meal timing Posts - Born Fitness

The Meal Timing Myth?

Adam Bornstein — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 16:17:30 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I enjoy hosting random Q&A’s using the hashtag #AskBorn. Oftentimes this happens while in a Taxi, at the airport, or just because I feel like talking. This week I was asked about meal timing, what to eat post-workout, and the importance of protein and carbs. It’s one of the most common questions I’m asked in my online coaching program. And since 140 characters really isn’t enough to answer on Twitter, here is what you need to know.

ASK BORN: How many carbs and protein should I be eating post-workout? You like waixy maize? –Max

When I first started training, there was nothing I looked forward to more than my post-workout meal. It was the time when my muscles were starved for food. But more importantly, I thought it was a time when my body needed a massive insulin surge to take carbs and transform them into hard earned muscle.

What you eat after a workout is less important than meeting your overall calorie and macronutrient guidelines for the day.

In my mind, insulin meant sugar, and sugar meant Frosted Flakes. (And lots of Frosted Flakes, as in several very large bowls.) After all, I was convinced my body was like a sponge after a workout and would soak up all the carbs.

Turns out, my mindset regarding the need for significant carbs after a workout was misguided. Of all the ingredients involved in building the body you want, there’s a certain mystique about the role and importance of the meal you enjoy after your workout.

There’s no shortage of information and opinions on what you should eat, how much you should eat, the importance of the timing, and the dangers of what you risk by not emphasizing this meal. And while timing is not insignificant, the latest research indicates that most what we thought was true about the post-workout meal no longer holds as much accuracy.

One of the most common suggestions revolves around the consumption of carbs after your exercise session. While consuming carbs after a workout is perfectly fine—and carbs are necessary for muscle growth—our bodies don’t need as many carbs as we think. More importantly, we don’t need to load up on simple carbs (think sugar) in order to refuel and see changes.

The New Rules of Post-Workout Meals

The biggest problem with focusing on what to eat after your workout is that we tend to view this meal in isolation. Instead, it’s best to be aware of what you had before your workout, or if you train in the morning, what you had for your last meal before you sleep.

Your body doesn’t run on a short-term fuel supply. Your glycogen (muscle energy, if you will) is filled up anywhere between 350 to 500 grams of carbohydrates. If those numbers don’t mean much to you, that’s more than enough fuel to get you through your weight training workout; and plenty for most endurance sessions, too.

Your goal is to promote muscle protein synthesis (muscle growth and repair), and for that to happen, you don’t need a massive insulin spike. In fact, research has shown that a moderate amount of protein and carbs (or even protein alone, more on that soon) can max out the muscle protein response after exercise.

In this study, scientists found that insulin is “permissive rather than stimulatory.” Instead, it’s to make sure you activate insulin and allow it to do its job.

Translation: the goal isn’t to jack up insulin to see a greater response. More carbs and insulin is not better and does not accomplish more.

Pre-Workout v.s. Post-Workout: A Team Approach

This certainly differs significantly from the general ideology passed down from some supplement companies. The commonly held belief is that if you don’t use fast-acting carbs immediately after a workout, then you won’t elevate your insulin levels, you won’t recover, your body will shrink, and all potential gains will be lost.

Your body isn’t carb-dependent because post-workout because you ate before your workout can have a big impact.

In fact, a pre-exercise meal can help ensure that your insulin levels remain elevated up until your workout is over. If you eat protein and carbs before you train, insulin can remain elevated for several hours. And if you don’t like solid foods, combining 6 grams of essential amino acids with about 35 grams of carbohydrates can keep insulin levels about four times higher than fasting levels for about two hours.

This isn’t to tell you must eat before you train (it’s completely goal dependent and also a matter of how well you digest food before you exercise).

Instead, it’s to emphasize how easy it is to create an insulin response that will help your body before, during, and after training. And more importantly, it allows you to know the flexibility involved in choosing what you eat before or after a workout without having to worry that you must follow a specific plan that might not feel right for you. (This is something I’ve tested with clients and have found to be much more beneficial than rigid plans.)

