I’m ditching post-workout carbs.

Taking in carbohydrates in the post-workout period has long been seen as an essential component of your muscle building regimen. The more I research though, the more likely it seems that post-workout carbohydrates will have no impact or may even be counter-productive.

Please note that this advice does not apply to a higher carb diet like the 40/30/30 GLAD approach. For that diet, work out the amount of post-workout carbs needed and stick to it.

First we’ll look at the reasons why I’ve made this decision and then the logical implications following it.

Reasons For Ditching Post-Workout Carbs

(1) Study shows inclusion of carbohydrate in post-workout shake does not increase protein synthesis.

The following study took place in the Netherlands, the subjects being healthy young men. What was great about this study was that it was truly scientific in that it split the men into 3 groups, each ingesting different combinations of protein & carbohydrates. Therefore the only variable was the level of carbohydrate.
Each group performed resistance training for 60 minutes and was given either protein or a combination of protein and carbohydrate each hour for 6 hours after training. The amount of protein for all the groups was 0.3g per kg of bodyweight. The protein and carbs varied as follows:

1. Group 1 - Just Protein, no carbs
2. Group 2 - Protein with 0.15 g per kg of body weight of carbohydrate
3. Group 3 - Protein with 0.6 g per kg of body weight of carbohydrate

Protein synthesis rates were then measured for 6 hours after training. The results?

1. The intake of protein after training increases protein synthesis
2. The addition of carbohydrate (whether in small or large amounts) to this protein did not further increase protein synthesis at all. That may be surprising but in my opinion it’s great news, especially for carb-cycling MuscleHackers

study: Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Sep;293:E833-E842

(2) The Impact of Carbs on Growth Hormone

Growth Hormone levels are elevated after resistance training. It’s well known that as insulin levels increase in the body, growth hormone decreases. A large spike in insulin will occur with the ingestion of high GI post workout carbs. Therefore, it would seem that carb intake after resistance training may be counter-productive.

(I’m still searching for a study in respect to the above point. The only study I could find suggested that carbs AND protein post workout did not blunt growth hormone release. What is needed is an approach similar to the study above which isolates the variables e.g. would protein ingestion alone have a more favorable impact on growth hormone levels?) Therefore, at the moment, this is intuitive.

(3) Impact of Post-Workout Carbs on Fat-Oxidation

Obviously if you are taking time to refill your muscle glycogen stores with carbohydrate after a workout, you are reducing the amount of fatty acids your body will use to provide the energy it needs.

In order to keep fat-oxidation (using fat for energy, whether from body-fat or food) at maximum levels, it would make sense to leave the carbs out of your post-workout shake. In doing so you encourage the body to tap into it’s stored fat.

So, what are the implications of this information?

(1) It makes the MANS diet easier to follow. Let’s say that your daily carb intake Monday - Friday is 40 grams. You now won’t lose 5 - 15 grams in a post-workout shake. You can spread those extra carbs throughout the day or have in one meal e.g. you may feel you benefit from more carbs in you pre-workout meal.

(2) Increased fat-burning. For the whole of the low-carb period, you now encourage the use of fatty acids for energy.

(3) Possibly increased growth hormone levels throughout the low-carb period of the MANS bodybuilding diet.

The exclusion of post-workout carbs seems to be a very positive move indeed. If you are worried about depleted glycogen levels, remember that you re-fill these ’storage tanks’ at the weekend, and you are always free to have a mid-week carb spike if you feel your workouts are beginning to suffer towards the end of the working week.

Onwards & Upwards Friends!

Mark McManus

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12 Comments » | Posted in Bodybuilding Diet, Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Six Pack Abs

So, is a high-protein diet bad for your kidneys?
In a word ‘no’.
More specifically, protein may only bad for your kidneys if you have bad kidneys .

If you use the formula I use to calculate how much protein you need to build muscle, you’ll probably be consuming about 20-25% of your daily calories from protein. Hardly enough to place undue stress on the kidneys.

To illustrate the point here’s a study that tested the hypothesis that a high-protein consumption would adversely affect the kidneys.

One group is put on a high-protein diet, the other on a low-protein vegetarian diet. The conclusion - speaking of the higher-protein diet it says:

“such a diet does not significantly affect kidney function with “normal aging” in healthy subjects.”

Enjoy your salmon everyone

Mark McManus.

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5 Comments » | Posted in Bodybuilding Diet, Misc., Uncategorized

I could have named this article, “25 year vegetarian admits Atkins diet is the best!” and it would have been accurate!

Most people don’t question the awesome effectiveness of low-carb dieting for weight loss. However, the number 1 issue is always, ‘Is it safe?’.

I’ve already blogged about the saturated fat & cholesterol myths but more and more results of studies just keep coming in.

I want to bring to your attention a study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented here at Stanford University (Lecture filmed on January 17, 2008).

The lecture below is given by a 25 year vegetarian, Christopher Gardner, probably not the best candidate for telling the world about how healthy a low-carb diet is. However, he is fair and balanced in his approach and seems like his intention is to actually help people succeed rather than push his own preconceptions down people’s throats - how refreshing!

The low-carb diet of choice for this study was Atkins, so if you’re wondering ‘Is the Atkins diet safe?‘, you’ll want to watch this one with interest.

The results aren’t surprising to me in the slightest, but I hope a few of you skeptics start to reconsider what constitutes a healthy diet.

The study involved 311 women over a 1 year period. They were split into 4 groups, each group doing their own diet. At one extreme, we have a very low-fat/high-carb diet. At the other, a very low-carb/high-fat (Atkins) diet with the other 2 diets falling somewhere in between.

Well, guess what diet produced most weight loss? Atkins of course - by now that shouldn’t surprise you.

However, they were also interested in how healthy each diet was. Here’s the point (and something I’ve been stressing for a long time), Atkins beat all other diets in every single health marker - ALL OF THEM.

The Atkins diet saw most improvements in:

1. Weight
2. Systolic Blood Pressure
3. Diastolic Blood Pressure
4. Triglycerides
5. HDL cholesterol
6. LDL cholesterol
7. Insulin
8. Glucose

To quote Gardner “There was no group that did better than Atkins in anything“.

This is a long video so I’ve made a note of the most important parts for you.

1. Watch 20min to 26 mins - Results of the Study
2. Watch 53.30 to 54.30 - Here Gardner says how hard it was to admit that Atkins works best. He says it in good spirits though, I respect that . He shows his openness to low-carb by saying, “I think there’s something there.” Wow, someone actually respecting what the data really shows!

Enjoy the show!

Mark McManus

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12 Comments » | Posted in Bodybuilding Diet, Lose Fat, Misc.