Nobody replied to this while it was under another thread, so I decided to put it in its own thread:

What I want to know is: If you have weight to lose, do you still want to ingest something high in sugar after workout?

I had a lot of weight to lose, and am about mid way. I started at 260lbs, lost 40 of it in the past few months, and am hoping to lose about 45 more. 175 seemed a bit much for a girl to me, but I was told my lean body mass is 162 to begin with... I'm 5'9 and medium-big boned. I'm not following a low carb diet per se, that is, I am not going by a specific book or anything like that, but I am eating a lot of protein and very little carbs. I also don't eat a lot of fats (mostly grilled stuff and green veggies), and the carbs I do eat are in the forms of low carb tortillas, etc.

In the past month I've added a weight lifting routine, which is a push-pull split routine. I do 30 mins of cardio first, then 2 sets of 10-12 reps on weights, then 10 mins. of stretching. I do this 5 days a week.

What I notice is that I tend to develop a headache about 1-3 hrs. after the workout and it doesn't go away until I go to bed at night. I am wondering if this is because of my very low sugar intake, or if it's just tension from the intense workout. I also work out in the morning before I eat anything, because I want my body to burn more fat and less carbs.

I get the point about eating the protein for muscle restoration, but I'm hesitant about the sugar. I think I'm insuline resistant and overproduce insuline anyway... ingesting something with more than 10 grams of quick acting sugar seems to me like a sure way to overproduce insuline that turns into fat. I don't want to do that right after I spent all that time trying to burn fat.

Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Sineea

Wow, it sounds to me like you're doing really good so far. Congratulations and good job!!!

Well I am really not very knowledgeable about fat loss, at least not in comparison to my knowledge about muscle gain. But if you're looking to gain more muscle, the simple carbs are going to be best utilized immediately after your weight-workout.

I can't say why, I have no facts to back it up or no links to give you, but when I started incorporating this strategy I noticed a difference for sure.

Most of the time I'll use a Myoplex with some Creatine after my workout. But if I'm not going straight home I'll grab a "Carbo Force" from the gym's juice bar, and have them put 5g of creatine in it for me, shake it up and drink. (By the way it tastes awesome too!)

So, for me at least, simple carbs after weight-workouts is really helping I think...

yep, 2:1 ratio of simple sugars:proteins. make it a high gi carb.

never skimp on pre/post/post-post workout nutrition even when cutting! (well you may cut down post-post if you HAVE to, but cut down your later meals first :) )

What I notice is that I tend to develop a headache about 1-3 hrs. after the workout and it doesn't go away until I go to bed at night. I am wondering if this is because of my very low sugar intake, or if it's just tension from the intense workout. I also work out in the morning before I eat anything, because I want my body to burn more fat and less carbs.

Sineea


Hoy Sineea. That above paragraph pretty much says it all. Your body needs sugar, to be more specific, a form of it called glycogen.

On an average day, your brain will require 75% of your total glycogen intake. Since aside from your diet, glycogen is only stored in your liver and skeletal muscle. I'm not sure of the exact number but your brain *needs* this.

The reason why you are getting your headache is because you are doing an intense workout first thing in the morning without eating anything. Your brain is telling you it needs nutrition and as you've probably depelted your liver's supply, it's starting to munch on your muscles.

Weight training should be done after atleast 1 full meal which includes protein and carbs. I used to make the exact same mistake as you did and I would get those exact same headache. Since I moved my weights to after work, I've never ever had that problem again.

On the carb issue. If you just only want to lose weight ( LBM + fat ), then yes carb restriciting will help you do that fairly quickly. However, understand that are reprecussions of not eating enough carbs which can have an overall negative effect on your routine.

Doing weights needs carbs. If you don't give your body carbs, you'll start to catabolize your LBM, which in turn slows down your metabolism, as muscles burn calories.