FIBRE for FAT LOSS

The problem with many fat loss programs is that people immediately cut out the very foods that deliver a lot of fibre in the first place. This often results in common problems such as constipation, poor blood sugar and hunger in between meals - to name a few!

When you understand the many health benefits of fibre and especially how it can help you to shift body fat, you will ensure plenty in your nutrition plan. 

I could leave it at that and simply say consume more fibre, but it is important to know why you’re doing something rather than just doing it.

So let me give you some of the science…

Insoluble Fibre

Insoluble fibre is found in certain plant foods, particularly whole grains. It absorbs water through the digestive system helping to promote regular and healthy bowel movements. It allows the body’s waste to form into soft and bulky stools which helps to efficiently rid your body of toxins (important for fat loss). Wheat bran is a good source of insoluble fibre. While we cannot digest the insoluble fibre in wheat bran, it is partially digested by beneficial bacteria in the gut, helping to ferment them into short-chain fatty acids which nourish our intestines.

Flaxseeds are a source of both insoluble and soluble fibre

Soluble Fibre

Soluble fibre is found in all plant foods. It dissolves in water to form a gel like substance. It’s readily fermented in the colon and includes other plant components such as lignans, oligo and polysaccharides, resistant starches, and inulin.  Soluble fibre also promotes soft and bulky stools, delays gastric emptying, and binds with bile acids, helping to lower cholesterol levels. The following foods are good sources of soluble fibre: oat bran, guar gum, dried beans, peas, apples with skin, seaweed, and flaxseeds.

Lignans are a soluble fibre which are found in flax seeds and legumes. They’re known to possess anticancer, antibacterial, and antiviral properties. They also bind to estrogen receptors in the body, interfering with cancer promotion and helping to regulate estrogen levels. Soluble fibre also promotes a delay in the absorption of glucose and increases insulin sensitivity (this is very important for fat loss). The result of this is improved glucose metabolism which ultimately helps lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and also speeds ups fat loss.

Inulin is another soluble fibre that is not digested in the upper GI tract. Inulin stimulates the growth of beneficial bacteria, it’s low in calories and does not lead to a rise in serum glucose or stimulate insulin secretion. Because these fibres stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria, they’re also called prebiotics. Good sources of inulin include: artichokes, garlic, leeks, onions, chicory, tofu, and other soy products, and grains such as barley, flax, oat, and wheat.

So how does fibre actually help you lose body fat?

1.      Fibre helps keep you fuller for longer. Fibrous rich foods whilst being low in calories keep you feeling fuller for longer. Many people complain that they’re hungry when they change their dietary habits, if you ensure a high fibre intake this quickly disappears.
 

2.      Fibre helps stabilize your blood sugar levels. Fibre slows the absorption of dietary sugars and promotes healthy blood sugar and insulin levels. Elevated insulin levels halt fat loss!

3.      Fibre supports your body’s detoxification system. 
This may be a new one to you but when you start a fat loss plan your body also begins to mobilize dormant toxins. To help the safe flow of toxins out of the body, fibre sticks to the bile in the intestines which helps in the elimination process through your bowels. If your body reabsorbs toxins back into the fat cells, this can be a cause for reaching a plateau on your fat loss journey.

So now you know that fibre not only supports optimal health, you also know that it helps you lose fat as well!

What is the recommended daily intake for fibre?

The recommended daily amounts for fibre intake are 30 – 35 grams per day or 14g/1000 calories consumed.

Less than 5% of the US population meets this recommendation set by the American Dietetic Association.

Top fibre tips

1.      Add a tablespoon of ground flaxseeds/chia seeds on top of your morning omelette or in a morning whey protein supershake with primal greens.
 

2.      Use a fibre supplement daily.
 

3.      Eat 3-5 different types of cruciferous vegetables 3 x a day.

4.      Rotate your fibre supplements and seeds regularly. The reason for this is to avoid developing a food intolerance. Sticking to the same fibre source can have adverse affects on your health and physique. 

