After 9pm? After 6pm? After lunch? When should you
really stop eating carbohydrates if you are trying to burn body fat? Before I started writing this I had a bit of a GOOGLE out of interest. After opening most of the websites on the top 2 pages of search results I had read recommendations from 12noon to 9pm and almost every hour in-between. If you're confused about when to 'cut off the carbs' I'm not surprised. I started web searching out of interest already knowing the answer and I was confused by the time I finished. Despite all the different recommendations out there this is a fairly easy one to explain and I'm going to do it in
100 words or less. Here we go.
Fat burning is determined by the difference between
total energy intake and total energy expenditure, not the
timing. If your total energy intake is less than your total energy expenditure you will burn body fat. This can be achieved by reducing total energy intake through dietary changes or increasing energy expenditure with exercise, or both. The total daily carbohydrate intake is important for fat burning not the timing of when carbohydrate is consumed. There is
NO fat burning benefit of a 'carb curfew' but there is benefit in controlling carbohydrate intake to lower total daily energy intake below energy expenditure.
Word count that!
good to know there is nothing wrong with 11pm dinners and 11:30 bed time, as long as the total energy intake is less than your total energy expenditure. However this begs the questions(not sure how to best frame my question):- is there a body clock that works out this difference and what time does the cycle start and finish? :)
ReplyDeleteyou make it sound so easy Dave! Jo
ReplyDeleteIt's great to have info that is factual. Thanks Dave. And well done on the 100 words.
ReplyDelete