Archive for the ‘Sports Nutrition’ Category

For many of us, drinking alcohol is a rare but enjoyable social activity and with the Christmas party season just about upon us what better reason do you need to enjoy a little tipple. However, excessive drinking over the festive period can have a negative effect in terms of your body composition and weight and here’s why.

As most of you will know alcohol is made from the yeast fermentation of different fruits or grains including grapes, hops, apples and barley. Spirits are distilled and contain no sugar, while beers and wines have various amounts of sugar still remaining. Alcoholic beverages contain almost no nutritional value other than sugar, but they do contain calories. The list below will give you an idea of the approximate calorific value of each drink.

1 pint of draught bitter – 172 kcal (2 units)
330 ml can of premium lager – 196 kcal (2-3 units)
I pint dry cider – 207 kcal (2 units)
1 pint sweet cider – 241 kcal (2 units)
1 brandy, gin run or whiskey – 56 kcal (1 unit)
1 125 ml glass of wine – 85-100 kcal (1 unit)
1 125ml glass of port – 196 kcal (1-2 units)

From the numbers above you can see how easy it could be to rack up a massive amount of excess calories by having a the odd few pints or glasses of wine and before you know it you could have an extra couple of pounds on board!

There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy alcohol in moderation. The Department Of Health recommends up to 4 units a day (or 28 per week) for men and 3 units a day (or 21 units a week) for women as a safe upper limit! The daily limits are intended to discourage binge-drinking which is even more hazardous to health.

What happens to alcohol once in the body?
When we drink alcohol, about 20% is absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach and the remainder through the small intestine. Most of the alcohol is then broken down in the liver (it cannot be stored as it is toxic). However, the liver can only carry out this job at a rate of approximately 1 unit of alcohol per hour. If you drink more alcohol than this, it is dealt with by a different enzyme system in the liver (MEO – microsomal ethanol oxidising system) to make it less toxic to the body. The more alcohol you drink on a regular basis, the more MEO enzymes are produced to deal with the increased levels of alcohol, which is why you can develop an increased tolerance to alcohol.

As we all know too much alcohol causes hangovers; headache, thirst, vomiting etc. These symptoms are partly due to dehydration and the swelling of the blood vessels in the head. Congeners, substances found mainly in darker alcoholic drinks such as red wine and rum, are also responsible for many of the hangover symptoms.

Research has shown that that alcohol drunk in moderation can reduce the risk of heart disease. The exact reason and mechanism for this is not certain. However scientists believe that this may be true because of the increased HDL cholesterol levels (the protective type of cholesterol in the blood). HDL transports cholesterol back to the liver for excretion, thereby reducing the risk of it sticking to artery walls.

Red wine, in particular, may be especially good for the heart. Studies have shown that drinking up to two glasses a day can lower heart disease by 30-70%. It contains ‘flavanoids’ from the grape skin, which have an antioxidant effect and help protect the LDL cholesterol from ‘free radical’ damage.

Remember prevention is better than cure, so make sure you follow sensible drinking guidelines over the coming festive period. If you feel like you’ve had too much to drink once you’ve returned home from your Christmas party (or parties!), remember to drink plenty of water or even a sports drink before you go to bed, at least 500ml/2-3 units. That way you’ll help increase blood sugar levels and dilute some of that alcohol floating about in your body. Avoid coffee or tea as these will make dehydration worse. Do not attempt to train (or race for that matter!!) with a hangover as you’ll be doing yourself no favours at all.

After all that please remember to enjoy yourself and have a wale of a ball!

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Blood cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fat like substance found throughout the body, and although cholesterol is an essential part of body cells, high levels are closely associated with heart disease. Heart disease results from a build up of fatty deposits on the walls of the arteries leading to the heart, causing the to narrow. High cholesterol levels can be inherited and passed on within families, but the problem is more commonly the result of dietary factors.
Most (about 75%) cholesterol is produced in the body. Only 25% comes from the diet, so it is not essential in the diet. Dietary cholesterol can raise blood cholesterol, but not to the same extent that saturated fat can, as we will mention below. Rich sources of dietary cholesterol include; offal, pate, egg yolks, fish roes, mayonnaise, shellfish, as well as red meat and dairy products.