4.    Drinking enough water on a high-fibre diet is as important to your health as the fibre itself. Water keeps you hydrated, prevents constipation and softens your stools, allowing them to pass through your colon without excessive pressure. Because fibre absorbs water, I highly recommend increasing your water intake.

The message is clear… Fibre is critical to good health and fat loss. It's time to make a serious effort to put more fibre on your plate!  

Nutrition 101 – Part 4: Calorie & Carb Cycling & ReFeeding'

Part of what we try do here in Dre’s Fitness Group is try to help you by answering your questions... we won’t always have the answers, but we will do our best to assist when possible. A common area of questioning is nutrition... So I decided to put a 5 piece article together to help overcome some of the confusion!

The cornerstones that guide my personal philosophy on daily nutrition are:

• Total calories (Part 1)
• Macro-nutrient breakdown (Part 2)
• Meal timing (Part 3)
• Current training goal - ‘Refeeding, Calorie & Carb Cycling’ (Part 4)
• Prep – ‘Contest prep or Photo shoot’ (Part 5) 

In Part 1, 2 & 3 - I discussed how to determine your daily calorie requirements, macronutrient needs and the importance of nutrient timing! Although with these topics covered you could obtain great results... I know that for many of you great is not good enough!

In this article I will endeavour to share additional information on Calorie & Carb Cycling and the benefits of Refeeds; to help you take things to the next level.

These can be very in-depth topics but I am going to endeavour to keep them simple and share with you my personal guidelines that I implement to achieve personal gains.

So let’s begin...

Calorie & Carb Cycling

Let me start by saying I am not an advocate for the common practice of bulking and then cutting – This tends to lead to fat gain and sometimes lipogenesis - which is the creation of new fat cells where more fatty acids can be stored. I plan to write an article expanding on this topic, explaining the additional drawbacks – stay tuned!

Calorie cycling when combined with carb cycling is a crucial link when it comes to ‘body recomposition’ – the process of gaining lean muscle while simultaneously losing body fat!

Utilizing numerous nutrient-partitioning techniques we are able to manipulate the activities and responses that manage the body's metabolic systems. We can have an impact on the way that hormones manage traffic in our body by manipulating factors such as diet, activity levels, weight training, sleeping, resting, managing stress levels and others.

One particularly strong influence we can have is on how our hormonal system partitions the energy our bodies use.

When it comes to energy storage and usage, the body uses the same banks - fat, glycogen, muscle tissue or proteins to deposit or withdraw energy. The process of managing where energy is deposited or withdrawn from is known as energy partitioning.

Diet has an especially strong impact on the way our metabolic systems partition energy. Interestingly, evidence indicates that brief, strategic periods of under eating can manipulate the hormonal system telling the body to partition energy to allow for both the building of lean muscle and burning of fat.

The way carb cycling works is that by raising calories intermittently it helps to restore metabolism-regulating, appetite-stimulating, satiety-inducing and anti-starvation hormones closer to normal levels.

We also know that this is made possible in part because controlled periods of under eating trigger the release of Growth Hormone.

One of the key functions of Growth Hormone is to maintain growth and lean body mass during short periods of time when we don't have access to food. This occurs because Growth Hormone mobilizes fat fuel energy to be redirected (partitioned) to protein synthesis (muscle growth).

Our bodies are not designed to maintain muscle mass during extended periods of under eating, these situations trigger a survival response where the body is going to use anything and everything-including muscle for fuel. But they are however, optimally designed to manage short, and controlled periods of under eating, allowing us to use excess body fat as fuel and providing the hormonal response to promote gains in lean muscle mass.

Therefore calorie & carb cycling can be a welcomed addition to a well designed nutrition plan. As a matter of fact, recent research points to the fact that you lose fat faster (up to twice as fast) by cycling your calories than by not cycling them.

Let’s look at how they apply in relation to your current training goal;

 

Increasing lean muscle mass...

(while maintaining or losing body fat)
 

This involves generally tapering my calories in accordance with the amount of activity or intensity level in the gym for any particular day.

