Taking on Time: Why Exercise Really IS Important (Part 2 of 2) - By: Jason Yun

John Cloud's article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin", has angered a lot of people including me. Exercise is needed and this article is going to tell you why.

This week I’m going to tackle the remaining points of Mr. Cloud’s argument claiming that those looking to lose weight need not consider exercise, an opinion that has angered a lot of fitness professionals.

4. Eating after a workout is bad because it negates the calories burned during the workout.

In the article, Mr. Cloud makes reference to people who exercise regularly and think it’s ok to eat whatever they want after they workout because they “earned it." This, unfortunately, is the mindset of a lot of people and causes them not to lose any wieght. Eating after your workout is important to your success and, in my opinion, the second most important meal of the day.

When you finish a hard workout, your body and its muscles’ glycogen levels are depleted. Glycogen is where your body stores carbohydrates to be used as energy. After a workout, your glycogen levels and amino acid (protein) levels need to be restored, and quickly! You have about a 60-minute window to replenish these glycogen and amino acid stores. If you don’t, your body has to work extra hard to return to pre-workout levels, which means less fat is burned at rest, less lean muscle tissue is built and repaired – leading to a longer recovery time – and energy levels are lower.

So when it comes to post-workout nutrition, where do you start? Here is 3 different situations.

Scenario A: The Junk Food Option You work out hard for 45 to 60 minutes, using a combination of weight training and interval training and you drink plenty of water throughout your workout. Once you finish your workout, you head to McDonald’s to order a Big Mac, fries and a Diet Coke.

This type of food is bad for you any time of the day, including after a workout. Maybe you are thinking, “My body is in fat burning mode, so it’s ok to eat like this.” Well, I’ve got news for you – it’s not! Here’s why:

1. The meal’s caloric content is too high. This post workout meal alone has more than 1,000 calories – about half of your daily caloric intake. Post-workout meals should only contain about 180 to 500 calories, depending on your size and weight loss goals. When you consume excess calories, they turn into fat and are stored in unsightly pockets around your body. Whether these extra calories are taken in over a meal, a day, a week or a month, calories over your allotted expenditure are calories over. Period!

2. The meal’s fat content is too high. Fat will slow the digestion process down severely, maybe even causing you to miss your 60-minute window of opportunity to replenish your glycogen and amino acid stores. When choosing foods for a post-workout meal, fat should be kept to an absolute minimum. If possible, shoot for zero fat in your meal. Remember, the goal of your post-workout meal is to replenish your carbohydrate and protein stores.

3. You will crave more junk food meals like this later. Fat, salt and sugar are the three ingredients in most fast foods and junk foods. Food companies do this on purpose to get you to eat and buy more of their product because bad food makes you crave more bad food. Food can be just as addicting as drugs.

Scenerio B: The No Food Option Again you have a well-balanced, intense workout, complete with adequate supplies of water, but this time you don’t eat anything post workout.

Eating no food is just as bad as eating a high-fat, high-calorie meal from McDonald’s because the body has to play catch up. When you deprive your body of necessary nutrients, you make it work extra hard return to its pre-workout state. Just like gasoline makes your car move forward, food and calories are your body’s fuel. Run out of gas, you’re going nowhere!

If you skip meals throughout the day, your body will make up for it later by storing more of what you eat as fat. Skipping your post-workout meal is even worse because at that point, your muscles are broken down and screaming for nutrition. Not replenishing your body’s glycogen and amino acid stores leads to a slower metabolism and less fat being burned rest.

Scenario C: The Healthy Food Option You complete a good, hard workout with plenty of water, but this time you eat foods with the right amount of calories, carbs and protein for your body. You finish the meal within 30 minutes of your workout.

When you eat well after a workout, you start your recovery process on the right foot. During your workout, your muscles break down and afterwards are weaker than when you started. In order to begin rebuilding your strength, you need to start out with a proper post-workout meal. Proper nutrition coupled with adequate rest helps muscles recuperate and prepare for your next workout.

By eating a decent meal post workout, your body also doesn’t have to work as hard as in Scenario A. A post-workout meal full of needed proteins and carbs not only helps your body recuperate, but also burn extra fat. Depending on the intensity of your workout, you can burn fat at rest for up to 36 hours. This translates into a faster metabolism, extra lean muscle tissue and more energy. In other words, you won’t feel like crap.

As you can see, Scenario C is your best bet for a post-workout meal.

5. Is exercise really exercise? Mr. Cloud makes a couple points that questions what real exercise is. First he makes the statement that just moving frequently throughout the day is better than engaging in an intense 30-minute workout. He also claims that running is intense exercise while carrying groceries is moderate exercise.

Perhaps Mr. Cloud’s front walk is more lengthy, but for me, the two minutes it takes to move my groceries from the car to the house hardly compares to a 30-minute run around the neighborhood. And perhaps Mr. Cloud isn't getting the results he wants from his workouts because of the type of workouts he is doing. Let’s take a closer look.

When most people say they are “runners,” it means they engage in distance running. Distance running is a cardio workout. If you remember the first point I made in part I, a solely cardio routine will not help you burn fat and lose weight. Most people can run for 10 minutes at a steady pace. As an alternative, they might walk, bike or use an elliptical machine 10 minutes. While doing this, many people will read a magazine or talk to a friend, but this is NOT an intense workout. If instead, they perform an intense, full-body exercise burpees for 10 minutes – or even 5 minutes – the intensity of their workout, and thus their capacity to burn fat, will increase.

The only true way to meet your weight loss goals is to practice intense exercises. If it feels like your muscles are on fire, you are gasping for breath and it takes longer than normal for your heart and breathing rate to return to normal, then your workout regimen might be on the right track.

The longer it takes for your oxygen levels to recover to pre-workout state determines how intense your workout is. This is called EPOC – Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. The harder your workout, the higher and longer the EPOC. EPOC contributes more fat being burned while at rest.

Hopefully in the future Time Magazine and other publications will not release articles like these without researching the facts and stating them all. If you want to exercise and lose weight consult an expert in your area. Seek help and information from a real fitness professional. Be strong!

About the Author

Jason Yun, a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Sports Nutritionist, is the owner of Yun Strength and Fitness Systems, LLC and runs Yun Fitness Bootcamps in Columbus, OH and the Metabolism Makeover Nutrition Course. Please visit the website at http://www.yunfitnessbootcamps.com

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