Use It or Store It! What To Do After High Carb Eating to Avoid Putting On Extra Weight.

What do you typically do after a big meal or after splurging on sweets?  If you're like me, you might experience a post-meal crash that leads drives you to lay perfectly still on the couch.  We're also bombarded with suggestions telling us to sit still after a meal to allow the food to digest. 

Resting after a big meal may like solid advice but, thanks to modern research, we're learning that this may not be the best approach....especially if you are trying to manage your weight. 

Here's why.
When we consume a high carb/high sugar meal, our blood sugar levels increase.  At this point, our bodies have a decision to make.  Either store the sugar as fat or move it into the muscles to be used as energy (glycogen).  Can you guess the determining factor as to whether our sugar is stored or utilized? 

Activity!

Yes that's right....instead of chilling on a couch after splurging on sweets, it's time to get moving!  I'm not talking about a full workout, all you need is a short bout of activity post meals to keep our carbs from automatically converting directly into fat. 

A group of study participants were asked to take a 15-minute walk after each meal. This group was compared to another group who took a 45-minute walk either late morning or before dinner.  Guess who had lower blood sugar levels?  The intermittent walking group performed better.  In a separate study, they found that individuals (without diabetes) had 2X the amount of sugar in their bloodstream after a meal if they were sedentary after a meal vs taking a short walk.

If I have a really busy day, I may not get to do any physical activity until the end of the day.  Any activity is better than none but there is a difference if I'm sedentary all day then work out in the evening.

 Managing your blood sugar levels one meal at a time is a superior strategy.  Italians have this habit of walking for a few minutes after meals which probably helps them avoid putting on too many pounds after their high carb entrees.  One study I read even suggests that we don't wait start moving after meals.  They even found that activity conducted immediately after eating lowered blood sugar better than moving 30 minutes or later after the food was consumed.  This means that once our food is done, we can wash dishes, to some mild housework or even take a short walk around the block.   

Even if you don't have the opportunity to incorporate activity after every single meal, you can add this routine after, especially heavy dinners.  Don't just eat, unwind on the couch, then go to bed.  That's a recipe for weight gain.   If you get bloated after meals, you absolutely need to do this because it helps ramp up your digestion. 

Too much sugar and triglycerides floating around in our bloodstream only leads to extra pounds and long-term heart issues.

Try this out and see what difference it makes.