Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

I'm with Pete....

A lot of Internet nutritional gurus make a big deal about pre-workout nutrition. One of us has a misunderstanding about nutrition! I've tried a lot of different things and the only nutrition that ensures I have a good workout is good, consistent nutrition thought the week/month.

I use to advocate carbs in the a.m. And more protein and fat in the evenings but over the last 3 years or so have completely reversed that. For breakfast I'm a big advocate of the Meat Nuts Breakfast. Do it for a week and it just makes a huge difference, and not just with leanness, mood, energy, mental clarity, etc. and I'm saying that after more than 15 years consistently eating a high protein breakfast, but I would always get carbs with breakfast too, whether fruit, or whatever.

When I'm really trying to get lean or perhaps I've enjoyed too much pizza and beer watching football on a Saturday with friends I'll actually have my first two meals as just meat and nuts, or for breakfast perhaps meat and eggs. Then post workout and for my final meal I'll have some carbs, usually non-starchy vegetables, but, one thing I've learned by doing this is that I can actually allow myself to indulge a bit more. In the evenings as opposed to waiting for cheat day.

As for pre-workout though, if you are really looking for an edge, look to nutritional supplements. Phosphatidylserine, coffee, glutamine, and a favorite of mine, Java Stim all facilitate mental clarity and aid in focus and concentration. But until I see better evidence/results.... I disagree with the gurus that push pre-workout magic with a specific meal combination.

To quote Dick DeVenzio, 'Great games have been played pre-game meals of steak, pasta, big macs, and evening during hunger strikes, so don't let psychology of not getting some specific meal, psych you out of performing up to your ability.'

Basically, your body has the ability to perform.... Once it has performed, then give it the nutrition it deserves to repair, replenish, and recover. That axiom follows more closely to our hunting ancestors. They may not have had the luxury of a great meal before going hunting. They in fact may have been hunting out of hunger. But they had a choice... Stalk that elk in the timber for 6 hours, kill it and drag it back, or let the family starve.

I'm actually on the same page as Pete and Todd on this one. But I will also provide my own unique thoughts.

Normally I personally prefer to train before eating, and there is a big reason for this. Out of all animals that hunt in the wild, can you name a single one that hunts while it is already full? I can't! But humans eat before they do things all the time, and I am convinced the only reason why we have eventually come to this is because we can. We have the tools to do it. Before the agriculture period and eventually the invention of the refrigerator, humans often didn't have such a luxury, unless perhaps they gathered enough fruit and/or vegetables to last them a few days.

Also, our bodies hormones are set up to account for this. Studies have shown that without food for up to 60 hours, the metabolism actually increases. And there is a reason for this. During the break from food, insulin drops and GH and glucagon rises. The glucagon is what allows you to begin to tap into its stored glycogen and fat reserves for energy.

So thats pretty much how our bodies work. After eating a meal, insulin rises, you store the sugar as glycogen and fat as fat, and you get tired. Some time after insulin drops and you feel energetic again.

It should also be interesting to note that one of the times when animals in the wild are the most vulnerable is after a meal. Consider the example where a pride of lions are lucky enough to pluck a buffalo our of its herd. Often the buffalo in the herd will wait until after the lions have eaten so they can go back and stomp them to death when they're too tired to do anything.

So thats why I prefer to eat while in the fasted state. But also keep in mind that our muscles are fueled by glycogen, so you have to make sure to have eaten enough carbs in a previous meal such that you have enough glycogen left over for the workout. I'm typically dependent on the meal the night before for glycogen.

Everyone is going to be unique as far as how they like it, how their personal setup is, and how many calories you need. A light weight under 200 lb guy with a desk job for example could easily get away with using the carbs from the night before. A construction worker would surely need at least a good amount of carbs in their lunch.

So as you can see, it really does depend on your unique situation. The main things is you just need to make sure you have enough glycogen for your workout, but you also have to keep insulin levels low through the day before your workout. If you don't need the extra carbs, then low-moderate carbs at lunch is fine. If you do need more carbs, then do what you have to do, but stay away from the high HI carbs until after dinner (after the workout), and don't eat too much at lunch time as it will make you sluggish.

Charles, the biggest misnomer in nutrition is that muscle glycogen, must, needs to, is better, should, etc. by coming from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are Non-Essential macronutrients, meaning we don't need them, but they can be utilized.

Yukon,
Yes. They do. Buffalo are actually very powerful animals, much bigger than cattle, and much meaner in the wild. One on one they can easily destroy lions. For the lions, the buffalo are actually a very dangerous meal to catch. In order to do so they typically have to team up on one that might have straggled out of the herd. So for example, there might be hundreds or thousands of buffalo. Then a pride of five lions will try to sneak up and get one and get away fast enough. They are very hard to kill because they have incredibly thick skin, so it takes a long time. Sometimes a buffalo can survive an attack and get away.

Sometimes, if a calf is taken, the buffalo will try to sneak back up and get it back.

And yes, the buffalo will actually try to kill lions when ever they can. There's actually one video out there where the buffalo (plural) caught a mother lion alone with her cubs. The buffalo went to stomp all the cubs and there was nothing the mother could do about it.

Here's a good way to think about it. You ever see the cartoons of the bull fights? Buffalo are much bigger and meaner than that. They weigh up to 2000 lbs. They aren't nice and peaceful like the tame cows you see in farm fields. They are wild. Its the jungle. And survival is the name of the game.

