Fruit, friend or foe?

[Power_Lifter88]

Fruit, friend or foe?

Now, who doesn’t like a nice piece of fruit? But really what is the truth on fruit? I feel its overlooked in bodybuilding, but not looked at enough in normal living.

Bodybuilders overlook fruit, because I feel that they see it as a non-issue, something that will make you fat! Something that just isn’t good for building rock hard massive muscle, which we all want. But there is a different side to fruit that people in the bodybuilding world should know, some know of it already but some don’t, fruit is a GREAT pre/post workout meal, its got simple sugars, most fruits have plenty of those energy giving carbohydrates. They’re just a great source of simple sugars/carbohydrates for pre/post workout.
Here is the catch though, many bodybuilders avoid fruit because of a thing called fructose, now fructose is a form of simple sugar much like dextrose or glucose, which many of you may use. But bodybuilders seem to over do the whole fructose thing, let me give you an insight why they might;

Fructose is a simple sugar, yes we know that, but fructose is a little different to other simple sugar sources. See fructose is much easily stored as body fat, it has to travel through the liver first to be converted into glycogen. Then the problem is when liver glycogen levels get full in starts turning into fat. That is the reason bodybuilders try to avoid fruit, because seeing as though you can’t tell when your liver is full of glycogen, many bodybuilders just forget about fruit all together. But many bodybuilders over react about how much fructose really is in fruit, many fruits don’t contain loads of fructose but they do contain something that is very important to a bodybuilder, which is phytochemicals (micronutrients). Also fruits are packed with muscle growing nutrients.

So now you might be asking you self, why do we need this glycogen stuff in are muscles anyway? Well simple sugars such as dextrose, glucose and fructose are converted into glycogen, which is a form of carbohydrates that is stored in your muscles. What does it do, when it’s in your muscles? It helps you recover, grow, give you a full look (so you look bigger) and so you can have overall better performance at all workouts.

Back to good old fruit, when would the best times to eat fruit be? Well there are 3 best times to use fruit and they are:

1. As soon as you get up and make breakfast, because while your sleeping your glycogen levels are getting lower and lower because your body has been using them for an energy source while you sleep and if you don’t get any glycogen in you when you get up in the morning, your body will start to turn to using muscle for energy and you don’t want muscle catabolism.

2. Before training. Try and get a piece of fruit in around 30 minutes before training to get those glycogen levels up again and save muscle glycogen. The fructose in the fruit will also not stop fat burning like other simple sugars do i. e glucose.

3. After a hard, heavy workout. Have a piece of fruit to get your insulin spike going and to get the fructose and glucose into those muscles, so you can recover and GROW. Try and go with a fruit that is higher is glucose than it is fructose, such as; peach, cherries and banana.


One thing I must say though is try and stick with fruit at those times, don’t eat to much fruit or it will overload your liver glycogen levels and will be stored as body fat. If you are going to eat fruit at other times limit the amount you eat.

Fruits have plenty of fibre in them, that help slow down the rate of protein digestion to give you that steady release of amino acids.

Fruit also adds to how I believe people should eat more whole foods and try not to live on supplements all the time, you have a great source of simple sugars/carbohydrates here so use it, so when you go out and buy a supplement that has the simple sugars have a think if you need it or just have a couple of peach’s. Don’t eliminate fruit from your diet PLAESE, Fruit has so many good things going for it and is so overlooked in bodybuilding. There is lots of nutrients, fibre and like I said before those most important simple sugars that get your insulin up, glycogen stores up and gets into those big muscles and gets you growing, which we all want to do!

Back to eating the whole foods, fruit is known to pick up your appetite for food so you can eat more, so when you eating your 4th cup of oats for the day, have a little bit of banana and the sweetness of it will make you get that food down more easily. If your feeling down and out and have no energy just have a little fruit to pick you up again, but remember never eat to much, need to keep the liver glycogen levels in check.

If your reading this and saying to your self I want fruit but just can’t bring my self to eat it because of the fructose and liver glycogen levels, then why not try a citrate supplement with it, such as; calcium citrate or creatine citrate. It just helps that fructose to go to glycogen production and away from fat.

You might be asking yourself what fruits are good at what times, well I might just tell you a few fruits and what times would be best to take them: Pre-training: apple, grapes, strawberries, pears. Post-workout: cherries, peach’s, bananas. Breakfast time: orange, kiwi fruit, and nectarine. They’re just a few fruits that you can pick more; if you really want to chop and change then you can but be careful of fructose and glucose levels.

Well I hope this article has helped some of you bodybuilders out there to not overlook fruit when your writing up your next training/diet plan, it might even save you some money on supplements!
Always eat your fruit and veg but never go crazy with fruit, look after your self and eat more whole foods, get a good supplement and training plan and your set for better gains.

Fruit, friend or foe? I think a muscle-building friend!

