http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Buttermilk is that wonderful, tangy ingredient that helps us make mouthwatering biscuits, ultra-fluffy pancakes, and rich salad dressings. But there’s more magic to be had with all the other amazing (and surprising) ways it can be used.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Service: The Purple Carrot
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Thought experiment time. Say you train hard, hard enough to deplete a signifiant amount of glycogen. Your muscles are empty, sensitive to the effects of insulin, and screaming for a couple potatoes to refill glycogen. What do you do?
In most circles, the answer is to eat those potatoes and refill those glycogen stores. And why not? The post-workout period is a special window of opportunity for eating a bunch of carbs and having them go to the right places with minimal insulin required. They won’t contribute to fat storage. They’ll go straight to your muscles. Restocking glycogen sets your muscles up to repeat the hard work and keep up with your training. It makes sense.
What if you didn’t eat the potatoes after a hard workout? What if you abstained from carbs entirely after a glycogen-depleting workout? What if you just went to bed without any (carbs in your) supper? What if you were an elite athlete and skipped the carbs?
That’s exactly what a team of French researchers had a group of highly trained male triathletes do, according to a study released a couple months back.
They were exploring the effects of a “sleep-low” eating regimen on the type of performance indices relevant to endurance athletes. It was a really interesting study.
First of all, everyone was highly-trained. These were elite triathletes, the cream of the crop. No weekend warriors in sight. They were split into two groups: a control group and a “sleep-low” group. After a three week induction period of identical diets, supplements, and training, the experimental phase commenced. Both groups ate the same total amount of carbohydrate (6 g/kg bodyweight) each day, just at different times. The control group ate theirs with every meal. The sleep-low group ate theirs at breakfast and lunch.
Training was identical for both groups. For four days straight each week, both would follow a routine.
In the afternoon, they’d perform high intensity training sessions, either 8×5 minutes cycling at 85% maximal aerobic power output (MAP) or 6×5 minutes running at 85% MAP (alternating each day) with a minute between each interval.
In the morning, they’d do low intensity aerobic (LIT) work before breakfast: an hour of cycling at 65% MAP.
The sleep-low group ate carbs at breakfast, lunch, and a pre-workout snack. Then a HIT workout. No carbs until breakfast the next day after the LIT session.
The control group ate carbs at breakfast, lunch, post-workout, and dinner. Breakfast came after the LIT session.
After three weeks, the scientists subjected both groups to submaximal (LIT) and supramaximal (HIT) cycling performance tests, Vo2max tests, and a 10k run (to simulate the final leg of a triathlon). The sleep-low group performed these tests in a “low-carb availability” state (low glycogen). The control group performed them in a carb-replete state.
What happened?
Submaximal efficiency (power output per calorie burned when pedaling at moderate intensity) greatly improved in the sleep-low group. The control group saw very little improvement. This is a crucial biomarker for endurance athletes. If your submaximal efficiency is high, you get more power out of each stride/pedal/stroke with less energy required. That means your “easy pace” is faster than the other runners.
The sleep-low group’s supramaximal capacity also saw a major boost. They were able to cycle at 150% of their Vo2max for around 12-20% longer than before. There was very little improvement in the control group.
In a 10k run test, the sleep-low group shaved around 3-5% off their times. The control group shaved just 0.10% off.
Even though they were all quite lean to begin with and this wasn’t the purpose of the study, the sleep-low group lost more body fat.
This was the “have your cake and eat it too so just long as it’s not at dinner” study. When they did HIT, they were glycogen-replete and dominant. When they did LIT, they were running on fat and just as dominant. They weren’t on a keto diet. They rapidly reached the very-low carb/ketogenic state for a good portion of the day by depleting glycogen and failing to replace it, from the afternoon snack to the post-workout breakfast. They weren’t just “high-carb.” They were smart carb, filling the glycogen, depleting it, and forcing their bodies to run on fat for a while.
