The Story Of Carbs And Energy

[SquatDeadPress]

What's funny is that my cousin switched me on a diet that preaches me these exact same principles and I've been gaining muscle/strength and losing fat... I used to be a carb whore. For some reason just like the TC I used to think eating tons of carbs made you strong. I don't know why I thought that but I just did. I was eating bowls and bowls of oats per day. Sure I was getting strong... but I was also getting fat and I've never been fat in my life. I wasn't really fat but was getting a belly... which kinda sucked.

My cousin told me that his new diet only made him stronger and leaner. He's a huge guy... a hockey player. Anyways his personal trainer made him switch to a diet with much less carbs. It worked wonders for him so I had to try it. It started working extremely fast for me. In 2 weeks I went form belly to getting my six pack back... more defined then ever before.. lol. I was surprised it got me lean so quick. Carbs I find make me bloated. I find even if I screw up my diet and some pizza or something I notice that I feel bloated right away.

Here's my diet. I try to follow it more or less.

Breakfast
? 200g meats
? One hand full of nuts
Or
? 2 yolks with 8 eggs whites, with veggies and 1 cup of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries: Cook your eggs with coconut oil

Snack
? 150g meat, fish or chicken
? 2 cup of green veggies
? 1 tbspoon sunflower oil.

Lunch
? 200g meat, chicken or fish
? 2 cups of green vegetables
? 1/2 avocados or nuts or 2 tspoon of olive oil

Snack
? ? cup of Cottage Cheese 1%fat
? 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil in the cottage
? 1 cup of berries

Dinner
? 150g of Meat, Chicken or Fish
? 2 cups of green vegetables
? 1 cup of rice, brown rice, sweet potatoes, brown rice pasta

Post-Workout Shake


I've only been eating heavy carbs pre-workout. For some reason I feel stronger in the gym if I eat some carbs pre-workout. But i don't feel like I need them all day long. Anyways I don't care if someone tells me your "wrong" for x and x reason. Some things work for different people. This works for me. Just wanted to share.

[izzylicious]

Excess carbs is problem.. excess anything is problem
i limit carbs to breakfast, post and pre workout while bulking or cutting .. and only breakfast on non training days ..
also .. the fatness is coz refined breads sugars sweets etc .. all screws u over.. if u just stay to whole wheat products .. oatmeals .. and fruits and veggies for ur carb sources.. i dont see how things could go wrong even if u dont workout and just eat moderatly with clean food ..

my trainer is about 8~12% bf year round and he is always eating alot carbs .. he just eating them in right time, healthy types .. and do his cardio everyday ..

[nashjocic]

Excess carbs is problem.. excess anything is problem
i limit carbs to breakfast, post and pre workout while bulking or cutting .. and only breakfast on non training days ..
also .. the fatness is coz refined breads sugars sweets etc .. all screws u over.. if u just stay to whole wheat products .. oatmeals .. and fruits and veggies for ur carb sources.. i dont see how things could go wrong even if u dont workout and just eat moderatly with clean food ..

my trainer is about 8~12% bf year round and he is always eating alot carbs .. he just eating them in right time, healthy types .. and do his cardio everyday ..

According to you your trainer is eating a lot of carbs while youare reducing them a lot. Ever wondered why is that?

[Hearnothing]

According to you your trainer is eating a lot of carbs while youare reducing them a lot. Ever wondered why is that?

I bet his trainer was already fit so his trainer could eat whatever he/she wants to.