Non-training days - are low calorie/carb days - This reduction is attributed to a reduction in carbohydrates. I simply eliminate the intra and post workout carbs which accounts for a 40% reduction in my daily carb intake and a corresponding drop in calories (1g Carb = 4 Calories).

Training days - when I am lifting my calories are at their highest as to elicit an increase in lean muscle as determined by the guidelines outlined in Part 1 of this Nutrition Series.

NOTE: I recommend maintaining a calorie surplus for a minimum of 4 days/week.

The outcome being a very mild and lifestyle adaptable calorie and carb cycling process which allows one to increase lean muscle while simultaneously maintaining low body fat levels year round.

Decreasing Body Fat... 

(while maintaining lean muscle mass)

If you want to lose body fat, it's not rocket science to assume you need a calorie deficit, but that creates a problem. We want to lose at a steady pace, but we don't want the ramifications of a crashing met rate.

Carbs are not your enemy; as a matter of fact, they are both what stimulate your metabolism the most and spare muscle the best. The goal is to use the right amount to accomplish both. We're back to the same conundrum. We need to limit carbs to get lean enough soon enough, but we need carbs to spare muscle and keep our metabolism high.

Nothing strips muscle from you faster or depresses your metabolism further than ketogenic dieting. One of the greatest challenges is that not only does your met rate slow but you become so highly insulin sensitive that you can end up storing more new fat at your carb-up periods.

Studies show that the hormone responsible for converting glucose directly to fat can become many times more sensitive to carbs leaving you with up to 10 times the fat regain every time you consume more carbs than you can assimilate!

The body does require a certain amount of carbohydrates to simply carry on basic processes- such as for the brain and nervous system.

If your diet is too low in carbohydrates you can enter a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a state of carbohydrate deprivation and in my personal opinion should be avoided.

When you are in a state of ketosis, you become irritable, sluggish and may become dehydrated, which impacts performance negatively.

For more information regarding Ketosis I recommend you read part 2 of this Nutrition Series.

.................................................................

The process I personally use is similar to above (Increasing Lean Muscle Mass)... except now obviously we are working with a calorie deficit - this can be determined as per the guidelines outlined in Part 1 of this Nutrition Series.

Due to the fact I keep my body fat levels low year round the duration I need to maintain this calorie deficit phase for is very short.

By following the principles I outline within this series it means you are always within striking distance and do not have to ‘diet’ for extended periods.

NOTE: I simply reverse the order of high calorie days (high - being maintenance calories in this scenario)... Meaning a minimum of 4-5 calorie deficit days! The higher-carb/calorie day/s gives a nice bump to glycogen levels and thus signals my endocrine system that I'm not starving.

 

Good things happen to the metabolism when that is achieved, but... if you go too far however, you can actually store body fat and fill your glycogen levels so completely that it takes days to even start losing body fat again. 

IMPORTANT – DO NOT mistake carbohydrate increases for justified binges... this is a VERY bad idea!

The major factor to consider now is that especially during periods of calorie deficit the relationship between protein and carbohydrates are inversely proportional so when one goes up the other has to come down.

Non-training days – (Maintenance Calories) carbohydrate intake increases (up to but no more than 50%) and protein intake decreases as per the guidelines in part 2 of this nutrition series.

Training day’s – (Deficit Calories) carbohydrates and protein return to normal levels and follow the principles of nutrient timing as outlined in Part 3 of this Nutrition Series.

The high carb days are important to have for a few reasons. If you continue to have low carb days, your body will eventually adapt to this and slow it's metabolism down to compensate for the lower caloric intake. This is known as homeostasis, your body trying to maintain a balance.

The higher carb days will also help to replenish your glycogen stores. Glycogen is the body's storage form of carbohydrate found in the liver and muscles. Since glycogen is combined together with water, the extra volume in the muscle cells causes the muscles to appear larger and performance to be improved.

It's important to note that depending on your body type (phenotype) the levels of carbohydrate increase will have to be adjusted. This is because some people have high insulin sensitivity while others don't.

Watch Out - The Scale Plays Tricks - When Carb Cycling!

