Oh, the age-old debate: to carb or not to carb?

Well, if you’re dreaming of building mountains of muscles and staying lean in the process, you might want to buddy up with carbs. Here’s the scoop on why carbohydrates are a must-have in your muscle-building and fat-burning arsenal.  Let’s get into the good stuff that’ll make your gym sessions count!

Why You Need Carbs to Build Muscle & Burn Fat

First things first, let’s debunk a big ol’ myth: carbs are not your fitness foes!

While protein often steals the spotlight when talking about building muscle, carbs are actually the behind-the-scenes heroes. Think of carbs as the fuel that keeps the muscle-building factory powered up. Without enough carbs, your workouts might not be producing the muscle growth you might think from those workouts, and that could be directly impacting your ability to get or stay lean.

Carbs: The Work Horse

Science has undisputedly shown that carbohydrates are the preferred source of energy in the human body.  What exactly does this mean?

It means that the human body is biologically able to break down this fuel source and convert it into usable energy for us faster and more effectively than any other macronutrient (fats or protein).

In fact, contrary to what you might think, fat (either dietary or stored fat on the body) is broken down and converted into usable energy at a very slow rate – not fast enough to provide the energy required in the body during a weight lifting session.

Guess what happens if your body doesn’t have enough of that carb energy to fuel your lifting session?

Think it then starts to burn your fat?  Nope.

Fats are converted into usable energy very sloooooowly in the body. They’ll help provide the energy needed throughout your normal daily movement and/or for a long, lower intensity endurance type of activity  – but not for lifting (which are short intense bursts).  Carbs are needed for that.  Not enough of them?  The next thing the body will break down to attempt to get the energy it needs – muscle 😳

But Yvette, why would the body break down your muscle to try to get the energy it needs for lifting?

Because your muscle is basically a big pile of stored proteins and carbohydrates.  You probably knew those muscles were made of protein, but maybe didn’t realize that carbs are stored within your muscle cells as well – as glycogen.  So when you start training and your body needs energy, it grabs those stored carbs first – exactly what we want it to do.

But when those stored carbs in the muscles and those stored in your liver (from the carbs you’ve eaten) are all used up – maybe because there wasn’t many to begin with because you’ve been fooled by the internet and haven’t been eating enough carbs – well, then your body will resort to breaking down the proteins in your muscles to try to convert them into usable energy.

When you’re carb-depleted and are engaging in high-intensity training like weight lifting, your body may indeed turn to muscle protein for energy through a process called gluconeogenesis that turns the proteins into carbs (or glucose) in your body.

Obviously this is not ideal for muscle building, but it also impacts recovery. Remember that carbs are stored in your muscles too?  Those carbs being there, especially post-workout, help provide the energy needed to help the muscles repair.

When I teach sports nutrition, I like to use this analogy.

Muscle Up to Be a Fat-Burning Machine

Other than looking great, improved cardiovascular and bone health, better sleep quality, and more… another fantastic benefit of building muscle is that you turn your body into a fat-burning machine.

When to Embrace the Carbs

Timing is everything with carbs. Munch on complex carbs (think whole grains and veggies) a few hours before you hit the weights to fill up those glycogen stores. Post-workout, it’s time to bring in some more carbs to speed up recovery and prep you for the next session.