Progress Report: New Vow, Old Plan --> Active Lifestyle Diet (long)

I posted 2 months ago a slightly revised version of my "old plan" rules for
weight loss that had worked for me in the past. I got sidetracked doing
Atkins and TKD in 2002 and 2003, and last year I tried exercise alone, lost
some weight, but was always hungry, and ended up being too heavy for some
running races I did.

The rule-based system I followed in 2000 (and more loosely in previous
years) had worked well, but it was very hard, with hunger always bugging me,
especially at night, making it hard to sleep. Those eating rules we

1) No eating after dinner.
2) Always eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, but no large meals. Balance main
meals so they're satisfying, but not too carb heavy or fat heavy.
3) Small desserts ok but not all the time.
4) Drink herbal tea instead of snacking when possible.
5) Allow extra food in snack form for big exercise (90 mins+)
6) If I must snack otherwise, eat raw vegetables.
7) Exercise regularly 45-90 mins/day
8) Limit Caffeine severely (new rule) [added May 14th 2005]

The Breakthrough - the big carb exercise meal:

The change is to eat generously before, during, and right after exercise. I
call this the big-carb meal, and it's designed primarily to make my training
and recovery better. For longer periods of exercise (90 minutes+), I will
eat 1/4 to 1/3 of my daily calories during this exercise window. So rule 5
is changed to:

5) Target nutrition for exercise:
a) Eat some carbs before exercise (100-300 calories) depending on the
duration planned
b) Eat carbs during exercise (150-200 calories per hour depending on fluid
intake, primarily as sports drink)
c) Eat as much as possible within 15-45 minutes right after exercise,
beginning with a high-density sports replacement drink, and adding extra
carbs to that. At minimum, for exercise of only one hour, I will eat 300-500
calories in this post exercise window. For long runs (3-4 hours so far this
year), I will eat up to 800 calories within 30-40 minutes right after the
run.

All of the food/drink in this exercise period should be very low fat, with
minimal exceptions (e.g. a balance bar is ok, but not potato chips). Some
added protein is good, but the main protein should be eaten a few hours
after exercise. I would say 3/4 of my daily carbs eaten are during this
exercise window. I don't try to restrict carbs at other times; I just fit
them into the remaining meals as part of an overall calorie-restriction
diet.

What led me to try this was the desire to fully support a
heavier-than-normal training load leading up to summer races, while at the
same time restricting calories overall. The weight loss is mostly due to
more training, but in the past I didn't lose weight when training more
because I got extremely hungry, especially after 4 hour runs or bike rides.

Now, by giving the body what it needs at the right time, it's happy and I
really haven't been hungry in weeks, except a few times when I cut overall
calories too low. One isn't normally hungry during and after exercise, but I
quickly got used to eating this way. It's similar to waiting until you're
thirsty before drinking. If you wait until you're hungry, especially after
exercise, you've not only waited too long so that the body must give you an
explicit signal, you've missed the so-called metabolic window surrounding
exercise. During this window the body is primed to suck in carbs to
replenish glycogen stores and repair muscle damage. Also, once you get truly
hungry, you're liable to overeat for hours, but by then the nutrients can't
get to where they're needed.

To summarize, using this approach, you recover better, you perform better
during exercise, and you're not hungry and thus able to maintain an overall
calorie deficit. While I've lost just over a pound a week doing this diet,
that's fast enough for me considering the utter struggle I've had in the
past to accomplish the same result.

-Tony

(183 / 173 / 165 )

Tony wrote in message
news:VIfue.19159$fa3.1992@trndny01...

The Breakthrough - the big carb exercise meal:

This study will be of interest to you:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...ve&db=PubMed&l
ist_uids=12617691&dopt=Abstract
or http://tinyurl.com/bdy6l

c) Eat as much as possible within 15-45 minutes right after
exercise,
beginning with a high-density sports replacement drink, and adding
extra
carbs to that. At minimum, for exercise of only one hour, I will eat
300-500
calories in this post exercise window. For long runs (3-4 hours so
far this
year), I will eat up to 800 calories within 30-40 minutes right
after the
run.

Your gut probably can't absorb that much glucose at one time. Other
than that I like your ideas. See ideas for getting around that in the
study posted above.

Matthew

Matthew wrote in message ...

Tony wrote in message
news:VIfue.19159$fa3.1992@trndny01...

The Breakthrough - the big carb exercise meal:

This study will be of interest to you:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...ve&db=PubMed&l
ist_uids=12617691&dopt=Abstract
or http://tinyurl.com/bdy6l

Hey thanks for the link, interesting:

"Following this rapid phase of glycogen synthesis, muscle glycogen synthesis
occurs at a much slower rate and this phase can last for several hours".

c) Eat as much as possible within 15-45 minutes right after
exercise,
beginning with a high-density sports replacement drink, and adding
extra
carbs to that. At minimum, for exercise of only one hour, I will eat
300-500
calories in this post exercise window. For long runs (3-4 hours so
far this
year), I will eat up to 800 calories within 30-40 minutes right
after the
run.

Your gut probably can't absorb that much glucose at one time. Other
than that I like your ideas. See ideas for getting around that in the
study posted above.

You're right, though the way I look at it is that I eat as much as is
comfortable within the first 40 minutes, then continue to eat at a lighter
rate for the next hour - in the case of longer exercise upwards of 2 hours.

-Tony

Matthew