Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast.
Today's topic and discussion is all about carbohydrates.
As a fuel source.
The working title is Carbohydrates and Performance Fueling for Strength, Endurance and Hypertrophy, or Muscle Building.
Now before we dive into the meat and potatoes or starches of this carbohydrate conversation.
Few notes.
One, everyone responds different to diet and nutrition protocols in a very unique and personal way.
There is no perfect diet.
I recognize that.
There may be certain diets that have been shown through research and clinical studies to be more beneficial for certain individuals, whether lifestyle related or performance related.
And I am personally a fan of carbohydrates.
So obviously a lot of this conversation is going to be pro-carbohydrate.
However, I will share some information on the low-carb and keto approach to nutritional interventions and performance optimization.
But my diet is a balanced approach to protein, dietary fats, and carbohydrates.
And a lot of the information that I will be sharing.
My perspectives, my opinions are.
It will be based off of that preference.
I am pro-carb, especially when I'm in a large training block.
I'm prepping for a race, a marathon ultra high rocks Ironman triathlon.
My carbohydrate intake reaches sometimes a thousand grams per day, based off my energy demands.
But there isn't a one size fits all diet approach, or even a carbohydrate approach.
There isn't a one size fits all because a one size fits all does not exist.
So, that being said, I would love if you listen to this information, this podcast, and consumed it.
Went and did your own research, discovered your own information and then tested, learned and applied what is applicable to you.
The only way you know if you're a responder to high carb versus low carb or low carb versus high carb is by trial and error.
You just test it out.
Someone can tell you this is the perfect macronutrient ratio and breakdown.
This is how much protein you need.
This is how many carbohydrates you need.
This is how much fat you need.
And then you try it and you test it.
And if it doesn't work for you, it would be ignorant of yourself to not go and try something different.
I've actually tried low carb before.
I've tried keto before for a short period of time years ago.
I just didn't enjoy it.
I didn't enjoy the way I felt in the gym and training.
I felt flat and depleted and it just wasn't for me.
So, all that being said, I wanted to set the stage, for I'm obviously going to lean more carbohydrate heavy, because that is my preference.
That's what I enjoy.
And that's what works for me.
So diving in, how and why does your body need and use carbohydrates?
So carbohydrates are, supplying energy to the body, four calories per gram of carbohydrate.
As many of you probably know, might know, might not know, one gram of carbohydrates is four calories.
One gram of protein is four calories.
One gram of fat is nine calories.
And actually a gram of alcohol is seven calories.
So dietary fat is the most calorically dense per gram of the macronutrients.
Carbohydrates also, when broken down after consumption, digestion into glucose, glucose is the body's primary energy source mentally and physically for bodily functions and for our muscles, for our movement, and for our brains.
Now, what happens when you consume carbohydrates?
I'm sure many people have heard of insulin, insulin resistance.
Some people have a negative connotation between carbohydrates and insulin and blood sugar spikes.
So let's talk about some of this.
What happens when you actively consume carbohydrates?
When you eat carbs, your digestive system breaks them down into glucose.
Glucose is in the simplest form how your body utilizes carbohydrates.
When glucose enters the bloodstream after consumption, digestion, blood sugar rises.
So this is your body's natural response to consuming carbohydrates.
Turns into glucose, blood sugar rises.
Now the spike of that blood sugar will be dependent upon the source of the carbohydrate.
Is it a simple sugary carb or is it more complex?
And then the amount or load of that carbohydrate.
So if you have a very just simple sugary carbohydrate source table sugar, for example, or candy and you have a lot of it, say a hundred grams you're going to have a very fast and dramatic blood sugar spike and rise.
So your body responds to this and it responds with insulin.
So your pancreas creates and releases insulin in response to a blood sugar spike.
What insulin does, it helps clear the glucose from the bloodstream.
So insulin helps move glucose from the bloodstream into your cells.
And inside the cells, glucose is converted into ATP, which is the energy source that the body can use, for example, muscle contraction, brain function, organ activity, daily movement, intense training, etc etc.
ATP is the energy source of the human body.