One last thing to consider about carb cycling that many people don't account for is the swing in body weight due to glycogen and water.

For every gram of carbohydrate you take into the body, you will store four grams of water. If you only judge your success by the scale and if you only look at short term (daily) numbers, you may be misled... It's a normal process and is not necessarily fat gain.

For this reason, you must have patience, watch the trend over time and avoid obsessing about short term fluctuations in body weight.

Refeeds

The purpose of a refeed is physiological in nature, it is usually used to alleviate or prevent a stall during a calorie deficit phase. 

A refeed is different from a cheat meal since there is a specific macronutrient composition that must be adhered to. For instance, while a cheat meal can be any meal that the dieter craves, a refeed MUST contain carbohydrates as this is the primary macronutrient that causes the synthesis of LEPTIN. Protein does as well but it is not as effective as carbohydrates. Dietary fat does not have any effect on leptin so your metabolism isn't elevated when a refeed is done with meals high in fat but low in carbohydrates. This means that with carbohydrates levels raised fat levels must go down unless your goal is fat storage.  In other words if there was ever a day to obsess over low fat food sources, a refeed day is it---> all depending on the amount of carbohydrates. 

Refeeds are a series of meals eaten over a period of 5 hours to 3 days (depending on the 4 points below) to boost metabolism by first raising LEPTIN. The duration and frequency of the refeed depend on several factors;

1) How long the person has been dieting - It’s been my experience that the average person will need to go on a refeed after 6-8 weeks on a diet but it all depend on the bottom two scenarios. 

      

2) Body fat level - The amount of body fat a person is carrying affects the frequency and duration of a refeed.  The higher the body fat, the less frequent a reefed is required. At the high end this may be as long as every 2.5 to 3.5 weeks, after being on a diet for at least 8-10 weeks.  You should note the lower the amount of fat carried the more frequent the reefed required. For example, an athlete who's already lean to begin with will have to refeed every 7 days after an initial 6-8 week dieting period.

3) How severe the deficit is - The greater the calorie deficit (and length of time the diet has been going) the more pronounced the adaptation... thus the window of opportunity created physiologically from the refeeds which allows for a longer refeed period... up to 3 days! 

4) Volume of Activity/ exercise - This plays a significant role because it can literally change the condition of the 3 points mentioned above if the person on a diet is doing way too much exercise which depletes glycogen stores and exacerbates the adaptations that is mentioned above.

Refeeds by their very nature are calorie cycling mechanism which reset the body’s hormonal system and primes it for additional fat loss and improved performance.

In conclusion  

The methods discussed above are more advanced concepts and do take some time and understanding to achieve the best desired outcomes. It should be noted that you can achieve great results without implementing these concepts and just following the guidelines in part 1, 2 & 3

I would also like to acknoweldge that there are many different methodologies employed when it comes to calorie and carbohydrate cycling... what I have shared is what from my research, application and trial and error has worked best for me.

I suggest regardless of which methods you utilise you record and monitor your progress and adjust accordingly until you master the process and how your body responds.

Stay tuned for Nutrition 101 – Part 5: Prep – ‘Contest prep or Photo shoot’

Nutrition 101 – Part 3: Meal 'NUTRIENT' Timing

Part of what we try do here in Dre’s Fitness Group is try to help you by answering your questions... we won’t always have the answers, but we will do our best to assist when possible. A common area of questioning is nutrition... So I decided to put a 5 piece article together to help overcome some of the confusion!

The cornerstones that guide my personal philosophy on daily nutrition are:

• Total calories (Part 1)
• Macro-nutrient breakdown (Part 2)
• Meal timing (Part 3)
• Current training goal - ‘Refeeding, Calorie & Carb Cycling’ (Part 4)
• Prep – ‘Contest prep or Photo shoot’ (Part 5) 

Meal ‘NUTRIENT’ Timing

In Part 1 & 2- I discussed how to determine your daily calorie requirements and macronutrient needs, but with respect to manipulating body composition and maximising performance, if we didn’t discuss Meal/Nutrient timing... it would be a great oversimplification of a very complex topic.

