Picture this. You're sitting on the sofa in your fancy pajamas, as the windows are shut and Netflix blares in front of you. The credits on that episode of Friends finish rolling, but before the next episode starts, Netflix stops everything to ask if you're still... y'know, alive. You know what to do, but the remote that would allow you to watch the One With Ross' Sandwich and beyond is just out of reach. You'd move, but you're just too full of food to reach.
I don't think you're going to have to think too hard about that, because over Thanksgiving, that's probably you. Now, it's the holiday season and you're pretty much expected to build up a spare tire over the winter, but what if there was a way you could eat all of that delicious sweet potato pie and still keep your weight down?
There's a nutritionist who says there is a way, and it all has less to do with the amount of food you eat, and more about when you eat it. While carbs and weight loss are said to not go well together, sports nutritionist Michelle Adams-Arent thinks there's a way to get the best out of your carb consumption.
"When it comes to weight loss and carbohydrates, again, I think people jump on the bandwagon of let's not have any," explains Adams-Arent, who's from Massachusetts and has a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of South Carolina. But if you eat carbs at exactly the right time, then positive results can still be had.
While you or I are usually used to having our carbs later on in the day, like at dinner time or as part of an indulgent midnight snack, Adams-Arent suggests that eating carbs in the morning or around your workouts might end up being more fruitful for your body composition.
"Our body is better able to use those carbohydrates at that time and they're less likely to be stored as fat," the nutritionist explains.
"Sugar is the fastest burning, cleanest burning source of fuel that your body has. So we need it. But we need it around our exercise. We don't need it when we're sitting on our couch. Your body doesn't need all of that carbohydrate energy at that time because you're not using it. It's kind of like trying to fill up your gas tank when you're not driving anywhere."
She also reveals that overall, our body is much better at handling carbohydrate influxes in the morning, meaning they're less likely to be stored as unwanted fat and more likely to be used to help us harness energy during our tough and testing day.
Well then, there you have it, folks. Let's be honest: we're not going to be heading to the gym until after Christmas when we set ourselves that really dumb New Year's Resolution. But in the meantime, if you're looking to gorge on some leftovers over the holiday period, maybe it's worth waking up early in the morning to do so.
