running and nutrition

Question
Hello Mr. Karboviak,

I actually have a couple of questions that I hope you may be able to help me with.

1) Is it true that if you are doing cardio (such as running/jogging) for about 3-4 hours per week, that after your cardio workout you should completely cut carbs out of your diet for the remainder of the day for optimal weight loss? do you need to completely cut carbs out of your diet or severely restrict them if you are looking to lose weight?

2) Can you burn more calories by jogging 3 1/2 miles and walking half a mile (stopping to walk about 2-3 times during the 4 miles) or by running a quarter a mile and walking the next and continuously doing that for 4 miles? which workout will cause you to burn more calories and is there really that much of a difference in calorie expenditure.

3) What is the ideal pre workout and post workout meal if you are looking to lose weight? if you are looking to maintain weight?

Thanks for all your help!

Answer
I will try to answer these briefly as I can.

1) I haven't heard of such nutritional recommendations for eating such a way after a cardio workout.  This is probably stemming from a misleading magazine or internet article on bodybuilding, and I don't hold much weight into anything from magazines.  People were losing weight long before carbs were 'cut' from diets, and to do so is highly restricting your body from the main source of energy it needs for everything: carbs fuel the body for many, many functions, so if you want your body to work for you, it needs some carbs.  The high-protein diets basically paint a picture of carbs being 'evil' and they aren't, its just that a diet that's way too high in carbs can cause people to gain weight because they don't use up all the extra carbs, so those un-burned carbs get stored as fat.  So, it isn't carbs that's the problem, its having too many and not doing enough to burn them off.  

2) A lot of this question depends on speed.  If you were to run the 1/4 mile sections at a very high speed, and walk for recovery, you'd probably burn more calories during & after your workout due to such a high intensity workout.  The simple 'jogging workout' of just strumming along for an easy pace for 3.5 miles will still burn calories, but it won't take long for your body to return to its normal state.  The high speed/low speed workout of the 1/4 mile run/walks would create a state of disturbance in the body to allow it to burn more calories after the workout due to the higher demands of recovery from such an intense bout of exercise.  

3)If you are looking to lose weight, there are a host of suggested pre & post workout meals, and they all seem to conflict with each other from expert to expert, as there is no one-sure-meal that hits everyone's needs for pre & post-workout needs.  Basically the most sensible from what I have read & experienced is to have a pre-workout meal that is relatively light (100-200 calories) roughly an hour to 90 minutes before the workout, so that it has a chance to digest through the body quickly and not cause any disruptions with your stomach during the workout.  Usually a sports drink will do, such as a Gatorade, because this is liquid and gets absorbed quicker by the body versus a solid food snack.  For post-workout, it should be a source of food that's good in carbs & protein, low in fat.  A simple one is simply drinking low-fat chocolate milk, as this has an ideal protein to carbs ratio and is low in fat, too.  300-400 calories of that is roughly ideal for most people.  

I hope that helps you out some.

Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com