[Bruzey]

Awesome post, thanks.

[hotasice2003]

To ur concluding points.....
#1......we won't lose muscle if we don't have fruit. Even if glycogen stores r totally depleted, u won't necessarily lose muscle, if u are eating plenty of BCAA's and EAA's, and of course fats for fuel.....

#3 Fructose can't be taken up by the muscles. It must first go to the liver and be broken down, and THEN is can be released as glucose in the blood to be used my the muscles. But, the liver will probably not release glucose here, if we r getting plenty of other carbs for the muscles......

I like the fact that u took time to write this thoo, and I agree that fruit should never be taken out of any bodybuilders diet, be they cutting or bulking. Good work.

[jonathanwyant1]

I've been keeping track of my diet for the passed month- just started BBing and I'm aiming for a 40% protein 40% carb 20% fat diet. Looking back at my average on my online calculator, I see that I've dropped to about 26% protein and over 50% carbs- mostly because of all the fruit I have been eating. Glad to hear there are specific places for fruit in the BB diet. Thanks!

[adambannon]

Fantastic Article Man! I used to eat fruit whenever I wanted. Now I am more informed. Thank you very much!

[MaverickZA]

Fantastic Article Man! I used to eat fruit whenever I wanted. Now I am more informed. Thank you very much!

Informative read....thx

[speerfapy]

arteria org pl]pozycjonowanie

[marcovantonio]

What about blueberries I've heard they have lots of anti oxidants

[SA1705]

To OP and responders:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top...-debunked.html

I do not believe in overnight catabolism on a physiological or simply logical basis. You may find the above link an interesting read. I am not deeming everything to be 100% true because I did not write the entire thing and do not have omniscient ability about everything. I am also not endorsing Intermittent fasting, but there are points in this article much stronger than your points to refute some of these "bodybuilding truths"

EDIT: scroll down to points 6, 7, 9, and 10 on the article to focus on the points addressed but the others are interesting as well.

Note: I am supplying a reference read, not proclaiming docrtine. Do whatever you feel suits you.

[Tom156]

Most ridiculous thread ever. How can fruit possibly be negative? Only obsessive bodybuilders ask questions like this.

[SA1705]

If you are concerned about gaining weight, and you eat a surplus of fruit to exceed your macros for the day..... or eat so much fruit that protein is insufficient....
thats all I can think of - which is almost unheard of problems...... In other words:

EAT FRUIT. If you eat it pre-workout, post-workout, with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Honestly, it is not going to make a difference, as discussed in the article that I posted, but I was once really analytical about fruit when I started as well.
- Just goes to show you how simple things get taken way out of context and pretty soon you can only eat fruit at certain times.......

But to each his/her own. If it makes them feel better to eat their fruit pre/post workout, I would much rather see that than overspending on dextrose or supp.s

Most ridiculous thread ever. How can fruit possibly be negative? Only obsessive bodybuilders ask questions like this.

[Jrosenfeld]

I was aware they had alot of sugars..People are are often misinformed that they are sooooooo good for you.. They are to an extent.

[Mat723]

i m eating fruits as far as i have read smth when i was writing down my diet here on BB.com and some of them got some advantages for a diet for someone who want to build muscle.
Also oranges got vitamines that are good for skin...so instead of eating a ****load of other junk food i prefer some sugars from fruits

[KevinWatson]

I just mix some apples in my oatmeal in the morning, Love it.

[Ryan_Ford]

nature's desert. nothing wrong with it in small amounts!

[tinyfirey]

Fruit, friend or foe?

Now, who doesn’t like a nice piece of fruit? But really what is the truth on fruit? I feel its overlooked in bodybuilding, but not looked at enough in normal living.

Bodybuilders overlook fruit, because I feel that they see it as a non-issue, something that will make you fat! Something that just isn’t good for building rock hard massive muscle, which we all want. But there is a different side to fruit that people in the bodybuilding world should know, some know of it already but some don’t, fruit is a GREAT pre/post workout meal, its got simple sugars, most fruits have plenty of those energy giving carbohydrates. They’re just a great source of simple sugars/carbohydrates for pre/post workout.
Here is the catch though, many bodybuilders avoid fruit because of a thing called fructose, now fructose is a form of simple sugar much like dextrose or glucose, which many of you may use. But bodybuilders seem to over do the whole fructose thing, let me give you an insight why they might;

Fructose is a simple sugar, yes we know that, but fructose is a little different to other simple sugar sources. See fructose is much easily stored as body fat, it has to travel through the liver first to be converted into glycogen. Then the problem is when liver glycogen levels get full in starts turning into fat. That is the reason bodybuilders try to avoid fruit, because seeing as though you can’t tell when your liver is full of glycogen, many bodybuilders just forget about fruit all together. But many bodybuilders over react about how much fructose really is in fruit, many fruits don’t contain loads of fructose but they do contain something that is very important to a bodybuilder, which is phytochemicals (micronutrients). Also fruits are packed with muscle growing nutrients.