While the how much to eat and what to eat approaches are important ‘nutrient timing’ - The WHEN to  eat has begun to demonstrate that manipulating the time dimension can further assist in taking control of our body composition and performance.

What's So Special About When We Eat?

It use to be as simple as 3 square meals a day – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner! 

You may be thinking to yourself, that is old school, I already break up my food intake into 5-6 smaller meals per day! Let me ask, why do you do that? Probably because you have bought into a few common myths;

TEF - (Thermogenic Effect of Feeding)

This myth originated from the misunderstanding of thermic effect of feeding (one of SEVERAL factors influencing metabolic rate), the amount of calories burned by the body when processing the food you eat.  The thermic effect of feeding averages to about 10% (meal composition also influences TEF). This means a person consuming 300 calories can expect to burn 30 calories during digestion, so every time we eat our metabolic rate spikes slightly during that particular time.  

Numerous studies have demonstrated no metabolic advantage of eating more frequently... the person consuming 3 meals per day is going to burn the same amount of calories through TEF as the person consuming 6 meals a day if total calories and macronutrient amounts are equal. The calories burned through TEF at the end of the day will be the same for both, approximately 10%

Missing meals will cause MUSCLE LOSS

The reality is it takes about 5-6 hours for a typical meal to be completely out of your system--determined by macronutrient composition.  For example, amino acids are still being released in your blood stream 7 hours later after ingestion of 43 grams of casein protein. This means when people eat every 2 or 3 hours the previous meal still hasn't finished digesting. Never mind the fact that it will take 24 hours after the last meal (if you were to go without eating) for liver glycogen to completely deplete. The liver is the switch that tells the body whether to go into a catabolic state. This would indicate that you have about 24 hours (some sources say 18) before your body starts using your muscle for fuel. Thus missing a meal or eating less frequently isn't going to cause muscle loss. 

The key is having the adequate amount of total daily calories!

APPETITE CONTROL

Some people often mention the fact that high frequency meals controls appetite thus ensuring compliance for people dieting to lose weight. 
 

Studies however have shown that the hormone peptide YY (a satiety hormone) and ghrelin (hunger hormone) are the same in both high meal frequency groups as low frequency meal groups with no difference in appetite control (or weight loss for that matter).

INSULIN CONTROL - The Glycemic Index (GI)

This has been an often misunderstood area – The GI Index is a scale used to measure how quickly carbohydrate foods are digested, absorbed then converted into glucose compared to a reference food. The reference food is usually white bread which is given a GI of 100 (the GI scale starts from 1 and ends at 100).

This is a topic that deserves more focus and I will cover in a separate article at some stage in the future. But many have believed that by eating smaller more frequent meals it helps stabilise blood sugar levels and therefore maximising energy and fat loss. Not the case...

People who are not diabetic or don't have blood sugar regulation issues that base their food choices on the glycemic index miss the benefit of the unique nutrient profile inherent in the different food species in nature. Instead, carbohydrates foods should be chosen based on the extent of processing and refinement not -the glycemic index. The best and most effective way to control body weight/body fat has and will always be calorie control.

Meal frequency should be determined on an individuals needs, not based on the idea that it will speed up the metabolism, suppress appetite or even increase muscle mass (via continuous ingestion of protein every 2 hours). 

For the average person who is not exercising, the principles of nutrient timing are not overly important. For these individuals, what and how much they eat is the most important thing. While when it comes to those of us who train and seek maximum phyZique and performance improvements, the importance of ‘nutrient timing’ must not be underestimated.

The first thing to understand is that the body is primed for fat gain or fat loss just as it's primed for muscle gain or muscle loss during specific times of the day. Consume the wrong foods at the wrong times and you're sabotaging your efforts. Add the right foods and your efforts are given a giant boost.

Secondly, although some foods are not optimal during certain times of the day, some of these same foods can actually be very beneficial during other times of the day. 

Time to unlock the secret...

So if eating 5-6 smaller meals per day is not the focus of this article when it comes to nutrient timing, what is? I can break it into 5 distinct nutritional windows!

