energy during a workout, it is very likely due to improper fueling before you worked out.

If you are exercising first thing in the morning, I don’t expect you to eat a large amount. Just a small pre-workout snack is enough to tell the body that it has some fuel coming in. As long as the body knows that you are giving it some fuel to work with, it will respond with burning small amounts of body fat. However, it is when the deficit is large (no food after overnight fast) that it will conserve fat storage. Even eating 100-200 calories will do the trick.

If you are not exercising in the morning, but rather at lunchtime or after work, have a small snack before your workout if it has been more than 3 hours since your last meal or snack. Again, a 100-200 calorie snack should be plenty to get you through that workout. Follow the workout with your next meal within an hour or with a snack if it will be longer than that until the next meal.

You will actually lose more body fat and perform better if you eat before working out. If you are still skeptical, give it a try for a few weeks and let me know how it goes!

Labels: exercise, maintaining weight loss, sports nutrition, Tara Gidus

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Fuel During Exercise

The rule of thumb that I live by is that if you are doing less than 60 minutes of cardio (or weights for that matter) you do not need anything but water to hydrate. You do not need a sports drink with sugar for that short duration of exercise. If you do like the taste of a sports drink and you want to drink it even though you are doing less than 60 minutes, that is fine and you may even get a little bit better performance from it. However, if you are trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain and are relying on burning those calories in your session of exercise, you do not need to drink them right back on with a sports drink!

You do need water, so drink 4-8 ounces every 15-20 minutes during exercise. If you choose to drink a sports drink, that will hydrate you and counts as your water (you don't need 8 ounces of both, but you could do a little of each if you want).

That being said….there are occasions when you may need something with sugar, or calories, to keep you going. Again, the rule of thumb is if you are going an hour or more, then you will need some sugar to get you to the finish.

What should you eat/drink?

You want high glycemic index carbs during exercise. High GI carbs will be absorbed quickly into the bloodstream so you can use them right away. Examples: Sports drinks, sports gels, jelly beans, gummy candy, pretzels, bananas, diluted juice, honey sticks, etc. I personally stick with sports drinks and gels because they are easy, fairly tasty, and convenient. I can tuck a gel into my shorts or plant some sports drink on my route.

How much do you need?

You need about 30-60 grams of carb per hour of endurance cardiovascular exercise. Read labels of the particular brand you are using, but most sports drinks have about 15 grams per 8 fl oz (1 cup) serving.

Just because you don’t need it if you do less than one hour of exercise doesn’t mean that you should start at one hour into exercise to get sugar. If you are going for a long endurance session, start at 15-20 minutes into it with the sugar containing fluids or foods so that you don’t crash when you get to one hour. Continue all the way through and after your exercise is finished.

Things to consider:

1. When you are exercising, your body is finicky with what it will accept. Gastrointestinal (GI) upset (aka diarrhea) is very common among athletes if they eat the wrong things (even if they eat the right things!)
2. Sports drinks are formulated with the exact percentage of carbohydrate that is absorbed properly with minimal GI upset. If you drink full strength juice instead of sports drink, you may experience serious cramping and diarrhea.
3. If you choose to use gels or jelly beans or candy, make sure you drink water with it to help with absorption and to dilute the amount of sugar coming in.

Labels: exercise, sports nutrition, Tara Gidus

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Post Exercise Fuel

When you are exercising, you are tearing muscles and depleting your glycogen stores. So it makes sense that we need fuel to address both of these things. I recommend high glycemic index (GI) carbs following exercise so that you can get glucose into your muscles to replenish glycogen as soon as possible. A small amount of protein is also beneficial to start repairing and rebuilding the muscles you used and abused during the workout.

Timing is important after exercise to recover most quickly and efficiently. It is best to get something to eat within 30 minutes of finishing your exercise. If you are going to be eating your next meal within an hour or two, then a small snack of 150-200 calories is fine followed by that next meal. If your meal will be sooner, then just use the meal to refuel. If it was an especially hard or long workout, have some sports drink as you are finishing your exercise to start replenishing glycogen until you can get some food.

