Best time to cheat on Diet

[Guest guest]

Here's the best time of day to eat when you want to cheat on your diet...

If you've been dieting for some time, chances are you've developed the odd

craving or two for a few of the foods on your " banned " list.

Now, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine have shown

that the calories in a " cheat " meal may be less likely to get stored as fat

if you eat them after exercise.

Dieting

The study showed that just one 60-minute workout could help to " divert " fat

and sugar into muscle, rather than fat tissue. This should come as good news

for anyone who's been dieting for some time and wants to treat themselves

without feeling guilty.

Specifically, the research team found that exercise increases the activity

of two enzymes -- GLUT-4 and lipoprotein lipase. These enzymes are

responsible for transporting glucose and fat into your muscles.

Lipoprotein lipase (pronounced lie-po-protein lie-pace) plays an important

role in both the storage and oxidation of body fat. When fat is oxidized, it

means that it gets burned for energy. If you oxidize more fat than you

store, then eventually, you'll lose weight.

Whether LPL promotes fat storage or fat oxidation depends on whether it's

expressed in muscle or fat.

* LPL in fat tissue takes fat from the blood, and stores it as body fat.

* LPL in muscle tissue diverts fat away from storage in fat tissue and

towards oxidation.

Animal studies show that mice with high levels of LPL in their muscles are

resistant to the effects of a high-fat diet. Some scientists think drugs

that increase LPL in muscle could represent one way to tackle the growing

problem of obesity.

Of course, this doesn't mean that exercise gives you the freedom to eat all

you want. The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you get

from your diet.

If you simply replace the extra energy you've expended during exercise with

additional calories from your diet, then your weight won't change. And more

than one or two " cheat " meals each week can easily put the brakes on weight

loss.

However, the bottom line is that the calories in a cheat meal are less

likely to be stored as fat if you eat them a few hours after you exercise.

Source: http://thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/dieting.htm

Carol