Eating Before and After Exercise
A lot of people have the wrong idea about nutritious foods and nutrition. I tried to explain this in a video below:
https://youtu.be/r9_BPjDmPtU?t=25s
There are many misconceptions around what to eat after exercising. Many people believe that eating a "cleaner diet" after exercise is good for you, but it actually has the opposite effect with negative effects on your training performance and health. This is because athletes need certain macronutrients which come from food sources with a substantial amount of protein, carbs, and fats in order to facilitate muscle growth and recovery.
Proteins, carbs, and fats are the three macronutrient classes that make up carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. In order to be able to recover properly after any type of physical activity , you need a lot of protein and carbs. There is an old saying that goes: "If you tighten a screw with a screwdriver, it works better than if you tighten it with a hammer". This can be applied to how useful nutrition actually is for your muscle recovery and growth: If most of your nutrition comes from raw meat as paleo diet advocates say, then it's less effective than if you supplement your meat intake with carb sources instead.
Many people believe that benefits of high protein diets are only relevant to untrained individuals because studies show that protein synthesis is lower in trained subjects. However, this first study I posted clearly shows that there is no difference between trained and untrained individuals in regards to protein synthesis. Other studies have also shown that the supplementation of carbs with high protein meals increases protein synthesis more than if you just eat mainly carbs. This is especially important for people who train a lot because they need to maximize their training efforts by getting more muscle growth and recovery from their efforts. This was covered by Brad Schoenfeld in a study he published recently: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30256323 .
Your muscles use a combination of different macronutrient sources as fuel during any intensity workout. Carbohydrates are converted into glycogens which serve as the main source of energy for your muscles to work with. Protein and fats are then used to repair tissues. Non-essential amino acids become active when glycolysis is active and when your levels of protein synthesis are at their highest. If the supply of carb sources isn't high enough, then your body will switch over to burning more fats stored in your body, but this doesn't actually increase fat loss. Consumption of high GI carbohydrates actually leads to more fat storage and less fat loss than consumption of low GI carbohydrates. I will cover this in a future article.
Retaining muscle mass during periods of rest is the same as building up your muscles, because it's your muscles that are being repaired and built up. That's why maintaining any type of muscle mass increases the risk of injury, fatigue, and eventually decreased training capacity and performance. Avoiding carbs after exercise may decrease the chances that you burn your stored fat as fuel during recovery, but it actually increases the amount of fuel you burn from fat cells if you overtrain (if you don't eat enough carbs). Also, consuming a high amount of carbs after exercise, like 100% carbs, will increase the levels of insulin in the blood which interferes with protein synthesis.
A high fat diet slows down your muscle building process. The actual number of calories in food is irrelevant (too many studies have been done that have shown that high carb and high fat diets do in fact have similar results for bodybuilders). What really matters is the type of nutrients and macronutrients you consume. This is why nutritionists always recommend that you eat whole foods that contain a combination of different macronutrients. I hope that this article has helped to explain some of the reasons why high-carbohydrate diets for athletes do not work as well as you think they do.
The following videos and articles are also good reads regarding nutrition and exercise:
AMERICAN DIET - HIGH CARB DIET (AND HOW TO MEET THE COOK) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHlJ1K_2wKk
How to Lose Fat on a High-Carb Diet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_cn0LE9I4Y
STILL STRONG ON A HIGH-CARB DIET (CrazyButNice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjSQY3qD9M4
STILL STRONG ON A HIGH-CARB DIET (CrazyButNice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEIb0vuGXeU
Can You Build Muscle on a High-Carb Diet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxfw05PV1_k
The Role Of Macronutrients In The Training Of Athletes - Part 1 : Protein & Amino Acids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6I9_lfuB7Q
The Role Of Macronutrients In The Training Of Athletes - Part 2 : Fats, Carbs and Sugars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUoMl1fME-U
Traditionally, fitness enthusiasts consider that the optimal diet for bodybuilding is a high-protein and low-carbohydrate regimen. It is often believed that the use of a high amount of carbohydrates will lead to higher levels of fat storage, insulin resistance and an accumulation of excess calories in the liver.
Conclusion
Based on all of the information above, it is quite clear that there are no benefits to high-carb diets for bodybuilding or athletic performance. I recommend that you stay away from them and instead choose a diet based around higher protein and lower carbohydrate intake. Your body will thank you for it when you start making progress in the gym and your life becomes way better off!
References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18476811 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16980908 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.