Now, as a side note, I recently recorded a podcast all about creatine and how creatine is used in the body and why, in my opinion, everyone should be supplementing with creatine for both the physical and the mental cognitive benefits.
Creatine is an energy enabler.
So what creatine does, it helps regenerate broken down ATP within the cells for more energy.
As you see, ATP has a powerful potential within our body for many different bodily functions and activities.
Now, insulin gets a bad rap occasionally because a lot of people don't understand insulin.
Insulin is necessary.
We want our bodies healthy, to naturally and effectively release from the pancreas insulin in response to a blood sugar spike.
We want to move the glucose out of the blood into the cells where it can be utilized.
Insulin is a key regulator in both energy balance and blood sugar control.
Now, when someone becomes insulin resistant, their body still makes insulin, but the cells don't respond properly.
And this can lead to type 2 diabetes, for example.
Type 2 diabetes is not necessarily because you've consumed way too many carbs or and sugar and candy.
It's a bigger issue.
It's more chronic.
Type 2 diabetes can and potentially will develop because of a chronic caloric surplus, poor nutrition practices and choices and a sedentary lifestyle, excess visceral fat, poor sleep, high stress and genetics.
So you get type 2 diabetes when you become insulin resistant.
So like I said, your body still makes insulin, but the cells don't respond properly to the insulin.
So think of it like this.
Insulin is the key.
The cell is the lock.
If you are insulin resistant or you have insulin resistance, the lock gets rusty.
Over time, the pancreas can't keep up.
Insulin production declines, blood glucose rises chronically, and this is how you can potentially develop type 2 diabetes.
From all of those things I mentioned caloric surplus, sedentary lifestyle, excess visceral fat, poor sleep, high stress, genetics.
With all that being said, carbohydrates are the most effective and And quick, easy energy source that the body can utilize for many physical and mental processes.
And the way that we promote healthy carbohydrate intake and insulin response is by eating the right foods, the right amount of foods, recovering and sleeping properly and moving our bodies.
Training.
Carbs are not the enemy.
Carbs on their own will not make you fat.
Excess calories will make you fat.
Can make you fat if you are not burning and consuming and utilizing those calories in an appropriate way.
There was once a low carb era, but since there's been a downfall to the popularity of that low carb era, some of you may be familiar, some not the Atkins diet.
The Atkins diet blew up this low-carb industry, low-carb era.
And the Atkins diet peaked in about 2003, 2004, with a rapid decline afterwards.
The Atkins diet was very low, restricted carbohydrate, high protein, high fat.
And the Atkins diet took over the world, or at least the world majority of the population of the United States.
Brands shifted their focus.
CPG, consumer packaged goods brands, shifted their focus.
There were thousands of new products that came to market that were low to no carb, high protein, high fat.
And to be honest, it worked for a lot of people.
A lot of people lost significant weight, got healthier on the Atkins diet.
They ended up removing an entire macronutrient.
Essentially, that brings a lot of calories from their daily diet.
And I would have to assume that many people were consuming carbohydrate sources that were not the best.
I mean, it's not like these people generally were consuming oatmeal and sweet potatoes and rice and potatoes starches fruits, fibrous fruits.
Many people were probably consuming highly processed, ultra processed carbohydrate sources.
Sweets and candies and sugar and soda and all the things.
And these types of foods that are produced and formulated and developed in labs are created to make you crave and want more.
If you look at some of the most indulgent, addictive foods...
They're highly processed, ultra processed, high sugar, high fat.
When you combine fat and carbs or sugar together, you can create something that is so delicious and so addictive that when you have something like the Atkins diet that pops off and it peaks in 2003 2004, removes a whole macronutrient portion of your diet and primarily eliminating some of these addictive sugary, ultra highly processed foods, it's going to help a lot of people.
But why the decline?
Well, many people experienced restrictive diet fatigue and Many people wanted to shift to a more holistic health approach.
There are and were social limitations to the Atkins diet.
And it promoted and increased long-term nutritional deficiencies.
With all that being said, it wasn't sustainable.
It is our responsibility as individuals to to steward our health, our physical mental emotional, spiritual health.