Insulin’s ability to prevent muscle protein breakdown and maximize muscle protein synthesis isn’t dependent on massive amounts of carbs (because you’re not completely depleting your glycogen stores), and doesn’t require a special carb blend.

This is another instance of people majoring in the minor. The, “I need magical fast-acting carbs from waixy maize within 30 minutes of training” is not as important as focusing on the bigger picture. In this case, making sure you have some protein and carbohydrates after a meal, and focusing on a good overall diet.

Whereas many people believe that the 5 percent is where winners are made, it’s really where the most stress occurs, arguments erupt, and progress can stall.

Master the big picture details first, and you’re likely to see more results, have better compliance, and achieve much better clarity. Then you can tackle the most specific details.

What You Should Eat Post-Workout

The urgency of a post-workout meal is significantly exaggerated. Moreover, most research with glycogen depletion and repletion focuses on endurance athletes. If you’re a runner putting in serious mileage, for instance, your need for glycogen-replenishing carbs is greater but still not urgent—and it’s on both ends of the spectrum.

Most people who have exercised are familiar with the concept of carb-loading. And yet, research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that bumping up carbohydrates to more than 50 percent of their diet (and maxing out at 75 percent) didn’t improve muscle glycogen and only led to a minor 5 percent improvement in their performance. In other words, all those extra carbs are not worth it. (Although the meals might be enjoyable.)

When it comes to weight training, your body is in even less of a need for the instant carb surge. That’s because most weight workouts—even the more aggressive approaches in the 45 to 60 minute range—won’t come close to depleting your glycogen stores.

And if you do eat a preworkout meal, that need is even less as the food you ate beforehand is most likely still being absorbed by your body even after you’ve finished.

What’s more, even if you don’t eat carbs before a workout and skip them in the time period immediately after you train, as long as you eat carbs several hours later your body will still recover and glycogen resynthesis will occur within about 24 hours. (Yes, the body is an amazing machine.) Consider this good news as the benefits of the post-workout meal period are experienced for a longer period of time.

The majority of the most recent research emphasizes that timing is less important than the total amount of food you eat, and the macronutrient ratios (of proteins, carbs, and fats) you consume.

That’s not to say eating after a workout isn’t important; rather, “after a workout” is just a much longer period of time than originally thought. In fact, the idea of the “small anabolic window” is minimized with each passing year (this is not a bad thing).

It now appears that your post-workout window is really open for about 24 hours rather than 30 to 60 minutes, with the first 4 hours being when you want to make sure you eat or have a shake.

That means more flexibility with your meals and not feeling forced to slog down a shake if you’re not hungry.

Just as valuable is the research that suggests the increasing importance of protein after your workout. A study published in 2010 found that adding carbs (about 50 grams) to 25 grams of whey protein did not increase post-exercise protein balance compared to the protein without carbs.

As for carbs? Unfortunately the research just isn’t as clear. This excerpt is from a research review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition on nutrient timing published by Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld.

It is tempting to recommend pre- and post-exercise carbohydrate doses that at least match or exceed the amounts of protein consumed in these meals. However, carbohydrate availability during and after exercise is of greater concern for endurance as opposed to strength or hypertrophy goals.

Furthermore, the importance of co-ingesting post-exercise protein and carbohydrate has recently been challenged by studies examining the early recovery period, particularly when sufficient protein is provided. Koopman et al 52 found that after full-body resistance training, adding carbohydrate (0.15, or 0.6 g/kg/hr) to amply dosed casein hydrolysate (0.3 g/kg/hr) did not increase whole body protein balance during a 6-hour post-exercise recovery period compared to the protein-only treatment….

For the goal of maximizing rates of muscle gain, these findings support the broader objective of meeting total daily carbohydrate need instead of specifically timing its constituent doses. Collectively, these data indicate an increased potential for dietary flexibility while maintaining the pursuit of optimal timing.

Lab to the Kitchen: Designing Post-Workout Meals

What does it all mean? There is no “perfect meal” for after your workout. While the post-workout time period is still important and valuable, when it comes to achieving your goals, what you eat after (or even before) a workout is less important than meeting your overall calorie and macronutrient guidelines for the day.

