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What you eat for breakfast affects workout results

Category: General Health

Eating a low glycemic index breakfast may improve the amount of fat-burning benefit from exercise before lunch, according to a recent study in the Journal of Nutrition.

The glycemic index measures how fast foods release sugar into the blood stream, although the actual speed of the process varies quite widely from individual to individual. White breads and many sweet and starchy foods are considered to be high glycemic index foods, while fruits and whole grains tend to be low glycemic index foods.

Researchers in the U.K. took eight sedentary women and had them exercise three hours after eating either a low or high glycemic index breakfast, each with an equal number of calories. The women were then tested to determine how much fat they were burning. In all cases, they found that the women who had eaten a low glycemic index breakfast were burning fat at a higher rate. The researchers warn that it will take more studies to see whether exercising after eating a low GI diet will result in losing more weight.

Similar results have been found in the past with athletes, but no studies had yet been conducted with a more typical, sedentary population.