When is the Best Time to Eat High Glycemic or Low Glycemic Carbohydrates?

By Marcisco Morrison

Anyone who has diabetes knows only too well what happens when you eat carbohydrates, blood sugar levels shoot up. How your blood sugar reacts is largely determined by the total amount of carbs in a meal or the snack that you consume. High glycemic carbohydrates lead to a fast spike in blood sugar (blood glucose) and insulin. Low glycemic carbohydrates have a smaller, slower, effect. It, therefore, pays to know when to eat high or low glycemic carbohydrates.

Using the Glycemic Index 

The Glycemic Index is meant to give you an indication of how fast the carbs are converted into glucose by your body. Two types of foods that have the same carbohydrates amounts can actually have different numbers when it comes to the Glycemic Index.

The smaller the GI number, the less impact the carbs have.

  • 55 or below = Low or good.
  • 56-69 = Medium count
  • 70 or higher = High or bad.

Foods that are closer to their natural state generally have a lower GI compared to processed and refined carbs which count very high. Moderate GI carbs fall in between. Depending on your individual workout or training schedule, you can choose accordingly to suit your goals.

Best Time to Eat High Glycemic Carbohydrates

Immediately Post Workout: Experts recommend this as the best time to consume carbs that are high according to the Glycemic Index (GI). Ideally, most of your high GI carbs daily intake should occur immediately after your training. For example, your post-workout shake should have some high GI carbs and the faster the contents get into your body the better.

Post-Workout Meal: As part of your after training meal, ensure that you also get some high GI carbs. If needed, you can easily adjust the body’s insulin response during your high GI meal by consuming lower GI carbs or fewer carbs.

Best Time to Eat Low Glycemic Carbohydrates

Morning: Your morning meals should mostly consist of low GI carbs, although there is some allowance for a small amount of carbs that are high GI. Overall, your GI count for the morning meal should be between low and moderate.

Before Bed: Body builders and weight lifters were in the past advised against eating carbohydrates rich foods before going to bed because they purportedly would end up getting converted into fat. This is not a fact as carbs before bed are essential for muscle growth.  Essentially, because you are fasting for about 6 to 8 hours during the night, it becomes crucial to ensure that your muscles are not getting catabolized for fuel. It is recommended that before bed you eat a slow digesting carbohydrate that has a low GI, ideally combined with extended-release protein.

Pre-Workout: About an hour to 90 minutes before working out, you ought to eat a meal that is rich in protein and low-to medium-GI, fructose-free carbohydrates. Getting the timing correct is important so that your body gets time to not only fully digest the food but convert the nutrients to vital energy.

Final thoughts 

Besides optimizing your workout results, choosing good carbs sources not only help in controlling your weight but also your blood sugar. Even if you are free of diabetes, consuming carbohydrates-rich healthier foods helps in warding off a host of other conditions that can reduce the impact of your workout. The truth is that in general, low GI foods are the best option but it’s also very important to realize that at times your body will need an immediate source of replacement energy. It all depends on the intensity of your workout or training. For example, if your in a marathon, certainly eating a single apple would really not do you any favors.

Come train with trainers who train and eat carbohydrates -rich healthier foods. Visit us at Four Fitness Studio 650 Montgomery st, Jersey City, NJ 07306

We are Jersey City’s fitness accountability partners! YELP RATED US #1 SINCE 2015. Call NOW (551) 208-4775 

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The Warning Signs of Overtraining

By Marcisco Morrison

Anything taken or done excessively, even a good thing, can be harmful. The same applies to fitness training. Overtraining is not a reserve of the long-term and experienced trainer. Even the newbie can easily also fall into the trap of overtraining. For the best results, every trainer must follow the simple principle of progression. If that doesn’t happen, the trainer may find herself or himself getting unmotivated to attain the set goals, getting over trained, and possibly injured in the process.

But how can you tell if you are overtraining? Overtraining can be described as an increase in the intensity and/or volume of exercise that tends to lead a reduction in performance. Often, recovering from this condition may take many days or even several weeks. A less severe or shorter overtraining variation is known as overreaching, from which you can easily recover in a couple of days.

Look for these warning signs that will tell you that a break/change is needed with your fitness training.

Incomplete Workouts 

Overtraining is normally the result of the trainer getting overzealous in attempts to improve performance and feeling that he or she need to continue training without taking a vital break. It can easily amount to you being unable to complete a routine workout. Here, we are not referring to normal training failure-the kind of failure experienced when you are trying to break your personal records.

If suddenly you find yourself struggling hard to lift weights that previously were lifted without too much stress, odds are high that you are overtrained. If your body doesn’t get adequate rest, you won’t have the capacity to function properly for some time, let alone lifting heavier weights.

Increased Injury Incidences 

If constantly you are pushing your body beyond what it can cope with, then eventually, something will give. Injuries will become more frequent. In order for your body to repair itself, it needs rest, there’s no shortcut. And you can be sure that you will not want to experience something like a torn muscle – very nasty stuff.

Rising Resting Heart Rate 

This is recognized as one of the easiest methods of finding out whether you could be overtrained. Before you embark on your training session, take your RHR (resting heart rate)-this ought to be your training baseline. Your RHR should decrease slowly as your level of fitness improves. If your body is overtraining, you will begin to notice the RHR going up. A resting heart rate that is increasing is a sure sign that you need to lower your training intensity.

Other signs of overtraining include trouble sleeping, irritability, loss of appetite, fatigue, tight & sore muscles. At times, however, it’s good to recognize that recovery from sessions of intense training can also elicit lots of the signs associated with overtraining. In case these signs continue for a couple of days after one or two bouts of intense training, it may be more of overreaching and not overtraining. With proper rest, you will successfully overcome that and your body will be ready to face the next challenge. However, without proper recovery, your state of overreaching can easily grow to that of overtraining.

Call NOW (551) 208-4775

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