Athletes and athletes usually attach great importance to a good one Nutrition. Because not only your training determines yours Muscle building or fat loss, yours Definition and your strength gains, but also the daily input of food or nutrients. It's like a racing car: Only with high-quality fuels will the vehicle achieve the optimum performance. A Formula 1 race is not won with diesel in the tank. The key macro-nutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Especially with the latter, the ghosts are different. The recommendations on carbohydrate intake vary widely and it burns through the daily recording true religious wars. If you too start to get confused and do not know how many carbohydrates are right for you, you might find the answer here.
What is the purpose of carbohydrates?
One could say that these building blocks serve to provide quick fuel for quick and exhausting actions. Carbohydrates are stored in the liver and muscles (glycogen stores) until you retrieve them. If they are not needed, or if your camps are already filled, they will go into your fat reserves. There they are available in converted form as long-term storage that can not be accessed so quickly. Basically a very intelligent system. Fast energy for fast action, long-term energy for long-term action.
What is the theory of Low Carb?
The selection of low-carbohydrate diets is great. The actual message is: carbohydrates make you sick and fat. They do this by ruining the human metabolism, which is said to be unremarkable and adapted to today's diet with lots of sugar and starch. For millennia, man has developed as a meat eater and only by the Sesshaftwerdung (in connection with agriculture) he would have come in contact with many carbohydrates. Unfortunately, the adjustment period was too short. We still have the genetic and hormonal features of a carnivore. About these statements can be argued. Too many carbohydrates in the meals, however, according to current knowledge actually seem to adversely affect our health.
What is crucial for the daily carbohydrate requirement?
Of course, not every person needs the same amount of carbohydrates in their diet. Criteria are: the body composition (much or little muscle), the extent of movement (hard worker, office stallion, couch potato, marathon runner), weight (underweight, normal, overweight), and metabolic rate, which are hormonal and genetic Structure of a person can result. So who has a fast metabolism with low insulin resistance and builds a lot of exercise in his everyday life, can take undamaged more carbohydrates.
What can change the need for sugar and starch?
The amount of carbohydrates that can be consumed daily without harm is not forever carved in stone. The need can change and you should take a closer look, if what worked before does not work anymore. An example is the change of your priorities in training. If you suddenly prefer to do heavy strength exercises and wonder that you are not really making any progress, it may also be due to your diet. If you feel unusually powerless, tired and depleted, it is possible that the glycogen stores in your body need more sugar and / or strength. Another example is a big weight loss. A heavy, untrained body with insulin resistance (overweight and lack of exercise are the main factors) can be brought into shape by a low-carb diet. If this person has lost many pounds and may have built muscle mass due to a changed lifestyle with a lot of sports, they can tolerate a lot more carbohydrates. Just as the metabolism changes for the better, so can the nutritional requirements.
What recommendations are there for non-athletes and athletes?
The spectrum ranges from 0 grams to about 250 grams of carbohydrates a day. A completely carbohydrate-free diet is actually not possible, since small amounts are also contained in meat, eggs and dairy products. Beyond the 250-gram limit, one can no longer speak of a low-carb diet. Non-athletes and obese people can go through an induction phase with daily 5 grams. The glycogen stores are emptied within a short time and the body can meet its glucose needs via ketone bodies. For athletes, this is a rather difficult phase. Because it takes some time to meet the demand for ketosis and the body has adjusted to this type of energy supply. Fatigue and weakness can occur during this time and torpedo the usual level of performance. If you want to avoid the condition of ketosis, you should take about 100 grams of carbohydrates daily. Your metabolism will not switch to this form of energy. Losing weight and building muscle are two different goals. A strength athlete or athlete who wants to build muscle will have little success with an extremely low carbohydrate intake in their diet. Simply because he lacks fuel to endure long and intense power units. In addition, motivation decreases and the immune system is affected. Athletes and bodybuilders are well advised with a carbohydrate amount of 2 grams per kilo of body weight. For a person weighing 100 kilograms, that means 200 grams of carbs per day. Based on this recommendation, you can step up or down in small increments of 20 - 50 grams each to support your workout goals (weight loss or muscle gain).
Conclusion:
No matter what amount of carbohydrates you decide on: for the sake of your health and well-being, you should choose high-quality and complex carbohydrates (vegetables, whole-grain cereals, legumes, etc.). These stabilize your blood sugar, thereby preventing food cravings and additionally provide you with many micro-nutrients that your body desperately needs.
