Tue, Aug-18-09, 06:29
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Registered Member
Posts: 41
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Plan: Low Carb
Stats: 142/140/120
BF:
Progress: 9%
Location: NJ
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matador
If your primariy goal is to build muscle, I found that 100-150g of carbs daily, divided on three meals (Breakfast, Pre workout and Post workout) works best for ME (again, it's an individual number)
The thing about carbs is it depends so very much on your body. carbs themselves ain't fattening, it's when you're glycogen deposits are full they spill over as fat. If you eat them in the morning, you've been fasting for 8+ hours, so the chance of them spilling over is minimal.
By the time you hit the gym, you're glycogen deposits will be fairly low on carbs again, so you eat a small amount to fuel your workout, your bodies prefered fuel source for weight lifting is carbs, so after the weight lifting session your stores will be low again and you can once again consume carbs with a minimal chance of spillover.
Building muscle without carbs is possible, yes, but they aid tremendiously in recovery and keeping you in an anabolic state which is required for muscle gain. Yes, you will add a bit of fat you can shred later by removing the carbs, but you're overall body composition will be SO much better and you will look leaner over all.
Adding carbs might not be vital if you're a beginner, since beginners tend to add lean muscle mass in a caloric deficit with zero carbs, but if you're progress starts to stall in the gym it's surely a thing to consider.
And then again... this is from a male standpoint, and if you're primary goal simply is to get a toned rather than ripped, then carbs might not be neccesary whatsoever (beside your daily veggies, and maybe 20-30g post workout)
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Thank you so much for this information. It makes sense. Right now I would like to loose between 15 and 20lbs of scale weight however, loosing BF is more important to me. Right now I'm at about 26% I'd like to see how 20% looks and then adjust from there.
Its all so confusing... Eat carbs, dont eat carbs... Eat high fat, eat low fat... LOL... Im sure you know all about it. I have to see what works best for me as today marks only one full week of being low carb.
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