Metabolic Mayhem and the Schedule from Hell

ImNotThatBob

Here's a question for all you health & fitness gurus out there:

What is the optimal proximity of caloric consumption to caloric burn? Said another way, how soon before or after my cardio workout do I have to consume my exercise calories?

I used to go all day eating minimally and then late in the evening (between 6 PM - Midnight) I'd exercise and eat my calories either before or after. Since most people say it's better not to eat after 9 PM and better to be in bed asleep by 10 PM I switched my schedule around and now get up at 4:30 AM to exercise between 5 - 7 AM.

The problem arises with my schedule when I don't get to consume the bulk of my calories until late in the evening. I have a feeling that 10 hours is too long between burning and consumption. I'm trying to carry "snacks" like fruits, nuts, veggies and such to eat throughout the day but that doesn't account for the bulk of my calories.

Any suggestions? Do any of you learned folk know what the optimal time frame is?

Thanks in advance,

>Rob

melholden10

you should have your 'big' meal within 1 hour of excercise as metabolic rate is still up and it helps your body replace glycogen stores in your muscles lost during excercise.

kristarablue

First I am in no way a fitness or nutrition guru so I apologize for the lack of proper scientific evidence although I know it exists because I have read it before, I just don’t feel like googling it, but with that said……it is of my understanding (from studies I have read) that it does not matter what time you eat, it is the calories consumed. Personally I eat before I go to bed everyday, if I don’t I wake up in the middle of the night hungry and can’t sleep…plus I just like my evening snack. I think the whole night eating thing gets people into trouble due to the choices that are made in the evening and mindless eating (this used to be big trouble for me)…high sugar, high carb or high fat snacks. So if you make appropriate choices and stay within your allotted calories and macros, I do think you will be ok. Don’t stress about it unless you are making really bad choices. Good luck and hopefully you will get some good studies to read on the subject.

jg627

I'm not a health and fitness guru, but I do know that eating after a certain time is not what makes you fat, however I do play with numbers a little bit and more olympic records have been beaten in the evening hours than in the morning. If you talk to any olympic trainer, they will tell you the best time to train is at night. The reason for that is, you're most at risk for heart attack in the earlier hours of the day after you first wake up and lower heart rate will give you better performance in the gym. This is all assuming that you sleep at night, of course.
As for eating your exercise calories, a better way to do that is to track your progress in the gym. If you're improving each week at a steady rate, then you're eating plenty. If you're not improving then you're eating too little. Guy A and Guy B are never going to burn the exact same numbers of calories in 30 minutes on a treadmill. It all depends on your heart rate, weight and the amount of effort you put into it.
When I'm hungry, I eat. When I eat, I eat until I'm satisfied. If I'm not hungry, I don't eat. Following those basic rules I've lost almost 40 lbs in about 2 months and had non-stop, progressive strength gains at the gym and I can now do 4 miles on the eliptical machine on my cardio days. You can use the numbers as a guide, but your own body knows it's optimal caloric consumption for calorie burn best.