And in order to do this successfully, we have to choose sustainable options.
It's not a choice.
You have to choose things that are sustainable, lifestyle interventions that you can do for a long period of time.
Like I mentioned earlier, I tried a low-carb keto diet before.
And one of the main reasons I didn't continue.
It is because the restrictive diet fatigue, social limitations, it just made living life, if I'm being honest, harder.
And I'd come home from work and Steph, my wife, before we had kids.
We'd make dinner together, and we still do, but we used to spend a lot more time in the kitchen cooking dinners and trying out new recipes.
And for these few weeks that I was following a keto diet a few years ago, it really limited what I could eat.
And especially because Steph was following a more holistic, balanced diet approach, it created some conflict within our relationship.
There were just obstacles of like I could eat this even though she didn't want to eat that, and things that she wanted to eat I couldn't eat.
And it just didn't work for us or me.
So I believe that's one of the main reasons that the Atkins diet and the low carb era had such a rapid decline after it peaked in 2003 2004.
And I would assume most people Now following a more holistic approach to health.
Functional health and wellness is much more popular than it was 10 15, 20 years ago.
People want to feel good.
They want a sustainable way of living.
Something that isn't restrictive and that facilitates social and community interactions.
And in my honest opinion, I don't think a low-carb Atkins approach works.
And that's why such the rapid decline after it peaked in those early years.
Now, years later, the keto diet got extremely popular.
But same thing the keto diet which popped off a few years ago based off some of the research I was doing and I don't have any hard facts in front of me right now, but there has been a huge decline in ketogenic diet.
Searches content, products and brands.
I mean, I remember...
This was maybe 10 years ago when the keto diet just went wild.
I mean, it popped off.
There were keto brands left and right.
All these consumer packaged goods companies were creating keto products.
High fat, high protein, very high fat, low carb.
And over the years from when I saw the peak of it until now, you don't see many people following a strict keto diet any longer.
And you really don't see many, if at all, keto brands emerging into the industry and the market today.
Now, I actually was first introduced to the ketogenic diet when I was in college, because I went to school to study nutrition at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
I went to school to study nutrition because I thought, naively and ignorantly, that we were going to be talking about nutrition.
When it came to, it was applicable to sports performance and improving athletic ability and body composition.
And I was rudely awakened that when I arrived at college and I started going through some of my core nutrition classes, I was there to learn about everything else but improving athletic performance.
The nutrition course that I was going through and degree was was all around disease prevention and intervention, primarily focused on diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
We never talked about physical training.
We never talked about the gym, never talked about body composition.
Like funny story.
When I was in college, I decided to diet down and compete in my first bodybuilding competition.
And I did this to create content and promote BPN, because I started BPN in 2012 between my junior and senior year of college.
Shortly after decided to train for diet down and compete in a bodybuilding competition just to try to build some sort of awareness and buzz and content around BPN.
And at the time, I had no clue where to get started.
I didn't know how to lose 25 pounds of fat in 16 weeks to be able to step on stage shredded.
So I went to the dean of the college of the nutrition program at IEP.
I sat down with her.
I laid it out.
I was like hey, I got 16 weeks from now until this bodybuilding show that I want to do in Pittsburgh.
Can you help me get there?
And she looked at me and said, I have no clue what we got to do to get you there.
That's not what we do here.
We are interested in learning about disease intervention from a dietetics approach.
And I was just taken back.
What are you if you can't help me, how the heck am I going to get to where I want to be?
So I went to YouTube and the bodybuildingcom forums and I learned all about flexible dieting and if it fits your macros and tracking nutrition and MyFitnessPal.
And that's how I lost the 25-ish pounds of fat that I had to lose to step on stage.
It was by tracking macros and manipulating macros primarily fats and carbohydrates to reduce caloric intake, to burn up this body fat and get as lean as possible.
But I first was introduced to the ketogenic diet when I was in college, because the keto diet is popular, became popular, which is a high fat, low carbohydrate and controlled protein diet.
And it's been used because it is an established and effective medical treatment for some people with epilepsy seizures who do not respond to seizure medications.
