A Few Questions

AhJaysus

Hi all, sorry about all the newbie questions lately but I gots to start somewhere. Thanks for replies in Advance.

I have read all the stickies and found them very very helpful. I have also went back through some old threads and have come across some things I would like to question.

1.Catabolism and the "store store store mode" from t-ha's post in the sticky. I have read the diet and nutrition sticky and see this. At what stage of calorie deficit/excercise etc does the body go into "store mode"?

For example, I am trying to lose weight and am excercising/eating less/eating more healthily and I am worried that my body might do this and then undo all my hard work. Will it?

2. Not eating before a run/excercise. Will this lead to the body using my muscle protein as fuel and cause me to lose muscle. Is not eating before excercise good for weight loss or not?

3. Vomiting after exercise. I have probably misunderstood this but I was told that puking after/during exercise due to the intensity of the excercise is bad for you due to something about undoing chemical reactions in your body?

For example, I run every morning before food and sprint the last 400m (try to) of a 4k run, I almost always get sick or feel like it after? Is this good or bad?

4.Water: Due to me trying to change my diet, and eat more healthily as a result I am drinking a **** load of water. Are there any negatives to this? All I hear are that water is magical? Is it? It must have some negatives?

5.Post excercise eating: What should I eat? Drink? The stickies say simple carbs/water but if you are trying to lose weight is this still ok?
Currently I am having a half pint of Chocolate Super Milk? I dont know why but was told chocolate milk is good post workout?


I have some more questions too but cant think of them now. Anyone think a newbie stickie should be put up for people like me to ask these sill questions without having to clutter the main forum? Or even a thread for questions on the other stickies?

btw, the stickies are very very helpful, really good for me anyway, I just dont understand it all so easily.

Anyway, thanks in advance for answers.

g'em

AhJaysus wrote: »

1.Catabolism and the "store store store mode" from t-ha's post in the sticky. I have read the diet and nutrition sticky and see this. At what stage of calorie deficit/excercise etc does the body go into "store mode"?

For example, I am trying to lose weight and am excercising/eating less/eating more healthily and I am worried that my body might do this and then undo all my hard work. Will it?

In order to lose weight you need to eat less than your body needs, that is you want your body to start tapping into that stored energy you have in the form of fat. If you reduce your calorie intake to only a little less (i.e. 10-15% below your calorie needs) your body will be more inclined to do this.

If however you massively reduce your calorie intake so that you don't even have enough energy in your diet to fulfil your body's most basic of needs it will take the few calories you do give it and store it as a "just incase" measure.

So the trick is to eat a little less than you actually need - enough to keep your metabolism ticking over, but just little enough that you have to resort to burning up stored fat to make up the deficit.

AhJaysus wrote:

2. Not eating before a run/excercise. Will this lead to the body using my muscle protein as fuel and cause me to lose muscle. Is not eating before excercise good for weight loss or not?

It depends (mostly on who you talk to!!). If you are only doing a short run or not doing anything massively strenuous then exercising for a short time on an empty tummy won't do a massive amount of harm. The theory goes that after sleeping or not eating for 10 hours or so your body will be more likely to burn fat, but the reality is a lot more complex than that.

A walk or a short gentle jog should be fine, but doing anything tough will leave you prone to nausea and feeling ill because your blood sugar levels are so low.

AhJaysus wrote:

3. Vomiting after exercise. I have probably misunderstood this but I was told that puking after/during exercise due to the intensity of the excercise is bad for you due to something about undoing chemical reactions in your body?

For example, I run every morning before food and sprint the last 400m (try to) of a 4k run, I almost always get sick or feel like it after? Is this good or bad?

Generally speaking when you feel nauseous or ill during or straight after a workout it's because your blood sugar levels are so low, as I just mentioned above. For most people the solution is as simple as eating something small before working out, or even taking some simple carbs like a dextrose tab halfway during the workout. In your case doing a 400m sprint on empty tummy is pretty heavy going and requires your body to burn a LOT of energy to sustain itself, so eating a small light brekkie before training may help massively.

If, however, you start to faint or feel excessively ill consistently when you train or exercise, please go and see a medical professional.

AhJaysus wrote:

4.Water: Due to me trying to change my diet, and eat more healthily as a result I am drinking a **** load of water. Are there any negatives to this? All I hear are that water is magical? Is it? It must have some negatives?

If by **** load of water you mean anything around the 4, 6, 8L of water a day then you should be fine. But everything and anything in excess can be dangerous and if you drink more water than your body is capable of handling you may put excess strain on your renal system.

AhJaysus wrote:

5.Post excercise eating: What should I eat? Drink? The stickies say simple carbs/water but if you are trying to lose weight is this still ok?
Currently I am having a half pint of Chocolate Super Milk? I dont know why but was told chocolate milk is good post workout?

Milk is good post-workout because it contains lots of protein to help rebuild the muscles you'll have damaged during exercise (that damage is a good thing btw, you need to break down muscle in order to help it grow back stronger). But there are different kinds of protein and the predominant protein in milk (casein) isn't optimal post-workout because it's slow to absorb. Instead what you'd really want is a nice, quick absorbing protein like whey (also found in milk just in much fewer quantities). This is the protein that most tubs supplement proteins are made of, and drinking a whey shake post-workout provides quick delivery protein when it matters.

If your #1 goal is performance, carbs post-workout are super-important because they help replenish the glycogen (energy) that has been lost from your muscles during training. Again you want nice, simple carbs that don't require a lot of work to break down so foods with simple sugars in them like fruit or even sugary recovery drinks like lucozade will work a treat.

If however your #1 goal is fat loss, the carbs aren't as much of a priority, but protein is.

AhJaysus wrote:

Anyone think a newbie stickie should be put up for people like me to ask these sill questions without having to clutter the main forum? Or even a thread for questions on the other stickies?

It's certainly a good idea, what do others feel?