Of course, make sure you are hydrating as well as eating! Some people like to do double purpose and have a sports drink that contains protein as a recovery drink. These products are fine, but I personally don’t like the taste enough to drink them. I would rather either eat a nutrition bar (with carbs and a little protein) or have my next meal of “real food.”

Here are some ideas for post exercise snacks or meals:

• Bagel (or English muffin, toast) with cheese or peanut butter
• Fruit juice with a cheese stick
• Dried fruit and nuts (make your own trail mix)
• Cottage cheese with fruit
• Yogurt with fruit
• Turkey, ham, or roast beef sandwich
• Chocolate milk
• Cereal with milk
• Crackers with low fat cheese
• Rice or popcorn cakes with Nutella (or any nut butter)
  
• Nutrition bar (at least 5 grams protein and 15 grams carb as a snack size, more if it is meal size)
• Nutrition shake (like Slimfast or EAS AdvantEDGE)
• Eggs and toast
• Veggie omelet with toast
• Pancakes and eggs (can you tell I workout in the morning and eat breakfast foods post workout a lot?)
• Smoothie (make sure it is made with milk or yogurt or has a scoop of protein powder)
• Your next meal: Any lean protein (lean beef, chicken, pork, fish, veggie burger, egg) with any starch (rice, potatoes, pasta, bread) and some vegetables

1. If you are the type of person that is not hungry after working out, at least eat something small within 30 minutes. If you don't want anything solid, have a sports drink, milk, or nutrition shake.
2. You need 16 ounces of water for every pound you lost during exercise. I recommend drinking at least 16-20 ounces of water after every exercise session. Drink more if you are a heavy sweater or it was a long workout.
3. The sooner you eat something after exercise, the quicker you will recover. It may even prevent you from getting sore after a hard workout!
4. Carbs are just as important as protein post workout. Many people think you only need protein to rebuild muscle, but your body will break down that protein to replenish glycogen if you don't eat some carbs and then you won't have any protein left to repair your muscles!

Photo courtesy of istockphoto

Labels: exercise, sports nutrition, Tara Gidus

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Pre Exercise Fuel

The main goal for eating something before a workout is to get energy for the workout. Since carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy, a meal or snack fairly high in carbohydrate makes sense. You can either have all carb, or a mix of mostly carb with some fat and/or protein along with it. The type of carbohydrate can make a difference, especially for a competitive athlete or someone trying to improve performance. For the everyday exerciser, the most important thing is just having something 30 minutes up to 2 hours before exercise (or right before if you can stomach it). If you are not competitive, what you eat isn’t as important as the fact that you are eating it. That being said, let’s look at what is optimal.

You want to go for something that is low to moderate in glycemic index (GI). You want something low to moderate so that you get sustained energy from it. A high glycemic food can come and go from the bloodstream too quickly and may even be gone before you start your exercise!

Examples of Low and Moderate GI pre workout snacks:

• Most fresh fruit (apple, orange, pear, nectarine, plum). Grapes and bananas are slightly higher but also a good choice
• Nuts
• Trail mix of nuts and dried fruit
• Oatmeal
• Cereal with greater than 3 grams of fiber (Wheaties, Total, Cheerios, Kashi, etc.)
• Milk
• Most nutrition bars (look for at least 5 grams of protein and 15 grams of carb)
• Yogurt
• Veggies and hummus
• Cottage cheese and fruit
• Hard boiled egg
• Whole grain crackers and cheese
• Tomato or vegetable juice
• Whole grain English muffin or toast and peanut butter or cheese
• Half sandwich (ie bread, turkey, lettuce, tomato)
• Whole grain fig cookies

A few things to consider

1. Make sure that what you eat sits well in your stomach. You do not want to be “tasting” your meal or snack the entire workout
2. Hydrate well with water before, during, and after exercise. Aim to get 16 ounces of water 1-2 hours before exercise of any type
3. It doesn’t matter if you are doing cardio or weights, the important part of a pre exercise meal is getting glucose to the muscles
4. You can eat something 2 hours before exercise or right before, depending on the quantity and how comfortable you are digesting the food

Labels: exercise, sports nutrition, Tara Gidus

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Any Day Now

Labels: exercise, pregnancy, Tara Gidus

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