Because, when ketones are produced in the body in the absence of carbohydrates or limited carbohydrates, ketone bodies can reduce the brain excitability.
So that's where I was first introduced to the ketogenic diet, because it is an effective and established treatment protocol for people with seizures.
And then, years later, I started hearing more about the keto diet for the mental clarity people get, for the health benefits, for the fat loss benefits, which can be extremely effective.
The keto diet.
It's when about 70 to 80 of calories are from fat and your carbohydrates generally decrease, are below 50 grams per day.
Now, with that being said, our brains, our brains need glucose.
Our brains utilize glucose about 20% of our daily caloric intake.
Even though our brains only weigh, on average, about 2 of our body weight.
Even when we are on a ketogenic diet, very low carb, our bodies can still produce glucose in the absence of carbohydrates through this metabolic process called gluconeogenesis.
And this process occurs in the liver and in the kidneys, which is pretty interesting.
Our bodies know, hey, we need glucose for certain bodily processes.
And if we're not consuming carbohydrates?
And if we're not consuming carbohydrates, we can't create glucose from the carbohydrates.
Our body is smart enough to create glucose from other non-carbohydrate substrates through this metabolic process called gluconeogenesis.
And it uses substrates such as glycerol, lactate, propionate, and certain amino acids.
Pretty interesting stuff.
Now, with that note, It takes time to create glucose through gluconeogenesis.
It is a much more effective way to supply our body with the glucose that it needs and is required from carbohydrate sources, which we'll get into here in a little bit.
You've probably heard of ketosis if you've heard of the ketogenic diet.
Ketosis is a natural metabolic state where your body shifts from relying on glucose as energy and bodily processes to using fat stores and dietary fat as energy.
So you become more effective and efficient at utilizing ketosis fat.
Fat stores dietary fat because your body can't rely on the glucose because it's not being provided carbohydrates.
It typically takes three to four days to reach ketosis, which is a metabolic state, as I've said.
And you know, you're in ketosis, you can do blood readings.
I've had some friends over the years who have followed the ketogenic diet and And they'd have this device and they'd prick their fingers and it would take a blood reading and it would give them their ketone readings.
Like how many ketones are in their blood?
A blood ketone reading greater than 05 millimole per liter is technically states that you are in ketosis.
05 millimole per liter is technically in ketosis, but anywhere from 15 to 3 millimoles per liter are ideal.
So, I mean, I've seen a lot of friends and watched people who follow ketogenic diets.
They're poking their finger multiple times a day to check if they are actively in ketosis in this fat burning furnace of a metabolic state.
Again, why does the ketogenic diet work for many people?
You are eliminating an entire macronutrient, for the most part of carbohydrates, from your diet.
Nutrition protocol and daily diet.
And also that protein and fats are more satiating than carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates you get obviously this blood sugar spike.
Insulin responds, brings the blood sugar back down.
And when you eliminate carbohydrates or minimize carbohydrates in your diet, You don't have these blood sugar spikes and drops and you have a more steady state of energy throughout the day.
And protein and fats are more satiating.
They keep you more full than carbohydrates can, especially simple sugary carbohydrates, compared to say, fibrous carbohydrates.
So I want to take a quick break in the middle of this episode to talk about one of the products we've created here at BPN.
And over the years, it has become one of our best selling products.
It is G1M Sport.
It is carbohydrate based, which is perfect for what we're discussing right now in this episode.
Each serving of G1M Sport is 20 grams of carbohydrates and 350 milligrams of sodium per serving.
It is not only, in my opinion, the perfect fuel source for endurance training, but also resistance training as well.
And G1M Sport uses a very special and unique carbohydrate source called Cluster Dextrin.
It is a very fast gastric emptying carb source, meaning that after consuming it it doesn't sit in your gut for long.
It digests very quickly, so you don't get stomach discomfort, gut rot, gas and bloating like some of these cheaper carbohydrate sources on the market will provide and do.
Cluster dextrin replenishes muscle glycogen very rapidly, which is great for post-workout, post-training recovery.
