Tag Archives: carbohydrates

Do you feel stuck in a rut? Like no matter how hard you train, or how much protein you eat that you’re just not getting what you think you deserve from working out? If you feel this way, then there’s the very high likelihood that it’s not your workout that’s the problem; it’s probably your diet.

But not just any random part of your workout; specifically your carbohydrate intake.

At this point you’re probably thinking “but wait won't eating more carbs make me fat?”, and a plausible question it is.

Yes, while carbohydrates can contribute to you accumulating excessive fat, there is no question to the efficacy of consuming carbohydrates for muscle gain or performance enhancement.

A nutritional plan without smart carb intake is like pouring the wrong fuel (such as kerosene instead of gasoline) into your car and expecting it to get you the same place at the same time, or even there at all!

But how can you exploit carbs for their immense benefits while also simultaneously minimizing their not so desirable effects? Turns out a lot of this comes down to timing.

A Solid Carbohydrate Strategy

While solid food should form the nutritional base for sustainable performance improvement and muscle gain, supplements exist to solve two problems; a diet that can benefit from a boost, and speed. We will be looking at carb supplementation from the speed perspective, since you should be capable of devising an effective diet plan before you throw your weight behind supplements.

Most carbohydrate supplements you can buy fall into the fast absorbing category, which make them ideal for use at the peri-workout interval, though there are lesser known options which we will mention in this article as well.

Aren’t All Carbs The Same?

No. while all carbohydrates may ultimately breakdown into a simpler form (most often glucose), they vary significantly in how fast this happens and how efficient this is. The aim of most carb supplements is to get nutrients in your blood as fast as possible, a feat not easily accomplished by solid food. The most popular carb supplements available on the market today include the following:

Dextrose

Dextrose is the most popular carbohydrate in the world, and the one which is the best representation of the glucose our body uses. Dextrose is actually D-glucose, one of two naturally occurring isomeric forms of glucose (the other being L-glucose) and also the most dominant of the two.

It is a simple carbohydrate and boasts the advantage of affordability and rapid onset of action. Dextrose can have an impact on blood glucose levels in as little as two minutes and is almost fully absorbed by the ten minute mark.

This speed of absorption makes it useful when timing matters, such as immediately after your workout[i]carbohydrates, theoretically take much longer to breakdown, have a lower glycaemic index (GI), and make better options for use during the day when speed isn’t urgent. But not maltodextrin.

It is atypical because it acts like a simple sugar- rapidly absorbed and able to raise blood glucose levels in a pinch. It may even do so to an extent equal to or greater than dextrose itself, which makes it good as a pre and post-workout carb, and less of an all-day choice. It may also help prevent degradation of performance during your workout when combined with glutamine[iii]weight gainers have maltodextrin as one of their primary carbohydrate sources, but it is not ideal owing to the rapid absorption and clearance from blood.

Waxy Maize

Waxy maize is surprisingly unknown to many athletes, being considered a higher quality carb than the other two for usage throughout the day. While the aforementioned two carbs have GI values of 100 and 85-110 respectively, that of waxy maize is much lower- coming in at just 63.

What this means is that it does not cause that massive blood glucose or insulin spike the other two are known for, making it an excellent choice for slow sustained energy release[iv]carbohydrates to keep you in an anabolic state. As you may have guessed, however, it comes at a steeper cost.

Karbolyn

A patent pending designer carbohydrate[v]carbohydrate that is more rapidly absorbed than dextrose or maltodextrin, from within the stomach directly. This means no intestinal issues.

It also has the property of sustaining energy for up to two hours making it great as a pre-workout carb source. It isn’t that popular as yet owing to the patent pending nature of the formulation.

In Summary

Hate them or love them, carbs are here to stay. If you want to get a leg up on the competition or just improve your own performance or muscle gain, well timed carbs are essential to your goal.

Be sure to choose the best option wisely; use speed when you need it and opt for slower digesting sources throughout the day with solid food as your base.

[i]

A 2018 study published by the Nutrients scientific journal shows that a controlled and low carbohydrate intake combined with a high fat intake has a minimal effect on athletic performance. In order to understand this study and its findings, athletes need to comprehend that this idea of controlled macronutrients is not new. The ketogenic diet is seeing a strong rise in popularity, even if it has been strongly criticized when its ideas were first published in 1920. It was believed that the diet can have a positive effect on epilepsy sufferers and today, many people associate the diet with weight loss and in some cases, with improved physical performance.

Research methods and findings

The study was part of a project of Australia's Centre for Sport and Research at Deakin University. It went on to investigate the blood composition of two groups of subjects. The first group followed a diet of low carbohydrates and high fats such as the keto diet while the second group followed a diet high in carbs. All subjects were elite level walkers.

There is a clear indication that the controlled carbohydrate intake doesn't influence peak performance. It is explained by the study which measured the acid-base status in these elite athletes. But what is acid-base status? Measured in pH, acid-base status is the natural balance between acidic and basic alkaline compounds in the blood. The kidneys and the lungs are responsible for the acid-base balance.

Controlled carb intake does not affect the athletic performance of the two groups in the study either due to pre-existing training adaptations or due to the actions of the kidneys and the lungs which directly impact acid-base. Of course, the study found that the differences in the pH levels of the two groups were significant. However, this was not enough to change the acid-base.

The innovation of the study

The research comes to offer new information in an area which was not studied at all. While there are other studies which seek to answer similar questions, they were not focused on elite athletes. It is why the researchers chose top athletes who performed at the Olympic Games or at World Cup championships. Even more, the researchers went to great lengths to ensure all subjects had the supervision of qualified dietitians.

In these conditions, the main conclusion of the study is that over a period of three weeks, the low carbohydrate and high fats diet of the athletes had no influence on acid-base status. This anomaly can be associated with the fact that elite athletes have a different training status than the subjects from previous studies, which were in a healthy state, but not at an athletic. However, it can also be explained by the higher capacity of the body to neutralize dietary acids simply by expulsion either through the respiratory system or through the renal pathways. In other words, changes in athletic performance while on the ketogenic diet are not likely to come from changes in acid-base status.

Source: Nutrients 2018, 10(2), 236; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10020236

Reducing carbohydrate intake (though, not eliminating carbohydrate intake) has been shown to improve the conditions of metabolic syndrome.

It is commonly assumed by many people to avoid eating carbohydrates in the evening as it can make us gain weight. The typical logic for avoiding carbohydrates at night comes from the idea that because we are resting in the evening, we won’t burn much energy thus storing most of the carbohydrates to fat. The claim of avoiding carbohydrates at night could be suspected as correct but can be hard to decide without seeing sufficient evidence.

You definitely need to fuel up with carbohydrate supplements for better overall workout gains!