You what Nick? Yep you heard me right. I eat a bag of skittles before I workout! But Skittles are full of sugar? Yes, that’s correct. Skittles are bad for you? Actually no there not, it’s all about context. No edible food is bad, the devil is in the dose and timing of consumption. So why do I eat Skittles before working out? let’s dive in to some juicy knowledge bombs…

Carbs…

When you eat carbohydrates your pancreas produces a hormone called insulin, now without going too scientific (i know you don’t want this!).. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that allows your body to use sugar (glucose) from carbohydrates in the food that you eat for energy or to store glucose for future use.

2 Ways Of Burning Fuel…

Your body has 2 energy pathways. Pathway 1 is ‘glucagon’ (protein and fats) and Pathway 2 is ‘insulin’ (carbs). When carbs are present your body will use this preferred pathway, as opposed to using fats. The problem with insulin (eating carbs) is that when your insulin levels are high you prevent fat loss – it’s like you’ve flicked a switch in your body to stop burning fat.

This is one of the reasons why low carb diets are very effective for losing weight – because your body will become fat adapted when carbs are eradicated as it has no choice but to use the alternative fuel system (glucagon pathway). Now this is great for fat loss, however your also going to lose muscle quicker, muscle is your friend, the more muscle one has the more calories one can consume. You want to keep a nice shape right? Carbohydrates are also pretty tasty right and hard to cut out? So rather than going black or white ( a diet high in carbs or 0 carbs!) how about that grey area in between?

Here’s How I do it…

When trying to get lean (lose fat! get shredded! whatever you wanna call it!) I break my training down into 2 segments:

Segment 1 : Fat loss On fat loss days this is when I do cardio or rest. I may have 3-4 fat loss days per week. I’ll stick to proteins and fat based foods. Why? Because as mentioned above I want to use the glucagon pathway (fats for fuel). My aim is to burn fat, I will therefore not put carbs in my body. This will also help improve my bodies ability to utilise carbs (improve insulin sensitivity) when I put them back in on weight training days.

Segment 2 : Muscle building/maintenance of tissue On these days my aim is to build or maintain the tissue I have. I will therefore chose the insulin pathway and increase carb intake. I want my body to use carbs for fuel, not hard earned muscle!  The leaner I am the more carbs I’ll have. The more training volume (set and reps) the more carbs i’ll have also. Carbs provide energy and help draw fluid into cells – otherwise known as the pump! Insulin will protect and encourage muscle growth. Exactly what we want when leaning down.

Quick Summary…

In short eat more carbs on training days, put ‘carb petrol’ in your tank so you can train hard and preserve hard earned muscle tissue! On rest days cut or significantly lower carb intake – consume foods high in protein and fat.

So Why skittles Nick?  

I like my food, I have a sweet tooth and I don’t cut out anything from my diet unless I have a severely bad reaction (food allergy or intolerance). I take an IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) approach – in short meaning I have a set calorie target each day and as long as I stay within that range, I can eat what I want and i will still reach my desired goal.

Now of course that doesnt mean i eat 3 bags of skittles and 2 pizzas a day! that would be silly! and severely blow out my caloric target. However at the minute I eat 70-80% healthy,nutritious foods and leave a 20-30% allowance for foods of my choice (junk food!). This works well for me. for example say I had a 2000 calorie allowance each day – i’d consume approximately 1600 calories (80%) from healthy food and 400 (20%) calories from food of my choice.

I’m eating 1 bag of Skittles 4-5x per week at the moment, about an hr before my weight training sessions, to provide my body with energy, spike insulin and prevent the loss of muscle tissue. When you consume carbs pre, intra or post workout your body is more likely to use this fuel in training and help restore glycogen (carb energy stored in muscle), the carbs also help muscles swell and aid recovery. My aim is to build/maintain muscle on weight training days and therefore I fit Skittles (high carb food) into my macro allowance (225 calories per bag). The rest of the day i’ll consume plenty of nutrient dense foods.

Moral of the story…

Now i’m not encouraging you to eat Skittles! but its an example of how you can fit foods into your plan without feeling miserable. By timing my Skittles correctly (pre weight training) and using this tactic only on weight training days I can not only fit in a food I enjoy but also make it conducive towards my goals. Win Win.

For more information on IIFYM check out this post…

IIFYM – A VERY SUSTAINABLE & EFFECTIVE WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT…

👱💪 Nick