Could you imagine being a hunter gatherer back in the old days trying to kill a buffalo with nothing but a spear that you can't even throw? Good luck getting that meal, if you can do it without getting trampled. Umm, I think the bananas will be a much easier meal to acquire.

Todd,
I understand that we can and regularly do turn stored fat into sugar to use for energy. But I can honestly say from my own experience that its much easier to do a lot of work (i.e. strongman type stuff) when using glycogen for fuel. 

### You don't have a choice! Whether glycogen come from fat, protein, or a Candy Bar, at the cellular level, your body has no clue. It is merely glycogen.

When I tried doing that stuff while on low carbs I was just way too weak. My body was screaming for the carbs.

### Carb cravings and carb necessity are two different things. Carb cravings are often not the result of lack of glycogen in the muscle at all but poor insulin sensitivity and fluctuating blood sugar levels. Fatigue has nothing to do with low muscle glycogen. It's actually difficult to work that hard anaerobically. 

However, years ago when I tried zero carbs for a while I was still able to be quite strong. In fact, I probably got a lot stronger due to better insulin levels. But the problem still was while on zero carbs I had little endurance.

### Far too many factors to say it was lack of carbs. Throwing the baby out with the bath water.

 So I could do easy stuff such as walking. And I could do intense exercises such as heavy weightlifting, but only for short bouts. But I wasn't going to be able to do well with bouts of intense exercise lasting more than several seconds.

We are omnivorous and can survive off from a variety of styles. I am convinced that we tend to do better with carbohydrates in our diets.

### I have not advocated zero carb or even "low carb" ( depending on the definition). I'm merely pointing out your misunderstanding of how muscle glycogen storage actually works. It is in no way defendant on carbohydrate intake. After a night's rest, your muscles are full of glycogen. Ingesting carbs doesn't make them "more full."

On a low or no carb diet glycogen gets replenished through gluconeogenesis. From what I read the process takes longer. Thats why theres the post workout meal. Or unless you are eating zero carbs all the time, the body might not be able to do it as efficiently. If a heavy carb eater switches to no carb all of a sudden, it will take a couple of weeks to adapt. The body still thinks its taking in carbs. You won't have any energy to workout until the body adapts.

Ah, so many misconceptions. . .
At least I have the basics down. Don't be a glutton and you won't be fat. LOL! If only we could get the extra 66% of Americans to grasp such a complex concept, we could completely solve the obesity epidemic. But I guess its just too much for the majority to understand.

Fruit has sugar in it, but typically doesn't have a lot of calories per weight and volume, so it isn't going to hurt. For example, if you ate an entire meal of fruit until you were full, the meal probably wouldn't be any much more than 300 calories. With that in mind, you're probably only getting 75 grams of carbs from that meal. And that's not much if you aren't eating a lot of meals per day.

I'm not saying that you should or shouldn't eat an entire meal consisting only of fruit, but it is something similar to what I have experimented with for my lunches, and it really did help a lot when I was cutting. Pretty much for lunch, I was filling up on raw fruit and vegetables, and maybe some lean turkey or what ever to go along with it. The best thing about fruit while cutting is that with the right foods such as oranges and grapefruit, it always leaves you feeling full and satisfied all while keeping the calories low. So you end up eating a low calorie meal, but with the feeling that you ate a lot.

One other thing to consider when it comes to inflammation is fasting. I'm not talking about anything crazy here. I'm just talking about extending the period without food for a few hours after you wake up from sleep. This helps give your body a break from food and also helps you to cut calories a bit if need be. The thing to realize about inflammation is that it happens from eating too much. Some might blame it on the carbs, and if that does happen to be the case it should be clear that cutting your overall food intake is a sure way to cut the carbs. Pretty much, with all else being equal, reduced quantity of food = reduced carbs.

You might ask how in the world can cutting food intake be so easy. Well, with a reduced meal frequency and eating window it makes it a walk in the park. You get used to it, and the meal timing. And providing you don't go overboard with it, its definitely doable. For example, I have tried one meal per day and it only leaves me feeling way too hungry by the end of the day to the point where I get a bit out of control and make poor food choices. But when I did 2 meals per day I didn't have that problem. Skipping breakfast allows me to look forward to lunch a lot more and enjoy it better. And eating lunch is just enough to calm me down so that I can maintain control at dinner time.

So my 2 meals are a descent size each with dinner being the biggest, and I can honestly tell you that I feel much more satisfied that way than I did eating 6 meals per day. Its much easier to plan meals that way and my life doesn't revolve around food anymore. And the food tastes much better when you actually give yourself the chance to wait and anticipate it.

I'm not recommending an ideal meal frequency either. I like 2 meals for me. Others might like 3 or more better.

As for dinners, I personally like to have vegetables and a source of starchy carbs such as potatoes or rice. That's kind of a personal thing too. Some people might do better without the starchy carbs and more other types of vegetables instead. Others might do ok with certain grains. But personally I try to stay away from most grains because I have allergies to it.

I'm sure you'll still want to have some dinners where you want to eat what you want. And there's nothing wrong with that. It even helps with adherence. Have some dessert once per week or what ever, but just don't go overboard with it.

Speaking of such details, I wouldn't bother with worrying so much about specific macros or counting calories. Eat the right foods and eat until you are full and you should be getting everything you need. If you find you need to cut weight a bit, just eat a little bit more clean and reduce added fat. Pretty much what I mean is there probably isn't enough fat in most meats to make you fat, so you don't have to worry about that. But dropping the extra "added" oils will make a huge difference. Examples are any cooking oil, cheese, and possibly even nuts.

I hope that helps. Keep it simple and you should be fine.