PERSONAL TRAINING | QUEENS

For those of you that live in or visit Northern Queens, you know that the Taco Bell on Northern Boulevard is open again! Happy day!

I love Mexican Food – in fact, I hardly know anyone that doesn’t - although I’m not sure if this place qualifies as typical Mexican cuisine …

Beyond that Taco Bell does it’s part to maintain the body-fat percentage of the American population. Special thanks too to my buddy George, who recently sold his two Subway locations and instead opened to new Coldstone Creameries - I’ve noticed a slight increase in my client load as a result -

I don’t think man has yet invented a denser way to pack fat and calories into a smaller package than the Crunch Wrap Supreme -

BUT, there were a couple of things on their menu which are open to us as physique enthusiasts ….

They put up a new Fresco Style Menu, where they take all of the sour cream and cheese out of their menu items. Sure there’s still a lot of starch and salt in the flour tortilla and beans, but that’s about it.

And there is ONE time when we can have a little bit more starch and simple sugar in our diet, and that’s post-workout –

The timing of the relative proportions of CARBS, PROTEIN, and FAT and when to have them falls into the area of sports nutrition. This is the effort to optimize our eating with the body’s hormonal state and nutrient delivery process in order to get the most out of our recovery and performance.

For a long time this has been ignored by the popular nutritional community, but it’s slowly gaining much more attention. It was recently covered in detail by the New York Times – thanks to my buddy and fellow trainer Eugene Thong in Manhattan for bringing the article to my attention.

In the article their was some questioning of the need to take nutritional supplements to replenish the body after a workout, or whether real food would do the trick. The ratio of carbs to protein were also brought into question, but there were some important points made -

About protein:
Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than a couple of hours, the protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.

And about carbs:

Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session — two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.

Here’s a link to the article.

For a 176 pound man, they recommended an approximate ratio of 20 grams of protein to 80 grams of carbs . However it needs to be pointed out that they were looking at the needs of endurance athletes - for strength athletes, the protein needs after exercise have been shown to be even greater.

Here’s what the research of Peter W.R. Lemon, PhD showed in his recent article in The Journal of The American College of Nutrition:

Timing of Macronutrient Intake
It is clear that carbohydrate intake immediately following glycogen-depleting exercise can enhance subsequent muscle glycogen resynthesis when compared to the same intake several hours later [59]. Similarly, it could be possible to stimulate muscle growth (by minimizing degradation and/or maximizing synthesis) via carbohydrate or amino acid ingestion following a strength exercise session [60,61]. This is likely due to insulin-stimulated [62,63] changes in muscle amino acid uptake and protein synthesis (Fig. 10 [62]). Further, it appears that the nonessential (dispensable) amino acids are unnecessary (Fig. 11 [62]). We know that a strength training session affects both muscle protein degradation and synthesis (Fig. 12), but the precise magnitude of the responses and the time course is yet to be determined [64,65]. As these responses become clear, it might be possible to make very precise recommendations to maximize the anabolic stimulus following strength training.

The trainer Jason Ferrugia, who’s known well known in the industry for a lot of his anecdotal information from observing and training athletes, also questioned the need to quickly down a protein shake after a workout - he pointed out that a big, well balanced meal can do the same thing in replenishing the body and creating the optimal environment for recovery and subsequent growth.

So how does this all relate to Taco Bell?!?!

Well, on their Fresco Menu are a few items that fall into this somewhat ideal ratio of carbs to protein, and under 10 grams of fat - here’s a look at the menu:

The category I highlighted in red is fat, in orange is carbs, and green is protein -

From these numbers, it looks like my recent habit of a fiesta chicken burrito and grilled steak soft taco immediately after my workout are perfect for my needs - and the fat is at about 13 grams, which is manageable.

So if you needed a little bit of an excuse to cheat, here you go - see, I’m not as bad as most of my clients think!

But be careful - in the area of nutrition, there is a large gray area of cheating and rationalizing to look out for. In general, follow some proven principles strictly and measure their results towards achieving your goals. If they aren’t achieving the results you’re looking for, then modify. But don’t scatter your eating all over the place just because there’s some out of context info that you’re using to back it up.

So the bottom line is if I see at you Taco Bell that’s fine - just don’t eat every meal there!