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Carb after Exercising?

Wullie

Active Member
Messages
33
Am doing well on the low-carb diet. Really pleased with my readings and so is the specialist.

As it's a New Year, new resolutions etc, I'm going back to the gym on a regular basis. I'm wondering if any other gym-goers or exercisers has any tips on what to eat afterwards?

I workout first thing in the morning and have breakfast afterwards. Is this a situation where one can step out of low-carb and go for the carbs to prevent later falls in blood sugar? Bowl of Weetabix, perhaps?
 
Personally, I think you should have the carbs in cereal form FIRST to give you the energy you need for the exercise, and to prevent a liver dump (spontaneous release of sugar by the liver) the exercise will then bring down any sugar increase caused by the cereal
 
Wullie said:
I workout first thing in the morning and have breakfast afterwards. Is this a situation where one can step out of low-carb and go for the carbs to prevent later falls in blood sugar? Bowl of Weetabix, perhaps?

What you describe here is called Bonk Training and there is a risk of hypoglycaemia even in non diabetics. Bonk training is meant to burn off glycogen stores by exercising before breakfast but if you low carb you will not have much glycogen stored in your muscles especially pre breakfast when glycogen stores are at their lowest, I believe it is not recommended for diabetics.

It may be better to have a light breakfast maybe some cooked meat, ham etc and cheese continental style even a small amount of carbs, this should stop a liver dump then exercise and then eat some carbs to help build muscle.

http://www.superskinnyme.com/bonk-training.html

Get me talking like I know what I'm talking about re exercise :lol: I should add that the only exercise I get is walking my dog on the good days when I am not in too much pain...
 
Hi there, i exercise first thing in the morning i have 1 weetabix then at the gym by 8 for 1.30 hours and then a quick swim. I Then have a banana mid morning. I cannot exercise on nothing as i have no energy and my levels go high ie the liver dump. I even sometimes have very lows after exercise before i get the banana. I am Type 2 on 500mg x meformin 3 times a day. So you will just have to test and see what works with you but be carefull of the lows.
 
If I were you I would go for carbs before a session to fuel it, then a protein meal after to build muscle, so you get good muscle mass...which in itself will help to burn more calories and make the exercise easier every time. It's win win :D

Carbs before some view as free, Calories after a workout for a good number of hours ,depending on how strenuous it was will be burned much quicker, like tissue paper to a candle.

well done for going for it :D
 
Hmmmm, one thing to be careful of if you are going to "carb-up" before excercise, is that it doesn't give you an upset tummy.

Don't suppose that's so much of an issue in a Gym, you don't want to get the runs while out on a run, believe me. (Although I did read in Runners World today, that you aren't a proper runner till you have "pooped" on a run. :sick:
 
Never held "The Radcliffe" back now did it! :wink:

No not lots of carbs before exercise, maybe like you are doing the 1 weetabix sounds good to me.
 
Thanks for all the advice, sorry it has taken me a while to reply. I'll definitely be involved in the forum more in 2012, you seem like a helpful bunch :)

I will report back with how I'm getting on. I'll try the Weetabix. Been a long time since I was in the Cereals aisle but I'm sure I'll find it.

Sid - forgive me but at first read, I thought Bonk Training was something you'd come up with! Thanks for the link, though.
 
I do a lot of cycling these days and have been reading up quite a lot on how to fuel for exercise. Not sure how much of this is accurate, but it's the way I am leaning right now:

I do my daily morning exercise (45 mins to 1 hour on an indoor training bike) on an empty stomach - and normally keep my heart rate in the aerobic zones (although twice a week or so I'll do some high intensity interval training and push it right up to max). This trains the body to metabolise fat more effectively or so I have read - although the high intensity anaerobic work is not good for fat burning - and tends to improve carbohydrate metabolism rather than fat.

Afterwards, I'll typically have a pint of skimmed milk as a recovery drink as the protein:carb mix (approx 4:1) is meant to be almost perfect for muscle recovery. My typical BG first thing in the morning is around 5.4, after an hour exercise it's normally between 4.5 and 5.5 depending on the exertion, and 2 hours after a pint of skimmed milk it's almost exactly the same.

If I'm doing a long, heavy stint such as an 8 hour endurance ride, I'll fuel up with porridge and bananas at least an hour before the ride and then keep topping up every hour or so with carb rich foods like flapjacks, or energy bars/gels. I've never checked my BG during a long ride, but immediately afterwards it never seems to be over 8.5 or so - pretty much no matter how many carbs I have eaten. After a long heavy ride, I'll have a carb rich meal such as wholemeal pasta with plenty of cheese - aiming for the 4:1 carb:protein ration again. 2 hours after that, my BG is normally still under 8 or so.

Long story short......I think that depending on your exercise intensity, your metabolism primarily burns more fat or carbohydrate. Lower intensity exercise is better for fat burning - and doesn't trigger an extreme of glycogen dump, whereas high intensity does, but you're also more likely to burn through the sugar - plus any that you add as fuel.

So....my thinking would be, if you are doing aerobic exercise, then do it on an empty stomach, whereas if it's anaerobic then you should fuel beforehand. Either type of exercise should be followed up by a recovery meal/drink with approx 4:1 carb:protein ratio within 20 minutes of finishing up. In my experience, the speeded up metabolism caused by exercise will burn through the carb from the recovery meal pretty **** effectively.

This works well for me. Your mileage may vary :-)

For the rest of my life, I follow a pretty strict low-carb diet with the only real exceptions being some home made sourdough bread once or twice a week and some basmati rice cooked in the Persian style (with a crispy crust) every couple of weeks (OK - maybe a popadom and chapati with a curry every now and again, although I now have lentil daal instead of rice with those!)
 
Thanks, adm, that was a very helpful post and you come across as knowing your stuff.

I have been lightly following an exercise thread in another forum (Football365, if anyone's interested) and they do mention the low-intensity route for fat burning.

Will report back when I've done it for another week or so.

Thanks again!
 
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