1. Morning Refeed Phase 
2. Pre Workout Phase
3. Intra Workout Phase
4. Post Workout Phase
5. Growth Phase

Morning Refeed phase - Waking up is actually a stressful time on the body and in an effort to “ready itself” the body releases several catabolic hormones in order to produce energy. The main two hormones released are cortisol and glucagon both of which can be catabolic to muscle tissue.

Consuming a carbohydrate meal will retard the release of these catabolic hormones and spare muscle tissue. It will also make you feel better by providing fuel for your brain to run on.

I suggest consuming 15% of your daily carbohydrate intake at this meal. These carbohydrates foods should be chosen based on the extent of processing and refinement not -the glycemic index.

It's not just about what you eat... but when you eat.

Pre Workout phase - It is crucial that one consumes carbohydrates before exercise for several reasons.

• Dietary carbohydrates will provide fuel for the anaerobic pathway, and spare muscle tissue from being converted to glucose for fuel.

• Dietary carbohydrates will cause the release of insulin, which blocks the release of cortisol from the pancreas.

• Dietary carbohydrates will increase muscle glycogen levels which will improve performance and decrease fatigue.

I suggest one consume 20% of their total daily carbohydrates in a meal 1.5 to 2 hours before their workout as this will allow the carbohydrates adequate time to be digested and enter the bloodstream.

If you happen to workout after breakfast, merely combine breakfast and your pre workout meal. Thus 20% + 15% = 35% of daily carbohydrate intake should be in pre workout/breakfast meal.

Intra Workout phase - As you probably know, the energy used by skeletal muscle is ATP. This ATP is formed and resynthesised by macronutrients from the diet so carbs, proteins, and fats contribute indirectly to the energy of muscle contraction. Consuming nutrients during your workout when energy demands are highest is highly beneficial.

Therefore, the high rates of energy demand during exercise are met by ingested nutrients and/or stored nutrients. This breakdown of nutrients, while completely necessary, is, by definition, catabolic.

Anabolic Effects of Acute Exercise

Skeletal Muscle Blood Flow

Increased Anabolic Hormone Release

(GH, Testosterone, IGF-1)

Catabolic Effects of Acute Exercise

Glycogen Depletion

Decreased Net Protein Balance

Increased Cortisol Concentrations

Decreased Insulin Concentrations

Increased Metabolic Rate

Dehydration

Targeted nutritional intake can actually shift the anabolic/catabolic balance during exercise, enhancing some of the anabolic effects while minimizing some of the catabolic effects.

To give you an example, consuming a protein/carbohydrate mix immediately prior to exercise (or sipped during exercise) can actually increase skeletal muscle blood flow. Since this drink not only enhances blood flow but stocks the blood with amino acids and glucose, the protein balance of the muscle will be shifted toward the positive and glycogen depletion will be significantly reduced. 

In addition, those amino acids and glucose units, independent of their effects on muscle protein and glycogen status, can also lead to a decrease in cortisol concentrations and improve the overall immune response.

Of course, if consumed in a liquid form and sipped during the exercise session (as I recommend), dehydration, a potent performance killer, can be staved off as well. 

I suggest consuming 15% of your daily protein intake as whey protein along with my personal carbohydrate preference - VITARGO during your workout. The carbohydrates in the shake should account for 15% of one’s total daily intake.

Stay tuned to find out more in an upcoming article...

This drink should probably consist of a well-diluted (a 6-10% solution - meaning 60-100g of powder for every 1L of water). If you don't dilute your drink appropriately, you may not replenish your body's water stores at an optimal rate.

During these high carbohydrate meals one should aim to keep fat intake low. High insulin levels increases fatty acid transport into adipose tissue, so it is a good idea to keep your fat low during times of high insulin (INTRA & POST phases).

You should spread your remaining fat intake evenly over the rest of your low carbohydrate or unrefined & unprocessed carbohydrates meals. Protein intake should be spread fairly evenly over all of your meals unless otherwise stated for INTRA, POST & GROWTH phase requirements.