[tenreps]

in responce to your post about carbs.my nutrition consists of BROWN RICE,SWEET POTATOES,LOTS OF VEGGIES,SOME WHOLE WHEAT PASTA.LOTS OF FISH,CHICKEN BREAST,AND VERY LEAN MEAT,BUT MOSTLY FISH.what u are saying is true if u are going to compete ,and only to cut carbs for lets say 12 weeks.everyones body is different what works for one may not work for the other.what u are doing works for you looking at your picture.but i do believe AND THIS IS MY OPION ONLY CAUSE IT WORKS FOR ME,that if u lift w/intensity 4 to 5 days a week you do need CARBS,IT IS THE SOURCE OF ENERGY.=========lift heavy

[nashjocic]

in responce to your post about carbs.my nutrition consists of BROWN RICE,SWEET POTATOES,LOTS OF VEGGIES,SOME WHOLE WHEAT PASTA.LOTS OF FISH,CHICKEN BREAST,AND VERY LEAN MEAT,BUT MOSTLY FISH.what u are saying is true if u are going to compete ,and only to cut carbs for lets say 12 weeks.everyones body is different what works for one may not work for the other.what u are doing works for you looking at your picture.but i do believe AND THIS IS MY OPION ONLY CAUSE IT WORKS FOR ME,that if u lift w/intensity 4 to 5 days a week you do need CARBS,IT IS THE SOURCE OF ENERGY.=========lift heavy

Well, you may be right to say that we are all diferent. Some people can tolerate carbohydrates without having bigger health problems (related to hyper production of insulin), but my estimate and experiance (30 years...) is that they are unfortunately in minority, some 10-15 % of overall population. That reflects in the eating paterns of mass population and their health situation. Not only exposed health problems should be cauned but also the prestage of the same. Many more people are in pre diabetic state without even knowing it, all thanks o their incompatibility with carbohydrates.
If you are the lucky one to eat carbs and still maintains good shape and good health, good for you! I have to deal with general populus and my advices have to help majority of people. When my clients start working with me I asses them and some of them are even adviced by me to have some carbohydrates in daily diet.
Best regards, Nash

[nashjocic]

in responce to your post about carbs.my nutrition consists of BROWN RICE,SWEET POTATOES,LOTS OF VEGGIES,SOME WHOLE WHEAT PASTA.LOTS OF FISH,CHICKEN BREAST,AND VERY LEAN MEAT,BUT MOSTLY FISH.what u are saying is true if u are going to compete ,and only to cut carbs for lets say 12 weeks.everyones body is different what works for one may not work for the other.what u are doing works for you looking at your picture.but i do believe AND THIS IS MY OPION ONLY CAUSE IT WORKS FOR ME,that if u lift w/intensity 4 to 5 days a week you do need CARBS,IT IS THE SOURCE OF ENERGY.=========lift heavy

Well, you may be right to say that we are all diferent. Some people can tolerate carbohydrates without having bigger health problems (related to hyper production of insulin), but my estimate and experiance (30 years...) is that they are unfortunately in minority, some 10-15 % of overall population. That reflects in the eating paterns of mass population and their health situation. Not only exposed health problems should be cauned but also the prestage of the same. Many more people are in pre diabetic state without even knowing it, all thanks to their incompatibility with carbohydrates.
If you are the lucky one to eat carbs and still maintains good shape and good health, good for you! I have to deal with general populus and my advices have to help majority of people. When my clients start working with me I asses them and some of them are even adviced by me to have some carbohydrates in daily diet.
Best regards, Nash

[nashjocic]

What's funny is that my cousin switched me on a diet that preaches me these exact same principles and I've been gaining muscle/strength and losing fat... I used to be a carb whore. For some reason just like the TC I used to think eating tons of carbs made you strong. I don't know why I thought that but I just did. I was eating bowls and bowls of oats per day. Sure I was getting strong... but I was also getting fat and I've never been fat in my life. I wasn't really fat but was getting a belly... which kinda sucked.

My cousin told me that his new diet only made him stronger and leaner. He's a huge guy... a hockey player. Anyways his personal trainer made him switch to a diet with much less carbs. It worked wonders for him so I had to try it. It started working extremely fast for me. In 2 weeks I went form belly to getting my six pack back... more defined then ever before.. lol. I was surprised it got me lean so quick. Carbs I find make me bloated. I find even if I screw up my diet and some pizza or something I notice that I feel bloated right away.

