Planning What to Eat Before and After Exercise

As we know exercise is very important aspect not only with weight management but also for our health and wellness.

It is hard to exercise while you are still digesting your food or if you had skipped your last meal.
It is important to be careful about what you eat both before and after exercise.

Eat too much -->> your intestine will steal blood flow from your muscles and you may end up getting a cramp.

You should not exercise for about 30 minutes after a meal, and you should avoid a heavy protein meal just before exercising. - Dr David Heber's advise in his book L A Shape Diet

What is best to eat before exercise?
A light meal of easy to digest carbohydrates (fruits and vegetables) and a small amount of protein.

A great choice is a protein shake made with berries that contain lots of antioxidants such as blue berries.

Dr Heber says "I usually exercise in the morning for 30 minutes after having my soy shake with fruit and a cup of coffee."

If you are working out in the late aftrnoon a carbohydrate snack before you start will give you some energy to get going.

** Make sure that you drink enough water to restore your fluid balance**

After Exercising : Eat a snack such as Protein Bar or Protein Drink with both protein and carbohydrates providing 100 - 200 calories within 30 minutes.

You need:
Carbs -> to restore your muscle glycogen
Protein -> to provide amino acids to help build muscle tissue
Water -> to help maintain normal circulation to the muscles

Eating colourful fruits and vegetables provides phytonutrients and antioxidants that help protect your muscle cells from excessive oxidation when you exercise.

Dr Heber mentions that in addition to eating fruits and vegetables, some antioxidant supplements, including vitamin E, have been shown to reduce excess damage to muscle fibres following exercise.

Metabolism and Your Weight Loss

"It's my metabolism!" that’s why I cannot lose weight easily.

Sound familiar? If you're carrying some extra pounds (and having a hard time losing them), it's tempting to put the blame on a sluggish metabolism.

But is your metabolism really the reason it's often so hard to lose weight?

And, more important, is there anything you can do about it?

The good news is, there are things you can do to help boost your body's calorie-burning power.

What Is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the process by which your body makes and uses energy or calories for everything from absorbing nutrients to running a marathon.

Your metabolism, experts say, involves a complex network of hormones and enzymes that not only convert food into fuel but also affect how efficiently you burn that fuel.

In many countries outside of the US and UK, food energy is measured by the kilojoule. 1 Calorie (technically kiloCalorie) = 4.184 kilojoules

Each of us have what is called a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) – It is the energy that you burn at complete rest.

If you need to lose weight you will need to have calorie intake less than your RMR.

Also you need to remember that women need minimum of 1200Calories a day & men 1500Calories a day.

Of course, not everyone burns calories at the same rate.

What influences your metabolism?

• Your age (metabolism naturally slows about 5% per decade after age 40); - That’s why we find that when we get to middle age we tend to gain weight easily.
  After the age of 25, for every decade we lose 3.4-4.0kg’s of muscle – unless we do regular strength exercise.
• Your sex (men generally burn more calories at rest than women)
• Proportion of lean body mass (the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate tends to be). One pound of lean muscle burns around 30Calories a day.
• Heredity makes a difference.
  "Some people just burn calories at a slower rate than others," says Barrie Wolfe-Radbill, RD, a nutritionist specializing in weight loss at New York University Medical Center.
• Occasionally, a defect in the thyroid gland can slow metabolism, though this problem is relatively rare.
• And here's a fact that may surprise you: the more weight you carry, the faster your metabolism is likely running.
  "The simple fact is that the extra weight causes your body to work harder just to sustain itself at rest, so in most instances, the metabolism is always running a bit faster," says Molly Kimball, RD, sports and lifestyle nutritionist at the Oscher's Clinic's Elmwood Fitness Center.
  That's one reason it's almost always easiest to lose weight at the start of a diet, and harder later on, Kimball says: "When you are very overweight your metabolism is already running so high that any small cut in calories will result in an immediate loss."

How to Increase Your Metabolism

Among the best ways is exercise.

This includes aerobic workouts to burn more calories in the short term, and Weight Training to build the muscles that will boost your metabolism in the long run.

While 30 minutes of aerobic exercise may burn more calories than 30 minutes of weight training, Calabrese says, "in the hours following the cessation of exercise, the weight training has a longer-lasting effect on boosting metabolism."

Having extra muscle also means you can eat more and gain less.

Eating and your Metabolism

1. Eat Breakfast – Recommended that you eat within 45min of waking.
2. Eat more often, and you'll lose more weight. Small, but frequent, meals help keep your metabolism in high gear, and that means you'll burn more calories overall.
3. The gap between the meals shouldn’t be more than 5-6hrs.
   If you then eat a huge meal -- at the same time your metabolism is functioning as if you're starving -- your body wants to hold on to every calorie.
   

Fat-Burning Foods!

Any food will increase your metabolism, mostly in the first hour after you eat

Protein generally requires about 25% more energy to digest.
A high-protein snack might rev metabolism a little more than a carb-heavy food with the same number of calories.

"Some studies have shown hot pepper and very spicy foods can increase metabolism by about 20% for about 30 minutes, but no one really knows if the extra burn lasts any longer than that, "
Green Tea – Dr David Heber mentions in his book LA Shape Diet that studies have shown that Green Tea can stimulate metabolism by about 80Calories a day.

Your best bet for keeping metabolism revved: Build muscles, snack on low-calorie, high-protein foods, and keep moving!

Be in Control of Your Body Fat Level!

Are you ready to be in control of your body fat levels?

Yes... Then read on..

Lets talk about one of the most important elements of human body:
It makes up approximately 70% of our muscles and about 75% of our brain.
Plays a vital role in the proper functioning of the body.
It is an essencial pat of a healthy diet.

Water

How is it going to help you to be well and shed extra Fat?

• Drinking water forces fat to be used as fuel
• Without adequate water kidneys are unable to function properly - this will in turn affect the liver function --> when liver cannot properly metabolize fat as energy fat will be stored in the body.
• Water effectively suppresses appetite.
• Aids proper digestion
• Water is a vehicle for circulating nutrition and oxygen through the body
• Helps with eliminating waste
• Lubricates joints
• Protect organs
• Helps maintain normal body temperature
• Helps to have healthier skin, nails
• Increased energy, alertness
• ... far more..

Hope now you have enough reasons to drink water!

How much water? - About 6-8 glasses or 2 litres a day

Do you find drinking water is hard?

Lets try this;

1. Staring tomorrow drink a glass of water when you wake up. For a nice morning pick me up - you can add lemon juice , Herbal Aloe , Green Tea
2. Prepare a large water bottle to take with you on your drive to work or school
3. Drink a glass of water in between every meal
4. Take a filled water bottle with you where ever you go
5. At work, keep your water bottle filled and with you at your desk reach for your water instead of unnecessary, high fat, high sugar snacks.
6. Sip on it all day - add ice cubes if necessary
7. You can also drink Green Tea - which counts as water & also helps to increse your metabolism.

Are you drinking Caffinated coffee, tea and soda?

Caffeine depletes your water supply.

For every caffeinated beverage you drink ->> drink an additional glass of water.

Remember exercise, hot weather, low humidity, altitude, a high-fibre diet, and consumption of caffeine and alcoholic beverages increase your water loss.

This means that you need to increase your water intake at these times.

Keep up Your WATER intake!

It is easy to do and easy not to do!

It is your choice...