Melt Pounds in the Morning!
If you want to get the most out of your workouts, work out first thing in the morning!
I know the nice thing to say is that you should just work out when you can fit it in and that’s fine as well. However, if you’re looking to truly optimize your workout, do it in the morning before breakfast. This is because your body’s fat burning processes are controlled by 
the sympathetic nervous system. The SNS, in turn, is activated by exercise and lack of food. So the combination of an empty stomach and exercising maximizes the impact of cellular factors and catalysts to force the breakdown of fat and glycogen for energy. If you exercise in the morning, it also takes less time to deplete your glycogen stores – which means you will experience fat burning much quicker! Basically, working out on an empty stomach will force your body to burn fat!
Conversely, eating a full meal (especially carbohydrates) will inhibit your SNS and reduce the fat burning effect of your exercise. Eating carbohydrates before your workout will actually activate your parasympathetic nervous system and this promotes energy storage. Carbohydrates also spike your insulin and insulin is a storage hormone that shuts off fat burning and promotes fat storage. Just to be clear – fat storage is bad and fat burning is good!
There’s just one caveat and you’re probably not surprised – there’s always at least one ‘but’! A recent study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise found that consuming whey protein (20g protein/serving) 30 minutes prior to resistance training boosts your body’s metabolism for as much as 24 hours after your workout. A quick protein boost helps you to change your metabolism to burn fat. So if you want, have a serving of whey protein before your workout – especially for those of you who find it hard to workout on an empty stomach.
The amino acids found in high quality (very important!) whey protein activate specific cellular mechanisms (mTORC-1) that promote muscle protein synthesis and boost thyroid after exercise. It is also recommended that you have some protein after your workout. Your muscle fibres need to be replenished and repaired after a workout – this requires the necessary building blocks to be present in your body. Whey protein is a good source because it is quickly absorbed by your body and readily accessible to your muscle fibres. Just be sure that you are not sensitive to dairy products because if you are, whey is not a good option for you.
In essence, consuming one serving of whey protein before your workout and one serving after your workout will provide you with the double benefit of increasing both fat burning and muscle buildup at the same time! It is also important to note that this holds true for both men and women. Whey protein is not just for the men – it also helps women burn fat and build muscle. So if you’re a woman and you’re trying to lose weight, I definitely recommend you buy a high quality whey protein as well!
Anyways, that’s my quick tip of the day! If you’re interested in knowing about what to look for in a whey protein, just message me or leave a comment and I can give you some helpful information.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!