TIP: LOW-CARB DIETS VS. WORKOUT NUTRITION

[01dragonslayer]

THE MENTAL ASPECT AND THE MUSCLE MATH​

Eating carbs for many of us is a mental barrier, especially those of us who had a hard time getting lean and then finally got very lean by cutting carbs. But it doesn't have to be that way.

As long as your muscle glycogen stores are not close to full, the carbs you eat won't get stored as body fat, but as muscle glycogen. It's only when those stores are full that you'll begin converting carbs into fatty acids.

Again, most people eat too many carbohydrates, and most people are sedentary. An average male can store around 300-400 grams of carbs in the muscles.

If you're sedentary, you'll use around 100-150 grams of those carbs for energy on a daily basis. So if that person eats 500 grams of carbs per day it doesn't take long for his muscle stores to be full. Heck, even at only 300 grams of carbs a day, they'll be full in less than one week.

On the other hand, if you're training hard you're using a lot more muscle glycogen. So instead of using the normal 100-250 grams of carbs per day, you're using 300 grams per day. So if you eat less than 300 grams of carbs per day they won't be converted to fat.



So how could simply adding 45-60 grams of carbs around your workout make you any fatter? In your state, it can't. Heck, if you've been on a low-carb diet, it probably won't even kick you out of ketosis. But it WILL make your workout more productive.

You'll have more energy, which will help you put in more effort, you'll have a better pump, and you'll be able to recover faster. You'll also decrease cortisol production, which will allow you to build more muscle.

CARBS DON'T HALT FAT LOSS​

If you're a person who avoids carbs, you're saying something like this: "Yeah, but what I really care about is getting leaner."

Well, adding carbs can even help you get leaner. How? First, by allowing you to train harder you can stimulate better fat loss, and by reducing cortisol levels you also can increase metabolic rate.

Metabolic rate is impacted by the levels of the T3 thyroid hormone. The body doesn't make it directly; it makes by converting T4 into T3. That conversion can be inhibited by chronic cortisol elevation. If you overproduce cortisol, you can (in the long run), decrease metabolic rate. But carbs around your workout decrease the amount of cortisol produced during your session.

The bottom line is, adding carbs around your workouts won't make you fat. If you're tracking your macros, then you might want to decrease fat intake slightly to compensate for the 45-60 grams of carbs you'd be getting. Just decrease fat by about 15-20 grams, but that might not even be necessary.