If you are someone who tracks calories or macros, your daily goals should be focus 1A and 1B. In general, days where you train you should eat more carbs, and days when you don’t train you’ll most likely have less.

From there, determining what to eat post-workout depends on your preference. If eating pre-workout leaves you feel groggy or sick to your stomach, some branched-chain amino acids or potentially fasting (research has shown that protein breakdown is elevated after fasting and eating after training while fasted can have a positive effect; or if you don’t fast not eating 3 to 4 hours before your workout can be beneficial because a meal of protein and carbs can keep amino acid levels elevated for up to 6 hours) might be best for you.

But if you still need more direction for your post-workout meal, your top priority is probably protein. That’s because research shows that if you eat protein any time around your workout (before, during, after) then you have a similar increase in muscle protein synthesis.

Anywhere between 20 and 40 grams of protein before or after (or both) should do the trick, and based on Aragon’s research, a similar amount of carbs should work—although the science is not as definitive.

If you’re worried about eating fat in your post-workout meal, well, don’t. The idea that post-workout fat will slow down an “anabolic effect” of protein is unsubstantiated in any research. While protein and carbs are still the preferred nutrients, having some fat (think eating eggs) is not going to slow your process.

What you eat during the course of the day matters more than what you eat before or after your workout. In the post-workout meal prioritize protein over carbs, and when adding carbs understand there’s no need for massive amounts to raise insulin. This is not an anti-carb approach. Instead, it’s a matter of realizing the lack of urgency for carbohydrates post-workout, and understanding that you don’t need to consume excess amounts of carbs to recover properly.

Personalize Your Fitness Plan

Want more help figuring out what to eat and when? You can receive customized training and diet planning through the Born Fitness online coaching program.

Fix Your Diet: Understanding Proteins, Carbs and Fats

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

How Much Fat Should I Eat?

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

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Breakfast is Not the Most Important Meal

Adam Bornstein — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:07:16 +0000

For years I told people that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. Eat a big meal to start the day and everything will be ok. I published the advice in three books, referenced the smartest minds in nutrition, and the tip was generally accepted as “the right thing” to do for your health.

Turns out the “right thing” really depends on whether you want to eat early in the morning. That’s because two recent studies found that eating breakfast has no direct impact on weight loss. We’re not talking observational studies, like many done prior. This was a direct comparison of an early meal versus no early meal. And the results had a simple message:

Eating breakfast is not weight loss magic.

From a physiological perspective, there’s nothing special about eating early in the morning and triggering weight loss.

In the study, which looked at more than 300 people, participants were split into 2 groups. One ate breakfast and the other did not. While there were some small differences, the bottom line was that there was no significant difference in weight loss between the breakfast eaters and the breakfast skippers. In fact, both groups lost weight and this occurred without the researchers telling participants what to eat (or not eat) for breakfast.

The growing evidence should be a welcome relief for those who don’t like eating first thing in the morning. If there’s one thing that needs to be understood it’s this:

Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day.

But neither is lunch, dinner, or snacks. This isn’t meant to be puzzling or a letdown to those of you trying to crack the weight loss code. Believing that one meal is the foundation of success can be detrimental to your healthy living goals.

The Diet Refresh: What We Know About Meal Timing

The problem with the breakfast-is-best hypothesis is that it steers people into the “there’s only one way to eat” mentality. The truth is, it doesn’t matter when you eat your meals: Morning, night, or spread out through the day. If there are behavioral reasons why you want to eat breakfast, such as it energizes or improves focus, then those are good reasons to have an early meal.

If breakfast feels forced or makes you sluggish, then there’s no pressure to force feed just for the sake of eating. In fact, recent research also suggests that it’s your choice if you want to eat three meals, six meals or anywhere in between, and that there is a meal frequency that’s ideal for weight loss.

If you that sounds wrong, you might want to read this study and this one as well. Research can be flawed, but our body’s biological nature is not meant to be deceiving. Weight loss depends on how many calories you eat, the foods you eat, and the macronutrients you consume in your diet (that is, what’s the ratio of proteins, carbs, and fats). Add in your exercise tendencies, and that will determine how you look and feel.

