Author: Jonathan Wong, Singapore Personal Trainer And Fitness Expert
Know Your Meal Timing
As a personal trainer in Singapore, I know there are several issues related to meal timing and timing of eating certain foods. There are good times to eat certain foods and there are times when that same food will make you tubby.
When should be eat?
First off, when should we eat? I tell my clients who hire me for personal
training in Singapore that the answer is often.
That's part of good meal timing. This is well known. Constant feeding (every 2-3 hours) keeps your blood sugar levels constant. It also means you won’t be eating massive meals at any time.
That means no overboard insulin levels and the fat storage that comes along with it. I can assure you that constant blood sugar makes you feel good.
No more post lunch drowsiness
No more super hungry feelings between that early breakfast and that late lunch
If you eat every few hours, these will be gone for good. The other advantage of eating often is that you get to keep muscle because having good meal timings tells your body that there is plenty of food so there is no need to break down your hard earned muscles for energy.
One of the key misconceptions that dieters have is that when we are feeling hungry and starving ourselves, our body is melting away the fats that we have. This is terribly wrong.
In fact what the body is doing is stripping away our muscles because muscles need calories to maintain. The body is very resistant to losing fat (sad huh…) It prefers to keep fat to stay alive just in case an extreme survival situation comes up (lost in jungle, stranded on a desert island) on the other hand, muscle reduces the chance of survival because it uses extra calories and therefore it’s the first to go.
As a personal trainer in Singapore (just as in any developed country) it is obvious that today, those extreme circumstances are far less threatening that the health problems relater to being overweight and unfit. So keeping muscle and losing fat is what we want to do.
Constant feeding lets the body know that there is plenty of food to stay alive with and allows the body to keep muscle. The result of crash diets where people eat next to nothing is what is called “skinny-fat”. You look thin but are actually soft, weak and have a high body fat percentage.
Peri Workout NutritionThe second important timing to take note of is “peri-workout” nutrition. Peri means “around” so the feedings around your training times are especially important as well.
Eating whole grains before training helps fuel your workouts. Adding protein to this pre workout meal puts you on the recovery fast track because just as your training is done, your body is done digesting the protein and its ready to build muscles immediately.
Eating starchy carbohydrates and protein after the training session refills muscle glycogen and the added protein also aids recovery. These same starchy carbohydrates simply get stored as fat if we eat them during other times of the day.
So it's not just what you eat, but when you eat it! Get the meal timings down and see yourself get closer to your fitness and health goals.
Written For www.CoachJon.com Singapore Personal Trainer & Fitness Expert