Part 1.5: The Letter P, C and F

Post by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

Gym Rat #1: “Dude, you need to eat carbs with that.”
Gym Rat #2: “Your mother needs to eat carbs with that.”
Gym Rat #1: “Bro, what the hell, you need carbs with that protein shake right after your workout.”
Gym Rat #2: “I think your mother’s calling, and guess what? She wants more carbs.”
Gym Rat #1: “Look I’m serious, carbs fuel the muscle building process. You need a decent amount for energy expenditure.”
Gym Rat #2: “Your mother’s an energy expenditure.”

Gym Rat #2 was me a few years back when I thought carbohydrates were evil. They lurked everywhere. That chicken breast from Subway? Carbs. That protein shake? 3g of carbs per serving. Diet Gatorade? Still has carbs, only less, but carbs nonetheless. Splenda, Sweet & Low, Equal? Ayyyup! Dem artificial sweeteners are bayyud mmmkay?

A roll of sushi used to bloat me like the Michelin Man and turn my day into a living hell. I low-carbed my approach and in return found it relatively hard to build muscle. I high-carbed my approach and gained a lot of fat in the process. Don’t forget, I once was fat. I may not look like it, but I do have excess skin that you cannot see, but yours truly can feel. Since I was known for my gargantuan love handles, my lower back carries a fair amount of excess skin (again, you may not notice, but I can feel it). Whenever I consume a lot of carbs, my body begins to fill up nicely with much needed cellular water (water in the muscle). However, since I also carry around excess skin, water retains there easily too, which makes me feel fat. Ukh, the pain, the agony, the suffering; I strive to perfection but those little details stop me faster and harder than a concrete wall idiotically placed on a 120km+ speedway.

Lucky for you, this nutritionist wasn’t born a quitter. I did what I do best, research and experiment, proving time and time again that SCIENCE IS KING.

My last protein-oriented post was (for some) too complex, long, sciency and had a lot of numbers; so I’ll be using a different approach this time around (not really, but please bare with me). If anyone wants more information, feel free to ask.

Carbohydrates
There are only 2 types of carbohydrates you need to know: Slow-releasing (good) and fast-releasing (bad). I believe the devil created fast-releasing carbs to laugh at fat people. On a serious note, slow and fast are all the same, but one’s less refined than the other.

Slow-Releasing: Any carb source that has not been refined (the process of removing protein, fat, fiber, minerals and vitamins). Whole-grain alternatives of rice, bread, oatmeal, noodles, pasta, and etc have a thicker/richer feel to them and are often brown. Slow-releasing essentially means that the carb source takes its time to breakdown into sugar, so that your body can use it for energy. What slows down the process are the healthy fats, protein and fiber in the source. When removed, it releases at a much faster rate. Normally, slow-releasing carbs translate to 6-hours of crash-free energy, since your insulin (the mechanism responsible for pushing carbs for fuel) is working slowly, swiftly and efficiently.

Fast-Releasing: Any carb source that has been refined (not necessarily) and/or has a faster-releasing nature (such as honey). Examples would include table/brown sugar, white bread, white rice, white potatoes and etc. They have a softer, gentler feel to them when eaten, but release energy at a much faster rate, translating into and upto 30 minutes of energy, following by a horrible crash. This is due to the sudden amount of insulin released to burn the sugar, which in turn causes insulin to crash down. Ever wonder why you feel drowsy and sleepy after a large carby meal? That’s you crashing buddy.

Insulin: Carbohydrate Metabolism
When the concentration of blood sugar is too high (caused by eating too much carbs in one sitting or a fast-releasing carb), insulin is secreted by the pancreas, which stimulates the transfer of glucose (the simplest form of sugar) into the cells, especially in the liver and muscles. I apologize for the sciency approach, but I couldn’t resist. What you need to know is that when insulin is secreted, fat-burning is BLOCKED. You cannot burn fat if you keep bingeing on carbohydrate meals all day; which is the number a reason why low-carbohydrate diets work. They also work because the body prefers carbohydrates as an energy source, and when non-existent it chooses fat stores instead. Moreover, when eating large amounts of carbs, insulin cannot shuttle all of it. Everyone has a storage area called the glycogen pool; it’s where our bodies store glucose (simplest form of sugar). When over-consuming carbs, our glycogen pool fills up and insulin has no where to store the glucose, so what does it do? Stores it as FAT. Nasty, stubborn, jiggly and obnoxious fat.

I Promised a Solution
Males (ladies, you need to know this too): If you want to gain lean muscle, then you don’t need anymore than (get ready for this) 20% carbohydrates from your total calorie intake. Simply put, in order to gain lean muscle, you only need 20% carbohydrates. If you can’t flex it don’t carry it. Let me show you how to calculate proper carbohydrate intake; and yes it involves an equation so live with it:

Example:
An experienced 23 year-old, 90kg, 180cm athlete with 15% body fat has 76.5kg of lean mass ((90 x .15) – 90 = 76.5).

Step One: Establishing your BMR : Basal Metabolic Rate (how much your body burns when you’re doing absolutely nothing)
Women: 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years ) = BMR
Men: 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years ) = BMR

Step Two: Establishing your activity Level
Little to No Exercise = BMR x 1.2
Light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week = BMR x 1.375 (Females)
Moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week = BMR x 1.55 (Male bodybuilders are here, including me)
Vigorous exercise/sports 6-7 days a week= BMR x 1.725
Very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x per day training= BMR x 1.9

Conclusion:
Males: Our 90kg athlete wants to gain lean muscle mass. He calculates his BMR: 66 + (13.7 x 76.5) + (5 x 180) – (6.8 x 23) = 2,170.45 calories.
Our athlete’s activity level (Step Two) is moderate, so we multiply that amount with 1.55, which equates to 3,364.197. He needs to consume that amount of calories in order to maintain his weight.
Gain Lean Muscle: Add 200-500 calories based on your metabolism (the higher calories, the faster your metabolism).
Lose Fat: Subtract 200-500 calories, also based on your metabolism (if you lose muscle real fast, then stick to the low end).
Our athlete seems to be carrying an average body fat percentage for an average person, so he needs to lower it to around 9-10% for optimal growth. His total calories intake to gain lean muscle is 3,564.197 (maintenance + 200 calories).

Since I said that our bodies only need 20% carbohydrates to fuel the process of lean muscle mass growth, our athlete needs 20% of 3,564.197 = 712.839 calories dedicated to carb consumption. That calorie amount is equal to 178 grams of carbs (712.839 divided by 4 calorie per gram of carbs).

HOLY CONFUSING EQUATIONS AND NUMBERS BATMAN! This dude promised us SIMPLE LINGO!
I tried my best to simplify things, but hopefully you’ll be able to connect all my writings together into one big informative post in order to design your very own nutritional plan.

In Part 2, I’ll be discussing fats and nutrition timing.
I promise you it only gets simple after this. Have a great and healthy weekend! 🙂

Post by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

Picutre by QuintanaRoo