What Carbohydrates are Best for Bodybuilding?

When you are on a muscle-building program, carbohydrates provide very important nutrients. It’s important to know what carbohydrates are best for bodybuilding because they are our bodies’ main source of fuel. Since they aid in the absorption of protein and help prevent catabolism, they should be included in every meal you eat.

Besides providing fuel for your brain and muscles, carbohydrates also have another important function. They help maintain an ideal environment in your body by raising levels of testosterone and insulin.

However, eating high-glycemic carbohydrates results in an insulin spike. While you should avoid this at other times of the day, this insulin spike plays an important role after a workout or in the morning. At any other time of the day, an insulin spike causes your body to deposit excess blood sugar into your fat cells.

For this reason most of the carbohydrates you eat should be of the low-glycemic type. Such carbs break down slowly and provide your body with a slow, sustained release of sugar. This provision lasts throughout the day. In so doing, they moderate your insulin and blood sugar levels, which keeps you from storing excess fat. It also maintains energy levels.

To tell whether a carbohydrate is high-glycemic or low-glycemic, you can use the Glycemic Index. The Glycemic index is a chart that rates carbohydrates depending on the speed at which they increase blood sugar levels, within two hours after consumption. These rankings vary from 0 to 100.

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

Regarding the glycemic index, high GI ranks aren’t necessarily bad for you, it's just that natural carbohydrates with low GI rankings usually make the best bodybuilding carbs. The reason for this is that when you eat high GI foods in combination with other foods, it does not cause your insulin levels to 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 wise to blindly follow the Glycemic Index when choosing which carbohydrates to include in your diet.

Your diet should include foods like oatmeal, potatoes, yams, brown rice and whole grains; these help you get the correct bodybuilding carbs because they contain natural, unrefined carbohydrates. When they are part of a full meal, these foods will have a negligible effect on blood sugar levels because they will break down slowly.

You should also include other bodybuilding carbs in your diet like low fat dairy products and fresh fruits. Vegetables are also good, but they’re not the best choice when you want to maximize your calorie-burning without over-eating; they’re not as high in caloric value.

Only eat refined carbohydrates on rare occasions.

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