Carbs and lifting

[BendtheBar]

Giving this one in its own thread. It's the typical sort of nonsense that confuses lifters.

It's not possible not to have carbs before weight lifting. You can't utilize your stored body fat for energy in such a short amount of time (during weight training session). You need the energy that carbs provide you with. You should consume carbs about an hour prior to lifting... How can you say "0 carbs" before workout?!

I made a remark that I don't eat carbs before lifting, and haven't for about 5 years now.

[Soldier]

That shows a complete lack of understanding of how our energy systems function. When you lift you are using muscle glycogen. The type of lower rep, heavy lifting most of us do barely touches muscle glycogen reserves. After muscle and liver glycogen are topped off, any extra gets stored in fat cells, just like all extra calories we take in. It generally doesn't take more than 50g of carbs to replenish glycogen lost in a normal training session.

I've had some of my best lifting sessions while having not eaten carbs for 20+ hours.

Edit; even this is a vast oversimplification of how these things work. People just don't get that when you're talking about something this complicated, normal logic just doesn't apply.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Giving this one in its own thread. It's the typical sort of nonsense that confuses lifters.




I made a remark that I don't eat carbs before lifting, and haven't for about 5 years now.

An Oly based lifting book suggests Oly lifters (because it's Oly based, so just highlighting that ) draw on fat supplies for their lifts and that any lifter who feels fatigued during their session does not need more carbs but more fats in their diet.

[bamazav]

If I eat a ton of carbs before training, I lose a bunch of carbs, and fats and proteins during training.

I train fasted every time.

[BigJosh]

To be fair this concept that you needs carbs before lifting is intuitive logic for the average lay person (such as myself).
However, the statement made by said average lay person (quoted above) is a perfect example of someone speaking on something which they have no real knowledge about and more importantly no real experience with. A common problem on the internet forums and in life in general.
Having recently trained carb free myself, I have learned that the idea that carbs are needed to fuel a workout is inaccurate. In my experience the first week was hard, but after that everything was firing on all cylinders. However, without that experience I believed that carbs were important preworkout.
Live and learn I guess.

[Soldier]

There's nothing wrong with not knowing stuff. The problem, like you said, is people who want to talk like they know about something when they obviously don't. Why the hell would you argue with someone when all you know is what your little brain was able to put together? None of us are that smart on our own. That why research exists.

Then again, a little broscience is always good for a little laugh.

[Off Road]

I can tell you this, I've tried many different eating plans in my time. Most of them made very little difference in the long run outside of just simple calorie reduction for loss and increased calories for gains. Now I have adopted the moderate approach; if I want to gain, I eat more. If I want to lose, I eat less. I know, blasphemy.

[EliteDreams]

I'm with Off Road on this one. I very rarely comment about diets,eating and what not. I eat until I'm full,I lift,and I'm making gains. Reason why I don't give diet advice,is because I have none. I've only counted calories for 2 or 3 days,came out to be about 4k each time. Chicken,salsa,whole milk,green tea,donuts. This is just my lazy 2 cents,but unless your a competitive bodybuilder I see no need to fret over carbs vs fats.

At the same time,I've heard stories of powerlifters who's 3x3 became 5x5 when they dialed in their eating habits. Maybe all this talk just reinforced my laziness.

[Trevor Ross]

I eat a meat based meal before I lift, and a meat and carb meal after.