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>>Only as long as you need to wait to feel comfortable eating.

Could you please elaborate a little bit? It sounds a little vague to me.



Some people can eat something immediately after exercising, some can't.

When I run in the morning I usually rest for a few minutes to cool down, take a shower and then have breakfast. But you can eat immediately after you finished exercising if you feel like it.


If the theory is right it's better to wait longer, as it takes time for your body to re-stock the glycogen reserves. So you are still burning fat after you finished exercising.


What you're getting into now is EPOC and used to be thought to be caused by HIIT. Basically, doing short bouts of high intensity exercise you could drain your glycogen reserves and raise your base metabolism (and thus calorie burning) over the course of 12-24 hours. This theory has been mostly debunked.

Also, keep in mind that while depleting your glycogen stores may help your body focus on using fat instead of other sources of energy during exercise, it doesn't change the fact that the only way to lose weight is to eat less than you use. Too many people look at these studies (GI, insulin response, and HFCS immediately come to mind) as silver bullets. The only real silver bullet is eat less than you use. There was an article not long ago about a guy who only ate twinkies and lost weight by counting calories.

Physically, losing weight is pretty basic stuff, but it's so hard to do because it requires a tough combination of mental and emotional skills and often requires people to change their deep seated (often decades long) relationship with food.


I completely agree, I'm just saying that if the theory is correct, then this is probably a consequence. I can think of a reason why you'd lose weight by eating later: now your body burns your fat to replenish your glycogen levels, and later when you eat it stores the food in fat. This may well be less energy efficient than eating right after exercise and replenishing your glycogen levels with food.


Trying to eat right after very strenuous exercise can leave many people with a queasy feeling. If those same people wait 15-30 minutes prior to eating they can avoid the sick feeling.


I think he's saying as soon as you can without feeling nauseous. I'm not sure if all people are like this, but if I eat within 30 minutes of a hard workout I have a rough time.




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