To recap briefly, the benefits will include;

• Spare muscle glycogen and increase performance.
• Spare muscle tissue.
• Maintain a constant release of insulin, therefore inhibiting cortisol release.
• The continuous ingestion of carbohydrates will ensure that adequate substrate is available for the glycolytic pathway.

Post Workout phase – The period immediately after the workout for a period of an hour or two, the muscle cells are primed for muscle building. Interestingly, although the cells are primed for muscle building, in the absence of a good nutritional strategy, this phase can remain catabolic.

Without adequate nutrition, the period immediately after strength and endurance training is marked by a net muscle catabolism; that's right, after exercise muscles continue to break down.

However, with the right nutritional intake (protein and carbohydrate), we can actually create an anabolic environment conducive to improvements in muscle size.

When planning your nutritional intake, it is best to consider both the intra and post phases as two of the keys when it comes to nutrient timing. Therefore, to maximize your muscle gain and recovery, you'll be feeding both during and immediately after exercise.

As with INTRA nutrient intake, it's important to ingest some protein and carbohydrate. In my experience the easiest way to do this is to drink an easily digested liquid carbohydrate ( I recommend - VITARGO) and protein drink. I recommend 25% of your daily carbohydrate intake and 20% of your daily protein intake.

It’s important to understand that during and after training, insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance is very good. Even if ordinarily you have poor carbohydrate tolerance, during and after the post exercise period, your carbohydrate tolerance will be much better.

Bottom of Form

And if you consider that most carbohydrate ingested during and immediately after exercise will either be oxidized for fuel or sent to the muscle and liver for glycogen resynthesis and that even in the presence of increased insulin concentrations, the post exercise period is marked by a dramatic increase in fat metabolism.

From this discussion it should be clear that, using the principles of nutrient timing, one can load up on carbs during and after the workout while reducing them for the remainder of the day.

In using this strategy, carbs are fed when they'll best be converted into muscle glycogen and when they'll best stimulate muscle growth and/or repair. If muscle gain is your goal, you'll get more muscle per gram of carbohydrate ingested.

If fat loss is your goal, you'll get more muscle glycogen and a pronounced muscle sparing effect with fewer daily carbs ingested. And if athletic performance/recovery is your goal, your recovery will improve dramatically. 

Growth Phase - After protein and carbohydrates have been provided during the INTRA & POST phases, the net protein balance of the body will have shifted toward the positive; muscle glycogen restored, catabolism blunted and anabolism increased, it's time to consider how to keep the growth process moving forward. 

Ensure your NUTRITION is on point if you want consistent growth.

The body quickly begins moving back toward normal physiological functioning during Post Workout Phase. In other words, the growth window is closing and this means bye-bye to improved insulin sensitivity. Testosterone and growth hormone concentrations will also begin to fall and muscle protein turnover is slowing down, reaching a rate just above normal.

With this slow return to "normalcy", it's important to reduce the high glycemic carbohydrates and rapidly digested proteins.

During the Growth Phase, it's important to continue to feed some carbohydrate and protein but definitely begin to reduce the total amount of carbohydrates ingested per meal while increasing the amount of protein ingested per meal. I recommend 15% of your daily carbohydrate intake and 20% of your daily protein intake.

Also, I recommend consuming wholefoods rather than liquid options. If we assume you'll be drinking a post exercise drink immediately after training, your Growth Phase meal should be consumed within 2-3 hours,

The Rest of the Day

Since the Rest of the Day is marked by normal physiology, the food you eat during this phase is not as vital, with the most important factor being ensuring daily total calorie and macronutrient requirements are met.

For those who are carbohydrate sensitive I would discourage there consumption after 8pm in the evening unless part of your INTRA, POST or GROWTH phase.

In Conclusion

If maximal muscularity, improved athletic performance, positive shifts in body composition, and marked improvements in recovery are your goal, I encourage you to give the principles of nutrient timing a try.

Stay tuned for Nutrition 101 – Part 4: Current training goal - ‘Refeeding, Calorie & Carb Cycling’