Tony Horton: Feel-Good Fitness
Your Gym Etiquette Questions Answered
Lose Weight by Nixing the Nosh
Posted on Jan 12th 2009 7:30AM by Jonny Bowden
Ever wonder why some trainers still tell you to eat six small meals a day, have a high-carb snack after working out and carb-load every time you go for a run? It's because they are steeped in the bodybuilding-gym culture of the 60s and learned from the training manuals of competitive athletes.
Unless you're training for a marathon or an Ironman competition, that advice is precisely the wrong thing for the average exerciser, especially those looking to lose weight. Consider this: In a recent study, volunteers were given a high-carb mini-meal immediately after exercising on a treadmill for an hour. The results: The ability to clear sugar from the bloodstream was completely wiped out. A separate study tested high-carb mini-meals against low-carb ones and found the low-carb meal did the least damage.
"If people are going to exercise to benefit their health, they should not be eating back the calories immediately, or within a couple of hours, of finishing," says Barry Braun, PhD, director of the Energy Metabolism Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A light snack containing proteins, some carbs and fat before you work out should hold you for a few hours.