How the body metabolises fat
In order to understand the relationship between dietary fats and heart disease we need to look at how fat is metabolised in the body.

Fats (or lipids), circulate in the blood as particles called lipoproteins.

Low density lipoproteins (LDL’s)
Contain most of the cholesterol in the blood, LDL cholesterol makes up the fatty deposits on the artery walls, clogging them up, which can eventually lead to a heart attack or stroke. It is often termed ‘bad’ cholesterol. Eating a diet high in saturated fat can lead to a rise in LDL cholesterol.

High density lipoproteins (HDL’s)
Also carry cholesterol but are mainly involved in taking it from sites where too much has accumulated, to the liver for disposal. HDL cholesterol is often referred to as ‘good’ cholesterol, so the more you have of this the better. HDL levels can be raised by stopping smoking, eating a diet low in saturated fat, and taking regular exercise.

Dietary Fats
Fat in foods is made up of varying amounts of different fatty acids. There are three main types of fat; saturates, mono-unsaturates and polyunsaturates. It is the overall balance of these in the diet as a whole that is important.

Saturated fatty acids
Saturated fats include fats which tend to be hard at room temperature e.g. butter, lard. An excessive amount of saturated fat in diets tends to raise the level of LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol in the blood which increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Saturates are found mainly in;
• Full fat dairy products including full fat milk, hard cheese, full fat yoghurt, cream.
• Fatty meats and meat products e.g. sausages, meat pies.
• Savoury snacks.
• Confectionary; cakes, biscuits and chocolate.
• Butter, lard, some fat spreads, some vegetable oils, especially palm and coconut oil.

Cis and trans fatty acids
Unsaturated fatty acids can also be termed ‘cis’ or ‘trans’.
A cis fatty acid is a natural fatty acid that one would find in a good quality cold pressed olive oil. In the unheated state, this oil is very beneficial to health.

A trans fatty acid is an unnatural fatty acid as found in hydrogenated margarines. This fat is not beneficial to health. A cis fatty acid can be converted to a trans fatty acid through the process of heating or hydrogenation (manufacturing process used to convert liquid oils into solid oils as seen in the manufacture of margarine).

Mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA’s)
Rich sources of MUFA’s include some vegetable oils (olive & rapeseed and fat spreads made from them. MUFA’s are also found in nuts seeds and meat.

Recent studies have shown that MUFA’s are effective at lowering LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol, without also lowering HDL (‘good’) cholesterol, when eaten in place of saturates. In Mediterranean countries, where the rate of heart disease is low although the diet is quite high in fat, this is mainly from olive oil, rich in MUFA’s. In addition, people living in these countries eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables which are high in antioxidant vitamins. It may be that this combination of factors helps protect these populations from heart disease.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s)
There are two main groups of PUFA’s, and small amounts of PUFA’s are essential in the diet as our bodies cannot produce them.

Sources of PUFA’s include vegetable oils such as sunflower, soya and corn oil, some nuts, seeds and meat. Many studies have shown that such PUFA’s are effective at lowering LDL cholesterol when substituted for saturates. At high intakes, they may also lower HDL cholesterol.

The other group of PUFA’s are found in oil-rich fish, including herring mackerel, salmon, trout, pilchards and sardines. There is evidence that increasing dietary intakes of oil-rich fish can reduce the risk of death from heart disease in people who have already had one heart attack. It may be that eating more oil-rich fish can help reduce the risk of a first heart attack too, so try to eat some oil-rich fish at least once a week.

Eating for a healthy heart

1. Lower saturated fat intake – choose low fat varieties of milk and dairy products. Cut all visible fat off meat before cooking. Choose lean meat, poultry, fish and beans/pulses. Use fat spreads sparingly. Choose bread muffins, scones, tea cakes, and fruit as snacks instead of fancy cakes or Danish pastries.

2. When you do use fat in cooking – try to choose an unsaturated oil (sunflower, olive, soya or rapeseed), and only use small amounts. All fats are fattening so use sparingly.

