Health&Nutrition
Eat Right in the New Year
January 5, 2010
Question: I put on a few extra pounds over the holidays. How do I burn them off?
Canadian Running nutrition editor Bobbi Barbarich answers:
1. What’s your water weight? This season, calculate your hydration status to match your water intake and sweat losses. Poor hydration means running suffers, yet an unanswered thirst signal will attract your attention in other ways. Mainly, unquenched thirst will confuse you with a hunger signal. Good hydration can help keep your hunger pangs at bay. Weigh yourself before and after runs and match the loss with water before you reach for another energy bar.
2. Check your sugar levels. You definitely need carbohydrates for long runs, but there’s a particular time and place for sugar. If energy gels are creeping into your 30-minute jogs or you’re sipping on sweet drinks outside your recovery window, you’ll carry that sugar in your body’s favourite storage form: fat. If you’re out for less than an hour, leave the sugar at home.
3. Find your balance. Test your basal metabolic rate with an energy equation or more accurately, indirect calorimetry. Many post-secondary schools with a nutrition or kinesiology department offer testing to the public or need volunteers for metabolic research. Knowing your daily calorie limit gives you concrete proof whether you’ll burn that extra portion of potatoes or store it.
4. Sleep it off. For busy people, eight hours seems a luxurious amount of sleep, but to be metabolically balanced, adults need that much every night. With poor sleep, hormones go berserk - cortisol rises and increases hunger, while leptin drops and intensifies carbohydrate craving. If you need a coffee to stay awake - especially one with cream and sugar - you might lose a couple of pounds going to bed a little earlier.
5. Do you really know what you’re eating? It’s easy to forget you already had a chocolate truffle, but your body’s calorie count will remember. A food journal is the best way to acknowledge what you’re putting in your mouth and inadvertently, around your belly. Write down everything you eat and drink for two weeks. Learn your triggers for poor food selection and, better yet, for your healthy choices.
