163: Carbohydrates & Performance: Fueling for Strength, Endurance, and Hypertrophy

**Nick Bare** (0:00)
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's topic and discussion is all about carbohydrates. As a fuel source, the working title is Carbohydrates and Performance. Fueling for strength, endurance, and hypertrophy, or muscle building. Now, before we dive into the meat and potatoes, or starches, of this carbohydrate conversation, a few notes. One, everyone responds different to diet and nutrition protocols in a very unique and personal way. There is no perfect diet. I recognize that. There may be certain diets that have been shown through research and clinical studies to be more beneficial for certain individuals, whether lifestyle related or performance related. And I am personally a fan of carbohydrates. So obviously, a lot of this conversation is going to be pro-carbohydrate. However, I will share some information on the low carb and keto approach to nutritional interventions and performance optimization. But my diet is a balanced approach to protein, dietary fats, and carbohydrates. And a lot of the information that I will be sharing, my perspectives, my opinions, will be based off of that preference. I am pro-carb. Especially when I am in a large training block, I am prepping for a race, the marathon, ultra, high rocks, Ironman, triathlon. My carbohydrate intake reaches sometimes a thousand grams per day, based off of my energy demands. But there isn't a one size fits all diet approach, or even a carbohydrate approach. There isn't a one size fits all because a one size fits all does not exist. So that being said, I would love if you listened to this information, this podcast, consumed it, went and did your own research, discovered your own information, and then tested, learned and applied what is applicable to you. The only way you know if you're a responder to high carb versus low carb or low carb versus high carb is by trial and error. You just test it out. Someone can tell you this is the perfect macronutrient ratio and breakdown. This is how much protein you need. This is how many carbohydrates you need. This is how much fat you need. And then you try it and you test it. And if it doesn't work for you, it would be ignorant of yourself to not go and try something different. I've actually tried low carb before. I've tried keto before for a short period of time years ago. I just didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy the way I felt in the gym and training. I felt flat and depleted and it just wasn't for me. So all that being said, I wanted to set the stage. I'm obviously going to lean more carbohydrate heavy because that is my preference. That's what I enjoy and that's what works for me.
So diving in, how and why does your body need and use carbohydrates? So carbohydrates supplying energy to the body, four calories per gram of carbohydrate. As many of you probably know, might know, might not know, one gram of carbohydrates is four calories. One gram of protein is four calories. One gram of fat is nine calories. And actually a gram of alcohol is seven calories. So dietary fat is the most calorically dense per gram of the macronutrients. Carbohydrates also when broken down after consumption, digestion, into glucose. Glucose is the body's primary energy source, mentally and physically, for bodily functions, for our muscles, for our movement, and for our brains. Now what happens when you consume carbohydrates? I'm sure many people have heard of insulin, insulin resistance. Some people have a negative connotation between carbohydrates and insulin and blood sugar spikes. So let's talk about some of this. What happens when you actively consume carbohydrates? When you eat carbs, your digestive system breaks them down into glucose. Glucose is in the simplest form, how your body utilizes carbohydrates. When glucose enters the bloodstream after consumption, digestion, blood sugar rises. So this is your body's natural response to consuming carbohydrates. Turns into glucose, blood sugar rises. Now, the spike of that blood sugar will be dependent upon the source of the carbohydrate. Is it a simple sugary carb or is it more complex? And then the amount or load of that carbohydrate. So if you have a very just simple sugary carbohydrate source, table sugar, for example, or candy, and you have a lot of it, say a hundred grams, you're gonna have a very fast and dramatic blood sugar spike and rise. So your body responds to this and it responds with insulin. So your pancreas creates and releases insulin in response to a blood sugar spike. What insulin does, it helps clear the glucose from the bloodstream. So insulin helps move glucose from the bloodstream into your cells. And inside the cells, glucose is converted into ATP, which is the energy source that the body can use for example, muscle contraction, brain function, organ activity, daily movement, intense training, etc, etc. ATP is, it's the energy source of the human body. Now as a side note, I recently recorded a podcast all about creatine, and how creatine is used in the body, and why, in my opinion, everyone should be supplementing with creatine for both the physical and the mental cognitive benefits. Creatine is an energy enabler. So what creatine does, it helps regenerate broken down ATP within the cells for more energy. As you see, ATP has a powerful potential within our body for many different bodily functions and activities. Now insulin gets a bad rap occasionally. Because a lot of people don't understand insulin. Insulin is necessary. We want our bodies to naturally and effectively release from the pancreas insulin in response to a blood sugar spike. We want to move the glucose out of the blood into the cells where it can be utilized.