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

0:00Nick Bare: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, 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.

1:04Nick Bare: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'm in a large training block, I'm prepping for a race, a marathon, ultra, high rocks, Ironman triathlon. My carbohydrate intake reaches sometimes a thousand grams per day based off my energy demands.

2:08Nick Bare: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.

3:06Nick Bare: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, and 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.

3:54That's what I enjoy. And that's what works for me.

4:03Nick Bare: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.

5:26Some 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.

6:21Is 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,

6:37Nick Bare:and you have a lot of it, say 100 grams, you're going to 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, et cetera, et cetera.

7:35Nick Bare: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.

8:31Nick Bare: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. Insulin is a key regulator in both energy balance and blood sugar control. Now, when someone becomes insulin resistant, their body still makes insulin, but the cells don't respond properly. And this can lead to type 2 diabetes, for example. So type 2 diabetes is not necessarily because you've consumed way too many carbs and sugar and candy. It is a bigger issue. It's more chronic.

9:36Type 2 diabetes can and potentially will develop because of a chronic caloric surplus, poor nutrition practices and choices,

9:52Nick Bare:a sedentary lifestyle, excess visceral fat, poor sleep, high stress, and genetics. So you get type two diabetes when you become insulin resistant. So like I said, your body still makes insulin, but the cells don't respond properly to the insulin. So think of it like this. Insulin is the key. The cell is the lock. If you are insulin resistant or you have insulin resistance, the lock gets rusty. Over time, the pancreas can't keep up. insulin production declines, blood glucose rises chronically, and this is how you can potentially develop type 2 diabetes from all of those things I mentioned. Caloric surplus, sedentary lifestyle, excess visceral fat, poor sleep, high stress, genetics.

11:02With all that being said, carbohydrates are the most effective and quick, easy energy source that the body can utilize for many physical and mental processes. and the way that we promote healthy carbohydrate intake and insulin response is by eating the right foods, the right amount of foods, recovering and sleeping properly and moving our bodies. Training.

11:48Nick Bare:Carbs are not the enemy. carbs on their own will not make you fat. Excess calories will make you fat, can make you fat, if you are not burning and consuming and utilizing those calories in an appropriate way. there was once a low carb era, but since there's been a downfall to the popularity of that low carb era, some of you may be familiar, some not, the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet blew up this low carb industry, low carb era. And the Atkins diet peaked in about 2003, 2004 with a rapid decline afterwards. The Atkins diet was very low, restricted carbohydrate, high protein, high fat. And the Atkins diet took over the world or at least the majority of the population of the United States.

13:06Brands shifted their focus. CPG, consumer packaged goods brands, shifted their focus. There were thousands of new products that came to market that were low to no carb,

13:20Nick Bare:high protein, high fat. And to be honest, it worked for a lot of people. A lot of people lost significant weight, got healthier on the Atkins diet. They ended up removing an entire macronutrient essentially that brings a lot of calories from their daily diet. And I would have to assume that many people were consuming carbohydrate sources that were not the best. I mean, it's not like these people generally were consuming oatmeal and sweet potatoes and rice and potatoes, starches, fruits, fibrous fruits. many people were probably consuming highly processed, ultra processed carbohydrate sources, sweets and candies and sugar and soda and all the things.

14:27And these types of foods that are produced and formulated and developed in labs are created to make you crave and want more. Like if you look at some of the most indulgent, addictive foods, they're highly processed, ultra processed, high sugar, high fat. When you combine fat and carbs or sugar together, you can create something that is so delicious and so addictive that when you have something like the Atkins diet that pops off and it peaks in 2003, 2004, removes a whole macronutrient portion of your diet and primarily eliminating some of these addictive, sugary, ultra highly processed foods, it's going to help a lot of people.

15:30Nick Bare:But why the decline? Well, many people experienced restrictive diet fatigue many people wanted to shift to a more holistic health approach. There are and were social limitations to the Atkins diet and it promoted and increased long-term nutritional deficiencies. With all that being said, it wasn't sustainable. It is our responsibility as individuals to steward our health, our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual health. And in order to do this successfully, we have to choose sustainable options. It's not a choice. You have to choose things that are sustainable, lifestyle interventions that you can do for a long period of time.