And clustered dextrin provides a sustained, steady release of energy without causing sudden or sharp spikes in blood glucose and insulin levels that are typical with simple sugars like dextrose or maltodextrin.
So not only is clustered dextrin the king of carbohydrates around training, in my opinion, but it makes G1M Sport such a unique performance amplifier and fuel source for both your endurance training and resistance or strength training.
So with that being said, let's dive back into today's episode.
So if you are going to consume carbs and you've decided you don't want to follow a low-carb, ketogenic diet, Let's talk about how many carbohydrates you probably need and then their role in exercise being aerobic versus anaerobic, endurance and strength training.
How many carbohydrates do you actually need?
Now, if you go online and look at most recommendations, the recommendations are based off of grams per kilogram of body weight and an easy way to to establish your weight in kilograms.
One kilogram equals 22 pounds.
Right now I am roughly 200 pounds, so about 90 kilograms.
So when you look at a lot of the recommendations on carbohydrate intake, you're going to find it's in grams per kilogram of body weight.
So first thing you got to do, find out how many kilograms you weigh.
You can either do the conversion one kilogram equals 22 pounds or just find an online calculator and conversion and find it that way.
The right amount of carbohydrates for you are going to be based on your activity level and the training volume and, more importantly, intensity that you're doing.
So for general fitness, the recommendation typically, these are not hard numbers, but ballparks.
For general fitness and general health, three to five grams per kilogram of body weight.
For light activity, which is about one hour training per day, five to seven grams per kilogram of body weight.
For moderate activity, which is one to three hours of training per day.
Six to 10 grams per kilogram of body weight.
And for high activity, which is three plus hours of training per day.
This would be Ironman training.
Eight to 12 grams per kilogram of body weight.
As I previously mentioned, when I was training for my Ironman a few months ago, I was training at least three hours a day, six days a week.
And I was consuming anywhere from 700 grams of carbohydrates to over a thousand grams of carbohydrates per day.
But it is required with that level of fitness, of training, intensity, and volume.
So those are some good kind of ballpark numbers.
I have found that most people generally overestimate their carbohydrate intake and underestimate or under report their fat intake.
This is why I think it's really important.
You don't have to track your macros and track your food and track your nutrition every single day.
I definitely don't.
I do every once in a while, but my diet is pretty consistent from day to day.
Dinner is where I have the most variation.
And if we're traveling, there's even more variation.
But I pretty much know on a daily basis how much I'm consuming.
And I will adjust that based off of the amount of training I'm doing.
Especially when it doing a more intense run, I will increase calories and especially carbohydrates around those days.
But most people think that they're consuming more carbohydrates than they really are.
And most people think they're consuming less fats than they really are.
This is why I say it's important that people at least track their nutrition every once in a while, because you'll learn a lot.
I could ask someone, how much dietary fat do you think you consume on a daily basis?
And they might say, 80 grams, 85 grams.
And then you track their nutrition with them for three to five days.
You find on average, they're consuming 150 grams of fat a day.
It's pretty wild.
There's fat hidden in a lot of things, especially when we go to dinner.
If you go to dinner, you can almost assume that everything's cooked in oil and butter.
And I know this from talking to friends who run restaurants and are chefs and cooks.
Like, yeah, everything's cooked in oil and butter.
If you're cooking dinner with your family, You're cooking fast.
You're not thinking of it.
You add some olive oil in the pan to cook the meat that you're browning.
You add some olive oil on the potatoes that you're about to roast.
You add some olive oil or butter to the vegetables you just steamed.
If you look at it, you got your lean ground meat.
You have these potatoes, a good starch, you have your fibrous veggies awesome.
Not saying fat is bad, but when you're putting butter, and oil and all these things to cook them or saute them, those oils, those fats add up.
If you ever consumed nuts and if you've ever weighed out a serving of nuts, it will depress you.
I eat a serving of macadamia nuts every day in the afternoon.
I do a protein shake, some fruit, macadamia nuts.
If you weigh out one serving of nuts on a scale which is about one ounce, 28 to 30 grams, it's like nothing.
Nothing.
Granola, not necessarily a fat, but weigh out one serving of granola next time you eat some granola.
