Tom Giesen
<html>
Hi<br><br>
I know two things:<br><br>
We (endurance athletes) were cautioned for years not to eat simpler carbs
before an exercise bout - a race, for example - on the grounds of
the insulin surge. Studies showed, however that it was so slight as to be
negligible - advice now is to eat carbs pre-event, complex being better,
but all of 'em being good.<br><br>
We have been taught that eating complex carbs is always best. But
post-exercise carbs are essential to rebuild glycogen stores in the
muscle cells, and studies show that this replacement can be done with
<font color="#FF0000">either</font> simple or complex. Slow release is
NOT an issue - the point is to feed carbs in quickly after exercise, as
they are taken up most readily by the cells then, and it does not matter
if they are pure sugar, save that pure sugar is depauperate in anything
SAVE carbs, including taste.<br><br>
Tom Giesen<br><br>
<br><br>
At 09:36 AM 1/23/2002, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>All I know about nutrition is what
I've read for my own purposes, so <br>
somebody correct me if my thoughts on this matter are flawed.<br><br>
I thought the issue with these "huge insulin response" theories
is that <br>
they are all based on what the "average person's" body
does. I was <br>
under the impression that someone who does a significant amount of <br>
athletic activity every day tends to metabolize the carbs more or less
<br>
immediately and does not exhibit this sharp insulin response to nearly
<br>
the extent that a sedentary person does. The insulin spike in
sedentary <br>
people is (as I understood it) a mechanism to deal with the fact that
<br>
they are consuming excess carbs that their body does not routinely <br>
utilize in the near future. Athlete's bodies on the other hand have
<br>
been trained to expect to burn off those carbs as fuel and so their body
<br>
isn't as anxious to lower the blood sugar level the way a normally <br>
sedentary person would. Of course, eating pure refined sugar is
still <br>
not the thing to do and what you want is complex, unrefined carbs that
<br>
your body consumes over a longer period... eating a couple of candy bars
<br>
is still probably going to yank your blood sugar level all over the map,
<br>
no matter how active you are.<br><br>
Am I way off-base here? Is there a doctor / nutrition expert in the
<br>
house? Just what I have heard is that it's really hard to take
these <br>
studies that are done on the "average person" and apply them to
very <br>
athletic people because there's such a wide variation in the body's
<br>
responses due to training. Of course, it's equally specious to
apply <br>
studies done solely on Olympic athletes to most of the
population...<br><br>
Renata Hahn wrote:<br>
<br>
I'm no expert, but I'v been reading a lot of books, many
contradicting <br>
each other. Dr. Phillip Maffetone would say you are eating way too
many <br>
carbs, and your system produces a huge insulin release in the blood
<br>
stream, thus causing all your blood sugar to be stored and go too
low. <br>
Then your body craves more carbos and sweets....you get very hungry
<br>
because your blood sugar has dipped too low. If you have been eating
<br>
lots of carbos, your body is used to getting more and more. Take
that <br>
away, it craves more. His solution, more protein and fat. He sais
eating <br>
too many carbos can prevent a higher percentage of fats from being
used <br>
for energy, and lead to an increase in body-fat storage and greatly
<br>
diminish performance.<br>
<br>
After attending the OBRA convention and listening to the discussion
on <br>
nutrition,with Burke and others, I bought Suzanne Girards book,
<br>
"Endurance Sports Nutrition". She suggests eating a
training diet based <br>
on 3-4gms of carbohydrate per pound of body weight. She goes further
<br>
into detail based on how many hours you train. 1 hr, 3grams, <br>
2hrs-4grams, 3hrs-5grams (all per pound of body weight, yes, 60% of
<br>
total calories) Protein, 0.55-0.75 grams per pound. (15-20%). Fat,
0.5g <br>
per pound (at least 20%). Then up that 3-4 days prior to an event to
<br>
4-5grams of carbos per pound for three days.<br>
<br>
You need the Fat to optimize your body to burn it, it's a
concentrated <br>
sourceof energy, it releases 9 cal/gram (carbos only
4cals/gram). You <br>
need to train your muscles to burn fat and spare glycogen (stored
<br>
carbos) during exercise. Metabolizing fat and carbos requires
different <br>
sets of enzymes. Highly trained endurance athletes can use more fat
and <br>
less glycogen at the same intensity level as less fit athletes.
(Since <br>
you rely on fat as an energy source during long bouts of
exercise)<br>
<br>
Protein is needed to rebuild muscle tissue, and replace the amino
acids <br>
oxidized during exercise. Also during long bouts of exercise,"
when <br>
glycogen stores run low, protein is used as fuel, and may contribute
as <br>
much as 15 % of the energy needed". (from Suzanne's book). So
you need <br>
protein to maintain lean muscle tissue, not to break it down as
fuel. <br>
Especially after exercise, you need to eat protein and carbos 15-30
<br>
minutes after, to rebuild muscle proteins and replenish glycogen
stores. <br>
So, the 60-65% carbos, 15-20% protein, 20% fat seems to be the
optimal <br>
agreed upon amount. Good luck..<br>
Renata<br><br>
============================================================<br>
NO MORE PAYROLL HEADACHES FOR SMALL BUSINESS WITH PAYCYCLE!<br>
Instant calculations, pre-filled tax forms, email<br>
reminders, To Dos. Guaranteed accurate. Live support. Click<br>
here for free trial.<br>
<a href="http://click.topica.com/caaafupaVxiDpa2WioKf/Paycycle" eudora="autourl">http://click.topica.com/caaafupaVxiDpa2WioKf/Paycycle</a><br>
============================================================<br><br>
To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com.<br>
To respond to the list manager send to ob-@teleport.com<br>
To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com<br><br>
</html>