Day 3: 30 videos in 30 Days MEAL PREP TIPS

Meal Prep Tips (Remember to LIKE & SHARE, PLEASE)

Carbs & Weight Loss-Can I eat carbs after 6pm?

Being a Personal Trainer, I get asked this a lot. This idea has been around for a long time and almost everyone has heard of it.  I admit, even I believed it for a while when I was competing for many of my first fitness competitions.  The idea is that if you eat carbohydrates after a certain time at night it will be instantly stored as fat, more so than if you ate those carbs at an earlier time during the day.

Eating carbohydrates does not make you fat. Your body relies on carbohydrates for fuel. Your body does not know when it suddenly becomes 6pm. In fact, for some people, it may be night time that more carbohydrates are required!  For example, if you workout at night time and don’t do any physical activity during the day, then this is a perfect example.  

Weight loss and weight gain depends upon the total number of calories you eat and the calories burned 

throughout the day through your activity level and exercise,  so unless you exceed your daily calorie 
needs, eating at night won’t cause weight gain.

So, to answer your question--NO, you do not need to completely avoid carbohydrates at night time. 
Forget the time, listen to your body & learn to eat intuitively!  As long as you keep your total calories in 
control, eating whole foods, not the processed stuff; you will lose weight. Myths and fads are just that!  
Quick fixes will not provide long term results, you have to make lifestyle changes by eating right, 80% 
clean & move your body!! Focus on what works for you and results will come sooner than you think.

TIP: Eat one startchy carb after 4 p.m. to reset the hormone that burn fat while you sleep. 

The concept of eating your carbs early in the day, with the intention that you will have a better chance 

of burning them off, could actually be setting you up for cravings all day long. Eating a starchy carb, 

like potatoes or beans early in the day will cause more cravings later in the day, so I suggest you  only 

eat one carb in your last meal. Eating carbs later in the day is proven to raise our serotonin levels, a "feel-good chemical" in our brain, which helps us sleep, and sleep is one of the most important fat-burning activities.

Here's an example of nutritional planning based on when you workout!  

What's a Refeed?

What's a Refeed?

anywherefitnesspt.com

HIGH CARB DAY TO BURN FAT! When dieting & in a calorie deficit (cutting ) your leptin hormone levels will drop down with low leptin levels it becomes much harder to burn body fat as leptin is KING of all fat burning hormones, so including a re-feed DAY into your cutting diet is highly recommended. 

On a re-feed day you increase your carbohydrate intake by 100% (or more) increasing your calories up to maintenance level or slightly above so you are in a calorie surplus for this day (but still in a weekly deficit).

This re-feed is designed to boost your metabolism and increase your leptin levels so that you can continue to burn fat like a furnace!

My favorite re-feed foods are: Frozen yogurt, rice, oats, bananas, pancakes and yes, low fat cookies or anything low in protein/fat and high in CARBS!