What’s truly remarkable is that this was a short-term study. Three weeks of experimental conditions were plenty for the benefits to accrue and amass. They didn’t have to spend six months getting adapted. They didn’t go through a keto induction period. They manipulated the pattern of energy substrate use through carb and workout timing. This is simple stuff anyone could do. And if the elite athletes (triathlons are no joke!) can benefit from it, I’m pretty sure the average person trying to improve performance will see benefits.
Another cool part is that even though the sleep-low group performed HIT workouts in the carb-fed state throughout the study, they were tested in a carb-depleted state and still saw huge improvements. They “trained low, raced low” when it came to submaximal endurance and “trained high, raced low” when it came to supramaximal capacity—and both modalities improved. That’s huge.
What’s going on is forced adaptation. By waiting to eat more carbs immediately after you deplete yours, your body has to upregulate fat metabolism. You will get the carbs soon enough—you’re going to eat them the next day after your morning workout—but you make your body wait a bit. In the meantime, it has to work with what it has available: fat. This study is just the latest to show that forcing these adaptations can have real benefits.
If you wanted to try this out yourself, you could follow the schedule in the study. You’d have to have a lot of free time and flexibility, but it’d probably work.
If you’re a normal person with a normal schedule, you could do a truncated version. Eat carbs before your high intensity workouts and none after. Go for a walk or a light jog in the morning before breakfast. Eat carbs with breakfast and lunch and perhaps a snack before your high intensity workout. You probably don’t need the 6 grams of carbs per kg of bodyweight the athletes ate in this study. Whatever you do, be sure to really deplete glycogen and wait for 12-16 hours to refill it.
Standard low-carb dieting promotes similar adaptations, but it works more slowly. Glycogen depletion takes a while if you aren’t training intensely, so you can speed up the process by throwing in some sprint, circuit, or HIIT workouts.
I know from personal experience that this can work. Once or twice a week, I like to fast after workouts. That’s a slightly more extreme version of post-workout carb abstention, but it’s the same idea: withholding food and forcing your body to adapt. This increases growth hormone (important for fat burning and cellular repair) and speeds up fat adaptation.
So, who’s interested in trying this out? Anyone? Let me know how it goes in the comment section!
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
When considering Germany’s regional cuisines, Bavaria and the Black Forest are top of mind, but while both are important, there is far more to Germany’s gastronomic traditions than Schweinhaxen and Weisswurst. Frankfurt and the region it lies in, Hesse, is in fact my favorite part of Germany to eat. When most Americans think of Frankfurt, they tend to think of banks and book fairs. I, on the other hand, think of delicious rustic meals of Handkäse and Apfelwein.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
You’ve probably seen this little kitchen gadget making its way around the Internet. Yeah, it’s pretty much unnecessary. Yeah, people are probably just buying it as a gag gift. Yeah, the reviews are pretty funny. But three posts about it, BuzzFeed? What are you up to?
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Did you forget to soak beans, but still need to get dinner on the table? The pressure cooker will come to the rescue, cooking dried beans in about 30 minutes. If you remembered to soak the beans, the time savings are even greater — the beans will just need five to 10 minutes of pressure-cooking time. And some legumes, such as lentils and black-eyed peas, can forego the soaking process altogether.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
This is an article by NF Team Member Staci. This is part two in a two part series. Missed the first article? Head on over and check out Why You Should Meal Prep.
So, you’re convinced that it’s at least WORTH A TRY to see if this meal prep thing can save you tons of time, money, and help ensure you level up. That’s awesome!
Today we’re going to start with the easiest version of meal prep, which we’ll call “level 1.” Now, make no mistake, just successfully accomplishing this meal prep every week can be an enormous aid in effortlessly leveling up. In fact, it was the exact meal prep that we are going to go over today that helped me lose fat and build strength years ago.
So, let’s get to it: In today’s step by step guide we are going to make five meals: lunch every day. I highly suggest you start off with just one daily pre-prepped meal, and I suggest lunch. Why?