And you realize how small these servings are.
We have multiple food scales sitting around the house, multiple food scales around the office.
I travel with a food scale occasionally just for portion control.
And I think you'd be surprised how much fat most people are consuming on a daily basis and how little carbohydrates most people are consuming on a daily basis.
Especially if you're trying to keep your carbohydrate sources cleaner and leaner.
Fruit veggies oatmeal, rice potatoes.
Those are higher volume foods, sometimes lower carbohydrate foods.
You can easily crush 150 grams of carbohydrates in a bag of candy, but try eating 150 grams of carbohydrates from rice or oatmeal and you're going to be pretty stuffed and uncomfortably full.
So I like to adjust my carbohydrate intake based off of how I'm training for the day, if I'm training for a particular race or event, and the volume and intensity that I'm experiencing daily weekly, monthly.
There are certain days where I'm not training really hard, might be just a one hour lift in the gym.
I don't need as many carbohydrates that day.
But on days like today, where I ran nine miles in the morning and then a strength training session in the afternoon, I'm going to have to consume more calories and more carbohydrates to fuel those training sessions, replenish muscle glycogen and to set me up for success the following days in terms of performance recovery, physically and mentally.
But identifying how many carbohydrates you actually need.
These ballparks are a great place to get started.
But feel free to experiment.
Increase your carbs over time and see how you feel.
You might find that you drastically have more energy.
You feel better.
Your bowel movements are better.
You sleep better.
You have less stress, less anxiety.
Or you might Be a better responder to lower carbohydrates, higher fat and just see what works best for you.
Like I said in the beginning of this episode, we are all unique and we all require a different type of diet with different ratios of fats and carbohydrates.
That's the fun part.
Find what works best for you, but you can use these ballparks to get started.
Now, carbohydrate consumption for all.
Aerobic versus anaerobic exercise.
Endurance versus strength is pretty significantly different.
Intensity determines the fuel substrate required.
Intensity, intensity, intensity.
There is an expert panel report that I was reading, titled High Quality Carbohydrates and Physical Performance.
It's PMID 2944946 by Mitch Cantor.
And it states although dietary protein and fat can provide necessary energy to perform physical activity, carbohydrate and is the substrate most effectively most efficiently metabolized by the body and the only macronutrient that can be broken down rapidly enough to provide energy during periods of high intensity exercise, when fast twitch muscle fibers are primarily relied upon.
Carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that can be broken down rapidly enough to provide energy during periods of high intensity exercise, when fast twitch muscle fibers are primarily relied upon.
Carbohydrates, when consumed and digested and broken down into glucose again are.
They are the most efficient substrate.
They are broken down most and easily rapidly, fast enough to provide the energy required for high-intensity exercise.
One of the reasons I love carbohydrates.
When your body needs the fuel source, you got it.
It's supplied.
Now it is safe to say there is some conflicting information and arguments about how much your body needs carbohydrates when it comes to strictly strength training.
But what we do know is that when the intensity and the volume of the workouts, when the strictly strength training increase, you require more glucose.
You require more carbohydrates.
If you're just going to the gym and you're moving some weight around and getting a good pump, you're not going to deplete glycogen, which is how your body stores carbohydrates in the muscle and in the liver.
You're not going to deplete glycogen muscle glycogen through a strength training workout, unless it's absolutely intensely long and just you're getting after it.
I mean, it's gonna be really hard.
You can more easily deplete glycogen from endurance training.
I believe that when it comes to endurance training running cycling, swimming carbohydrates are much more necessary critical, important.
Like when I'm running a lot, I'm consuming a ton of carbs.
When I'm running less and strength training more, I'm still eating a decent amount of carbs, but not as much when my endurance training increases.
Carbohydrates are In my opinion, it is the name of the game for endurance training.
I think there's a hard way to argue against it.
Some people do train for these lower intensity ultra marathons or endurance efforts on a low carb, ketogenic diet.
But for those same individuals.
A lot of times when they go to race, they introduce high carb into their race and competition strategy.
I just think that for when it comes to endurance training, carbs are king.
