How You Can Use “Bad Carbs” To Your Advantage
And How to Build Your Optimal Post-Workout Meal
Carbs, carbs, carbs. America has a love/hate relationship with carbs. We love our pastas, breads, crackers, and chips. We hate how easy they are to overeat and what they do to our bodies when we do overindulge.
Fear plays into this relationship as well. You hear a lot of people claim they’re going on “no carb” diets. I can’t help but to blame this on a simple lack of education regarding carbs and how they work.
We‘ve been told about “good carbs” and “bad carbs”. Frankly, this is a watered down version of the truth.
The truth is, it’s not the carbs that are good and bad, it’s what we’re using them for that makes them good or bad.
What is a “good carb” anyway? Why is it considered “good”?
The term “good carbs” is generally used to refer to carbs that take longer to digest. Also known as complex carbs, these are your whole grains, beans, and non-starchy veggies like broccoli, spinach, and carrots.
Because they take longer to digest, they don’t get absorbed into the bloodstream as rapidly and don’t cause a big blood sugar spike. This allows us to use the energy provided from the carbs, and ultimately the sugar that it’s broken down into once we digest it, over a longer period of time.
This is a good thing because this is how we use energy throughout most of the day — little bits at a time. Most of our day isn’t very physically demanding and so spreading that carb energy boost out over a few hours aligns with our needs.
What is a “bad carb” and why is it bad?
On the flip side, “bad carbs”, also known as simple carbs, do the opposite. These carbs are more rapidly digested and broken down into glucose (blood sugar) and enter the blood stream to be used as energy. However, because these carbs are broken down and absorbed more rapidly, they cause a bigger blood sugar spike.
Unless we’re exercising or performing an activity that requires a lot of concentrated energy (like hiking or rock climbing) we don’t need all this energy all at once and so we’re left with a lot of unused blood sugar that ultimately gets dumped off and stored as fat.
Your simple carbs are also found in junk foods like chips, soda, and pastries as well as white breads, cookies, and many cereals. As you know, most American diets consist heavily of these kinds of foods. This is a major reason why so many people are overweight or obese. We take in all this energy all at once in high concentrations and because of our largely sedentary lifestyles we have no use for most of this energy and as a result our bodies store it as fat.
How can I use “bad carbs” to my advantage?
The thing about “bad carbs” is that they aren’t inherently bad. Like I stated earlier, it isn’t the carbs that we should be labeling as “good” or “bad”, but rather what we do with them that should.
“Bad carbs” are only bad when we don’t use the energy they provide us. If we consume, say, a small pack of crackers before a workout we’re actually priming our bodies for a better workout.
This is because during exercise, or any high energy activity, our bodies’ first response is to run to our glycogen stores for energy. Glycogen is a readily available energy source that is stored in our muscles and liver. It’s made up of glucose which is the broken down form of the carbs we ingest and so eating a carb that will provide a lot of glucose in a short period of time will boost the available glycogen we have for our workout and thus giving us more energy to perform better.
This is also true in the post-workout. After a vigorous activity, like exercise, our glycogen stores are depleted. We need to refill them as soon as possible, to optimize the recovery process and a simple carb that is, again, broken down and absorbed quickly will do just the trick.
The Benefits of “Bad Carbs”
When used in these situations, “bad carbs” can speed up recovery. Muscle is repaired and maintained more efficiently which can lead to less soreness in the following day or days.
Carbs can also help you trim the fat! Many people are scared to eat carbs after they just burned a few hundred calories because they believe the less calories they eat the more weight they’ll lose and the happier they’ll be. This is half true. You’ll lose more weight, but you’ll also lose more muscle and so your body composition won’t be as lean and toned as you wished it would be.
Supply your body with a healthy dose of carbs, and protein, after a workout to properly refuel and repair the body and it’s muscle tissue and improve your body composition.
Ideally, you want between a 2:1 and 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein in your post-workout meal. Together, the intake of protein and carbs post-workout allows the body to increase insulin levels which will decrease cortisol and other stress hormones, promote the refilling of glycogen stores, and rebuilds the muscle by stimulating muscle protein synthesis.
How To Build Your Post-Workout Meal
To make building your post-workout meal easier, I’ll provide a guide breaking down carb and protein portions.
Examples of Carb Sources (25–30g of carbs)
- 1 cup of juice
- 1 large piece of fruit
- 1 bagel/2 slices of bread
- 1 cup of cereal
- 1 large baked potato
- 2 cups of milk
- 1 cup of rice
Examples of Protein Sources (20–25 of protein)
- 3 eggs/6 egg whites
- 2 cups of milk
- 3 cups of yogurt
- 3 oz of meat (the size of a deck of cards)
- 1 Serving of Protein Powder
Conclusion
We as humans like simplicity. Separating things into two sides allows us to pick one over the other and makes putting things in a box easier.
- Republican vs Democrat
- Good vs Evil
- Skinny vs Fat
These are just a few examples. “Good” and “Bad” carbs are another one. It’s deeper than the surface level conversation that we’ve been having for so long and as a result people aren’t educated on how to use foods for good and bad rather than choosing foods that are “good” and “bad”.
I believe this article provided a good base of knowledge for people seeking to improve their diet and progress toward fitness goals. If you have any questions, please please please ask away below! Thanks!
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About The Author: I’m Zach Newman. I’m an ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Conversation is insanely important to me. Its why I love creating things because creation sparks discussion and discussion is the best way to learn from each other. Whether its about fitness and health, what books to read, or what’s going on in the world today, my goal is to build the best community around conversations that better the lives of everyone involved.
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