This came form Fitness management magazine December 2008.
Two new studies suggest that unless you are a competitive athlete, consuming sports drinks or high carbohydrate foods such as protein bars right after exercise may negate the health benefits that exercise creates.
The first study published in the journal of applied physiology showed that walking on a treadmill for one hour daily which expended 500 calories increased the effectiveness of insulin to clear blood sugar by 40%. But when the 500 calories expended was replaced by a high carbohydrate drink following exercise, the positive effect disappeared entirely, along with improvements in several other key health markers like inflammatory proteins.
To understand whether the negative effects of the post exercise meal were due ot the total calories or the carbohydrate consumption, researchers tested two different meals given immediately after 75 minutes of modest intensity cycling. The meals contained the same amount of calories but one was high in carbohydrate and the other was low in carbohydrate. The results showed the effectiveness of insulin to clear blood sugar was greater when the meal was low in carbohydrates.
The bottom line - to retain the metabolic fat burning benefits of exercise after a workout eat a low carbohydrate meal.
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