Despite popular belief, carbs are NOT the enemy. However, you have to be strategic when you eat your carbs if your goal is to lose weight. When it comes to carbohydrate consumption, it’s all about timing. According to many fitness and health experts, the best time to eat carbs is during breakfast (first thing in the morning) and 2 hours before and after your workouts. Here’s why:

Breakfast – After 7-8 hours of sleep, your body needs to recover from being in a fasted state. Remember, you body needs fuel to burn for energy. When you eat your carbs earlier in the day, you’ll have the full day to burn them off. Click HERE for some healthy carb ideas to add to your morning meal.

Before your workout – Carbs are important for providing you with energy – and the more energy you have, the harder you’ll train. Loading up on your carbs BEFORE you workout will ensure you burn them off and NOT store them as fat.

After your workoutFrom More LLI Fit: Glycogen stores are used up when you train hard, in order for you to replenish and allow your body to shuttle nutrients, you need carbs in your post-workout meal.

Additionally, carbs help shuttle insulin to the muscle cells, and this accelerates the delivery of nutrients such as protein to the broken down muscle tissue.This is absolutely critical, and something many people usually don’t take into consideration.

Neglect your post-workout carbs, and your muscles simply won’t recover like they should. You’ll likewise feel more sore, and over time you may even lose some lean muscle tissue. When you don’t feed your muscles, your metabolism drops,