Leyla Weighs In: Nutrition and Sleep

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Leyla Muedin (1:25)

Welcome to Leyla Ways In. I'm your host, Leyla Muedin. I'm a registered dietitian nutritionist here in New York City.

I'm available. I'm taking new clients if you're interested. 212-779-1744. 212-779-1744. I'm available in person here in New York City via telephone and via telehealth. And if you'd like to email me questions that you would like to hear me weigh in on, on this podcast, that email is questions at drhoffman.net. That's questions at drhoffman.net.

I've got a question here from Aliza.

Dear Leyla, in a recent email newsletter article, you answered the above question and that article is, what should I eat after a workout? Aliza says, you explained why eating carbs after a workout is not the best choice. You said, quote, what is the point of your exercise other than to burn carbohydrate and then store it back again, end quote. Indeed, that is what I said. Aliza says, well, not all exercises are for burning fat. Sometimes a person exercises to build muscle and bones. Would you say that eating carbs after these types of exercises also defeat the purpose? When is the best time of day to eat carbs? Aliza, thank you so much for e-mailing me this very thoughtful question. Here's the thing, and I'm going to go back to my article for a moment. If you've not already read it, go to drhoffman.com, you'll see the articles there, the Intelligent Medicine Newsletter Articles are posted to the drhoffman.com website. So take a look at it there, and it's called Post-Exercise Nutrition.

Somebody was asking, I exercise first thing in the morning, what should I have after a smoothie, a banana? I said, after quenching your thirst with water, don't have anything sweet because exercising on an empty stomach affords you the benefit of low baseline insulin, mostly from the overnight fast, and further bolstered by morning exercise.

Exercise makes cells more sensitive to insulin, thereby removing it from circulation. And then this allows glucagon, the fat-burning hormone, to come out and get to work. And this can only occur when insulin is low.

Now, by choosing something sweet, like a smoothie, a fruit smoothie, or a banana, and you know, a medium banana contains a whopping 27 grams of carbs. Or other carb-rich option, like a flavored yogurt, yogurt cereal, or a flavored protein shake, as your post-exercise meal, you're causing a rise in blood sugar that will subsequently produce a rise in insulin, and that puts you right back in fat storage mode. Why would you do that, all that beautiful exercise? Now, to get to Aliza's question, sometimes a person exercises to build muscles and bones. Would you say that eating carbs after these types of exercises also defeats the purpose? Yes, because not only is insulin lowered, keeping you in fat burning, and that's not your point, Aliza, you want to build muscles and bones. That exercise, that beautiful exercise you just completed, beckons the production of human growth hormone.

That human growth hormone helps you to build the strong muscles and bones, in addition to the protein in your meal. However, that human growth hormone is blunted by an insulin spike caused by the high carb meal. So, Elisa, yes, you still don't want to have so much carbohydrate after exercise because it will blunt your human growth hormone, and you need that. It's anabolic. It helps to restore muscles. It helps to build bones, all of that. But as soon as we have sugar and insulin rises, that human growth hormone production is then blunted. So Elisa is then asking, when is the best time of day to have carbs? I would say in the evening with dinner or the time of day. I'm assuming you're a morning exerciser, which is the best time to exercise. But hey, I get it. Many of you, you hate exercise in the morning. You're not morning people. I understand. Maybe you exercise later in the day. Maybe you exercise before dinner. That's fine too. It kind of depends on when you're exercising, when you should have the carbohydrate. I would say have the carbohydrates at least three to four hours after.