CARBOHYDRATES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS-
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I posted on this in my private facebook group last week and I felt it important enough to share here.

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Let me know if you’d like to be added into this group as it’s completely free and I post daily exclusive education/motivation in here that I don’t many times post on my personal page.

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I want to go in depth on my carbohydrates. Let’s go ahead and talk about carbohydrates as well as their timing and specific functions in a training day’s nutrition.

I’m going to use my own day as an example for this.

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First, I want to talk about the different types of carbs to give you an understanding on how they work.
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-TYPES OF CARBOHYDRATES-
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Simple- Higher Glycemic-break down quickly. fruits, cereals, sugary products,etc.
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Complex- complex chained- beans, whole grains, and vegetables These break down slowly.
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Dexenhdrous Glucose -single chained carb of the highest glycemic index.
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Cluster Dextrin- A mixture made for sustained release of energy, unlike traditional carbohydrate sources. Does not cause as high of an isnulin response of a dextrose.
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Each of these carbs are the same and are all converted into glucose. All have 4 calories per gram. Each separate carb however has it’s effective time and place in a day in order to benefit your body composition goals and your performance.
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I’m going to go through my daily intake and show you what carbs I use personally and why I use them as I know a lot of you can benefit from this , especially if a higher level of athlete.
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Pre Workout- 45-60gs carbs from a simple carb. I use rice cereal. It’s very light on the stomach and breaks down quickly. For pre workout the higher glycemic index carbs will cause a higher insulin spike (anabolic hormone) than a complex carb. We want this hormone released around our workout as it has an anabolic effect.
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Before I walk into the gym I have 1 serving of sour patch kids. Not only do I love these and it satisfies my cravings for sugar, they have benefits as again this is another simple carb with lot’s of sugar aidng in the release of insulin. No need to be afraid of sugar. So long as it fits in your daily macros you will have 0 negative effects. We need it and it has specific benefits.
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Intra Workout- I have a BCAA combined with cyclic dextrin carb.
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This is a blend of amino acids, carbohydrates and electrolytes to provide me with all the necessary nutrients my body would typically be lacking prior to intense training. I train for quite a while so minimizing muscle breakdown is crucial and over time makes a significant difference in muscle growth and also muscle retention in a diet setting.

In the gym we are breaking down muscle tissue.During training these amino acids will keep your body from dipping deep into that catabolic state, preventing your body from burning its own muscle as a fuel source. Instead you will be utilizing carbohydrates, which is the body’s preferred energy source, helping your perform longer. Since your body efficiently runs on carbohydrates during exercise this duel carb source from Dextrin that gives your body a constant source of muscle energy to keep you fueled during your training period. My training is quite intense and also I’m able to give it my all using this. This helps with strength, endurance, recovery and overall just has you maximizing your efforts in the gym. I use one serving of 1st Phorm’s Intra- formance BCAAs while I workout and this has 18gs of carbs from those dual sources.
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Post Workout- Again, during our training we break down our muscles. We create micro traumas in our muscles and deplete muscle glycogen. That glycogen needs to be replenished by carbohydrates.Even if you take a protein shake post workout without any carbs you aren’t recovering. That protein is going to be converted into muscle glycogen rendering it’s aminos useless which will not begin muscle recovery through protein synthesis.
But there is a very precise way of doing this. Not any carb is going to replenish glycogen fast enough. Keep in mind that carbs need to be digested and that takes hours. What this means is even if you are taking a carb post workout you arent replenishing glycogen until later on keeping you breaking down muscle tissue for quite a while AFTER you have trained.
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Here is how to do this. I use a dexenhydrous glucose carbohydrate post workout. This is called Ignition, also by 1st Phorm. This is the very highest glycemic index of carbohydrate that there is. This has been pre digested so all of the water molecules have been removed. By doing this not only does it immediately replenish glycogen, but because it’s a single chained mono-sachharide carbohydrate it causes a massive insulin spike. That’s going to be an insulin spike 6 xs greater than even that of a standard dextrose carb such as gatorade. This gives you an anabolic effect post workout which aids in long term muscle growth and recovers you as efficiently as possible. I mix this with my protein so as soon as I drink the shake- boom-glycogen is immediately replenished and my protein is fully utilized leaving me in an anabolic recovery state before i leave the gym. I cannot stress how important that is.
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After this I have usually 3 meals left in my day.
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This is when I choose from complex carbs. Now that my glycogen has been replenished after training I want carbs that are going to break down slowly ,which is going to keep my body fed longer and in an anabolic state up until about 1/2 way through my sleep. So it’s mostly green veggies at night. These carbohydrates are also very micro nutrient dense so between these and my multi-vitamin I get all of the necessary micro nutrients along with my macro nutrients.
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And there you have it. A day in the life of carbohydrates.
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Remember- our bodies run on glucose. We need carbs so as long as we are eating within our adapted nutrition and per our overall goals we can choose from the right food sources to maximize our efforts both inside and outside the gym.