I often work out at night and drink high carb juice with supplements afterwards. I usually go to bed shortly thereafter. Will the slow my body down in burning fat?

To answer your question, I would say don't juice it up, especially if you want to lose weight. It's good to replace your glycogen stores after an intense workout, which is what I think you are trying to do and you have the right idea. The most recent research shows that eating protein immediately after a workout helps significantly with muscle recovery - that message doesn't get enough aire time.

If you want to lose weight, you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. Therefore, you want to make every calorie count - that is, get as many nutrients as possible by eating high quality food. Drinking juice is relatively high in calories and low on nutrients and fiber. People that want to lose weight should be eating fruit instead of drinking juice.

I have an unpopular view on supplements around here so I will not comment on that other than to say I didn't use them and had pretty good results.

I read in another of your posts that you were concerned about the amount of weight loss. A healthy weight loss would be in the neighborhood of 2 lbs per week. Much more than that and you are probably losing muscle as well, which is what you try to prevent by strength training and eating good food.

At the end of the day, what matters most is how many calories you have consumed vs how many you have burned. The reason that not eating within 3 hours of bed works from a weight loss perspective, is because if you are like many of us, you snacked at night and probably consumed hundreds if not thousands of calories watching TV. It has everything to do with eating fewer calories and little to do with eating before bed. Because of my workout schedule, I eat within an hour of bedtime every night and I am quite lean. Although, eating an hour before bed is not advised - we do the best we can with what we have.

Jim

This is always a tough call. The bottom line is really how hard you've worked out. If you have completely exhausted your body's glycogen stores and caused excessive microtrauma then yes, you should. But if you've in any way slacked off, or never crossed your anaerobic threshold during the workout then no, you should not.

I'll try and be brief. Jim's point on diet is correct for most of the time. But post exercise (and during) are the only times that juice becomes better than regular fruit. Fiber is a great thing, but not when you need quick replenishment of depleted blood glycogen. It interferes with the absorption process and every minute that you aren't recovering you are doing further damage to your muscles. It's shown that in a one-hour (give or take) window post exercise that a snack of easily digestable cals in a ratio of 4 parts carbs to 1 part protein can increase recovery 26% over carbs alone and up to 200% over eating nothing. This is the only time the simple carbs get the nod over complex carbs because time of replenishment is so critical. The necessity of glycogen replenishment has been know for ages but tests conducted in the early 90's and the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs showed the combined with 1 part protein for every 4 parts carbs kickstarted the process of muscle resynthesis, increasing recovery by a further 26%. Fat should not be consumed during this window, again because slows the process (keep in mind the slowing the digestive process is a good thing at all other times). This is also the best time for certain supplements, like creatine, because the body's ability to absorb nutrients increases by as much as 400%. This research has greatly improved athletes ability to recovery and almost on its own made nutrition more effective than steroids for recovery in sports like professional cycling. Drugs are still used, but it now tends to be performance enhancers like EPO that increase red blood cell count rather than steroids that help recovery. That how much this seemingly simple dietary strategy has changed things. While nature's way is a great strategy for overall health, we are able to improve upon it for human performance. After all, the general populace my be getting weaker and fatter, but modern athletes are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever.

Jim's point on protein is also valid, though glycogen replenishment takes precidence if exhausted. For excessive microtruama, waiting 30 minutes to one hour and then taking in more protein is effective (but it's too much at night in most cases and almost certainly in yours)

But...

Jim's point on calories can even be more valid, especially when you're trying to lose weight. In that case, a small scoop of protein powder to aid nighttime growth hormone release might be better.

So if you're completely hammered, as in your were failing during many sets and your muscles are shaking, then I'd do the 4:1 thing. I usually recommend half the dosage normal, so don't exceed 200 calories. Undigested carbs will be stored in adipose tissue (fat), so you want to make sure that you're going to quickly absorb those cals.

But if you don't feel it was that hard a workout and you still have some energy left, then I'd skip this and eat either nothing, or a small (under 100 cals) protein shake if you feel you need some nutrients. You sacrifice glycogen store replenishment, but if they aren't exhausted it's much less vital, but you'll still aid you nighttime recovery by getting some amino acids to help that already efficient rebuilding process that happens during sleep.

"Because of my workout schedule, I eat within an hour of bedtime every night and I am quite lean. Although, eating an hour before bed is not advised - we do the best we can with what we have."

This is a great comment. Do the best YOU CAN and you'll see results. You don't need to get everything perfect all the time, or even any of the time. Fitness is not black and white. Every step in the right direction is a good one.

Steve,

Thanks for pointing out the difference between eating post exercise and normally. I think I am implementing that idea right in this case - I always refrain from eating white rice and recommend against it. However, I could be called a hypocrite because I often eat sushi with white rice and eel (no mayo Denis) as a post workout snack after a heavy weight lifting session. I figure it is "no guilt processed grains" because the white rice will quickly replenish my glycogen and not have a negative affect. Am I stretching it?

Jim

I don't think you're stretching it at all. This may not be quite as effective for quick glycogen replenishment as something liquid but it's almost certainly quick enough to get you into the window of opportunity and probably more healthy overall, especially if you try and limit your overall calories. I'd say it's an excellent real food option.

What a great thread! Would it be ok to have a smoothie that consisted of 121.6 calories, 1.473 of protein, 27.83 carbs, .824 fat, 5.778 fiber after a 6-7pm workout? Also, would this be adequate for the 4:1 ratio of carbs and protein. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Megan

It would be better w/o the fiber, but that's still pretty good. The fiber slows down absorption.

Absorption of what exactly? Megan

Sugar. Read Fitness Advisor Steve's post above, the long one. It explains it perfecty.