How you can leverage your carb consumption for better training sessions and greater results.
Carbs can often be demonised.
Like all nutrients, they still have their important place, time, quantities etc and can be very helpful in your health and fitness pursuits.
Whether your goal is to lose weight, build muscle, perform better or simply be healthier, this is how consuming carbs can help:
Many carbohydrate sources (eg. potatoes, oats, fruits etc.) contain a wide range of health- and fitness-promoting compounds like some of those discussed in (Are Fruit And Vegetables Really That Important?).
There are different types of carbohydrates that exert their effects differently within your body.
For example, there are complex carbs, foods like whole grains, brown rice, apples, starchy and fibrous foods etc (these are considered the healthy carbs because they take longer to digest, don’t shoot up your blood sugar, and exert other beneficial effects like assisting your digestion and gut health) and there are simple carbs eg. sweets, fruit juice etc., which are easily used for immediate energy (and are considered unhealthy because they cause a sudden increase in blood sugar and insulin response).
Once consumed, carbs are stored as ‘glycogen’ predominantly in your muscles, but are also stored in your liver and as a small amount of glucose in your blood. Their main function is to provide your body with energy.
What I’d like to discuss is how this glycogen/glucose from carbs play an important role in enhancing your strength training and therefore your results.
Regardless of your goal, building more muscle is going to help get you there. I’ve spoken about its importance for your overall health, longevity and functioning (Should I Be Doing Cardio Or Strength Training? & More Muscle, More Health?) but its role in losing weight and improving your overall appearance is just as important.
When it comes to your recovery and having the energy to strength train, this is where carbs shine!
As the intensity of your exercise session increases (think of your strength training session where you’re really pushing it), carbohydrates (glucose/glycogen) become the main fuel source.
If you’re training hard and don’t have much glycogen (carbs) stored up and ready to use, this can be a big source of fatigue and will negatively effect your recovery, immune system, and muscle building pursuits.
On the other hand, If you’ve got full stores and have adequate amounts to use, your performance will improve (you’ll be able to train harder and longer), your recovery will be better (including your immune system which can be impacted by lots of high intensity training), and you will protect and maximise your muscle mass! ((Muscles can be susceptible to breakdown if you’re depleted of carbs and are reducing your calorie intake.) 1)
Restricting carbs (even no carbs) has its time and place! For example, some people find it much easier to lose weight by simply cutting their carb intake and some people may even use a ketogenic diet (no carbs at all) in a medical setting or in management of a chronic disease/illness. Others just generally feel better eating very little carbs. If that’s what works for you, then keep on doing what works best.
But, knowing that carbs are an important source of energy and are going to assist your performance, recovery, and results when strength training, it may be worthwhile including more in your diet (or around your training session) if you’re training hard and are wanting to add some more muscle mass.
This is where timing and type can come in handy.
If you’ve got a sweet tooth and love some of the simple carbohydrate sources, then you could consume these kind of carbs around your training session as they will be a better source of carbs for immediate energy and ‘topping up your stores’ (good for performance and recovery) – so they may be useful in this context.
Another benefit of having these kinds of carbs around your training session is that you can use them as your ‘temptation bundle’ (which I discussed here: Two Effective Strategies to Help Get You to The Gym).
Then, away from your training sessions you could focus more on consuming your complex carbohydrate sources (veggies, fruits, oats etc.) and less of the simple carbohydrate sources.
*If you’re not training hard or are training at a low intensity, you probably don’t need full stores of carbs. So there’s another benefit of engaging in high intensity strength training often! (you can get away with eating more carbs around your training sessions).
Simple carbohydrate sources that are higher in glucose content (eg. white rice) are preferred for your muscle glycogen replenishment because they are immediately shuttled and stored in muscles (remember this is where most of your glycogen is stored). Foods that are higher in fructose (eg. fruit juices) have to go through a longer process (have to be dealt with by your liver first) so aren’t as efficient.
