Yup.

A diabetic friend taught me: a fruit, a carb, and a protein in every meal, snack, or even thinking about a snack. Result: Even, constant energy burn as first the fruit, then the carb, then the protein kicks in. Like burnign mixed woods in the furnace. Not all pine and not all hardwoods.

The quantities can be quite small but they need to be there, and in the right balance.

Also, we burn more immediately after eating than we would (for the same effort) if we had not eaten.

The trick to be athletic AND lose fat is to build muscle (requires a bit of added protein), to eat enough to fuel the sport/workout while still burning some of the stored fat, and to keep the metabolism up and running with either long, slow exercise or short bursts of faster exercise between rest periods. Also, the calories and nutrients needed for recovery after vigorous exercise (muscle repair and sustainable energy) are most efficiently utilized for that recovery within an hour of finishing the effort; wait longer and you'll feel (and eat as if) you're twice as hungry as you actually needed to be.

Finally, eating too little of one food group can leave you feeling so hungry you will eat ANY food group. So veggies need to be in the mix as well as dairy, in addition to the fruit/carb/protein habit.

And of course the more complex the carb, usually, the better.


The body learns from these changes if the activity level stays up, so that the same simpler carbs that used to instantly go to the hips or belly instead remain in circulation for the next high-energy "sporty" activity. This is why cyclists can (must) eat so much pasta, and why they time it a certain number of hours before a ride (for riding energy) and a certain number of hours after the ride (for recovery to be ready for the next ride).

My sport, AquaRunning, consumes as many calories as would running on dry land. Not jogging-- RUNNING. Do that an hour or two five times a week and before long there will be pasta and baked potatoes involved. This is the difference between the kind of cravings that are part of a food addiction and the kind of messages a body needing the correct fuel will send-- the kind we need to listen to, respond intelligently to, and not fight with.

~Susan