Tag Archive for: Fueling Your Body For Exercise

Are You Fooling or Fueling Your Body?

Year in and year out, people promise themselves that this is the year they will start exercising and losing weight. However, that journey is much more complex that many people think. Losing weight and taking care of your health also includes nutrition.

If you go to the gym and do cardio, lift weights or even group exercise classes you will not see a change in your overall physique if you don’t provide your body with the necessary fuel to make that change happen. The marriage between nutrition and exercise could make the difference in making this year the year that your life changes.

fuel

During Anaerobic exercise (resistance training) your body uses up muscle glycogen (a carbohydrate) in order to find energy sources of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). In high intensity exercises the body’s glycogen can be depleted quite quickly due to the small amount found in the muscle. Due to this decline, blood sugars drop leaving you at risk of a poor workout and it can even influence your next one. Therefore, post workout, your body needs to replenish these glycogen stores in order to prepare your body for your next workout.

Think about what are you eating now? Do you know if you are supporting a change in your physique or hindering it by neglecting to add the right things into your diet? Are you incorporating healthy fats, carbohydrates and lean protein in your diet? Your body needs macronutrients to provide it with calories and energy for functioning. Macronutrients are classified as carbohydrates, fats, and protein. All of these macronutrients are essential and provide you with various amounts of energy in calories.

Carbohydrates provide the body with 4 calories per gram, Protein 4 calories per gram, fats 9 calories per gram and ethanol-in alcoholic beverage form-delivers 7 calories per gram. Adding the right macronutrients into your body-along with a smart exercise/training program-can help you lose FAT weight and hold onto or even gain lean muscle.

However, neglecting to add these macronutrients in the right amounts-or NOT engaging in an exercise training program-could lead to fat loss and muscle loss, which is a less than desirable result.

Many of you know the importance of eating macronutrient rich foods to support your exercise but what about supplemental forms of them? Food should always be your first resort however there are certain situations when supplements can benefit your workout and maximize your results more efficiently.

Protein shakes are a common supplement used at the gym post workout. One of the main reasons for having a protein shake at the end of your workout is to replenish the body and support the rebuilding of muscles that have been broken down during resistance/weight or endurance training.

Another reason to have protein in the form of a shake after a workout is because it is a lot faster to make and consume than eating a meal (unless maybe you have a meal already prepared and can quickly swallow large chunks of food!). However, protein drinks should not be the only element of your post-workout drink.

When your body becomes efficient at creating and using energy for fuel, you begin to burn fat as well for energy. You do not exhaust all of your muscle fat during exercise and therefore you do not need to replace fat after a workout, especially if you are doing resistance training or short duration (less than several hours) endurance training or racing. However, it is important to maintain a diet with a modest amount of healthy fats.

Another great supplement that can be incorporated into your workout is a patented, sugar-free carbohydrate called Vitargo. Vitargo is a research based “supercarb”-an extract of starch-which has been studied in prestigious university laboratories. The subjects who took the Vitargo increased their work output by up to 23% just 2 hours after completing exhaustive exercise, compared to when they took a maltodextrin and sugars drink, or calorie-free placebo.

Vitargo also doesn’t cause the common bloating that occurs after ingesting other carbohydrates because it has been shown to move through the stomach and into the intestines 2.3x faster than a combo of maltodextrin and sugars (over 90% maltodextrin).That means you will get the necessary fuel you need for your muscles without experiencing that “heaviness”, when taken pre-, during (“intra-“), or post-workout. Vitargo also has been researched to show that it replenishes glycogen stores 1.7 times faster than a maltodextrin plus sugars combo-again 2 hours after exhaustive exercise.

Glycogen is the body’s way of storing carbohydrates, like plants and grains store starch. It does this in muscles, and the liver and brain. This means you will be able to provide your body with the necessary fuel/energy replenishments needed for your next workout. In addition to all of these bonuses, Vitargo also increases the rate of blood sugar rise 2 times quicker compared to Maltodextrin and sugars.

So, what does all this mean? In order to get maximum results from your workout you need to be eating adequate amounts of macronutrients like carbohydrates, fats, and proteins every 3-4 hours in order to provide your body with the necessary energy and rebuilding components. You also, however, need to make sure that you are also giving your body the right supplements pre and post workout.

Because of the unique nature of Vitargo, you can drink it pre-workout to provide your muscles and your brain with the necessary fuel you need to make it through an intense workout. You can also mix it with your protein powder post workout to replenish your glycogen stores, support muscle repair, and promote faster recovery before the next time you dive into an intense workout.

Providing your body with the necessary fuel pre and post workout, can not only bring yourself one step closer to your fitness goals but also fuel your workouts, not “fool” them! Next time I’ll write about why many find it hard to train/work out while on a low carb or “keto” diet and how to use pulsed fueling tactics to have better workouts… and better results!