Reasons For Ditching Post-Workout Carbs & Their Implications!
05-26-2017, 04:07 AM
A few things to unpack here.
To start off, with eating carbs regardless if it is pre, post or intra workout still count as carbs. Your workout will burn a certain amount of calories so while it may seem like they don't count because you'll be in a fuel deficit they still absolutely do.
Further more depending on when in the day your workout happens eating carbs post workout may actually be harming your ability to maintain a desired weight. For example, if you workout at 5-6pm eating carbs might be bad because you probably aren't going to be doing very much for the rest of your day so unless your metabolic rate is crazy high those carbs might get turned into fat. (Also considering how many total carbs you have allotted for the day)
The article is very good and has solid information but it gives too much of the science for a regular person to understand and act upon.
It's always been a general rule that your post workout meal should mostly consist of protein. Proteins help your body repair to the damaged muscle tissue from the workout you just had.
Also the thing to keep in mind is "Protein synthesis" the action of your body using the protein you have in your system to repair muscle tissue happens randomly. Mostly of the time it's during when you sleep, but can also happen in the middle of the day, and the process is short like around 15 to 20 minutes.
Also unfortunately the common knowledge idea that you need to consume 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight doesn't mean anything. I personally think it was put out there by the supplement companies to get people to buy their protein powder products.
In reality, it will only use what is available. So if there is not enough protein in the system it will go break down fat and carbs to repair the tissue. So while it is a good idea to consume alot of protein when you are looking to gain size/strength keep in mind that anything that the body doesn't use will be converted into fat stores. (The body will break down fat stores or carbs in the blood to get branch chain amino acids. The building blocks of muscles.)
It is better consume protein throughout the day and have a steady stream of protein in the body, just in case your body wants to start Protein synthesis while your at work.
Eating carbs or food in general an hour or 2 before your workout is bs and it doesn't do anything for your energy levels during the workout.
Its a placebo effect.
In reality, the food you ate 10-14 hours earlier will be the deciding factor. When you eat food your body goes and checks to see if the glycogen stores in your muscles are full or not. If they are not full then they use the food (protein, fat, carbs) to fill up the glycogen stores to prepare you for the next time you have intense physical activity ie working out. This process takes around 12hrs give or take. Anything that your body cannot use to refill the stores gets converted to fat.
Some may say what about pre-workout shakes, caffeine etc. Those are stimulants. They directly stimulate the CNS putting you in an energized state but it is not unlike a "paper tiger". Wherein you feel like you have so much energy to lift but once it wears off you crash hard.
Just like your test levels you cannot tell what your growth hormone levels are without blood testing. It is pointless to mention because it's not realistic to be getting blood tests 4 times a day to see if you're body has elevated insulin levels or not.
I personally like to get my carbs in in the first half of my day because i workout 1st thing in the morning. The amount if carbs i eat is dictated by what kind of work out I'm doing that day which i will know the night before when I'm prepping all my food.
If i'm looking to maintain size and bf% i'm ok with going to bed a little bit hungry. I'll drink water and green tea instead.
To start off, with eating carbs regardless if it is pre, post or intra workout still count as carbs. Your workout will burn a certain amount of calories so while it may seem like they don't count because you'll be in a fuel deficit they still absolutely do.
Further more depending on when in the day your workout happens eating carbs post workout may actually be harming your ability to maintain a desired weight. For example, if you workout at 5-6pm eating carbs might be bad because you probably aren't going to be doing very much for the rest of your day so unless your metabolic rate is crazy high those carbs might get turned into fat. (Also considering how many total carbs you have allotted for the day)
The article is very good and has solid information but it gives too much of the science for a regular person to understand and act upon.
It's always been a general rule that your post workout meal should mostly consist of protein. Proteins help your body repair to the damaged muscle tissue from the workout you just had.
Also the thing to keep in mind is "Protein synthesis" the action of your body using the protein you have in your system to repair muscle tissue happens randomly. Mostly of the time it's during when you sleep, but can also happen in the middle of the day, and the process is short like around 15 to 20 minutes.
Also unfortunately the common knowledge idea that you need to consume 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight doesn't mean anything. I personally think it was put out there by the supplement companies to get people to buy their protein powder products.
In reality, it will only use what is available. So if there is not enough protein in the system it will go break down fat and carbs to repair the tissue. So while it is a good idea to consume alot of protein when you are looking to gain size/strength keep in mind that anything that the body doesn't use will be converted into fat stores. (The body will break down fat stores or carbs in the blood to get branch chain amino acids. The building blocks of muscles.)
It is better consume protein throughout the day and have a steady stream of protein in the body, just in case your body wants to start Protein synthesis while your at work.
Eating carbs or food in general an hour or 2 before your workout is bs and it doesn't do anything for your energy levels during the workout.
Its a placebo effect.
In reality, the food you ate 10-14 hours earlier will be the deciding factor. When you eat food your body goes and checks to see if the glycogen stores in your muscles are full or not. If they are not full then they use the food (protein, fat, carbs) to fill up the glycogen stores to prepare you for the next time you have intense physical activity ie working out. This process takes around 12hrs give or take. Anything that your body cannot use to refill the stores gets converted to fat.
Some may say what about pre-workout shakes, caffeine etc. Those are stimulants. They directly stimulate the CNS putting you in an energized state but it is not unlike a "paper tiger". Wherein you feel like you have so much energy to lift but once it wears off you crash hard.
Just like your test levels you cannot tell what your growth hormone levels are without blood testing. It is pointless to mention because it's not realistic to be getting blood tests 4 times a day to see if you're body has elevated insulin levels or not.
I personally like to get my carbs in in the first half of my day because i workout 1st thing in the morning. The amount if carbs i eat is dictated by what kind of work out I'm doing that day which i will know the night before when I'm prepping all my food.
If i'm looking to maintain size and bf% i'm ok with going to bed a little bit hungry. I'll drink water and green tea instead.