Good Habits – Part IV
Eat more slowly and stop when you are 80% full (Habit 1).
Check.
Eat protein dense foods with every meal (Habit 2).
Check.
Eat at least 2 servings of vegetables and fruits with every meal (Habit 3).
Check.
Three days and three habits in and we are off to a good start. But you may be asking yourself, when the heck do I get to eat pasta and bread and mashed potatoes and rice???
That brings us to habit number four:
FOR FAT LOSS, EAT A MAJORITY OF OTHER CARBOHYDRATES AFTER EXERCISE
I know. That’s not necessarily what you want to hear, but if your goal is to drop weight by losing fat, then you’ve got to earn those higher-carbohydrate meals by exercising first. You want to eat bread, pasta, rice, sugary foods, etc? You can, but you have to do two things.
- Focus more on unprocessed varieties.
- Save most of them until you have laid down some sweat.
Now you may be thinking, Well, I’m never going to get to eat those things or Okay, here we go. Matt is into low-carb diets. He must be a Paleo or Atkin’s guy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though I do see some benefits with both of those eating styles, in my humble opinion, neither is truly sustainable – and if something is not sustainable, you will eventually fall of the wagon…HARD. There is nothing wrong with eating bread or pasta or rice or potatoes. You just have to prep your body for them.
I see this more as a “controlled carbohydrate” diet. We time when you put those starchy, carbohydrate dense foods into your body so you will be at your most capable to handle and utilize them instead of sending them into storage (i.e. your hips and gut).
I will not argue that, if followed, you will probably eat fewer carbs than the typical American diet, but I think the debate is long over whether the American diet has too many carbs in it…it does.
Now there are exceptions – if you are a marathoner or a triathlete or you are looking to gain muscle mass, you will have to eat more carbohydrates than what I have recommended over the last few days. More on that later.
What it comes down to is this – you must make a distinction between different carbohydrates and know when to consume them based on whether your goal is fat loss/maintenance or muscle gain.
Here’s an easy way to look at them:
EXERCISE RECOVERY DRINKS
Examples: any sugary, protein-rich recovery drink (not to be mistaken with sugary sports drinks)
When to have them:
for fat loss – during exercise only (if at all)
for muscle gain – during and after exercise
SIMPLE SUGARS & HIGHLY PROCESSED STARCHES
Examples: Sugar Sports Drinks, Breakfast Cereals, Soda, Fruit Juice, Table Sugar, Sugary Desserts, Ice Cream, Muffins, Bagels, Other Carbohydrate Rich Snacks
When to have them:
for fat loss – minimize intake
for muscle gain – immediately after exercise (if at all)
WHOLE FOOD MINIMALLY PROCESSED STARCHY CARBOHYDRATES
Examples: Bread (preferably whole grain), Pasta (preferably whole grain or flax), Rice (preferably whole grain, unprocessed), Potatoes, Oats (preferably whole oats), Cereal Grains (wheat, rye, etc.)
When to have them:
for fat loss – eat soon after exercise (within 1-2 hours)for muscle gain – eat soon after exercise (within 3 hours)
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Examples: Spinach, Carrots, Tomatoes, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Apples, Oranges, Avocados, Berries
When to have them:
for fat loss – eaten with every meal (with an emphasis on the veggies)
for muscle gain – eaten with every meal
Keep it simple – if you want to lose fat, eat carbohydrates only when you earn them. No exercise means no carbohydrates other than fruits and vegetables. If you want to gain muscle or support a carbohydrate-dependent activity, then use the above as a timing guideline. Either way, if you follow the principles above, you WILL get results. There are of course, always exceptions…that’s life.
Different body types, different physiologies will all eventually require individualized attention depending on what your final goal is. We’ll discuss that, along with Habit 5 tomorrow. Until then, remember, if you want that starch, you’re going to have to work for it!
Reblogged this on Run Luau Run and commented:
Welcome to Day 4 of Healthy Habits of Eating Week – today I talk about those carbs that we all love…love to hate, hate to love…and guess what? You can eat them…regularly…but there’s a catch!
Head over to my Personal Training Blog for more…
My friend Adam, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for both as a runner and as a healthy skeptic (like me), asked me this on the Facebook page:
“Do you have any sources for the claim that “FOR FAT LOSS, EAT A MAJORITY OF OTHER CARBOHYDRATES AFTER EXERCISE”?
I understand fat loss to be primarily a function of energy balance. That is, eating below your TDEE by a modest deficit, over time.
No doubt that encouraging people to exercise regularly will help to create this deficit. However, in my experience, the notion of “earning foods” can lead to disordered thinking about food.
Would love to know more about the timing of carbohydrate intake and how it relates specifically to fat loss.”
To which I wrote back this:
“Good question Adam – most of these habits come from John Berardi’s “Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition” textbook. I can do some further research if you like. That being said, I am glad you pointed TDEE out (Total Daily Energy Expenditure for the rest of you). You are absolutely correct that fat loss is primarily an overall function of negative energy balance. I did have a moment of “hmmm, people may take this post and run with the ‘starchy carbs are a forbidden fruit that I must earn because they are bad’ mindset. And you would be right that that would be disordered thinking about food. I’m going to have to address that a bit in tomorrow’s post as I wrap things up.
For the time being though, I would add this: when we exercise (when we do anything really) our actions will lead to a variety of endocrine responses. Exercise is no different – the resulting release of hormones (according to Berardi and the Essentials text) creates an internal environment that is more carbohydrate tolerant than when we are at rest. Again, I ‘ll address this some in tomorrow’s post, but different people have different levels of carb tolerance. That guy you and I will look at at a trail race who just “looks like a runner” probably has a high carb tolerance whereas someone who can’t seem to “lose the weight” and is always carrying around a few extra pounds may, MAY be more carb intolerant.
This is why for those interested in fat loss, I would encourage some physical activity before sitting down to a plate of pasta. My view on starchy carbs is not a negative one…I just think we have to know ourselves and realize that we can’t all eat the same way.”
I want to emphasize that Adam is fully correct in questioning the demonization of any food. It was not my intent, but in looking back on my post, I can see how saying, “you must earn” starchy carbs does not come across the way it sounded in my head as I wrote it.
As for the science, I will endeavor to dig deeper, past the textbooks, to give you some solid numbers and studies. In the meantime, I still believe that these habits are a good starting point for anyone who is looking to lose weight in a healthy, productive, long-term fashion. After an initial phase of incorporating them, individualization become key, because everybody is different. Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter what anyone says if you don’t get results, and that, in the end is what I look to achieve with my clients.
I hope this clarifies a few (obviously not all) things.