Nutrition

Predator or Prey

Are you Predator or Prey 

 

There is a fallacy in gym land that eating prior to exercise will provide the body with instant energy. Unfortunately in the universe known as the human body theory doesn’t always correspond to reality.

Many assume the human body operates like a car and therefore must be fueled liked a machine. Eating before exercise seems to make sense, however, the notion that pre-exercise meals provide muscles with instant energy is flawed, misunderstood and downright counterproductive.

In order to provide the muscle with nutrients and energy, food must be first fully digested. During digestion food is broken down into smaller compounds, yielding molecules of amino acids, fatty acids and glucose, which are transferred to the body's tissues through the circulatory system. The digestive elimination process that occurs in the stomach, intestines, liver and kidneys, requires substantial amounts of energy. During digestion, blood flow shifts from the brain and muscles to the inside organs (responsible for digestion and elimination). That shift in the blood flow profoundly affects the brain and muscle tissues, lowering their capacity to perform and resist fatigue.

What about meals that require almost no digestion, such as fast releasing whey and sugar?

Consuming a pre-exercise meal made from a blend of fast releasing proteins and carbs at first glance seems logical.  In theory such meals would nourish the muscle tissues with aminos and glucose to inhibit muscle breakdown, while providing instant energy. It all makes sense, or does it? Theory is not always reality.

Recent studies at the University of Birmingham, England, demonstrated that ingestion of carbs prior to exercise showed elevated plasma cortisol levels as well as inhibiting fat as a fuel source, due to the requisite insulin spike.  Cortisol levels during and post exercise have been seen to be lower when NO carbs were ingested prior to exercise.

Further, there was a faster shift from carb fuel to fat fuel during exercise, when a pre exercise meal was NOT applied.

As for protein, what many do not understand is the established fact that protein rich foods raise cortisol levels if applied incorrectly.

Studies at the University of Lubeck, Germany, found that oral administration of fast releasing protein foods such as hydrolyzed proteins like whey, have an even more profound cortisol elevating effect compared to whole protein foods.

Understand that chronically elevated cortisol has been associated with muscle wasting and fat gain, in particular abdominal fat.

Furthermore, pre exercise meals may rob the brain and muscle of energy, due to digestion. Eating meals made from fast releasing proteins and carbs, before exercise, can cause profound cortisol elevation both during and after exercise. This compromises the ability to build muscle and burn fat.

The Take Home Point: DO NOT EAT before exercise, instead eat right after exercise…the same meal that would be counter-productive before exercise can be most effective and beneficial when applied after exercise.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the critical positive effects of post-exercise recovery meals on total muscle recuperation (i.e. replenishment of energy reserves and increased protein synthesis).

Recent studies at the University of Texas revealed that applying fast releasing proteins and carbs after exercise had substantial anabolic effect on stimulating net muscle protein synthesis, even in the presence of elevated cortisol.

Consequently, we are not preprogrammed to be fueled like machines. Our evolution (biological machine) is based on survival mechanisms based on hormonal activations that when triggered, increase our capacity to utilize fuel, generate energy and better survive. Interestingly, when our survival instincts are engaged ie hunting or avoiding being hunted (read exercise), increased hormonal output is activated, elevating such phenomenon as Growth Hormone, Fat Fuel Utilization, Immune System Response and Testosterone to name a few. 

  

We trigger these mechanisms, when we follow cycles that rotate between training in a fasted state and consuming nutrients post training or at rest.