If you’re gonna do it, do it post workout.

by Thomas

Eating carb-heavy meals is about as American as Bruce Springsteen singing about Pink Cadillacs. Unfortunately, so is obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. So I offer you this, the sanest way to eat your mashed potato sandwich: do it post workout.

During a workout you’re expending muscle glycogen. Eating a carb heavy meal after a workout restores this depleted glycogen. You want to include simple starches (potato) because they turn into glucose almost instantly, whereas fructose (fruit) must be metabolized by the liver before being released back into the bloodstream as usable glucose (this takes awhile).

The best reason to eat these things after a workout is you’ll be taking advantage of an inordinately high insulin sensitivity. High insulin levels, hyperinsulinism, has been positively linked to the above mentioned American past times. The less insulin floating around in your circulatory system, the better.

The window for taking advantage of this heightened sensitivity to insulin is small. Most often, I hear and read that within 30 minutes post workout is gold, within 1 hour post workout is silver, and nobody wants the bronze. A guy I like said you have 3 hours, but that sounds a bit much. The bottom line: the closer in proximity to the end of your workout, the better.

sweet potato fries

How much carb you eat post workout should be dictated by two things. First, the length and intensity of the workout. No, you should not eat the same amount of food for a 500M row that you would eat for Cindy. Gauge the amount of work you expended and dose carb in relation. Second, your percentage of body fat should be a barometer for how much carb you put in yourself. If you’re already a big person, and you put a load of carbs back in your body post-workout, you’re nixing the weight loss benefits of exercise that you just worked for. Like I said though, if you must have it, do it post workout.

We always recommend that you choose wisely when picking the vessel for which your macro-nutrients are delivered. Both twinkies and sweet potato are predominately carbohydrate. One will make you go the way of the average Jerry Springer guest, the other will not. Please realize that it’s much more important than just macro-nutrient content.

During workouts, you’re also making microscopic tears in your muscle fibers, which creates a need for protein. Eat the carbohydrates with some protein, preferably the kind with “souls and faces”, to repair the muscle damage you’ve made.

like this guy

3 comments

1 Leah { 01.19.10 at 8:10 PM }: So you recommend doing this even if you’re not trying to gain weight?
2 Thomas { 01.20.10 at 7:51 AM }: I recommend eating your carbs post work-out if your trying to LOSE body fat. The carb can be used at this time to restore muscle glycogen, rather than being stored in the adipose (fat tissue) when you are sedentary.

Ultimately, the amount and variety of carbohydrate you eat will dictate whether you lose or gain fat. Eating a diet low in carbohydrate, and having that carb be low on the glycemic index/load, would be one of the best catalyst toward fat loss. But if you must have your carb load, do it post workout.
3 Cheats and Treats — { 05.01.10 at 3:55 PM }: [...] for eating. Let’s first remember that potatoes are not the worst thing to eat (covered in Thomas’s post about glycogen replacement). But you know, those fries were not even very good. And fries are just [...]