SS 187 – Does Carb Timing Help or Hurt You?

Episode 187 Show Notes

 

Grant and Heavey talk about the concept of carb timing. Is taking sugars post or intra workout beneficial to everyone? Listen in as they break down the different types of sugars, why they’re taken during or post workout, and whether it works in terms of fat loss.

 

[02:30] Is the Mediterranean Diet Causing Childhood Obesity?

 

The Mediterranean diet is arguably thought to be one of the best diets for fat loss, but in actuality, one other major advantage iis cardiovascular health. Grant found an article based on a World Health Organization (WHO) report looking at childhood obesity. They wanted to track the problem areas and found the highest rates were occurring in areas known for the Mediterranean diet.

 

In most of Europe, childhood obesity occurs in 1-2 out of 10 children (10%-20%). In the U.S., the rate is at 17%. In the Mediterranean countries that have this diet, they’re showing it to be as low as 1 in 5, which is 20% up to 23%. This is actually a significant amount more than in the U.S.

 

The theory is maybe the quantity people are consuming has been increasing since food is readily available. It appears to be less about the types of fats or proteins you’re getting as opposed to how much food is available.

 

Another theory is the poverty line associated with this childhood obesity. Greece, for instance, is struggling economically with the highest poverty percentage in the European continent at 36% of the population. A result of, lower income and more poverty throughout the region may lead to more filler goods being consumed.

 

[07:25] So What is the Best Diet?

 

Grant thinks it’s interesting how articles often claim that the Mediterranean is the best. Clearly, it’s not just the diet. Heavey adds that you can overeat and gain weight on any diet, which is part of why these rankings of diet is just crazy.

 

[08:05] Gummy Bears After Workout, Anyone?

 

Joey’s question: “One of the things that I found in doing some research when I got started getting into shape is having post workout sugar. I’ve seen some research saying that it’s beneficial that you can have candy immediately after a hard workout, more specifically, candy that has dextrose as the main sugar. I found this as a good guilty pleasure while eating clean and it’s supposed to be good for you so why not?

 

Of course, you pull out a handful of gummy bears or sweet tarts at the gym and you get some weird looks. I’ve also heard from a few trainers that if you’re eating and supplementing the way you should, there’s no need for post workout sugars. So is this really beneficial or am I just hurting my fat loss goals?”

 

[08:55] The Concept of Nutrient Timing

 

Heavey explains this question falls into the category of nutrient timing – should I eat “X” nutrient (carbs, protein, fat) when I’m doing “X,” “Y,” or “Z” (right before bed, right after training, or during training)?

 

Nutrient timing continues to be the one of the most popular areas of discussion within the nutrition realm. The effect that it has on body composition and performance comes to a very, very distant third place compared to the total amount of nutrients you’re consuming each day and the consistency of your diet from day to day. When you have those pieces in place, Heavey describes the question is pretty close to worthless to concerning yourself with these other pieces.

 

Why staying motivated is so hard and how to improve consistency in your diet – those are the topics that have serious potential for moving the needle for people. Unfortunately, these topics aren’t sexy, so people don’t get very excited about them and don’t even want to pay attention to them.

 

[11:53] Are Just Making an Excuse to Do Something That’s Bad for You?

 

Grant admits struggling with motivation. Many people are looking for a good excuse to do something they think is bad. It’s so easy to be convinced by that argument.

 

Provided all conditions are optimal in terms of what you’re doing with your workout and diet, Grant raises the question of whether adding sugars post workout actually has some benefits.

 

Heavey points out that the importance of carb timing really varies based on the activity you’re doing and some initial conditions. He further breaks it down for us.

 

[13:00] Eating Before Workout: Good or Bad?

 

If you’re training for an hour or less, and you’re doing so in a fed state (not just rolling out of bed and working out), which means you had food earlier in the day, then there’s pretty much zero benefit for you from timing your carbs.

 

If it affects your total calories and it’s pushing you over the amount you need to be consuming for your fat loss goals, then it could be setting you back. But just like in the cheat meal, discussed in one of their previous episodes, and if you like having some gummies and you incorporate that into your regular routine and you don’t find yourself hidden in a corner, hoarding gummies, then you’re fine.

 

[15:45] Eating After Workout: Good or Bad?

 

For those training fasted (which means you’re not eating anything in the morning), there’s a chance that some intra workout or post workout sugars can give them a small benefit. This is also relevant to the group who is training intensely for over an hour who may also see a small benefit from post workout or intra workout carbs.