When it comes to strength training, carbs are still great, but not as necessary, especially not as necessary at the same amounts or dosages as endurance training.
What's interesting about glycogen is Our muscles store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen, as I've said, in the muscles and in the liver.
And our bodies.
If we don't have glucose accessible in the bloodstream can tap into the glycogen break down.
Use that glucose for energy pretty effectively and efficiently.
You can store roughly 400 to 700 grams of carbohydrates as glycogen in the muscles and about 80 to 100 grams of carbohydrates as glycogen in the liver.
Some of us can store upwards of 800 grams of carbohydrates as glycogen that we can tap into when we need it.
This is why we carbohydrate load for endurance races or big efforts or big training blocks and days.
Because we can top off our muscle and liver glycogen so that when we are digging deep into a big workout or a race and we don't have the amount of carbohydrates on hand that we have to consume to keep up with the demand of our bodies.
Our body can tap into our stored glycogen and use it as a reserve, a tank.
So we keep performing and we don't bonk.
Again, this is another reason I love carbs and I always carbohydrate load before a big effort, because it makes a difference.
Now, when it comes to strength training, hypertrophy, and bodybuilding...
Again, it's a little bit of a different approach to carbohydrates.
Are they necessary at the same level and amount as endurance training?
I don't think so.
Do they still play an important role?
I do believe so.
My question is if you've ever gone into a strength training or bodybuilding workout And it's been more hypertrophy based, more volume based?
You're chasing the pump, higher reps, lots of volume, lots of sets.
If you've ever felt flat or stringy, had a hard time getting a pump, how did that feel?
Probably not that great.
It probably wasn't the best workout.
Some of my best strength training workouts, my best bodybuilding hypertrophy-focused workouts is when the pump is absolutely insane.
Carbohydrates play a huge role in this.
When your muscle glycogen is topped off on all the carbohydrates you need, you ever have a big, big meal, whether it's a cheat meal or a big pasta dinner.
You ate lots of carbs say, on a Monday night.
And then the next day or two days afterwards you go into the gym to hit a back workout, for example, and your pumps are out of control.
You have so much blood moving into the muscle, your arms, your back, your lats, they feel so full.
Well, the carbs that are stored as glycogen play a huge role in that.
When I was dieting down for the two bodybuilding competitions I've done in the past.
When my calories have gotten lower, when my fats have gotten lower, I've gone into workouts feeling extremely depleted, not being able to get a pump, muscles feeling stringy and just not strong and firm.
That's not a great feeling, but it's a great workout when you feel filled out performance-wise and pump-wise.
What is the pump?
If you're unfamiliar with the pump.
The pump is that when you go into the gym and you start training typically not strength-focused workouts, but hypertrophy-focused workouts
Like I said, these bodybuilding-style workouts, higher reps, higher volume, moderate intensity.
Blood moves into the muscles that are being trained.
They look full.
They feel full.
A pump is one of the best feelings in the world.
I love running.
I love endurance training.
I am a bodybuilder at heart.
Gym rat.
I love the pump.
And a better pump can mean more muscle.
And a better pump can be facilitated through proper nutrition.
Carbohydrate intake, glycogen stores, hydration water, pre-workout supplements.
And although the pump is not the only driver of hypertrophy or muscle building, the pump or cellular swelling can stimulate muscle growth by activating protein synthesis, reducing protein breakdown and potentially increasing nutrient delivery to the muscles being trained.
So more carbs, more muscle glycogen, better pumps, better ability to build muscle and recover from training sessions.
Carbohydrates have an important role in both resistance training and endurance training.
I think most people would confirm and argue that appropriate carbohydrate consumption and intake on a daily basis, but especially before, during and after training, is more important endurance training than in resistance training.
But that's not to say that carbohydrates don't play a vital role in strength and resistance training.
And especially if you follow a training program like I do, a hybrid approach of running and lifting carbohydrates are definitely necessary and critical.
The way that I structure my day is I run in the And then I lift in the afternoon.
If I run in the morning and I don't put a focus and emphasis on carbohydrate consumption and nutrition, when it comes to go train in the afternoon in the gym, I'm going to feel like garbage.