Here's my diet. I try to follow it more or less.

Breakfast
? 200g meats
? One hand full of nuts
Or
? 2 yolks with 8 eggs whites, with veggies and 1 cup of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries: Cook your eggs with coconut oil

Snack
? 150g meat, fish or chicken
? 2 cup of green veggies
? 1 tbspoon sunflower oil.

Lunch
? 200g meat, chicken or fish
? 2 cups of green vegetables
? 1/2 avocados or nuts or 2 tspoon of olive oil

Snack
? ? cup of Cottage Cheese 1%fat
? 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil in the cottage
? 1 cup of berries

Dinner
? 150g of Meat, Chicken or Fish
? 2 cups of green vegetables
? 1 cup of rice, brown rice, sweet potatoes, brown rice pasta

Post-Workout Shake


I've only been eating heavy carbs pre-workout. For some reason I feel stronger in the gym if I eat some carbs pre-workout. But i don't feel like I need them all day long. Anyways I don't care if someone tells me your "wrong" for x and x reason. Some things work for different people. This works for me. Just wanted to share.

You are dong ok. Just feel free to eat your meats in a bit higher amounts. And don't be scare of natural fats. Also, is good to share wth others.
Thx,
Nash

[sdfksdhgkhsdg]

I tried cutting out carbs completely before (except fruits and veggies). It made me feel so weak that I couldn't even get out of bed. I wanted to sleep all day, forget about lifting!

I don't agree with this article. Body needs carbs. I started adding 5 grams of carbs to every meal every day and got the the point where I started feeling normal. This way I don't gain much fat, but still have energy.

For most people its 30 grams of carbs to 40 grams of protein and 15 grams of fat or more carbs if your job requiers physical activity.

[thekuaibb]

I tried cutting out carbs completely before (except fruits and veggies). It made me feel so weak that I couldn't even get out of bed. I wanted to sleep all day, forget about lifting!

I don't agree with this article. Body needs carbs. I started adding 5 grams of carbs to every meal every day and got the the point where I started feeling normal. This way I don't gain much fat, but still have energy.

For most people its 30 grams of carbs to 40 grams of protein and 15 grams of fat or more carbs if your job requiers physical activity.

you should read up on the keto diet. your experience is kind of like carb withdrawal. It is normal and will go away after a week or two.

[sdfksdhgkhsdg]

you should read up on the keto diet. your experience is kind of like carb withdrawal. It is normal and will go away after a week or two.

I might give it a try one day but I don't really need to. What I am doing right now works. I started with my body fat being pretty high (i have a belly) and it didn't increase through out my bulk. I gained 20 pounds in muscle and water, became much stronger and I think I lost some body fat because I see more veins!

[mjlindne]

carbs are silently killing more people then smoking and drinking together and sadly there is no information or knowlidge about it. Thousends of peoople are droping dead every day from carbs related diseases and funny enough there are still teories and "experts" that advice people to eat up to 70% of daily calories from carbs!

lol!!!

[Thewhite9t]

I liked this article, but you seemed to demonize carbs in general instead of putting each kind in it's proper place.

Most fruits are good, especially with a high protein meal to help shuttle nutrients.
Whole grain carbs are always good before 7pm, especially before workouts
Starchy carbs are great for the meal after post workout
Simple sugars are best used sparingly post workout, or in the morning, with protein.

It's not about avoiding any particular macro, it's just about using it at the right time.

That being said there are some foods that should just never be eating though, like french fries, ice cream, patatoe chips...ect. But those are generally simple carbs packed with saturated fat.

[-NR]

I would say bread and pasta and rice are bad.