However! There is some benefit to having both glucose and fructose post workout as it may be best for your total glycogen replenishment (your liver stores are topped up too thanks to the fructose) and it may be better for avoiding GI distress (which some people may get with large amounts of glucose). (2) (3)
What kind of foods are these? If you love a treat (higher glucose content eg. anything sugary) then around your workout is probably the best time to have it! If you want a good carb source that contains both glucose and fructose (good for total replenishment) this leads us to my favourite sweetener: honey.
Honey is a great carb source to consume around your workout as most honey contains roughly a 1:1 ratio of glucose to fructose (varies based on the origin of the honey). (4)
There are also a few issues with other simple carbs that honey solves. Most simple carbs lack nutritional value and can even be ‘anti-nutritional’, you may get a sugar crash later on, and they may negatively impact your oral health.
1. Nutritional/functional value: Other than it’s high carbohydrate content, honey also contains small amounts of minerals, vitamins, trace elements, enzymes, amino acids, polyphenols and more. It also has antioxidant effects (further enhancing exercise recovery!), immune system regulating, anti-tumour effects, anti-inflammatory effects and even assists with digestive health/being a source of prebiotics (great for your gut health). (4) (5)
2. ‘Sugar Crash’: A paper by Kreider et al., 2007 looked at honey compared to other carb sources (sucrose and maltodextrin) and found that post-workout consumption of honey was just as effective as those other carb sources but also had a better blood glucose response (blood glucose levels were better maintained). (6)
3. Oral health: Your oral health is tightly intertwined with your systemic health, so it’s still important to consider when it comes to consuming these simple carbohydrate sources. Honey (Manuka honey in particular (UMF X15)) was shown to reduce dental plaque and gingivitis when the subjects applied the honey around their teeth after meals – it was even more effective than xylitol chewing gum! (7).
If you’re looking for a sweetener to use, or you’re wanting a good carb source to include around your workouts then honey could be a great option! It’s worth paying attention to its quality (local raw honey is always better).
To get great results, training hard and recovering well are crucial. This is where consuming some ‘faster acting’ carbohydrate sources around your training session can be very helpful. One idea is honey – it’s an effective energy replenishment source thanks to its glucose and fructose content, it has nutritional and functional qualities that benefit overall health, you may not get the same sugar crash as other carb sources, and your oral health won’t suffer as much! If you love to have something sweet in your diet, using honey as the sweetener and consuming it around your training session is a good strategy.
1) Hearris, Mark A et al. “Regulation of Muscle Glycogen Metabolism during Exercise: Implications for Endurance Performance and Training Adaptations.” Nutrients vol. 10,3 298. 2 Mar. 2018, doi:10.3390/nu10030298
2) Fuchs, Cas J et al. “Fructose co-ingestion to increase carbohydrate availability in athletes.” The Journal of physiology vol. 597,14 (2019): 3549-3560. doi:10.1113/JP277116
3) Gonzalez, Javier T et al. “Glucose Plus Fructose Ingestion for Post-Exercise Recovery-Greater than the Sum of Its Parts?.” Nutrients vol. 9,4 344. 30 Mar. 2017, doi:10.3390/nu9040344
4) Bogdanov, Stefan et al. “Honey for nutrition and health: a review.” Journal of the American College of Nutrition vol. 27,6 (2008): 677-89. doi:10.1080/07315724.2008.10719745
5) Ramsay, Eilidh I et al. “Honey in oral health and care: A mini review.” Journal of oral biosciences vol. 61,1 (2019): 32-36. doi:10.1016/j.job.2018.12.003
6) Kreider, Richard B et al. “Effects of ingesting protein with various forms of carbohydrate following resistance-exercise on substrate availability and markers of anabolism, catabolism, and immunity.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition vol. 4 18. 12 Nov. 2007, doi:10.1186/1550-2783-4-18
7) Nayak, Prathibha A.; Nayak, Ullal A.1; Mythili, R.2. Effect of Manuka honey, chlorhexidine gluconate and xylitol on the clinical levels of dental plaque. Contemporary Clinical Dentistry 1(4):p 214-217, Oct–Dec 2010. | DOI: 10.4103/0976-237X.76386
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