3. Try to increase your intake of oil-rich fish (salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines or trout) to at least once a week.

4. Keep your intake of trans fats low by using all fat spreads sparingly(low fat spreads tend to have less trans fats than fuller fat products), limit your intake of biscuits and cakes, choose scones, muffins, currant buns or fresh fruit as alternative snacks. Check food nutritional information labels for ‘partially hydrogenated vegetable oils’ or ‘hydrogenated vegetable oils’. If this appears near the top of the ingredients list the food will contain some trans fats.

5. Increase your fibre intake by eating a variety of fruit and vegetables every day including; some beans, peas, oats and lentils regularly in your diet.

Starchy high fibre foods provide energy, B Vitamins and fibre. Try to eat more bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and noodles by basing your meals on these foods. This will help to switch the emphasis away from fatty foods.

The higher your carbohydrate intake, the faster you can refuel your glycogen stores. This is particularly important if you train on a daily basis. It makes sense that if you train on a daily basis you need to have the necessary muscle glycogen to support your efforts over successive days. Failure to achieve glycogen refuelling will soon lead to fatigue and smaller training gains.

Efficiency in refuelling improves automatically with training experience and raised fitness levels. Thus, it takes a beginner longer to replace his glycogen stores than an experienced athlete eating the same amount of food. Another adaptation to training is an increase in your glycogen storing capacity, perhaps by up to 20%.

The best time to start re-fuelling is as soon as possible after exercise, as glycogen storage is faster during this post exercise ‘window’ than at any other time. During the first 2 hours immediately after exercise as glycogen storage is faster during this post-exercise window than at any other time as muscle cell membranes are more permeable to glucose so they can take up more glucose than normal.

Most recommend consuming 1g/Kg body weight during the 2 hour post exercise period. So for example, if you weigh 75kg you need to consume 75g of carbohydrate within 2 hours of exercise. Even if you finish training late in the evening, you still need to start the re-fuelling process, so don’t go to bed on an empty stomach. For efficient glycogen refuelling, you should continue to eat at least 50g carbohydrate every 2 hours until your next main meal. Therefore plan your meals and snacks at regular intervals. If you leave long gaps without eating, glycogen storage and recovery will be slower.

Which foods are best for recovery?
Since you want to get glucose into your muscle cells fast, choose carbohydrates with a moderate or high GI. Researchers suggest that it makes no difference to the glycogen storage rate if you consume liquid or solid forms of carbohydrate; however combining carbohydrate with protein has been shown to be more effective in promoting glycogen recovery than carbohydrate alone.

Post exercise snacks (To be eaten within 2 hours after exercise)

A meal replacement shake
1-2 portions of fruit with a milk drink.
1 or 2 cartons of yoghurt.
Smoothie.
Home-made milkshake.
A sports bar containing carbohydrate & protein.
A sandwich/roll/bagel filled with lean protein – tuna, chicken, egg, cottage cheese.
A handful of dried fruit & nuts.
A few rice cakes with jam, peanut butter or cottage cheese on.
A bowl of whole-grain cereal and milk.
A bowl of porridge made with milk.
Jacket potato with tuna, baked beans or cottage cheese.

Happy Training!!

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For activities lasting less than an hour, drinking anything other than water is unnecessary. However, if you are exercising for more than 60 minutes at moderate-high intensity (equivalent to >70% VO2 max), consuming carbohydrate during your activity can help delay fatigue and enable you to perform at a higher intensity. It may also help you to continue exercising when your muscle glycogen stores are depleted.

During the first hour of exercise, most of your carbohydrate energy comes from muscle glycogen. After that, muscle glycogen stores dwindle quite significantly, so the exercising muscles must use carbohydrate from another source. That’s where blood sugar (glucose) comes into it’s own. As you continue exercising hard, the muscles take up more and more glucose from the bloodstream. Eventually after 2-3 hours, your muscles will be fuelled entirely by blood glucose and fat.

