This article looks at sugar and how it can help you reach your weight targets.

What Sugar Does
A sudden influx of sugar into your bloodstream upsets your body’s blood-sugar balance, this triggers the release of insulin. And insulin promotes the storage of fat.

How This Affects Your Weight
The more sugar you have the more likely your body is to release insulin causing you to gain weight.

Hoping To Gain Weight?
I have an Ectomorphic body type (somatotype), which is characterised by long and thin muscles/limbs and low fat storage, often referred to as slim. That means I have trouble putting weight on, I’m not underweight but it would be nice to ‘bulk out’ a little bit. So for me, having extra sugar should encourage my body to gain weight.

Dangerous Strategy
So on the surface it seems “Great! How easy is that!” but actually it isn’t without its drawbacks. Because sugar raises your insulin level, it in turn depresses your immune system. And your immune system helps fight disease so you really don’t want to be messing with it.

Hoping To Lose Weight
If you currently eat a lot of foods with high sugar content (like those little sweeties you love) then cut them out and it should help your efforts towards losing weight.

Read The Packagaing
Some foods may be a lot higher in sugar than you think. So start reading the labels of food you eat, especially those on a regular occasion and see how high your sugar intake is, then you can take the appropriate action.

Info Sources: wikipedia, healingdaily. Image credit: vox_efx

My mum and dad are both very healthy for their age, they go to the gym, swimming and other fitness classes every week. My dad can’t eat at all before he goes to the gym, not even quite a few hours before. Whereas my mum has a small meal an hour or so before she goes. And I’m in between (typical?!), I like to eat about 2 hours before any kind of workout.

It got me wondering about how long before a workout should you eat? What is best for you? Because you want the energy but you don’t want to feel sick and not able to workout.

I found an article in Reps magazine (you can get it free from supplement retailers) about the art of eating for training. It says you want to eat in good time to support growth and stave off catabolism without hindering optimum training with a full belly.

It’s recommendation is to eat a full healthy meal 2-3 hours before your workout. Everybody is clearly different as shown in my example of me and my parents. So find your best time to eat before workouts and you should get the most out of your sessions!