Some people believe that eating more frequently has a host of benefits, such as curbing appetite. This can be true—but the opposite can also occur. Eating more can make you feel hungrier and consume more calories.

And there’s the thought that frequent meals improves your metabolism. But as long as total calories are equal (and macronutrients are balanced), your body will burn the same number of calories in the digestion process. That’s just science.

Yes, there are other processes in your body that can play a role in the weight loss process—most notably stress and hormones—but that’s a separate conversation altogether. Before you can even worry about those individual issues, you must make sure that you’ve established baseline eating habits that are the foundation for a healthy life. Once you do that, you might experience the type of change you didn’t think could happen for your body.

Why The ‘Breakfast is Best’ Model is Broken (And Always Has Been)

Here’s the problem with the breakfast hypothesis: The moment you insist that breakfast is essential, you create a mental block that over-emphasizes the importance of the meal. Suddenly if you miss breakfast, you believe that your fat loss will be slowed, you’re destined to eat more at the next meal, and your energy will be off.

It’s the real issue with diets: they create psychological barriers that make the journey seem harder, rather than suggesting flexible solutions that make the process more convenient to your lifestyle.

Changing your body is as much a psychological process as it is a physical one. You need to believe that you can become better. But you also need to believe in the program you’re following, and use an approach that can be maintained.

Any time you want to make a change you’ll have to make sacrifices. But don’t confuse working harder and removing certain habits with losing all control. That’s a recipe for failure.

For years, we were told breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In fact, physicians are notorious for scolding patients who skip breakfast—particularly people who are embarking on a plan to lose weight.

There is some credence here, by the way: a study conducted by scientists in Massachusetts in 2008 showed that participants who ate a calorically dense breakfast lost more weight than those who didn’t.

The theory was that the higher caloric intake early in the day led people to snack less often throughout the day and lowered caloric intake overall. There are also some epidemiological studies that show a connection between skipping breakfast and higher body weight.

However, the crux of the breakfast study is ultimately that a larger breakfast leads to lower overall caloric intake. That is, the argument for a larger breakfast ultimately boils down to energy balance; if that study is reliant on the position that weight loss comes down to calories in versus calories out, then the makeup of the food shouldn’t matter. And this isn’t the case.

What you choose for breakfast will have a big impact on what you eat the rest of the day.

Case in point–eating 5 eggs is not the same as eating 1 donuts, even if the calories are matched. So it’s true that if you choose to eat breakfast, the benefits of that first meal will depend on your food selection.

However, if we’ve learned anything from Mark Haub’s Twinkie Diet, it’s that you can eat garbage and lose weight; so clearly, something else is going on. The pro-breakfast folks declare that because insulin sensitivity is higher in the morning, eating a carbohydrate-rich meal early in the day is the greatest opportunity to take in a large amount of energy without the danger of weight gain.

There’s only one tiny problem with that theory: insulin sensitivity is not higher in particular hours of the morning. It’s higher after a minimum of eight hours of fasting. It just so happens that you fast when you sleep, so the information is misleading. More specifically, insulin sensitivity is higher when your glycogen levels (the energy stores in your body) are depleted, like after your sleeping fast.

That’s why some people experience benefits by pushing back their first meal. (Technically, your first meal is always breakfast because it’s when you “break” your overnight fast.) Intermittent fasting takes that a step farther and turns your body into a fat-burning, muscle-building machine. You see, if you skip breakfast and extend the fasting period beyond the typical eight to ten hours, you increase insulin even more.

In the end, there is no science that supports the idea—from a direct comparison—that eating breakfast is better than not eating breakfast. This is not about food choice; it’s simple a matter of food timing.

In reality, this is closely linked to the multiple meal hypothesis. French researchers found that there is “no evidence of improved weight loss” by eating more frequently. And they even went a step farther to show that in terms of the number of calories you burn per day, it does not matter if you graze or gorge—assuming that you’re eating the number of calories you need to lose weight and the macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) are equal.

If you’re told to eat 2,000 calories per day, it doesn’t matter if it’s separated into five 400-calorie meals or three larger calorie feasts. (However, the composition of those meals does matter.)

