Breakfast: Fast or Slow Digesting Carbs?

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hello, T-Nation. Long-time listener, first-time caller.

I have what I hope is a simple question. It’s my understanding that, upon waking up in the morning, the body is in an anabolic state. That said, it’s best to consume protein and fast-digesting carbs. My breakfast is usually 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, 1/3 cup of Malt-O-Meal with a little brown sugar, and coffee with a 1/4 cup whole milk.

Am I wrong about the fast-digesting carbs? Would it be better to have oatmeal or whole grains (slow-digesting carbs) instead?

I usually work out after my second meal, which is cottage cheese, crushed pineapple, almonds and a slice of Ezekiel 4:9 bread. I try to eat my slow-digesting before working out and about 90 minutes after working out (with an immediate post-workout shake of fast-digesting carbs and proteins).

Please feel free to correct any errors I’ve made and thanks in advance.

2

I think this may have been a typo, but when you wake up after a 8-10 hour fast, your body is in a catabolic state. Not anabolic. This means that your body will spare your fat and attack your muscles for energy. Very simply put, if you consume a fast digesting carbohydrate at this point the energy will go straight to your fat cells, not your muscles. This is because your metabolism has ground down to a very slow speed.

Upon waking, I would be more concerned about filling the liver glycogen as fast as possible. You may have heard about a simple carbohydrate called fructose. Again in basic terms, this type of carbohydrate will go straight to the liver. Now, although this is probably one of the worst carbohydrate choices for pre, peri, and post workout (it often gets flamed for this reason), I believe that this is perfect for breakfast. The bulk of your daily fructose intake should come from fruit, so i recommend to anyone that breakfast is the best time of day to eat your fruit. I have three pieces of fruit at breakfast (sometimes in a shake), and two more pieces throughout the day. Some people think that all fructose is evil - and when taken in huge and excessive amounts it is! But that could be said about anything. What a lot of people don’t understand is that processed foods, especially lollies (candy), are the culprits for jacking up your fructose intake. Not fruits.

For most guys with a moderate carbohydrate tolerance, I would say go for the carbohydrates in the morning. However they need to be slow digesting. This is because once you wake up your metabolism will be slowly increasing the pace as your body is doing more than it was than it was when sleeping.(This will actually put these carbs to good use!)

You will also need protein. Egg whites are great and you pretty much have this covered. For the average person I would say you should get somewhere in-between 40 and 60 grams of protein with every meal including breakfast. Eating protein will also increase your metabolism as the digestive system will have to “work harder” to get the job done.

One thing I would be careful about is eating large amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and fat together. Maybe keep the whole eggs for later or (if you’re not the kind of guy who needs carbs for breakfast) skip out on the oatmeal (or whole grains) and keep the eggs (maybe add a couple more). Using the second option you could turn it into an omelet. Try adding a few hand fulls of spinach. Spinach is high in fiber and is full of valuable micro-nutrients.

For the post workout meal I would include some quality slow digesting carbs as the metabolism will be racing and unlike breakfast, the energy will go to the muscles, not the fat.

Other than vegetables (which should be eaten at every meal), I wouldn’t eat carbs before my workout, with the exception of my workout drink which I will start drinking 15 mins before my warm-up.

Good luck :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for taking the time to reply! And yes, I meant to say catabolic, not anabolic. I think the root of my mistake was from this article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0801/is_/ai_n21119442

It talks about oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits and other breakfast cereals. It says of grits and cream of wheat that they’re only appropriate for consumption post-workout, or first thing in the morning when you need fast-digesting carbs to arrest catabolism.

So does oatmeal act fast enough to stave off catabolism?

4

[quote]Grey Rainbow wrote:
I think this may have been a typo, but when you wake up after a 8-10 hour fast, your body is in a catabolic state. Not anabolic. This means that your body will spare your fat and attack your muscles for energy.[/quote]

Ok, I want to call BS on this idea that the body will have attacked muscle tissue overnight, when you are the LEAST active in a 24 hour period, to fuel itself.

