By Skip La CourSix-Time National Champion Bodybuilder
Success and Leadership Coach
Many Bodybuilders Don't Eat the Carbohydrates Their Bodies Need And Mistakenly Believe They Are Doing Themselves a Favor
This challenge happens when bodybuilders go overboard eliminating carbohydrates that will help the muscle-building process.
Here's the challenge:
“I'm trying to lose body fat so I'm restricting my carbohydrates down to almost zero. The only problems is that I think I'm losing a lot of muscle”
Many bodybuilders who are trying to lose body fat choose to go on extremely low carbohydrate diets. Low-carbohydrate diets can help you shed body fat. There's no doubt about it. They are effective because low-carb diets can create a deficit between the calories you eat versus the calories you burn every day. That's the key to losing body weight.
Unfortunately, some of the weight you lose on a low-carbohydrate diet will include some of the muscle you've worked so hard to put on—and not only unwanted body fat. You may not be satisfied with how much muscle you need to sacrifice on your way to dumping your fat. You can improve your muscle loss to fat loss ratio simply by making a few minor adjustments to your nutritional habits.
In the past, I too was a big advocate of low-carbohydrate diets. They helped me get ripped--but they didn't help me protect the muscle I had and you can forget about them helping me effectively build more muscle. A more efficient approach to dieting could have helped me get just as lean and assist in preserving and building muscle at the same time.
Drastically reducing the amount of carbohydrates you eat may not be as critical to losing body fat as you might think. In fact, eliminating carbohydrates at important times of the day may prevent you from putting on as much muscle as you are capable of packing-on.
Carbohydrates serve as an essential part in the muscle-building process. Instead of trying to eliminate carbohydrates altogether, you should make sure you are eating the right types of carbohydrates at the right times of day.
I never realized how important eating the right carbohydrates at the right times of the day was to my muscle-building and muscle-preserving efforts. However, I evolved into an “efficient” eater. I learned to eat the right foods at the right times.
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As I previously mentioned, when I started consuming high-glycemic carbohydrates before and immediately after my workouts, I began to build and preserve more muscle. I didn't avoid the fat-burning glucose type of carbohydrates like I did in the past. “Sugary” or glucose types of carbohydrates are supposed to be bad for you as a bodybuilder, right? That's what I've read. How about you?
Those high-glycemic, glucose carbohydrates were in my pre-workout and post-workout meals. Eating this type of carbohydrate at these times spiked my insulin levels and helped to force the much-needed protein I ate with them into the muscles.
When you are outside of a three-hour period of time outside your workouts, the you want to limit your carbohydrates to the ones that fall into the low glycemic index.
Vegetables are a great source of these types of carbohydrates. The great thing is that you can eat as much as you want. If I had anything close to resembling a “secret weapon” that I could offer in terms of nutritional practices, it would be to eat as many vegetables as humanly possible every day.
Besides providing an excellent, sustained source of energy, these fibrous carbohydrates allow me to eat a larger amount of food by volume than starchy carbohydrates (such as rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.) and do so with a fewer number of calories.
Eating vegetables gives me more "bang for my buck" so to speak. I can practically eat as many vegetables as I wish during a meal and easily stay within my allowed daily caloric intake. The ability to eat more food by volume is a huge mental benefit when I'm forced to restrict my daily calorie consumption in an effort to lose excess body fat. Just about all the calories in the vegetables you eat are negated by the work it takes your body to digest them. The opposite is true when eating starchy carbohydrates. A person must be very careful not to include too many calories in starchy carbohydrates in his or her diet—which is not hard to do.
Because of the low glycemic value in vegetables, my insulin levels are managed much more efficiently than when I eat starchy carbohydrates. That means fewer "up and downs" in my energy levels, fewer mood swings, and less chance for excess calories I may eat to be stored as unwanted body fat.
Eating vegetables also slows down the digestive process. Slowing down the digestive process will ensure that my body efficiently utilizes the precious protein I eat and depend on to repair and build muscle tissue.
I'll be the first one to admit that eating vegetables is not nearly as satisfying as eating a delicious bowl of rice or oatmeal. But after taking the time to wean myself off those starchy carbohydrates, I hardly notice the difference.
Although some people believe fresh vegetables are best for you, don't be afraid to take advantage of the convenience of frozen vegetables. There is only a slight difference in the nutritional values of frozen vegetables versus fresh ones. They are definitely easier to prepare and are relatively inexpensive. Busy people just don't have time to clean and cut fresh vegetables. Instead of excluding these important foods, just take them out of the freezer and put them into your food container before you leave for work. By the time of your mid-morning meal, they should be thawed. If you have access to a microwave, delicious hot veggies will be ready to eat in only a few minutes.
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