But that’s not all. Canadian researchers decided to compare three meals per day to six meals per day, breaking the six into three main meals and three snacks (the routine that has been advocated by every diet book written in the last twenty years). The results? There was no significant difference in weight loss, but the people who ate three meals per day were more satisfied and felt less hunger.

What does it all mean? Some people might have a psychological dependence or belief that they need breakfast. It makes them feel better, it gives piece of mind, or maybe it very realistically helps control morning hunger.

From a physiological perspective–or how your body actually reacts to breakfast–there’s nothing special about eating early in the morning when it comes to triggering weight loss. In fact, forcing yourself to eat at a particular time, or a prescribed number of times, is just as big of a problem as saying you need breakfast.

What About Your Metabolism?

Before we go on, remember there is nothing wrong with eating breakfast. You can eat breakfast and be perfectly healthy and use it as part of an effective weight lost plan. But it’s important to remember that if you’re forcing breakfast for it’s supposed weight loss and metabolism benefits, you’re now free to choose if you want an early meal.

In another study conducted at the University of Bath, participants either ate or skipped breakfast for 6 weeks. This time, there was no change in metabolic (fat loss) or cardiovascular health. This was important because unlike the general weight loss study, this research assessed the old concept of, “breakfast ignites your metabolism first thing in the morning.” And yet, when metabolisms were actually tested, there wasn’t any evidence to prove the theory.

While there isn’t anything wrong with eating breakfast, potential downsides do exist. The problem with a traditional breakfast is that it creates a big eating window. That is, the number of hours during the day that you are consuming food. This is typically about a fifteen-hour period (between seven a.m. and ten p.m.).

In a recent groundbreaking study by the scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, it was found that a larger eating window was associated with more fat storage and a higher likelihood of health problems such as diabetes and liver disease.

This study was done with mice, but the findings are too important to overlook. The mice were put on a high-fat diet that would typically cause obesity. One group of mice ate whenever they wanted, and the other could only eat for eight hours, starting in the afternoon and finishing at night. The mice that ate whenever they wanted gained fat, developed high cholesterol, high blood glucose, and liver damage.

The mice with the eight-hour feeding period starting in the afternoon? They weighed 28 percent less and had no health problems, even though they ate the same amount of fatty foods.

The scientists believe that by cutting down how long you have to eat, your body does a better job of metabolizing your fat, glucose, and cholesterol. What’s more, because you’re eating for a smaller window of time and starting later in the day, your body is burning more fat. Why? Because you pushed back breakfast, extended your overnight fast (which occurs while you sleep), and became a fat-burning machine.

What’s more, by skipping breakfast (or just starting it later in the day), you also prime your body to feel hungrier less often. That’s because the moment you start eating food, your body creates an expectation for calories. And for most people, that expectation means hunger pangs that are too hard to overcome, leaving you grabbing for snacks by ten a.m. and eating more calories than you should by the end of the day.

To Breakfast or Not To Breakfast: The Choice Is Yours

Here’s what you really need to know about breakfast: It’s great for some but not for others. (I love breakfast foods, but rarely eat breakfast anymore.) Insisting that someone has to eat breakfast to lose weight could be the one change that actually makes it harder to experience long-lasting change. Some people aren’t morning eaters, and there’s no reason they have to change that aspect to be healthy.

Don’t believe in dogma. Just as you have a unique body, you can have a unique diet.

If you like breakfast, eat it. If you like snacking, make that your habit. But don’t let anyone convince you that your success will depend on any one meal.

But the process can be made easier. It can be enjoyable. And most of all, it will be effective if you take the right approach.

Eat breakfast. Don’t eat breakfast. That choice is yours.

And by making that choice, and determining what’s best for you, then you’ll be on the path to change that works and lasts.

Less Thinking. Fewer Frustrations. More Results.

A weight loss plan doesn’t have to be a world of false promises and hype. Plenty of people have success, but the difference is that it’s personalized.

Now you can have your own risk-free plan created with Born Fitness online coaching. Sign up for your free consultation call, and the if you’re unhappy with the first month you receive a full refund. This is one-on-one coaching at it’s best. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Click here to get started.

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Adam Bornstein