T Nation

Switching Up Carbs?

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

My goal as of right now is to lean out a bit. My question is concerning Post-workout carb sources: Would a lower GI Carb source blunt an insulin spike more, but still help the muscle building efforts?

I am currently using dextrose and whey, but I was thinking of swapping out the dextrose for other carb sources like fruit, oats and honey. My reasoning for this is because I am a little uneasy about having so much simple sugar in a cutting diet.

So, what do you think? Keep the dextrose, or could I switch it up for a while with the oats, fruit and honey? (The latter is much tastier also :wink: haha)

#2

you could do that but if trying to lean up i wouldnt tbh. the reason being that the carbs will be released slower thus staying in the blood stream longer. besides high g.i carb ingestion after a bout of intense exercise has seen to have little or no effect on subsequent fat burning. that coupled with the anabolic nature of ingesting carbs and protein after a workout which would help preserve muscle mass whilst on a diet more than makes the concept enticing.

if you wanted to maximise fat loss however, i would simply take out the carbs all together and lower carbs in the diet to minimum. this would help you enter a ketogenic state and therefore should help maximise fat loss

#3

Even on Shugart’s V-Diet he still suggests Surge after a workout (hi G.I. carbs). You’re going to want to keep in hi g.i. carbs after workout even if you are leaning out (like Ad B said the total amount of carbs should still be low though if you are trying to cut). Someone posted this in another thread well not really his post but direction to possibly two of the best articels ever written on post workout nutrition by John M Berardi.


http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=606793

#4

I’d keep the high insulin post-workout carbs and focus on minimizing or eliminating them at other times of the day.

#5

depends on if you are after fat loss within a specific time limit or not.

if you want to lose fat fast, then cut out the carbs.

however if you want to be generally leaner, and stay leaner, keep your muscles happy with the optimal PWO insulin spike.

with this you will be taking 1 step backwards to take two steps forward, as the properly maintained muscle mass will aid in keep your body fat in control in the future.

#6

You could get the best of both worlds by drinking skim milk PWO. Milk will give you the benefits of the insulin spike but there’s only 12g sugar per cup.

Also, take a look into Alan Argons research, hes actually found that the type of carb after a WO isnt as important as some suggest…and that you may as well get as many nutrients as you can instead of just ingesting pure sugar. (Such as oats, fruit, milk, quinoa, or other grains)

#7

Thanks for all the replys. If having hihg GI carbs after a workout wont affect fat loss, then ill continue with it. (Im deffinitly not complaining cause I can make some pretty good tasting shakes !)