16:31Nick Bare:Like I mentioned earlier, I tried a low-carb keto diet before. And one of the main reasons I didn't continue it is because the restrictive diet fatigue, social limitations, it just made living life, if I'm being honest, harder. And I'd come home from work and Steph, my wife, before we had kids, we'd make dinner together and we still do, but we used to spend a lot more time in the kitchen, cooking dinners and trying out new recipes. And for these few weeks that I was following a keto diet a few years ago, it really limited what I could eat. And especially because Steph was following a more holistic, balanced diet approach, it created some conflict within our relationship.

17:25There were

17:29just obstacles of like, I could eat this, even though she didn't want to eat that and things that she wanted to eat, I couldn't eat and it just didn't work for us or me. So I believe that's one of the main reasons that the Atkins diet and the low carb era had such a rapid decline after it peaked in 2003, 2004. And I would assume most people now following a more holistic approach to health, functional health and wellness is much more popular than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago. People want to feel good. they want a sustainable way of living something that isn't restrictive and that facilitates social and community interactions and in my honest opinion I don't think a low carb Atkins approach

18:33Nick Bare:works and that's why such the rapid decline after it peaked in those early years now years later the keto diet got extremely popular. But same thing, the keto diet, which popped off a few years ago, based off some of the research I was doing, and I don't have any hard facts in front me right now, but there has been a huge decline in ketogenic diet searches, content, products, and brands. I mean, I remember, this was maybe 10 years ago when the keto diet just went wild. I mean, it popped off. There were keto brands left and right. All these consumer packaged goods companies were creating keto products, high fat, high protein, very high fat, low carb.

19:47And over the years, from when I saw the peak of it until now, you don't see many people following a strict keto diet any longer. And you really don't see many, if at all, keto brands emerging into the industry and the market today. Now, I actually was first introduced to the ketogenic diet when I was in college because I went to school to study nutrition at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I went to school to study nutrition because I thought naively and ignorantly that we were going to be talking about nutrition when it came to, it was applicable to sports performance and improving athletic ability and body composition.

20:38And I was rudely awakened that when I arrived at college and I started going through some of my core nutrition classes, I was there to learn about everything else but improving athletic performance. The nutrition course that I was going through and degree was all around disease prevention and intervention, primarily focused on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. We never talked about physical training.

21:13Nick Bare:We never talked about the gym, never talked about body composition. Like funny story, when I was in college, I decided to diet down and compete in my first bodybuilding competition. And I did this to create content and promote BPN because I started BPN in 2012 between my junior and senior year of college. Shortly after, decided to train forward, diet down, and compete in a bodybuilding competition to try to build some sort of awareness and buzz and content around BPN. And at the time I had no clue where to get started. I didn't know how to lose 25 pounds of fat in 16 weeks to be able to step on stage shredded.

22:07Nick Bare:So I went to the Dean of the College of the nutrition program at IEP. I sat down with her and I laid it out. I was like, hey, I got 16 weeks from now until this bodybuilding show that I want to do in Pittsburgh. Can you help me get there? And she looked at me and said, I have no clue what we got to do to get you there. That's not what we do here. We are interested in learning about disease intervention from a dietetics approach. And I was just taken back. If you can't help me, how the heck am I going to get to where I want to be? So I went to YouTube and the bodybuilding.com forums and I learned all about flexible dieting and if it fits your macros and tracking nutrition and my fitness pal.

23:02Nick Bare:And that's how I lost the 25-ish pounds of fat that I had to lose to step on stage. It was by tracking macros and manipulating primarily fats and carbohydrates to reduce caloric intake to burn up this body fat and get as lean as possible. But I first was introduced to the ketogenic diet when I was in college because the keto diet is popular, became popular, which is a high fat, low carbohydrate and controlled protein diet. And it's been used because it is an established and effective medical treatment for some people with epilepsy, seizures, who do not respond to seizure medications. because when ketones are produced in the body in the absence of carbohydrates or limited carbohydrates, ketone bodies can reduce the brain excitability.

24:19Nick Bare:So that's where I was first introduced to the ketogenic diet because it is an effective and established treatment protocol for people with seizures. And then years later, I started hearing more about the keto diet for the mental clarity people get, for the health benefits, for the fat loss benefits, which can be extremely effective. The keto diet, it's when about 70 to 80 % of calories are from fat and your carbohydrates generally are below 50 grams per day. Now, with that being said, our brains need glucose. our brains utilize about 20 % of our daily caloric intake. Even though our brains only weigh on average about 2 % of our body weight, even when we are on a ketogenic diet, very low carb, our bodies can still produce glucose in the absence of carbohydrates through this metabolic process called gluconeogenesis.

