Post-Workout Carbs?

You know how the P90X Nutrition Guide tells you to ingest a relatively high-carb drink or meal immediately after your workout to boost your recovery?

This concept's already been disavowed by Mark Sisson -- the guy who created the P90X Recovery Drink -- and now, a group of scientists are backing him up, having concluded that low-carb post-workout meals are better at boosting your metabolism, energy level, and general health.

After a round of aerobic (active movement) exercise, eating a lower-carb meal helps the body store sugar from your bloodstream in muscles and other tissues, making more energy available for your life, and your next exercise, if you're fairly regular about it. The side benefit is a generally improved metabolism, and a means of helping avoid insulin insensitivity, a pre-condition that often leads to diabetes.

As part of a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers fed one of three meals to test subjects after 90 minutes of exercise on a treadmill or stationary bike. One was relatively balanced between carbohydrates, protein, and fat, and had a moderate amount of calories. One was otherwise balanced, but scaled back on the carbs. A final meal was lower-calorie, but had a higher amount of carbs. The results:

In all three exercise sessions, researchers say there was a trend for an increase in insulin sensitivity. But when the participants ate the low-carbohydrate meal following exercise, it increased their insulin sensitivity even more.

In your FACE, P90X Nutrition Guide!