By David Barr
We can improve our performance and
body composition simply by changing the way in which we use carbs
in our workout nutrition. It's just a matter of looking at the situation
and figuring out exactly how to do it.
Introduction
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Carbohydrates have gotten a
bad rap lately but this may not be completely without justification.
Carbs not only contribute calorically, but they're also great
at stimulating the hormone insulin -which is appropriately
named the "storage hormone".
This is why low-carb diets are
often so effective -they lead to a reduction in this storage
hormone, which not only increases fat use for energy, it also
prevents any stubborn fat from being 'spared' by insulin.
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The only exception to recent anti-carb
thinking seems to be in the time surrounding our workout. Considering
their impact on both performance and body composition during this
workout period, let's take a look at how to optimize training-time
carbohydrate intake. Ideally we'd want to get by on minimal carbs
but there are still a couple of ideas that are still kicking around
in an attempt to continue overconsumption of this nutrient.
The most common practice for using
carbs in workout nutrition is to use them following training. There
are two main lines of thinking to support this:
1) Glycogen Restoration
2) Enhancing Muscle
Protein Synthesis (recovery)
Let's take a quick look at each and
see if they hold up to our current outlook.
Maximal Glycogen
You may know that our muscle uses
stored glycogen for energy during exercise, and it is thought that
overall storage may be limiting to performance -that is to say that
if we have low glycogen levels then we won't be able to train as
hard or that we may fatigue prematurely.
Although the idea of a post-workout
window is now repudiated, the original justification for post-workout
carbohydrate intake pertained the quick replenishment of the glycogen
levels (which have been lowered or used up during training).
The big flaw with this proposition
is that, much like our original post-workout window information,
this idea is based on endurance training. Resistance training doesn't
affect muscle glycogen levels to an appreciable degree. In other
words, we don't need to over consume carbs because there's not really
anything to replenish!
Muscle Protein Synthesis
Another common justification for excessive
carb consumption after training is based on research showing that
insulin can enhance muscle growth and recovery (a.k.a. muscle protein
synthesis). If you'll recall that carbs stimulate insulin, then
it only seems natural that large amounts of carbs are warranted
for optimal recovery.
The problem with this idea is that
people often publicize the punchline of a study without actually
looking at the details. In this case the research used fasted subjects,
which essentially means that they were in starvation-mode. In this
situation the body will burn off ingested protein rather than using
it. But when carbs were used in this group, the protein wasn't burned
off, it was actually used to increase muscle growth and recovery.
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So what's
the problem?
When the study was repeated
with subjects who weren't fasted, there was no effect of
carbohydrates. It seems as though their effect is only felt
when people are in starvation mode-which should happen only
very rarely, if ever. So once again, we're left without
justification for overusing carbohydrates after training.
More Good News
So it looks as though we can
keep post-workout carbs to a minimum after training, which
is great news! This should not only help us feel better
but also assist with health and body composition.
But there's more good news.
Rather than simply removing carbs from our workout nutrition,
I'm going to show you how to actually use them to optimize
our performance and body composition.
Stay Tuned for that in
part II!
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About The Author
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