25:52And this process occurs in the liver and in the kidneys, which is pretty interesting. Our bodies know, hey, we need glucose for certain bodily processes. And if we're not consuming carbohydrates, and if we're not consuming carbohydrates, we can't create glucose from the carbohydrates. our body is smart enough to create glucose from other non-carbohydrate substrates through this metabolic process called gluconeogenesis.

26:28Nick Bare:And it uses substrates such as glycerol, lactate, propionate, and certain amino acids. Pretty interesting stuff. Now, with that note, it takes time to create glucose through gluconeogenesis. It is a much more effective way to supply our body with the glucose that it needs and is required from carbohydrate sources, which we'll get into here in a little bit. you've probably heard of ketosis if you've heard of the ketogenic diet ketosis is a natural metabolic state where your body shifts from relying on glucose as energy and bodily processes to using fat stores and dietary fat as energy so you become more effective and efficient at utilizing fat, fat stores dietary fat, because your body can't rely on the glucose because it's not being provided carbohydrates.

27:40It typically takes three to four days to reach ketosis, which is a metabolic state, as I've said. And you know you're in ketosis, you can do blood readings. I've had some friends over the years who have followed the ketogenic diet and they'd have this device and they'd prick their fingers and it would take a blood reading and it would give them their ketone readings. Like how many ketones are in their blood? A blood ketone reading greater than 0.5 millimole per liter technically states that you are in ketosis. 0.5 millimole per liter. is technically in ketosis, but anywhere from 1.5 to three millimoles per liter are ideal.

28:41So, I mean, I've seen a lot of friends and watched people who follow ketogenic diets. They're poking their finger multiple times a day

28:49Nick Bare:to check if they are actively in ketosis in this fat burning furnace of a metabolic state. Again, why does the ketogenic diet work for many people? You are eliminating an entire macronutrient for the most part of carbohydrates from your nutrition protocol and daily diet. and also that protein and fats are more satiating than carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, you get obviously this blood sugar spike, insulin responds, brings the blood sugar back down. And when you eliminate carbohydrates or minimize carbohydrates in your diet, you don't have these blood sugar spikes and drops. and you have a more steady state of energy throughout the day and protein and fats are more satiating.

30:01They keep you more full than carbohydrates can, especially simple sugary carbohydrates compared to say fibrous carbohydrates. So I want to take a quick break in the middle of this episode to talk about one of the products we've created here at BPN. And over the years, it has become one of our best selling products. It is G1M Sport. It is carbohydrate based, which is perfect for what we're discussing right now in this episode. Each serving of G1M Sport is 20 grams of carbohydrates and 350 milligrams of sodium per serving. It is not only in my opinion, the perfect fuel source for endurance training,

30:48Nick Bare:but also resistance training as well. And G1M Sport uses a very special and unique carbohydrate source called cluster dextrin. It is a very fast gastric emptying carb source, meaning that after consuming it, it doesn't sit in your gut for long. It digests very quickly so you don't get stomach discomfort, gut rot, gas, and bloating like some of these cheaper carbohydrate sources on the market will provide and do. Cluster dextrin replenishes muscle glycogen very rapidly, which is great for post-workout, post-training recovery. And cluster dextrin provides a sustained, steady release of energy without causing the sudden or sharp spikes in blood glucose and insulin levels that are typical with simple sugars like dextrose or maltodextrin.

31:51So not only is clustered dextrin the king of carbohydrates around training, in my opinion, but it makes G1M Sport such a unique performance amplifier and fuel source

32:06Nick Bare:for both your endurance training and resistance or strength training. So with that being said, Let's dive back into today's episode. So if you are going to consume carbs and you've decided you don't want to follow a low carb ketogenic diet, let's talk about how many carbohydrates you probably need and then their role in exercise being aerobic versus anaerobic, endurance and strength training. How many carbohydrates do you actually need? Now, if you go online and look at most recommendations, the recommendations are based off of grams per kilogram of body weight. And an easy way to establish your weight in kilograms, one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds.

33:05Nick Bare:Right now I am roughly 200 pounds, so about 90 kilograms. So when you look at a lot of the recommendations on carbohydrate intake, you're going to find it's in grams per kilogram of body weight. So first thing you got to do, find out how many kilograms you weigh. You can either do the conversion, one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds, or just find an online calculator and conversion and find it that way. The right amount of carbohydrates for you are going to be based on your activity level and the training volume and more importantly, intensity that you're doing. So for general fitness, the recommendation typically, these are not hard numbers, but ballparks.

33:58for general fitness and general health,