The Truth About Carbs
Some of you love them, some of you fear them, but they are the most important nutrient second to protein for making changes to muscle mass and fat loss.
Carb Benefits
Fuels What You Do In The Gym
Eating carbs will allow you to perform better in the gym than a very low carb diet. It is the body’s preferred fuel source for high intensity activity and helps speed up recovery meaning you can still maintain the same intensity for your next training session.
Fuels Fat Loss
Yes, certain types of carbs should be avoided when you are in a fat loss phase (chocolate, sweets, pasta for example)…but eating plant based carbs is an integral part of any fat loss diet.
Better Mood and Improved Sleep
A very low carb diet can inhibit the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin (the sleep hormone). Serotonin also helps you feel good and improves mood (which is why you get that happy sleepy feeling after eating lots of carbs and why I encourage eating carbs in your evening meal).
How Much?
How many grams of carbs you need is ultimately determined by three things: how lean you are (body fat percentage) and your lean muscle mass, how much activity you do throughout the day and how insulin sensitive you are.
Activity Level
Lets use this analogy; if your car is sitting in the garage it doesn’t use any fuel so if you tried to fill up the tank it would just spill out the side. The same goes for us, that overspill equates to sugar in the blood stream which in turn leads to a surplus in carbs being converted to fat and being stored in the body.
However, drive the car around every day you would fill it up often or would run out of fuel. For a human an empty tank would equate to fatigue, depression, low energy levels, impaired performance, muscle loss, stubborn fat, insomnia, low testosterone, decreased metabolic rate, bad moods and frustration over your body not changing despite dieting and training (sound familiar?).
How Lean You Are
If you are looking to lose fat your carbohydrate intake should be towards the lower side. This is because, in general, the less lean you are the more likely the carbs you eat will be stored as fat.
The leaner you get the more carb intake you can tolerate. This mean the carbs you eat are more likely to be stored as glycogen and used as fuel than they are stored as fat. This is one of the reasons that the leaner you get the more carbs you can process efficiently.
Leaner people tend to have good insulin sensitivity which means the carbs can be efficiently transported into your muscle cells. If you can properly use and store carbs then you can incorporate more into your diet.
If you don’t have great insulin sensitivity then your body will struggle to get carbs into your cells, meaning blood sugar is high and more likely to be stored as fat, therefore the amount of carbs you should have initially should be lower.
There is No Need to Fear Carbs
Simply cutting carbs may make you feel like you have instantly lost weight (mainly due to the water content), going on a low carb diet has hidden dangers such as depressed mood, plateau in fat loss, inflammation and elevated stress levels and will not work for the long-term. The key is to determine the right amount of carbs for your dietary requirement.
Carbs to Avoid:
High GI carbs which will spike your blood insulin level meaning it is more likely to be stored as fat. Grains, sugars, anything processed or packaged (e.g bread, cookies, crackers, protein bars, sweetened yogurts), and dried fruits are examples of these.
Carbs to Favour:
All the vegetables!!! Don’t necessarily count your green leafy veggies as carbs but do consider starchy vegetables such as sweet potato and pumpkin as carb sources. These are favoured as well as lower GI sources such as oats and brown rice.
Low G.I carbs from vegetables should make up a large proportion of what you eat as they contain minimal calories but a lot of water and fiber. This means you will eat fewer calories overall because:
Blood sugar is more stable
You are getting more nutrients per calorie
You are kept full from the fibre
On one final note remember; pre workout nutrition happens when your last workout ends! If you don’t fuel the body properly with the fuel required after your workout there is no way you will get the same intensity at your next workout. This means a longer journey to getting the results you want.
Happy carb fuelling!