So now you might be asking you self, why do we need this glycogen stuff in are muscles anyway? Well simple sugars such as dextrose, glucose and fructose are converted into glycogen, which is a form of carbohydrates that is stored in your muscles. What does it do, when it’s in your muscles? It helps you recover, grow, give you a full look (so you look bigger) and so you can have overall better performance at all workouts.

Back to good old fruit, when would the best times to eat fruit be? Well there are 3 best times to use fruit and they are:

1. As soon as you get up and make breakfast, because while your sleeping your glycogen levels are getting lower and lower because your body has been using them for an energy source while you sleep and if you don’t get any glycogen in you when you get up in the morning, your body will start to turn to using muscle for energy and you don’t want muscle catabolism.

2. Before training. Try and get a piece of fruit in around 30 minutes before training to get those glycogen levels up again and save muscle glycogen. The fructose in the fruit will also not stop fat burning like other simple sugars do i. e glucose.

3. After a hard, heavy workout. Have a piece of fruit to get your insulin spike going and to get the fructose and glucose into those muscles, so you can recover and GROW. Try and go with a fruit that is higher is glucose than it is fructose, such as; peach, cherries and banana.


One thing I must say though is try and stick with fruit at those times, don’t eat to much fruit or it will overload your liver glycogen levels and will be stored as body fat. If you are going to eat fruit at other times limit the amount you eat.

Fruits have plenty of fibre in them, that help slow down the rate of protein digestion to give you that steady release of amino acids.

Fruit also adds to how I believe people should eat more whole foods and try not to live on supplements all the time, you have a great source of simple sugars/carbohydrates here so use it, so when you go out and buy a supplement that has the simple sugars have a think if you need it or just have a couple of peach’s. Don’t eliminate fruit from your diet PLAESE, Fruit has so many good things going for it and is so overlooked in bodybuilding. There is lots of nutrients, fibre and like I said before those most important simple sugars that get your insulin up, glycogen stores up and gets into those big muscles and gets you growing, which we all want to do!

Back to eating the whole foods, fruit is known to pick up your appetite for food so you can eat more, so when you eating your 4th cup of oats for the day, have a little bit of banana and the sweetness of it will make you get that food down more easily. If your feeling down and out and have no energy just have a little fruit to pick you up again, but remember never eat to much, need to keep the liver glycogen levels in check.

If your reading this and saying to your self I want fruit but just can’t bring my self to eat it because of the fructose and liver glycogen levels, then why not try a citrate supplement with it, such as; calcium citrate or creatine citrate. It just helps that fructose to go to glycogen production and away from fat.

You might be asking yourself what fruits are good at what times, well I might just tell you a few fruits and what times would be best to take them: Pre-training: apple, grapes, strawberries, pears. Post-workout: cherries, peach’s, bananas. Breakfast time: orange, kiwi fruit, and nectarine. They’re just a few fruits that you can pick more; if you really want to chop and change then you can but be careful of fructose and glucose levels.

Well I hope this article has helped some of you bodybuilders out there to not overlook fruit when your writing up your next training/diet plan, it might even save you some money on supplements!
Always eat your fruit and veg but never go crazy with fruit, look after your self and eat more whole foods, get a good supplement and training plan and your set for better gains.

Fruit, friend or foe? I think a muscle-building friend!

Thank you OP. I love my fruit.

[mot1ve]

Fruits ****ing rock i ****ing love fruit especially melons and yes im ****ing serious because fruits are serious business and ****ing good and tasty and nutritious. **** you if you hate fruits

[moose9045]

Interesting read, thanks.

[Ronners]

One banana before workout

[CC95]

****ing peaches are delicious.

[jblaze69]

fruit is yummy, def a friend

[KarmicEffects]

Pear and a Plum everyday and NOTASINGLE****WILLEVERBEGIVEN.

[mistikempire]

learnt allot from this thread, good post!

[chenshan]

learnt allot from this thread, good post!

[jewelrylove]

We need fruit....

[trymarine]

One banana before workout

I often eat a banana whilst training,especially if my stomach feels a little empty.
Sometimes because of circumstances beyond my control,i need to train even if
i have'nt eaten for a few hours.This can be uncomfortable,and can interfere with
my exercising.Eating a banana makes it a little less uncomfortable and helps me
concentrate.I've heard it's one of the few things you can eat during intense
activity,without causing stomach cramps or bloating.As an example,watch
tennis pros between sets.

[jicbeatz]

great article mate....congrats!

[dragonro]

Bromelain and waxy maze in pineapples, give it a try

[NextNextLevel]

Fruit = Best Friend........Veggies = My Other Best Friend, dont underestimate the health benifits of these guys

[doomz123]

Great post op fruits r def a friend u just hv to consume them in moderation.