Post-Workout Snack May Hamper Weight Loss
FRIDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Elite athletes are advised to "fill the tank" with an energy bar or sports drink soon after a workout.
But for mere mortals -- folks who are simply trying to keep their weight in check or stave off heart disease -- adding calories right after burning them up could negate the benefits of the sweat, researchers say.
"If people are going to go out and exercise to benefit their health, they should not be eating back the calories immediately upon finishing, or within a couple of hours of finishing," said Barry S. Braun, director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "In order to maintain the benefits, you need to be in this calorie deficit."
"Athletes are always advised to do exactly the opposite," he continued. "That's great for athletes, but for the other 99.9 percent of the world, that's probably the wrong thing."
Braun is co-author of two papers appearing in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism and one paper published in the Journal of Applied Physiology that detail the findings.
Ten young, overweight men and women participated in each experiment.
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