Here at the Burn Method Whole Health & Fitness, I educate my clients about the health and fat loss benefits of a Controlled Carbohydrate. I don't only advocate this diet, I practice this protocol and have been for the last 10 years. Eating this way keeps me healthy (my blood work is superb), lean, energized, strong and my hormones balanced.

It's simple, you divide your meals into two categories:

EDFM– Every Day Free Meals

These meals are low in carbs, mostly based around non starchy vegetables, organic or wild protein, and healthy fats. I enjoy EDFM meals any time of the day.

Some examples are: vegetable omelette, chia pudding, flax pancakes, & beef broccoli stir-fry, nutter butter smoothie, magical muffins, roasted salmon with veggies topped with goat cheese, grilled steak salad with feta, olives and homemade vinaigrette.

EWM– Earned Workout Meals

These meals are earned with a high-intensity workout and tend to be higher carbohydrates. For example, fast-digesting starchy carbs (such as baked potatoes, rice, quinoa, legumes, Ezekiel bread, granola, brown rice pasta, homemade pizza, certain fruit, and alcohol. You'll eat these on days that you have done a high-intensity workout.

Some examples are: quinoa salad with grilled salmon, roasted potatoes with dill, veggies and chicken thighs, home made or artisan pizza, cheese and gluten free crackers, pasta with chicken and pesto.

While there is new research that shows eating carbohydrates right after your workout is no longer as important as the number of total carbs you eat over the course of the day, you can benefit greatly when you save these carbohydrates for the days you do a high-intensity workout for better fat-loss results and overall health benefits!

Here’s why:

After high-intensity exercise, our bodies are primed to accept and use nutrients (especially carbohydrates) more efficiently than on the days when you don’t work out. After an intense workout, your muscle and liver glycogen levels are running low. When you consume a EWM or a higher carbohydrate meal, these carbs get shuttled into your muscles, working hard to repair them and deliver nutrients more efficiently. When you eat carbohydrates without depleting your glycogen stores, you are more likely to store these carbs as body fat, since your muscle and liver levels are full and satisfied.

Earning your carbohydrate-heavy meals with a workout is a great way to ensure you’re burning fat instead of storing it.

Rob Sulaver, Board of Advisors for Arnold Schwarzenegger, says, ”Eating a high carb meal when you work out will feed those hungry muscles without storing energy as fat. An influx of carbs will spike your insulin which will drive glycogen into your muscles and get you all prepped for your next intense workout. Plus, this carb/insulin spike helps with a cascade effect that returns your hormones to their happy pre-workout state, because while all those higher-stress hormones are great when you’re working out, you don’t want ‘em in your system all day.”

Earning your EWM meals with a workout will fuel your muscles, prep your body for the next workout, drive essential nutrients into your muscles, and help you burn fat instead of storing it.

adapted from Z.Light