Sounds good doesn’t it? However, you cannot keep going indefinatley because blood glucose supplies eventually dwindle. This is why ‘hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) is common after 2-3 hours of exercise without consuming carbohydrate. In this state you’d feel very fatigued and light headed, your muscles will feel very heavy and exercise would feel very hard indeed. In other words the depletion of muscle glycogen and liver glycogen, together with low blood sugar levels would cause you to reduce exercise intensity or stop completely. This can also be defined as ‘hitting the wall’ which is very common in marathon running.

Clearly, consuming additional carbohydrate would maintain your blood glucose levels and allow you to exercise longer.

How much carbohydrate?
An intake or around 30-60 g of carbohydrate an hour is recommended during exercise lasting more than 1 hour as this figure matches the maximum amount of carbohydrate that can be taken up by the muscles from your bloodstream during aerobic exercise. Consuming more carbohydrate will not improve you energy output nor reduce fatigue.

It is important to begin consuming carbohydrate before fatigue sets in. Research suggests that it takes at least 30 minutes for the carbohydrate to be absorbed into the blood stream. The best strategy is to begin consuming carbohydrate soon after the start of your workout, certainly within the first 30 minutes.

While consuming carbohydrate during exercise can delay fatigue, perhaps by up to 45 minutes, it will not allow you to keep exercising hard indefinitely. Eventually other factors other than carbohydrate supply will cause fatigue.

Which foods or drinks are best?
It makes sense that the carbohydrate you consume during exercise should be easily digested and absorbed. You need it to raise your blood sugar level and reach your exercising muscles rapidly. Thus, high or moderate GI carbohydrates (CHO) are generally the best choices.

Whether you choose solid or liquid carbohydrate makes little difference to your performance, provided you drink water with solid carbohydrate. Most of us will probably find liquid forms of carbohydrate are more convenient.

Carbohydrate-containing drinks have a dual benefit because they provide fluid as well as fuel, which reduces dehydration and fatigue. If you prefer to consume food as well as drinks during exercise, energy or sports nutrition bars, sports gels, ripe bananas, raisins or fruit bars are all suitable. Remember to drink some water at the same time. Whether you choose liquid or solid carbohydrate, aim to consume at least 1 litre of fluid per hour.

Suitable foods and drinks to consume during exercise
Isotonic Sports Drink – 500ml = 30g CHO – 1000ml = 60g CHO
Energy Bar – ½ to 1 bar = 30g CHO – 1-2 bars = 60g CHO
Diluted fruit juice - 500ml = 30g CHO – 1000ml = 60g CHO
Raisins or sultanas – 1 handful = 40g – 2 handfuls 80g
Cereal or breakfast bar - 1 bar = 30g CHO – 2 bars = 60g CHO
Energy gel – 1 sachet = 30g CHO – 2 sachets = 60g CHO
Bananas - 1-2 bananas = 30g CHO – 2-3 bananas = 60g CHO

Happy Training!!

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Whether to eat high or low GI foods has always been a controversial area as many experts recommend a low GI meal based on the idea that such a meal would supply sustained energy during exercise.
Remember that you can make a low GI meal either by eating carbohydrate foods with a low glycaemic index – apples, oranges, milk or yoghurt – or by eating carbohydrate with protein and/or health fat – cereal with milk, chicken sandwich, and baked potato with cheese.

Most low GI meals produce higher blood sugar and fatty acid levels during the latter stages of exercise, which is clearly an advantage for any endurance sports. In other words, the low GI meals produce a sustained source of carbohydrate throughout exercise and recovery.

