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!

Keep It Simple

For your diet to succeed, keep it as simple as possible. According to researchers:

For people on a more complex diet that involves keeping track of quantities and items eaten, their subjective impression of the difficulty of the diet can lead them to give up on it," reported Peter Todd, professor in IU's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

Jutta Mata, now a professor of psychology at Stanford University, said this effect holds even after controlling for the influence of important social-cognitive factors including self-efficacy, the belief that one is capable of achieving a goal like sticking to a diet regimen to control one's weight.

"Even if you believe you can succeed, thinking that the diet is cognitively complex can undermine your efforts," she said.

(Source: BoingBoing)

I found even the P90X Nutrition Plan (which ain't exactly rocket science) to be too difficult to follow, so I made up my own rules. There are five of 'em:

• Eat small, frequent meals each day -- slowly.
• Eat more protein and vegetables.
• Earn your carbs: Eat them only after working out.
• Be mindful of portion sizes.
• If you're going to make an exception to your diet, make sure the food/experience is worth it.

Good Eats

My P90X Nutrition Plan book's been sitting in my work bag for weeks. Since early in Phase 1, I've ignored the Nutrition Plan, preferring instead to go by my own (somewhat haphazardly collected) rules of eating. So it surprises me that a number of you have asked what I've been ingesting during my first round of P90X -- are you not yet aware that I have no idea what I'm doing?

If you're really interested in what I've been shoveling down my throat, click below for the utterly non-fascinating details.