[nashjocic]

Sure, we didn't eat them for 99% of our human evolution and this is why we do not respond to them well. We can eat them, if nothing better is around, but health situation among general population will sugest you how good these foods are when they become staple diet.
Best,
Nash

[BrotherWolf]

Sure, we didn't eat them for 99% of our human evolution and this is why we do not respond to them well. We can eat them, if nothing better is around, but health situation among general population will sugest you how good these foods are when they become staple diet.
Best,
Nash

If I recall correctly carbs are a staple in some of the healthiest and leanest countries in the world.. Geece, Italy, Spain, France just to name a few... the so called mediterranean diet is
composed of roughly 40-60% carbs

[gregdike]

THE STORY OF CARBS AND ENERGY

I have achieved everything planed, apart from getting leaner. For the first time in my life I gained fat tissue around my waist, my buttocks were beyond recognition, and I had no trousers that I could have wear. After reaching that weight of 112 kg and my new shape, I become suspicious about the whole energy myth. On the end of the day that was undisputable truth! Carbohydrates were energy. More carbohydrates mean more energy, more energy means more strength, more strength means more muscles, so what I did wrong? At that stage and that point of time I couldn't find an answer. I thought that getting 'bigger' was the first stage in bodybuilder's carrier and that the time will help me find the right answer, and still indulging tasty carbohydrate foods get in shape and proportion that I wanted. Full of optimism and belief I continued with my first stage for next 3 years.

Nice article Nash. Can you upload a self photo during your experimental diet? I'm curious in knowing how you looked on a high carb diet.

[brunonator]

no no no ..over eating it's only a problem in developed countries like ours

where all sort of processed foods are available cheap and everywhere, where tv commercials are bombarding our brain and make us believe life is better with frozen dinners than farm fresh food..

holy crap... see if the indians in the south american rain forest who eats predominately starchy foods(bananas, yucca, potatoes) and little animal proteins.. are fat or overeating ?? LOL

The reason those indians are not fat is because they are using those carbs for actual energy, usual carbs that get burned for energy are not stored as fat. They probably have to farm and hunt the food, which is a laborous job to do. As opposed to America, people eat high amounts of carbs and are sedentary which leads to the obesity, if they are not using these carbs for energy then they are getting stored as fat, so in a way carbs are to blame for obesity in America, although carbs are the essential block for energy.

Also with ketogenic type diets, people run on fat, and fat doesn't get stored as readily in the body as fat, since the body realizes it has a solid fat intake, the body decides to burn this fat as energy instead of the low carb intake, diets like these can benefit many people in the US if they add a little bit of exercise. I think obesity is more of an issue of a sedentary life as opposed to just carbs.

[BrotherWolf]

The reason those indians are not fat is because they are using those carbs for actual energy, usual carbs that get burned for energy are not stored as fat. They probably have to farm and hunt the food, which is a laborous job to do. As opposed to America, people eat high amounts of carbs and are sedentary which leads to the obesity, if they are not using these carbs for energy then they are getting stored as fat, so in a way carbs are to blame for obesity in America, although carbs are the essential block for energy.

Also with ketogenic type diets, people run on fat, and fat doesn't get stored as readily in the body as fat, since the body realizes it has a solid fat intake, the body decides to burn this fat as energy instead of the low carb intake, diets like these can benefit many people in the US if they add a little bit of exercise.

I think obesity is more of an issue of a sedentary life as opposed to just carbs.

I mostly agree

Sedentary life is only a factor .. I see hundreds of construction workers, factory workers, manual laborers in general in the US who are overly overweight and obese, they work hard 8-12 hours a day some even longer ..

Other countries that for example follow a high carbs diet on a regular basis ..example Italy, france, spain, greece etc.. the mediterranean diet..

Composed of roughly 40-60% carbs, you do not see obesity as being a mass problem
what these country have in common is their eating habits and high quality of foods.
Europe is changing though and obesity is slowly becoming an issue in some countries because more and more processed foods are introduced to the markets but it has nothing to do with carbs

[Koragasu]

Cool story bro

[KurtyJ99]

A well balanced diet is key if you ask me, if size and lean mass is your goal. The article sounded a little biased, but that's because every body is different, which I understand.