Sample Pre Workout Meals (2-4 Hrs Before Exercise)
1. Brown/wholemeal sandwich/roll/bagel/wrap filled with chicken, fish, cheese, egg, or peanut butter and salad
2. Jacket potato with beans, cheese, tuna, coleslaw or chicken
3. Pasta with tomato-based pasta sauce with cheese and vegetables
4. Chicken with rice and salad
5. Vegetable and prawn stir fry with noodles or rice
6. Chicken and vegetable casserole with potatoes
7. Porridge made with milk
8. Wholegrain cereal (bran or wheat flakes, muesli or wheetabix) with milk or yoghurt

Pre Workout Snacks (1-2 Hrs Before Exercise
1. Fresh fruit
2. Dried apricots, dates or raisins
3. Smoothie(Home or ready made)
4. Yoghurt
5. Energy or nutrition bar
6. Cereal bar or breakfast bar
7. Fruit loaf
8. Diluted fruit juice

What you should also consider is the timing of your pre-exercise meal. High GI foods are more ‘risky’ to your performance. Get the timing wrong and you may be starting exercise with mild hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). Remember they produce a rapid rise in blood sugar, and in some people, a short-lived dip afterwards. The safest strategy may be to stick with low GI foods pre-exercise.

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Remember last time when I talked about the Glycaemic Index (GI), well here’s the next instalment, on how the GI can help your performance. A very simple theory, but one that with a little planning could benefit your training and racing massively.

While the GI concept was originally developed to help diabetics control their blood sugar levels, it can also benefit everyone else too. In particular, it can be used to help people manage their weight but more importantly for us ‘sports people’, potentially improve our performance.

The key to efficient glycogen refuelling (energy to the muscles) is to maintain steady levels of blood glucose and insulin. When glucose levels are high (for example, after consuming high GI foods), large amounts of insulin are produced, which shunts the excess glucose into fat cells and stored as fat. But it is the combined effect of a large amount of carbohydrate as well as the food’s GI value that really matters. This is called the glycaemic load. A high glycaemic load can result from eating large quantities of any carbohydrate or moderate amounts of high GI foods. This produces a large surge in blood glucose and insulin.

Conversely, eating small amounts of any carbohydrate or low GI foods produces a low glycaemic ‘load’. This results in a small yet sustained rise in blood glucose.

So to optimise glycogen storage and minimise fat storage, aim to achieve a small or moderate glycaemic load, eat little and often and avoid overloading on carbohydrates, and stick to balanced combinations of carbohydrate, protein and healthy fat.

There’s no real need to cut out high GI foods all together. The key is to eat them with protein and/or a little healthy fat. Combining your carbohydrates with you protein (and healthy fat) results in steadier insulin levels and less fat storage. For example, have a baked potato (high GI) with a little cheese or tuna (low GI foods). Both the protein and fat put a brake on the digestive process, slowing down the release of glucose.

I always aim to have breakfast, a reasonable size snack mid-morning, lunch, healthy mid-afternoon snacks and an evening meal. The types of foods I eat in each of these meals may differ slightly depending on the days schedule, however my main aim is the same every day, which is never to feel incredibly hungry and to graze my way throughout the day.

Next time when I talk nutrition we’ll take a look at what the best foods are to eat before, during and after exercise.

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Have you ever really thought about what effect the foods you eat have on your blood sugar levels? Do you ever remember feeling sleepy after your lunchtime baguette, or feeling like your tank is empty whilst training? Looking at what you eat and when you eat it could help prevent such issues. Ever heard of the Glycaemic Index (GI) and wondered what it’s all about? Well, here’s the lowdown.

To describe more accurately the effect different foods have on your blood sugar levels, scientists developed the Glycaemic Index (GI). It is a ranking of foods from 0 to 100 based on their immediate effect on blood sugar levels, a measure of the speed at which you digest food and convert it into glucose. The faster the rise in blood glucose, the higher the rating on the index. The GI of foods is very useful to know as it tells you how the body responds to them. If you need to get carbohydrates into your bloodstream and muscle cells quickly, for example immediately after exercise to kick start glycogen replacement, you would choose high GI foods.

The GI of a food is worked out by the amount of food containing 50g of carbohydrate. For example, to test baked potatoes you would eat 250g potatoes, which contain 50g carbohydrate. Over the next couple of hours a sample of blood is taken every 15 minutes and the blood sugar level measured. These figures are then plotted on a graph via a PC programme and compared with the reference food (glucose)and a GI figure for the food is then given. The GI of baked potatoes is 85, which means that eating baked potatoes produces a rise in blood sugar which is 85% as great as that produced after eating an equivalent amount of glucose.