 

[16:30] Carb Timing is Most Beneficial To (drum roll please…)

 

Heavey further illustrates that the people that carb timing is most important for are those doing more than one glycogen-depleting training session per day. Carb timing would be more applicable for athletes doing an intense lifting session in the morning and then another in the afternoon, or they’re doing tough intervals like sprints, or even if they’re endurance athletes doing very long sessions (like pushing for three hours). These are the groups that have been pretty well demonstrated to benefit and respond well to carb timing.

 

If you’ve got to replenish the glycogen stores after that morning session to recover and train hard in the afternoon, then the gummy bears may very well help you. For interval training, it should be multiple sessions in a day. Otherwise, you’re going to just naturally recover in time for the next day’s training session. That being said, if it’s only one tough session a day, there is no benefit. And for the endurance people, it’s for the very long sessions, which is like the intra workout carbs. You’ll see runners doing the goo or Gatorade and a lot of times, they’re only running for an hour, and don’t really need the intra-carbs over that shorter period of time. Instead, carb timing is for people that are doing 2.5-3 hours.

 

Heavey says that in the case of intense, multiple sessions, having sugars after workout enables them to recover so they can train hard again in the second session. In the case of long endurance, this is providing fuel for the athlete to continue to fuel themselves during their training sessions.

 

[19:00] Knowing Your Sugars

 

Dextrose is basically glucose made usually from corn. Glucose is a monosaccharide which is a simple carbohydrate that can be very quickly absorbed in the body. It’s also the blood sugar molecule too. So if you notice, when you go to the doctor and you have your fasted blood glucose measured. It’s what we look out for diabetes. It’s also something that fuels our bodies on a regular basis.

 

Another monosaccharide, just like glucose, is fructose. This has caught quite a bad rap recently, but this is unwarranted unless you’re just downing pure fructose in large quantities which is tough to do. For instance, agave is super high in fructose.

 

Sucrose is another sugar which is table sugar. It’s a disaccharide, which means it’s one glucose molecule, bonded to a fructose molecule.

 

But there’s this misconception that fructose is only capable of replenishing liver glycogen and glucose can only be used to replenish muscle glycogen. The myth is that glucose is the only thing that can be used to replenish muscle glycogen, but that’s false.

 

It’s been shown that both glucose and fructose can be used to replace both liver and muscle stores. They do so at slightly different efficiencies but they’re certainly capable of doing it.

 

[22:10] Is Carb Timing Something to Really Worry About?

 

In the case where carb timing appears to be most effective, actually a mix of glucose and fructose outperforms glucose alone. Heavey suspects this is because it allows people to refuel both of their stores since they are metabolized in different ways.

 

When we compare athletes that are refueling with glucose alone, they are not recovering as well as athletes that are using a mix.

 

Back to Joey’s actual question, if you’re training an hour a day and doing Crossfit, powerlifting, etc. you’re probably not going to get any performance bump out of using post workout gummy bears. It might not be inhibiting your fat loss though but it just comes down to your total intake. This comes back to the more important questions mentioned above such as the consistency day to day and total nutrient intake. If the carbs fit into your total intake, then there’s no issue. If gummy bears brings you a bit of happiness, go for it, but it has to be considered in the context of your whole diet.

 

Ultimately, everyone can experiment and everyone is unique. Maybe they’ll benefit you and perhaps you may respond differently. Again, unless you’re doing multiple intense training sessions in the day or super long sessions, don’t worry about carb timing.

 

[25:35] Italian Booze: Grappa

 

Grant shares his booze experience in Italy where he had a number of different drinks he never had before. One of the drinks he tried was Grappa. While Cognac is a brandy made in Cognac, France, Grappa is another kind of brandy but it’s not made anywhere other than Italy. They make it slightly different.

 

Brandy is made from taking wine and distilling it. Whereas whisky, we start with beer. Cognac is the same thing, except that it’s made in Cognac with their grapes, etc.

 

Now, Grant says the difference between regular Brandy and Grappa (aside from being made in Italy) is that instead of using the regular wine, they use pomace, which is the leftover at the end of winemaking – all the seeds, stems, skins, etc. And the mush gets fermented, without adding water to it. They distill it and what comes out is Grappa.

 

Ultimately, Grappa ends up being just like brandy. It tasted a little different and in fact, it’s considered a “tough to drink” alcohol. Grant has also tried the aged Grappa and he found it much better with the flavors mellowing out and you have that oakiness from the barrel.

Links:

Strength and Scotch Episode 185: To Cheat Meal or Not