When I first started, I just swapped out my lunch with a healthier “planned ahead lunch” and I lost about 10lbs in the first month. Everything else was the same, I was still going out to eat every night and was still working on (and failing at) creating my workout habit. Now, everyone’s schedule is different, so feel free to start with a different meal. The idea is the same: start small. No matter what meal or what your needs are, following the steps in this guide will set you up for success.
And if you want to do more later, great; think of this like the tutorial level. Once you get this down, we can start adding more meals and variety to it.
Don’t have something above? Check out our article on kitchen essentials, complete with our recommendations!
Take your large pot and dump both bags of veggies in. Add water until the vegetables are covered, and put on the stove on medium high heat.
Quick tip: You can skip this step all together if you buy 5 bags of steamfresh veggies and put one with each meal.
While you’re at the stove, turn your oven on and pre-heat to 350 degrees farenheit.
Take one of the baking sheets and cover it with aluminum foil, and then spray it with the non-stick spray.
Take the chicken thighs and line them up on the baking sheet. Season them with salt and pepper or your seasoning of choice. I like to use two different seasonings to change things up a bit (in this photo I’m using X and Y). If you aren’t sure what to use, use salt and pepper, or just grab one at the store that looks good that says CHICKEN. If you are feeling adventurous, we wrote a whole post on diverse spice options to fit any occasion!
Your oven should be at 350 degrees now – pop the chicken thighs in on the middle rack and set a timer for 25 minutes (or note what time it is)
Wash your sweet potatoes, and then grab your cutting board and knife and (carefully!) cut up your sweet potatoes. I usually cut into slices and then cut each slice twice to create small chunks. The exact way you do it isn’t important, but the goal is to get the chunks around the same size (they bake more evenly that way).
Grab your second baking sheet, line it with foil, and spray the foil with your nonstick spray.
Lay the potato pieces out evenly across the sheet.
I like to get multiple types of sweet potatoes to add color and variety and because it’s more fun that way. Obviously this is totally optional.
Next, put them in the oven on the other rack. Note the time or set a second timer for 30 minutes.
At this point, you’ve got two things baking away, and your veggies should be done by now. So, grab your colander and strain them.
While those are cooling, grab your five containers and lay them out, like this:
And then add the vegetables into the containers.
I like using a food scale purely so I can portion easily, but you can also use a serving spoon, measuring cup, or just eyeball it.
At this point, it’s time to check on our chicken. At 350 degrees, chicken thighs usually take around 25-30 minutes. They’re done when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, just cut one of the thicker ones open and look. Done chicken should look like this not this.
If it’s not done, you can spend the time cleaning up a bit, playing a game of smash, or dancing around to Suburban Legends.
If it IS done, pull it out of the oven and set it aside. Be careful, because chicken thighs tend to have a lot of juice in the pan, and it’s easy to splash and burn yourself.
I usually like to let the chicken cool a bit before portioning it, so this is usually another good cleaning (or dancing) opportunity, because you’ve probably got another 10 minutes before the sweet potatoes are done.
After a few minutes, I portion the chicken thighs out. I usually do 1.5 thighs per container (for those of you into the numbers, one full chicken thigh is usually between 3 and 4 oz, so 1.5 is usually around 6oz). Feel free to adjust portioning depending on your caloric needs, but one full chicken thigh is a great starting place for many. If I have any left over, I’ll put it in a side container and eat it as a snack, or put it in the freezer.
Ding! Sweet potato timer goes off – so open up the oven and poke them with a fork. Are you able to poke all the way through? Then they are done! Pull them out, set them aside, and add a handful or two to each container (using tongs if you haven’t waited for them to cool).
These will last 4-5 days in the fridge. Looking for specifics? Check out stilltasty. If you’re nervous about those last few days, just put 2 in the freezer and pull them out Wednesday night in preparation for Thursday and Friday.
And that’s it! Five delicious ready to eat meals that will help you keep on track with your nutrition throughout the week, even when you get stressed out or things don’t go quite as planned.
What questions or tips do you have? What’s your favorite meal to meal prep?
What did I miss in this article that I can cover in the future?
-Staci
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