The GI of more than 600 foods is known so for me to list them all would take forever, however I have listed a few below. Even the GI values of the food may differ slightly on the various GI tables available, but the food type should still be within the same GI category (low, medium or high).

Most values lie somewhere between 20 and 100 and most people find it more useful to classify foods as High GI (60-100), medium GI (40-59) and low GI (less than 40). This simply makes it easier to select the appropriate food before, during and after exercise.

In a nutshell, the higher the GI the higher the blood sugar levels after eating that food. In general, refined starchy foods including potatoes, white rice and white bread, as well as sugary foods such as soft drinks and biscuits are high on the glycaemic index. For example, baked potatoes (GI 85) and white rice (GI 87) produce a rise in blood sugar almost the same as eating pure glucose!! Less refined starchy foods like porridge, beans, lentils, muesli, as well as fruit and dairy products are lower on the glycaemic index. They produce a much smaller rise in blood sugar compared with glucose.

The effect on blood glucose from a high versus low glycemic index carbohydrate

Foods only appear on the GI index if they contain carbohydrate. This explains why you won’t find foods like fresh meat, chicken, fish, eggs and cheese in GI lists. However, you may find some processed foods like sausages or chicken nuggets in a GI list because they contain flour!

Low Glycaemic Index foods (55 or less)
Include some of these foods in each meal or snack, but go for low-fat choices where possible, such as skimmed milk. If you want to lose weight, you’ll also need to watch your portion sizes. That means sticking to small servings of pasta and noodles, limiting yourself to two slices of bread with a meal, and having only a couple of squares of chocolate or a small handful of peanuts!

Low GI Foods

Roasted and salted peanuts-14
Low-fat yoghurt with sweetener-14
Cherries-22
Grapefruit-25
Pearl barley-25
Red lentils-26
Whole milk-27
Dried apricots-31
Butter beans-31
Fettucine pasta-32
Skimmed milk-32
Low-fat fruit yoghurt-33
Wholemeal spaghetti-37
Apples-38
Pears-38
Tomato soup, canned-38
Apple juice, unsweetened-40
Noodles-40
White spaghetti-41
All Bran-42
Chick peas, canned-42
Peaches-42
Porridge made with water-42
Lentil soup-44
Oranges-44
Macaroni-45
Green grapes-46
Orange juice-46
Peas-48
Baked beans in tomato sauce-48
Carrots, boiled-49
Milk chocolate-49
Kiwi fruit-52
Stoneground wholemeal bread-53
Crisps-54
Special K-54
Banana-55
Raw oatbran-55
Sweetcorn-55

Medium Glycaemic Index foods (56 to 69)
You may include a few of these foods each day, but again limit portion sizes if you want to lose weight.
Moderate GI Foods

Muesli, non toasted-56
Boiled potatoes-56
Sultanas-56
Pitta bread-57
Basmati Rice-58
Honey-58
Digestive biscuit-59
Cheese and tomato pizza-60
Ice cream-61
New potatoes-62
Coca cola-63
Apricots, canned in syrup-64
Raisins-64
Shortbread biscuit-64
Couscous-65
Rye bread-65
Pineapple, fresh-66
Cantaloupe melon-67
Croissant-67
Shredded wheat-67
Mars bar-68
Ryvita-69
Crumpet, toasted-69
Weetabix-69
Wholemeal bread-69

High Glycaemic Index foods (70 or more)
Swap these foods for those with a low GI value or eat them together with a low GI food. Having a jacket potato with baked beans, for example, will lower the GI value of that whole meal.

High GI Foods

Mashed potato-70
White bread-70
Watermelon-72
Swede-72
Bagel-72
Branflakes-74
Cheerios-74
French fries-75
Coco Pops-77
Jelly beans-80
Rice cakes-82
Rice Krispies-82
Cornflakes-82
Jacket potato-85
Puffed wheat-89
Baguette-95
Parsnips, boiled-97
White rice, steamed-98

Next time we’ll have a look at how the GI can help your performance.

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It’s a familiar scenario - you train three, four or five times a week and watch what you eat yet you feel you have less energy as well as carrying an extra few pounds.

