#024 Everything You Need To Know About Carbs

Welcome back to the 24th edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. I really appreciate you being here. We are the based fitness community that focuses on mastering the basics instead of getting lost in the details.

Today, we will cover everything you need to know about carbohydrates (short “carbs”).

Before we start diving into carbs, here's a quick disclaimer: Carbs is what I consider “Level 2” knowledge - it’s helpful to know (and beneficial for health), but you don’t NEED it necessarily to make good progress in building muscle.

Applied practically, this means if you have some practice counting calories and protein, you CAN get more advanced and also count carbs (and fats). Consequently, if you are still regularly failing your calorie and protein goals, focus on nailing these first, as they are the basis you absolutely need to build muscle. Here are our guides for calories and protein.

The Basics

With the disclaimer out of the way, let’s start by having a look into what carbs actually are. Carbs -or carbohydrates- are one of the 3 macronutrients. As a refresher on macronutrients, those are the three large sources of your calories: Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats.

But today, we want to focus on carbs. Your body uses carbs and breaks them down into glucose - also known as sugar - which is stored as glycogen in your muscles. So, if we are speaking about carbs, we are speaking about a glucose source for your body.

If you are new to the topic of nutrition, you may not care about glucose, but I will change that now:

Glucose is your body’s favorite fuel. (If available) Your body uses glucose to power all kinds of processes - from your brain to exhausting workouts. And not only will the glucose be used by your body as a fuel instead of other sources, but glucose also allows your body to perform well during your workout.

This all doesn’t mean that you need to consume carbs, as your body can also use other calorie sources as fuel. In fact, you don’t need to consume any carbs at all. But unless you are dealing with some medical problems, you are likely restricting yourself from optimal muscle growth by being deficient in carbs.

How much carbs to eat

Now that you know good reasons why it makes sense (for healthy people) to consume a proper amount of carbs, let’s determine how much carbs you should eat. Luckily, that’s quite easy by following this logic:

1. What is my calorie goal?
2. How many calories come from protein? You should consume at least 0.7-1.0g of protein per lb. of body weight.
3. How many calories come from fat? You should consume 0.3-0.5g of protein per lb. of body weight.
4. The rest are carbs.

Here is an example:

Let’s assume you weigh 165 pounds, and your daily calorie goal is 2,600 calories.

First, we must hit our protein goal for the day. We know we should be between 0.7-1.0g of protein per lb. of body weight. Let’s assume we aim towards the higher end of this range and consume 165g of protein per day.

1g of protein contains 4 calories, so 165g of protein contains 660 calories. Consequently, we have 1,940 calories (2,600-660) left to fill with carbs and fats.

Next up, we need to calculate our fat intake. You should get at least 0.3-0.5g of fat per lb. of body weight. Taking our example from above and assuming 0.4g of fat per lb. of body weight, that’s 66g of fat. In contrast to protein, which contains 4 calories per 1g, fat contains 9 calories per 1g. Therefore, our 66g of fat contains 594 calories.

This leaves us with 1,346 calories (1,940-594), which you can fill with carbs. As carbs contain 4 calories per gram, that’s 337g of carbs.

As you can see in the example above, there is quite some room on how you structure your diet. Just make sure you hit your protein and fat goals, and you should be good.

But now, let’s move on and look into the different carb sources to understand where we can get our carbs from.

Carbs Sources

Carbs can come from many different sources - VERY different sources. A can of soda and a sweet potato both provide a lot of carbs, but they are different in a few ways:

Nutritional value, Satiety, and Glycemic Index

First of all, we -of course- aim to eat food with a high nutritional value (or “nutritional density”). The higher the amount of micronutrients per 100 calories, the higher the nutritional value of a food. I don’t think we need to explain that a sweet potato has a higher nutritional value than a soda.

Going hand-in-hand with the nutritional value is satiety. Generally, we want to eat satiating foods - especially if we aim to lose weight. And luckily, foods with a high nutritional density are usually more satiating than foods with a lower nutritional density.

In other scenarios, it might make sense not to eat the most satiating carb sources. If you are bulking up, for example, eating lots of potatoes could be counterproductive because they are so satiating and make it harder to reach your calorie goal. In that case, it could make sense to choose a less satiating carb source - such as pasta.

So what should you do about it? Theoretically, having all your carbs come from whole foods (or minimally processed foods) would be optimal. But let’s be real: That’s neither realistic nor fun.

But that is not an excuse not to make an effort to consume high-quality carbohydrates. Don’t ask me if those should be 60%, 70%, 80% or 90% of your daily carb intake. The more, the better. But if around 70% of your carbs are from high-quality sources, you should be good.

Some high-quality carb sources are:
- Rice
- Whole wheat bread
- Pasta
- Fruits & berries
- (Sweet) Potatoes

You may have noticed, that we didn’t explain the glycemic index (GI). And that’s because it simply doesn’t matter that much. The GI measures on a scale from 1-100 how much blood sugar rises after consuming the carbs. But there is no general good or bad between foods that are low, medium, or high in the GI. In fact of the foods above, some have a low (apple, orange), others a medium (banana), and some a high (rice, whole wheat bread) GI score.

Carb Timing (Level 2.5)

As carbs themselves are helpful but not essential to grow muscles, the timing of carbs is also not essential to build muscle. But since carbs are important to perform at your maximum during a workout, we want to ensure that our glycogen stores are filled before the workout, so you don’t empty them during your training.

Therefore, try to have at least 15-30% of your daily carb intake 1-3 hours before your workout. You don’t need to make a science out of it but having high carb meals before your workout makes sense to boost your performance. To take it a level further, try also to have carbs that are not too high on the GI to ensure that your blood sugar stays on a stable level and doesn’t drop suddenly mid-workout.

Some of you -myself included- like (or have) to go to the gym in the morning. In these cases, consuming large amounts of carbs before hitting the gym is unrealistic. I try to eat a banana before working out to fill up my glycogen storage with a quickly digestible carb. If you feel like you can’t consume enough carbs before a workout, you can try consuming sports drinks during the workout.

Q&A

1. Why are carbs demonized?

   I think it’s due to a mixture of a bad understanding of carbs and “coaches” needing to carve out a niche to sell their products. If you see someone demonizing carbs, just skip them. They want to sell you their products.

2. Can I build muscles on keto?

   Yes, you can build muscles on a keto diet, but be aware that it will probably take you longer as you may be weaker during your workouts. It can also be harder to reach a calorie surplus without carbs.

3. Does keto help with fat loss?

   Most of you should know that I’m not a big fan of keto, but it CAN help with losing fat. How does it help? We are back to calories in vs. calories out. By cutting carbs from their diet, many can save hundreds of calories daily. And if those calories put you in a calorie deficit, you will lose fat.

   But there is no magic around a keto diet that breaks the laws of physics. You won't lose fat if you eat a keto diet but are not in a calorie deficit.

Progress wanted!

In times when most fitness influencers are on some form of “enhancing supplements,” it can be extremely discouraging to compare your progress with the progress you see on social media. Therefore, I’d like to dedicate a part of this newsletter to real pictures of transformations/progress from our community.

Whether it’s anonymous/with your Instagram name, with/without your face, full body, or only upper body, I appreciate everybody who wants to help show others what realistic progress looks like. If you want to be part of it. Just send me a DM on Instagram!

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Stay strong,
Boats & Logs

Disclaimer

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol, please consult a medical professional. These are the opinions from an AI voice.