If you go to the gym a lot and do a whole lot of weightlifting, chances are that you also eat a lot of protein. Yes, something you probably know is that protein is very important to build muscle. This is what every website, magazine, and personal trainer is going to tell you. You should be eating this much protein for this much muscle growth.
Yes, this may very well be true. Protein is of course a very important factor when it comes to muscle growth. However, it’s not the only important factor to consider.
Another important type of nutrient that you need for muscle growth is carbohydrates. So, do you need carbs to build muscle? The answer here is that yes, generally speaking, you do need carbohydrates to build muscle. More importantly, you need carbohydrates to stop your current muscles from degrading.
You also need carbohydrates to help provide you with the energy that you need to build muscle in the first place. Carbohydrates are energy, and that is the fuel that you need to workout at the gym. Let’s take a closer look at exactly what carbohydrates are, why you need them, and why they are important for muscle growth.
Building Muscle and Carbohydrates
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that your body needs energy. You need energy to build muscle. Your body doesn’t just need energy for you to actually go to the gym. Your body also needs energy to go through the muscle recovery process.
Remember that when you work out, you break your muscles down. Your muscles grow by first being broken down, and they then grow back bigger and stronger. This is known as hypertrophy, and it is exactly how muscle building works. However, to get the energy you need to build muscles, you need to ingest the right fuel.
Now, many people think that this is only protein, which is true to a certain extent. However, protein is more important in terms of being a building block for muscles than it is as a source of fuel. The source of fuel that you need is carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates and Energy
Something that you may not know is that your body has one preferred source of fuel. Yes, as you can probably guess from today’s article, your body prefers carbohydrates as its main source of fuel. Therefore, carbohydrates aren’t just good for athletes who need fuel, but for regular people as well.
You need the calories that come from carbohydrates to provide you with enough energy to get through your day. This is especially the case if you plan on building muscle. Now, what you need to know is that there are two types of carbohydrates: complex carbs and simple carbs.
Simple carbohydrates offer you a very quick and fast source of energy that won’t last very long. Complex carbohydrates take longer to breakdown. So, they don’t provide you with as much of an energy boost all at once, but they do provide you with long-term energy.
This is why many athletes eat a lot of simple carbs, such as sugary drinks and snacks, before they work out. It provides them with a very big and quick boost of energy, albeit it doesn’t last for a very long time. However, this is also why people who exercise for long periods of time, such as marathon runners, eat complex carbohydrates.
Complex carbohydrates allow for a more sustainable source of energy. They provide a constant source of energy without the big energy crash, such as you will feel from simple carbs. Complex carbohydrates take a longer time to digest, therefore releasing their calories in a slower and steadier manner.
What About Protein?
Most people think that protein is the most important part of building muscle. Now, to a certain extent, this is definitely true. Any dietitian or weightlifter worth their money will tell you that protein is very important. This is because the amino acids containing protein are essential for maintaining muscle tissue and repairing tissue.
Protein helps you build muscle by allowing your muscles to recover after working out. Of course, muscles grow through hypertrophy. This means that your muscles grow when they first get broken down.
Every time you lift a weight, you breakdown your muscles that’s a little bit. Then, your muscle fibers grow back bigger and stronger each time. To allow your muscle fibers to grow back bigger and stronger, you need protein. So, if protein is so important, then why are we saying that carbohydrates may be just as important?
Why Are Carbs Important for Muscle Growth?
OK, so the simple fact of the matter is that carbohydrates are very important for muscle growth. One of the reasons for this is due to glycogen repletion. If you don’t know what glycogen is, this is a form of glucose or sugar that your body stores for use at a later date.
When your body needs an energy boost, it will tap into its reserves of glycogen. This is a fuel source that can work almost immediately. Glycogen and carbohydrates are closely related, because when you eat carbohydrates, your body actually stores them as glycogen. Therefore, when your carbohydrates are low, so is your glycogen level.
Therefore, when you consume a lot of carbohydrates, you also increase your glycogen levels. This in turn allows your body to access a quick and ready source of fuel to help you lift weights and build muscle. This is why consuming some carbohydrates right after exercise is recommended.
Another important point to take note is that low carbohydrate diets may lead to muscle loss. The thought here is that restricting the amount of carbohydrates you eat may actually lead to protein loss.
It is thought that if you restrict the amount of carbohydrates you eat, your body will excrete or get rid of more nitrogen. A loss of nitrogen indicates muscle loss and that your muscles are breaking down, because nitrogen is a big component of the amino acids that form your muscle proteins.
There is also the fact that just like protein, carbohydrates help your muscles recover after exercise. This is because your muscles need glycogen, a source of energy, to perform muscle and protein synthesis.
Therefore, if you don’t have enough protein in your system, your body won’t have enough energy to actually repair and build those muscles. This is why it is a mistake to just eat pure protein after exercise. You need the protein because that is what your muscles are built out of. However, you also need carbohydrates because this is the fuel that your body needs to turn that protein into muscle.
Protein, Carbs, & Muscle – The Bottom Line
The simple reality here is that you can’t have muscle growth without both carbohydrates and protein. Proteins are the essential building blocks that your muscles are made out of.
Carbohydrates are the fuel that your body needs to turn that protein into muscle. Therefore, you really can’t have muscle growth without both protein and carbohydrates. So, lift weights, eat some protein, consume some carbs, and watch those muscles grow.