The importance of carbohydrates during muscle building

Gaining muscle is not all about high amounts of proteins in your diet. Carbohydrates also play a vital role in the road towards a leaner, stronger and more muscular body.

The name, carbohydrate, is given to one of the major food groups. It is a term that generally describes 'sugars' and is our body's main source of energy. About 80% of all our digested foods actually turn into carbohydrate (mainly glucose) which is then transported to the liver for storage. Any amounts needed by our body are taken into our muscles for fuel via the body's cells.

Carbohydrates can be further divided into 2 groups; simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. The simple carbohydrates include foods such as sugar, glucose, maltodextrose, fructose, honey etc. Generally things that taste sweet will contain high amounts of these sugars.
Our bodies actually do not need so much of these types of carbohydrates, if at all.

The best source of energy for our body is complex carbohydrate which includes all the starchy foods such as potatoes, pasta, rice, cereals, bread, couscous, yams etc. The sugars from these foods are released slowly into the blood stream after digestion, and so providing you with long term energy for your muscles to work at their best.

Hence, it is important to make sure that when you are training, you have enough of these complex carbohydrates in your diet. It will then allow you to have enough energy to lift those weights and carry out exercise, without having to then resort to actually break down your own muscle tissue as energy. This could in fact lead to muscle wastage if there is not a sufficient supply of carbohydrate (as evidenced by the BBC Diet Trials in July 2002, where they found out that a high protein diet did indeed allow people to lose weight, but that most of the weight loss was in fact due to loss of muscle mass! Not fat). And you really do not want that to happen!

Therefore, make sure that you load up with complex carbohydrate foods at all your main meals, and it is wise to have a carbohydrate snack straight after training (such as a sandwich, banana, toast, etc.), to replace all the energy that has been used up during training, which can then allow the muscles to grow and replenish with energy.

For further information on how to go about gaining muscles safely and efficiently, you can go to my other blog.