Have you ever thought your metabolism, your calorie burning furnace, could be stuck on low? Especially if you’re older than 30 years, after which your metabolism begins to drop about one percent per year. You don’t have to take this lying down; you can fight back, as you can boost your metabolism in several ways.

Your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. It is broken down into three main burners;

Basal Metabolism
Sometimes called your resting metabolism, is the largest burner. It accounts for about 60 percent of the calories you expend each day. You burn these calories simply to exist, including when you’re sleeping.

Activity Metabolism
Is the second burner and makes up about 30 percent of your daily calorie burn. These are calories you burn during swimming, biking and running, as well as other activities such as sweeping the floor, walking upstairs or mowing the lawn.

Thermic Metabolism
Is the final burner and accounts for the calories you expend digesting food and since certain foods take more energy (calories) to digest, you’ll want to emphasise them whenever possible.

If you work it right a good metabolism boosting programme will turn on the heat on all three burners. Best of all, a few simple changes to your training routine and eating habits will have you on your way to becoming a leaner and faster athlete!

Run Fast
Adding speed sessions to your programme is one of the best ways to crank up your metabolism. Hard running burns lots of calories (activity metabolism) and comes with an after burn dividend (raised basal metabolism), but it has to be hard. Metabolism can remain elevated for at least a couple of hours after a session, assuming the session was somewhat ‘taxing’. These hard sessions are best completed once you’ve established a good period of longer slower base running but will incinerate calories and rev up your metabolism in the process. Some example workouts ( once a week) could be six to eight 400’s at your best one-mile pace; four or five 800’s at 5k race pace or three or four mile repetitions at 10k race pace.

Train Twice
It may sound somewhat over the top if you’re not a serious competitive racer, but twice day training can be very rewarding. It’ll raise your metabolism for extended periods of time thanks to two after burn peaks during the day not to mention the fact that you’ll burn more calories because of the extra exercise. Try to mix a morning swim session with either a run or bike session in the evening. Make sure you eat and drink steadily throughout the day to ensure you’re energised and hydrated.

Seek Protein
Protein generally takes longer to digest, meaning you’re burning more calories while your body is breaking it down. Try to eat some protein every meal and snack time. It doesn’t have to be a steak or chicken breast, it could be poached eggs for breakfast, or cottage cheese or low fact yoghurt instead of white breads. This will increase your thermic metabolism by up to a third during the day.

High Fibre All Year Round
Just like protein, high-fibre foods increase thermic metabolism because the fibre slows digestion, resulting in a higher calorie burn rate. Healthy high-fibre foods to eat throughout the day include beans, fresh fruits and vegetables and whole-grain breads and pastas.
Stay Fluid
Dehydration slows your thermic metabolism because your stomach needs water to digest food. It also causes fatigue, which will definitely hamper your activity metabolism. Try for at least eight glasses of water a day.

Eat Early and Often
Skipping breakfast further decreases your thermic metabolism which is already low because you haven’t eaten since the night before. It also tends to slow your activity metabolism because you have less energy, making you more likely to use a lift instead of stairs. A good breakfast should include protein, carbohydrates and some fat, and contain enough calories to keep hunger at bay until your mid morning snack.

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Throughout my days as a Personal Trainer I’d be often asked the question ‘Does exercise first thing in the morning burn more body fat?’.

This is an interesting question that not only effects those just interested in fitness but more so us, as multi-sport athletes, as most of us try to sneak a morning session in before our daily chores, but perhaps don’t understand the possible negative effects.

Fair enough, if fat loss is your main goal, exercising on an empty stomach, such as first thing in the morning, may encourage your body to burn slightly more fat for fuel. Research suggests that insulin levels are at their lowest and glycogen levels are at their highest after an overnight fast. This increases the amount of fat that leaves your fat cells and travels to your muscles, where the fat is burned. On the downside, you may fatigue sooner or drop your exercise intensity and therefore end up burning fewer calories, and less body fat.

