Are Carbohydrates With Breakfast A Day Idea If Fat Loss Is Your Goal?
Should You Eat Carbohydrates With Breakfast If You Want To Lose Fat?
The common theory in the nutrition world is that, due to naturally having higher insulin sensitivity in the morning than the rest of the day, that we should eat carbohydrates with breakfast.
On face value, that makes sense. And if your goal is purely muscle gain or if you’re going to perform a highly metabolic METCON right after breakfast, it might still be the best option.
But what if your goal is fat loss or longevity?
Let’s back it up for a second.
Regardless of how poor your diet is, when you wake up in the morning you are suffering from a degree of metabolic insulin resistance and your body is running pretty efficiently on ketone bodies.
Your body is burning fat at this point. Unless you get up and go train right away, sitting down with some bread, oatmeal or any carbohydrates may be more problematic than helpful because you’re in a insulin resistant state.
What are the main tissues in your body for insulin signaling? Fat and muscle tissue. That’s it.
So yes, we ARE more insulin sensitive in the morning. Yes, it is harder for the carbohydrates with your breakfast to be turned into body fat but it’s also EASIER for them to go right into fat tissue because we haven’t exercised and we have all these free fatty acids floating around our body that, when combined with incoming carbohydrates, might very well INCREASE body fat storage.
Make sense?
We haven’t exercised yet, remember? Our muscles don’t have the same “sponge like” ability that they have post training to soak up carbohydrates. The best split that we can hope for is a 50-50 split between fat tissue and muscle tissue storage but as established, our muscles don’t have the same affinity to carbohydrate storage as they will post workout.
Confused? Let’s recap
-When we wake up, unless we’re up in the middle of the night eating carbohydrates, we’re burning fat and we have a degree of insulin resistance in our MUSCLE tissue.
-We haven’t exercise so our muscle tissue isn’t going to “soak up” carbohydrates as efficiently as post exercise .
-We have fatty acids ramped up and when combined with carbohydrates, when fat loss is our goal , it might cause a issue.
Applications For Crossfit And Performance Athletes
If you want to burn fat, consider moving carbohydrates later in the day and post workout. Unless you are going to perform a metabolically intense workout within 1-2 hours of having your breakfast. In that case opt for a quality, gut friendly, carbohydrate source.
Applications For Physique And Longevity
Skip the carbohydrates unless you just worked out. If so, have about 50 percent of your daily carbohydrates in this period but don’t go over board, you need to be functional during the day and you’re not going to get any direct carbohydrates sources until night. time.
The common theory in the nutrition world is that, due to naturally having higher insulin sensitivity in the morning than the rest of the day, that we should eat carbohydrates with breakfast.
On face value, that makes sense. And if your goal is purely muscle gain or if you’re going to perform a highly metabolic METCON right after breakfast, it might still be the best option.
But what if your goal is fat loss or longevity?
Let’s back it up for a second.
Regardless of how poor your diet is, when you wake up in the morning you are suffering from a degree of metabolic insulin resistance and your body is running pretty efficiently on ketone bodies.
Your body is burning fat at this point. Unless you get up and go train right away, sitting down with some bread, oatmeal or any carbohydrates may be more problematic than helpful because you’re in a insulin resistant state.
What are the main tissues in your body for insulin signaling? Fat and muscle tissue. That’s it.
So yes, we ARE more insulin sensitive in the morning. Yes, it is harder for the carbohydrates with your breakfast to be turned into body fat but it’s also EASIER for them to go right into fat tissue because we haven’t exercised and we have all these free fatty acids floating around our body that, when combined with incoming carbohydrates, might very well INCREASE body fat storage.
Make sense?
We haven’t exercised yet, remember? Our muscles don’t have the same “sponge like” ability that they have post training to soak up carbohydrates. The best split that we can hope for is a 50-50 split between fat tissue and muscle tissue storage but as established, our muscles don’t have the same affinity to carbohydrate storage as they will post workout.
Confused? Let’s recap
-When we wake up, unless we’re up in the middle of the night eating carbohydrates, we’re burning fat and we have a degree of insulin resistance in our MUSCLE tissue.
-We haven’t exercise so our muscle tissue isn’t going to “soak up” carbohydrates as efficiently as post exercise .
-We have fatty acids ramped up and when combined with carbohydrates, when fat loss is our goal , it might cause a issue.
Applications For Crossfit And Performance Athletes
If you want to burn fat, consider moving carbohydrates later in the day and post workout. Unless you are going to perform a metabolically intense workout within 1-2 hours of having your breakfast. In that case opt for a quality, gut friendly, carbohydrate source.
Applications For Physique And Longevity
Skip the carbohydrates unless you just worked out. If so, have about 50 percent of your daily carbohydrates in this period but don’t go over board, you need to be functional during the day and you’re not going to get any direct carbohydrates sources until night. time.