Skip to main content

Energy To Burn


menshealth.com
What to eat and when to eat it to boost your metabolism and fight fatigue all day long

Energy management should be one of the principal concerns of the working man, and yet the average guy fuels his body the way he gases up his vehicle: when it's running on fumes. It's a red-warning-light response, and it usually triggers a pit stop for a café au lait and a croissant. Why we eat like the French when there's work to be done, we'll never know.

But there's a better way to wake up that doesn't involve overpriced coffee: Eat smart. And eat often. More specifically, snack often. By snacking on the right foods at strategic times, you'll keep your energy levels stoked all day, says sports nutritionist Nancy Clark, R.D. Here's what to eat when, with the prep time you've got.

7 a.m.: Jump-Start Your Body
They call it breakfast for a reason: You haven't eaten for at least 8 hours. Your blood-sugar level is at its lowest ebb, and now it's time to fuel up with protein and some fat, but mostly with complex carbohydrates.

At home: Grab a bowl and mix together a three-to-one ratio of Fiber One cereal plus Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch. Add 1/2 cup of 2 percent milk. That'll give you fat, protein, and long-burning fiber, plus a little sweetness to spike your blood sugar and help wake you up. Researchers at Cardiff University in Wales gave 150 men and women either high-fiber or low-fiber cereal every morning for 2 weeks. At the end of the study, those people who ate the most fiber also reported feeling the most energetic. "Fiber helps slow down the absorption of food in the stomach, so you have more energy over a sustained period of time," says Elizabeth Kunkel, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of food science at Clemson University.

In the car: Munch on a pack of Frito-Lay Trail Mix. These single-serving tubes of nuts, raisins, and chocolate chips cost just a dollar, and you can dump one right into your mouth while you navigate rush-hour traffic. The raisins provide potassium--a mineral your body needs to convert blood sugar into energy. As for the nuts, they're high in magnesium. When magnesium levels are low, your body hikes its production of lactic acid--the same fatigue-inducing substance that causes your muscles to burn when you're pushing yourself to crank out that third superset.

At your desk: Dig into Knudsen Cottage Doubles while checking your e-mail. These to-go bowls of cottage cheese come with a side of fruit. Eat them separately or stir the fruit into the cottage cheese to make it more flavorful. Besides being high in muscle-building protein, cottage cheese is a good source of calcium and phosphorus, two minerals that help build your muscles' energy reserves. Researchers in Denmark found that men who replaced 20 percent of the carbohydrates in their diet with a high-protein food like cottage cheese not only had more energy, but also revved up their metabolisms, increasing the number of calories they burned each day by up to 5 percent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Olympic Diet of Michael Phelps!

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD WebMD Health News Questions and answers about the high-calorie diet that fuels the Olympic swimmer's championship performance. Aug. 13, 2008 -- His body may resemble the trim, athletic figure of Michelangelo's statue of David, but the diet of Michael Phelps sure doesn't sound like the stuff of champions. The U.S. Olympic swimmer told ESPN that he eats roughly 8,000-10,000 calories a day, including "lots of pizza and pasta." In addition to stuffing down carbs, he's said that he routinely eats foods like fried egg sandwiches. So exactly how do all those calories help fuel the most decorated Olympic athlete in history? Here are some questions and answers about the Michael Phelps diet. How can Michael Phelps eat 10,000 calories a day and still be so lean? There is no doubt he packs away a ton of food, but it is unlikely that he actually eats that many calories a day, an expert believes. University of Pittsburgh Director of Sports...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Stay Fit and Healthy

You did it! You met your fitness goal! Now that you have achieved some of your health-related goals, you'll need to focus on  staying  in shape and maintaining a healthy diet. You may have changed a lot of things about what you eat, your lifestyle, and/or your exercise routine. Sometimes keeping up with all the great changes you've made to be more fit or healthy can be daunting. Many people have difficulty maintaining these changes long-term. It can make you feel overwhelmed or get tired or bored with the lifestyle you've developed. But there are a lot of ways that you can stay motivated and keep up with your healthy lifestyle. 1 Touch base your doctor and registered dietitian.  When you are changing your focus from losing weight or meeting a certain goal to maintaining the healthy body you have fought hard to achieve, your dietary needs may change, too. Before becoming fit and healthy you likely met with your doctor and/or a dietitian, and now would be a good t...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Tell if Someone Is Being Sarcastic

1. Most of the time, people will change the tone of their voice when they are being sarcastic. 2. Listen for a flat, uncaring tone, or an overly-emotional tone. 3. Try looking for extra emphasis on one or two words, like the word "The" can be said like the, or with the E sound at the end. 4. Watch for these words; like, well, the, and, sure, etc. Someone may say the word longer than they would normally in a normal conversation. 5. Try listening for words like, "yeah, uh-huh, sure," and, "as if." 6. If whatever they're saying sounds outrageous, they may be sarcastic. 7. If none of these steps work, then you are dealing with a master of sarcasm. Take whatever they say with a grain of salt. 8. Look out on the internet as well. People who are being sarcastic on the internet (could be considered trolling) are usually clearly sarcastic. Always look for stupidity in others' posts.
Post a Comment
Read more