[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]plutusplutus wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]Xab wrote:
People on the pro-grains/pasta/bread side don’t think that this is an issue. Also, some on this side are misinformed and think that carbohydrates are an essential nutrient. [/quote]
For progressing in training in terms of strength and muscle carbs are essential.
[/quote]
Untrue. Tell that to the people on the Anabolic Diet, or other Caveman type diets. Carbs are not “essential” for strength and hypertrophy. When used properly can they get the subject closer to his/her goals faster? Absolutely.
The bottom-line is that your body is an adaptation engine. It grows muscles because it constantly finds itself in situations where it perceives its chance of survival will increase if it is better suited to lift heavy objects (i.e. by constantly lifting with progressively larger loads, your body will gain muscle).
Why then doesn’t your body just make it extremely easy to grow muscle, I mean who wouldn’t want the ability to toss around heavy objects? That’s got to help from an evolutionary standpoint right? Wrong. The caloric expenditure required for maintaining such mass means that your body demands even more fuel and it is just not economical from an energy standpoint.
Wait what was I talking about?
Oh that’s right. Adaptation engine. If you don’t consume carbs, your body will learn to utilize other sources of energy. Carbs are not essential. I personally have a much better body composition without them.[/quote]
Do you have any examples of people who built a lot of strength and muscle living on a low carb diet? I don’t see a whole lot if any floating around.[/quote]
I’m an example. I stay 30g or lower carb relatively year round with a weekly carb up. I’ve bulked with zero carbs and bulked with carbs before and tend to respond much better to bulking without carbs. Should be able to hit an elite total at my next meet while still being quite lean.[/quote]
Even if you are, there are very few people (at least on this site) who have bulked on very low carbs successfully and put on a lot of quality weight.
So why act like this is the norm?
[/quote]
I simply presented a requested example. I did not say it was the norm or even the best way for the OP or others. Just wanted to show that there are examples out there and that high carb intake is not necessary for strength and size gains, though it may indeed be beneficial for many people.