For Jeremy or Anyone

There's been alot of talk at the grad's board about when is the best time to exercise in regards to eating prior to/after your workout. Here is a link to a recent post~wondering everyone's thoughts on this b/c I don't have alot of personal info on it~thanks! http://obesityhelp.com/forums/wls_grads/postdetail/25649.htm l?vc=0

As far as I'm concerned, that information is wrong on many levels.  The primary reason for this is the term for how exercise physiologists refer to how the body burns fat.  "Fats burn in a carbohydrate flame."  In order to explain that, some explanation should be done on energy transfer.  The body does first burn carbs for energy, that fact is correct.  But at the same time, "in metabolically active tissues, fatty acid breakdown depends on continual background levels of carbohydrate" breakdown.  Fats also cannot produce glucose, the primary source of fuel for the body.  But muscle can through the alanine-glucose cycle.  Breaking down muscle energy is equal to the body eating itself in order to get energy.  This breaking down of muscle also equals a substantial decrease in athletic performance.  "Depleting carbohydrate reserves significantly increases protein catabolism during exercise." The perfect meal immediately before exercising should provide a source of carbs to sustain blood glucose and muscle metabolism, while minimizing a spike in insulin release (which is done after a rapidly absorbed high-glycemic carb is ingested, decreasing performance).  Low glycemic carbs (such as apples, butter beans, fish sticks, and even peanuts [a good source of protein also]) in the 45-60 minutes before exercising allows a slower rate of glucose absorption and provide a better way for your body to burn carbs, optimizing fat mobilization and catabolism (burning fat) and spare liver and muscle glycogen reserves (another benefit of eating carbs).  I recommend this site for learing more about glycemic load: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/foods/grains/gigl.html.  The reason I recommend this site is because it is from a university, so we can be fairly sure that their research is done correctly. Source: Exercise Physiology.  Katch, Frank, Victor Katch, and William McArdle.  Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2001. 

Tracy, Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. This is one that often gets under my skin.....so i have tried to explain it a little. Thanks again. Check out my reply here.

Thanks for addressing this issue. I really couldn't make alot of sense out of what I was reading. I'm just gonna keep moving!