Choosing the Right Bodybuilding Carbs

Carbohydrates give you nutrients that essential to the muscle-building process.

The purpose of carbohydrates is to fuel your body and mind, and to help your body maintain an optimal internal environment by increasing levels of hormones like insulin, IGF-1, and testosterone.

Choosing the right bodybuilding carbs is essential as carbohydrates are the main source of fuel for the body.

You should include them in every meal because they help in the absorption of protein and help prevent catabolism.

When you eat high glycemic carbohydrates, your insulin levels rise.

After a workout or in the morning, this insulin spike plays an important role, but it should be avoided at other times.

At any other time of the day, an insulin spike causes your body to deposit excess blood sugar into your fat cells.

Most of the carbohydrates in your diet should be of the low glycemic type.

Such bodybuilding carbs break down slowly and provide your body with a slow, sustained release of sugar.

The supply of sugar that low glycemic carbohydrates provide is slow and steady, and it lasts throughout the day.

By doing this, they moderate your insulin and blood sugar levels, which keeps you from storing excess fat and also maintains energy levels.

Using the Glycemic Index (GI) is a good way to tell if a carbohydrate is high glycemic or low glycemic.

This is one of the most accurate ways of telling if you’re eating the right bodybuilding carbs.

Based on how quickly or slowly carbohydrates increase blood sugar levels within a two hour period, the Glycemic Index is a chart that ranks them.

These rankings vary from 0 to 100.

While natural carbohydrates with low GI rankings are normally the best bodybuilding carbs, my overall view of the glycemic index is that high GI ranking foods aren’t necessarily bad for you.

This is because when you eat high GI foods in combination with other foods, it does not make your insulin levels spike.

What really changes the GI effects in your body is eating carbohydrates with other food sources like proteins and fats.

Therefore, it’s not always the best option to blindly follow the Glycemic Index when choosing carbohydrates for your diet plan.

To be able to get the right bodybuilding carbs, you need to eat foods that contain natural, unrefined starchy carbohydrates; these are found in foods like brown rice, potatoes, oatmeal, yams, and any whole grain.

As part of a full meal, these foods break down gradually, and their effect on your blood sugar levels is almost negligible.

Low fat dairy products and fresh fruits are other bodybuilding carbs that you should eat.

Vegetables are also good, but they’re not the best choice when you want to maximize your calorific intake without eating too much because they’re not as high in calories.

You should only eat refined carbohydrates on very rare occasions.