I’m looking for people’s past experiences, or knowledge on the subject of carbing up for athletic performance.
Hypothetically, if one were following a relatively low carb diet, where they eat only meat, and veggies… how many grams of carbs, from oatmeal, or whole grain bread would be needed for optimum performance before a big game, of football or basketball?
Also, due to time constraints I have been doing jump rope for 15 min in the morning, my weightroom work around 10-11AM. And my sprint, GPP and Sport Specific work in the evening, around 7PM. I have been drinking a post workout drink after the weight lifting, but should I also be consuming more carbs after the GPP and sprint work?
I ask, because I would like to lose a lil more fat, but maintain my strength and energy levels. Which always seem to be highest on a high protein/fat very low carb diet.
Glad to hear your following a renegade protocol. I would recommend going with a medium carb, high protein, medium fat diet to loose those extra lbs… After the rope work I would eat just 20-30g of carbs. After weights take your post workout shake, and after your running about 50g of low glycemic high fibrous carbs.
About the carbohydrate intake before a big game or event I would eat about 350g of low glycemic carbs teh day before, then on the day of the event I would eat low glycemic carbs, then medium glycemic a couple of hours before hand. This is what I did when I ran track, then after a race I would drink a water downed gatorade mixture. With low glycemic protein bar like “Parillo bar” worked well I thought.
My experience has been you start carbing up about 3 days before the althetic event. My theory is though I used simple carbs like pasta and breads instead of complex carbs because you do not want slow released carbs. Im not sure if thats right but it worked for me. Anyway id generally add about 50-75 grams of carbs for three days before. This increased my energy alot while not putting on fat.
If your goal is to loose a little bit its unlikely going to happen while carbing up since your eating hypercaloric. Carbing up and losing more fat are different goals your going to have to be the one to choose.
There are several different methods you can use for carbing up. But generally speaking it’s only benneficial in events lasting over 60 minutes in which glycogen stores would be fully depleted and inhibit athletic performance. But being on a low carb diet in the first place and relying on gluconeogenesis to convert other macronutrients to carbs, you would still benefit from it. Start 2 days before your event by changing your diet to a 70-15-15 ratio. Being 70% carbs from low glycemic sources. This will help build up your glycogen stores while maintianing the 20grams or so that is the standard blood glucose level per hour.