Flat, depleted, no energy, poor pump, poor performance.
For someone who trains hybrid endurance and strength carbohydrates, calorie consumption it's necessary to fuel the training sessions but also recover and set yourself up for the next session.
Now, a question that I typically get and I see is, are some carbohydrates superior than others?
And I believe the answer is yes.
Here's my approach.
It depends, and I say this lightly, I don't want people to take this out of context.
It depends on how many carbohydrates you have to consume on a daily basis and what you're training for.
Now, when I was in my Ironman prep and I had to consume a thousand grams of carbohydrates on certain days, I can tell you right now all of those thousand grams of carbs were not coming from oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruit rice.
I was consuming cereal in the evening.
Before going to bed, I was having a massive bowl of cereal with a hundred grams of carbs in it.
I was putting a honey on a lot of things like a natural food source, but definitely a sugary carbohydrate source.
If I'm consuming less carbohydrates on a daily basis, I'm leaning more towards the oatmeal, the rice, the sweet potatoes, the fibrous fruits and vegetables.
But on days where I have to consume a lot of carbohydrates, I'm leaning more towards the sources that are more easily digestible, that are lower volume, higher calorie.
There are certain fruits or dried fruits that are high in carbs, high in sugar, high in calories.
They just make it easier to get in all the carbs you need to keep up with the amount of training that you're doing.
But there are, in my opinion.
I mean, that's a very specific case on when to choose different carbohydrate sources based off the amount that you have to consume.
But on a more normalized approaching basis, yes, I believe...
There are certain carbohydrate sources that are more superior healthier, better options than others.
I mean, they're simple versus complex carbohydrates.
Complex carbohydrates cause less of a blood sugar spike and have a more sustainable rise and fall of blood sugar, providing a cleaner energy.
Carbohydrates that are complex are more fibrous sources, which promote more satiety.
They keep you longer or fuller for longer.
They promote healthier digestion and fat loss.
So when I look at carbohydrate sources that I'm going to be consuming on a whole, natural food sources,
I gravitate towards oatmeal, which is a natural grain as a, as a great source of fiber.
I'll lean towards fruits, especially fruits that are more fibrous uh berries strawberries blackberries blueberries, um.
I'll lean towards vegetables that provide fiber, as well as a diverse portfolio of vitamins minerals potatoes, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, gold potatoes starches, rice.
Those are my go-to carbohydrate sources because I know I'm not just getting the carbohydrates.
I'm getting the vitamins, the minerals, the nutrients, the fiber, that comes along with them.
And if you're going to be choosing carbohydrate sources, I would gravitate towards those, the ones that provide more nutritional value than just the carbohydrate sugar, glucose alone.
Now in closing, carbohydrates are a fuel.
They are a fuel for our bodies, They are a fuel for our cells.
They are a fuel for our minds.
And especially when you add on the layer of performance and training and volume and intensity.
Carbohydrates and glucose play, in my opinion, an even greater role for improving efficiency effectiveness, performance and recovery, again not just physically, but mentally as well.
Your fuel, your inputs determine your outputs, your performance, your results, how you feel, how you show up.
But I would encourage you, if you are interested in a low-carb ketogenic diet, give it a try.
Consult with a doctor or a physician and structure your diet in a way that can, in a healthy and sustainable way, allow you to reach a state, a metabolic state of ketosis.
And if that's an itch for you that you want to scratch, by all means, give it a try.
But for me and what I've learned about my body, my performance, how I prefer to eat and feel, carbohydrates play a huge role in my diet, especially when I'm going into a big training block or pursuing an endurance school.
Carbohydrates make up the majority of my diet because I know that the inputs determine the outputs.
And I want to feel good.
I want to feel strong.
And it's just my preference personally that I've learned over the years makes me feel the best.
So I hope this is useful information for you, provides some info on the low-carb era and the downfall and why I believe most people are now moving back towards, after the years of trendy diets and fads, a more sustainable, balanced approach to diet being proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
So thank you guys.
I appreciate it.
As always, go one more.