I used keto myself to get in shape, but when gaining size I eat all 3 macro's in each meal.

Besides, your body in all reality has a really hard time turning carbs into fat, it's a long process, so if your a weightlifter and know your body, eatting carbs and depleting carb resources through weightlifting, will help increase lean body mass.

[TypeX]

Energy that you will use for your training will not come from your preworkout meal. Glycogen needed for the intense muscle contractions will be stored in your muscles days before you train them.

So true. The quality of my workouts largely depend on what my diet was like the day before, whether I'm working out in the morning or in the evening.

[hema456]

thanks

[MMA.All.The.Way]

Ok. Im so sick of hearing this ****. In the 80's and 90's fat was the enemy, now its carbs. Sorry to tell you man, but people are obese because they eat to damn much period!! There are so many people that i know have tried using the Anabolic Diet to bulk and it didn't do ****. There is much difference in how insulin acts in a healthy, fit body than it does from a sedentary fat****.

Well not really, an excess amount of carbs / glycogen as well as fatty acids lead to excess adipose tissue = fat storage.

Both are correct, people just overeat.

[MMA.All.The.Way]

"Energy that you will use for your training will not come from your preworkout meal. Glycogen needed for the intense muscle contractions will be stored in your muscles days before you train them."


prime example of ATP/PC ^
Nice article op, but lol @ your reply to yourself haha, i enjoyed it, repped.

[studlete]

Video on carbs and how they are being linked to cancers. 6min video at www.garagestrength.com

[NewAgeLegend]

Curious is it 1 cup Dry or 1 cup after cooking?

Because 1 cup of rice ='s 2 cups once it is cooked. i'd like to try a bigger diet tho.

[nashjocic]

[QUOTE=studlete;417542631]Video on carbs and how they are being linked to cancers. 6min video at www.garagestrength.com[/QUOTE

This is all due to overproduction of insulin that actually happens to eveyone after a meal of high carbohydrates.

[mark91345]

Well, you may be right to say that we are all diferent. Some people can tolerate carbohydrates without having bigger health problems (related to hyper production of insulin), but my estimate and experiance (30 years...) is that they are unfortunately in minority, some 10-15 % of overall population. That reflects in the eating paterns of mass population and their health situation. Not only exposed health problems should be cauned but also the prestage of the same. Many more people are in pre diabetic state without even knowing it, all thanks o their incompatibility with carbohydrates.
If you are the lucky one to eat carbs and still maintains good shape and good health, good for you! I have to deal with general populus and my advices have to help majority of people. When my clients start working with me I asses them and some of them are even adviced by me to have some carbohydrates in daily diet.
Best regards, Nash

I agree with Nash, as my understanding of "how we get fat" was completely changed after I read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. He says, with respect to obesity, that carbs drives insulin which drives fat. Thus, lowering carb-intake reduces insulin production, the causative factor of fat. The stories I am reading of people doing low-carb (or no carb) plans are having some amazing results.

Also, eating fat does NOT make you fat. Of course, this runs completely counter to conventional thinking (which is that "a calorie is a calorie"); however, Taubes says that this is not true; rather, it is the "kind" of calorie (i.e. fat, carb, etc) that causes the body to react. Low-carb plus high-fat seems to be the best choice for losing weight. The best way to verify this is to see how French people eat (called the French Paradox). I am not saying that I fully understand how it works.... but it is a measurable phenomenon.

[LowCarbOrator]

Video on carbs and how they are being linked to cancers. This is all due to overproduction of insulin that actually happens to eveyone after a meal of high carbohydrates.

Monday morning, I am beginning my VERY low-carb plan. I've done this before, briefly, and lost 20 pounds. The only problem was that I got bored of bacon, cheese, etc. Fortunately, I've done a lot more homework and found many other foods (vegetables) that are very low-carb, as I must have variety.