This is where it gets interesting. More often than not as multi-sport athletes performance is our main goal. Exercising in a fasted state will almost certainly reduce your endurance. The same goes if muscular endurance type strength work is an important element in your training because after an overnight fast, when muscle glycogen and blood glucose levels are low, your muscles will burn more protein for fuel. So you could end up losing hard earned muscle.

The solution to this problem for us multi-sport athletes is simple. Try to consume a light meal before training. If you can’t fit a meal in due to timescales, at least take on board a cereal type bar and a sports drink of some description. Remember my post on race day breakfast?

For me, I have to eat something before exercise in the morning regardless of the type of training session. Even if time is tight I try to have a piece of fruit before dashing out for a run. I accept that an individual’s needs and gastrointestinal abilities are different but if you can, try to eat as you’ll most definitely feel the benefit.

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Following on from my post last week on Understanding Energy, here’s ‘Part 2′, which explains the main energy sources, where they are stored and which is best.

Foods are made of different amounts of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and alcohol. Each of these nutrients provides a certain quantity of energy when it is broken down in the body. For instance, 1g of carbohydrate or protein releases about 4 kcal of energy, while 1g of fat releases 9 kcal, and 1g of alcohol releases 7kcal.

Fat is the most concentrated form of energy, providing the body with more than twice as much energy as carbohydrate or protein and also more than alcohol. However, it is not necessarily the ‘best’ form of energy for exercise. All foods contain a mixture of nutrients, and the energy value of a particular food depends on the amount carbohydrate, fat and protein it contains. For example, one slice of wholemeal brown bread provides roughly the same amount of energy as one pat (7g) of butter. However their composition is very different. In bread, most energy (75%) comes from carbohydrate, while in butter, virtually all (99.7%) comes from fat.

How does my body store carbohydrate?
Carbohydrate is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver, along with about three times its own weight in water. Altogether there is about three times more glycogen stored in the muscles than the liver. The body can only store a relatively small amount of glycogen. The total store of glycogen in the average body amounts to about 500g; with approx 400g in the muscles and 100g I the liver. This store is equivalent to 1600-2000 kcal; enough to last one day if you were to eat nothing. Endurance athletes have higher muscle glycogen concentrations compared with sedentary people. Increasing your muscle mass will also increase your storage capacity for glycogen. The purpose of liver glycogen is to maintain blood glucose levels at rest and during prolonged exercise. Small amounts of glucose are present in the blood and in the brain and their concentrations are kept within a very narrow range, both at rest or during exercise.

How does my body store fat?
Fat is stored as ‘adipose’ (fat) tissue in almost every region of the body. A small amount of fat, about 300-400g is stored in muscles and is called intramuscular fat, but the majority is stored around the organs and beneath the skin. The average 70kg person stores 10-15kg of fat. Unfortunately, there is little you can do to change the way that your body distributes fat, but definitely change the amount of fat that is stored!!

How does my body store protein?
Protein is not stored in the same way as carbohydrate and fat. It forms muscle and organ tissue, so it is mainly used as a building material rather than an energy store. However, proteins can be broken down to release energy if need be, so muscles and organs represent a large source of potential energy.

Which fuels are most important for exercise?
Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are all capable of providing energy for exercise. They can all be transported to, and broken down in, muscle cells. Alcohol, however cannot be used directly by muscles for energy during exercise, no matter how strenuously you are working. Only the liver has specific enzymes needed to break down alcohol. You cannot break down alcohol faster by exercising harder either.
Proteins do not make a substantial contribution to the fuel mixture. It is only during very prolonged or very intense bouts of exercise that proteins play a more important role in giving the body energy.
The production of ATP during most fors of exercise come mainly from broken down carbohydrates and fats.

When is protein used for energy?
Protein is not usually a major source of energy, but it may play an important role during the latter stages of very strenuous or prolonged exercise as glycogen stores become depleted. For example, during the last stages of an Olympic distance event, or Ironman, when glycogen stores are depleted, the proteins in muscles (and organs) may make up 10% of the body’s fuel mixture.

In future posts I intend to cover related topics such as why fatigue occurs, how it can be delayed and how you can get more out of your training by changing your diet.

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