Maybe you already see where I'm going with this...?
Regardless, let me break it down for you!
(Can I get a beat? Just teasing)
I get asked about what I eat or what I have clients eat all the time and because I believe in customization of nutrition to the 100th power I can hardly ever answer this question to the degree in which I feel appropriate. THIS IS A FREAKING HUGE QUESTION PEOPLE!
BUT what I can say is 'Meal timing', just as much as the "what", plays a huge part in you reaching your health and fitness goals.
TODAY I am going to focus on Meal timing specifically concerning breakfast since a lot of you are confused on what breakfast actually is and why it's SO important.
Never fear, Irontristan is here & I got you boo ;)
Something I hear over and over again from clients when they are first starting out is that they don't eat breakfast. I proceed to tell them about 'The Sumo Wrestler Diet" (because it's my favorite anecdote of all time as I know you've probably heard me say it like 5 million times by now but I can't help myself...)
"Hey new client who's life I'm about to change, Do YOU know why they call "skipping breakfast" 'The Sumo-Wrestler Diet'? ...because skipping breakfast is an old technique used to help Sumo-Wrestlers gain weight."
Cue light bulb here. Or Scooby-Doo noise... aw-whoo?
It has been proven that skipping breakfast leads not only to more calories being consumed throughout the day, more so then if you had eaten breakfast plus all those other good meals, but it directly influences the type of nutrients you crave and ingest! Maybe as humans we think we have permission to eat more and think we "earned" more food or bad food at a later meal? My personal theory is that you can't make an educated decision by the time you actually get hungry about what to eat so you just say f-t and eat everything or something really bad! I know you women who go all day without eating and then hit 'happy hour' know what I'm talking about... it's probably a combo of these two things. Just please know that your brain runs on energy and energy is food so if you want your brain to work so you can be productive and make good choices, then f-ing eat food. And that starts with breakfast!!!
(Deep breath Haller)
O.K. So second of all, if my terrifying sumo wrestler story wasn't enough, let's just look at the word for what it is... Break-fast. To break your fasting state of being. The body has very different metabolic needs at different times of day and under differing circumstances. Upon waking, your body is needing energy (nutrients... food... wakey wakey eggs n' bakey steeze). You see, when you sleep your body is forced into a metabolic state of rest for up to 12 hours. Maybe you are not physically asleep for all 12 hours but you just laying there pre "nigh-nigh" time, stimulates your brain and body into a relaxed state, preparing to slow everything down so it can begin repairing the cellular damage you did that day.
During this time:
1. Carbohydrate energy reserves (glycogen) are low.
2. Muscles are in a mild catabolic (muscle-wasting) state.
3. Fat stores are also slowly being mobilized and burned. <--- this one's my favorite ovs
1. Halt muscle catabolism.
2. Support ongoing fat metabolism.
3. Replenish glycogen reserves.
duh?
Right??
Good!
Now what you eat to accomplish at this time again comes back to what your goals are. You definitely want to have some type of fast-absorbing protein to halt the mildly catabolic state your muscle are in and to kick-start your metabolism, but as you have learned from previous GymKitten posts, Protein is good on it's own but works best when combined with either fat or carbs (or both)!
Those carbs can be both simple and complex (again, depending on your goal.... I hope that one little part I'm making pretty clear here!)
Let me give you a few examples of some of of my 'break-fast' meals...
If I'm eating clean and in contest prep (and I'm in a state of pre-workout) I'll probably have a medium serving of egg whites, medium serving of oats and a small serving of nuts or nut butter.
If I'm coming off prep and trying to reset my hormones in a state of KETO or HFLC I'll probably have 2 whole eggs, a serving of bacon and 1/4th an avocado or full fat cheese.
If I'm post-workout/fasted state I'll probably have a homemade berry/kale/protein smoothie.
If I'm pre-workout/semi-fasted state I'll probably have a protein shake, black coffee, and half a grapefruit with perhaps some wheat-germ and flax seed.
Whatever you eat, eat real food (I'm talkin' to you guy dressed as the Sun in the Jimmy Dean breakfast commercials. smh)
I think the other important factor in meal time & breakfast is understanding your body will adapt to whatever systems you put in place (aside form having a digestive disease or intolerance of some kind) so if you are always working out at night because that's when you feel best, but WANT to workout in the morning, play with your nutrition to get your body moving WHEN YOU SAY SO! And you'll be surprised to find out after about 8 days of this you'll be hungry when you wake up!
REMEMBER: FAT is good PRE WORKOUT, NOT POST, as demonstrated in my previous examples.
Hope this helps,
I'm always here for you! We're in this together!
xoxo,
Your Trainer,
Tristan
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