Your body switches fuel sources depending on the urgency of which it’ll need to use that energy. If it is quicker to breakdown muscle and use aminos than it is to breakdown and use adipose tissue, so be it, but I keep reading that sleep is ‘anabolic’ and yet others say that your body wakes up in a catabolic state. Ok.

5

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Grey Rainbow wrote:
I think this may have been a typo, but when you wake up after a 8-10 hour fast, your body is in a catabolic state. Not anabolic. This means that your body will spare your fat and attack your muscles for energy.

Ok, I want to call BS on this idea that the body will have attacked muscle tissue overnight, when you are the LEAST active in a 24 hour period, to fuel itself.

Your body switches fuel sources depending on the urgency of which it’ll need to use that energy. If it is quicker to breakdown muscle and use aminos than it is to breakdown and use adipose tissue, so be it, but I keep reading that sleep is ‘anabolic’ and yet others say that your body wakes up in a catabolic state. Ok.[/quote]

The body may not attack the muscles over night, but in the last couple of hours (depending on the last couple of meals consumed), of sleep, the body will be catabolic. I don’t believe that this is anything to worry about though, because as you said the body is least active at this point. In fact I believe that the average person should get at least 10 hours of sleep per day. And I completely disagree with people who take protein shakes at 3 in the morning. An uninterrupted sleep is much more important than preventing a tiny bit of catabolism. For most people, the most muscle gain will occur overnight. Just not in the last couple of hours.

The reason that body breaks down muscle tissue is because the metabolism is slow and the body wants to spare the fat wherever possible. In fact it’s much easier for the body to use adipose tissue than muscles.

The point I was trying to make was that when you WAKE UP your body will be in a catabolic state, the majority of the night is generally very anabolic (aided with your pre-bed/last meal of course).

6

[quote]sbjones wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to reply! And yes, I meant to say catabolic, not anabolic. I think the root of my mistake was from this article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0801/is_/ai_n21119442

It talks about oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits and other breakfast cereals. It says of grits and cream of wheat that they’re only appropriate for consumption post-workout, or first thing in the morning when you need fast-digesting carbs to arrest catabolism.

So does oatmeal act fast enough to stave off catabolism?[/quote]

I talked about this in paragraph 3 of my first post. Go for the oatmeal. I don’t think John Berardi is a fan of fast digesting carbohydrate first thing in the morning either.

7

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Grey Rainbow wrote:
I think this may have been a typo, but when you wake up after a 8-10 hour fast, your body is in a catabolic state. Not anabolic. This means that your body will spare your fat and attack your muscles for energy.

Ok, I want to call BS on this idea that the body will have attacked muscle tissue overnight, when you are the LEAST active in a 24 hour period, to fuel itself.

Your body switches fuel sources depending on the urgency of which it’ll need to use that energy. If it is quicker to breakdown muscle and use aminos than it is to breakdown and use adipose tissue, so be it, but I keep reading that sleep is ‘anabolic’ and yet others say that your body wakes up in a catabolic state. Ok.[/quote]

I second that. You will be no where near catabolism from a 8-10 hour fast.

“Lean body weight decreased (p<0.05) in the C+D group (51.3±10.7 to 47.3±7.0 kg, mean±SD). No reduction in LBW was observed in the R+D group (51.6±7.8 to 50.7±9.0 kg, mean±SD).”
http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/full/18/2/115

On an 800kcal liquid diet for 12 weeks whilst doing a weights circuit.

8

Sounds like a plan. Thanks!

9

I thought the body breaks down muscle tissues during a fasted period (sleep) because the brain and liver can’t use fat for energy, only simple sugars. Since the body can convert aminos to sugars, it breaks down muscle tissue to acquire these aminos to fuel the brain and liver.

10

I personally, wake up, down 1 scoop of Surge, walk my dog, then eat breakfast.