carbs - fluid retention?

BecBeccaBecky

does anyone suffer fluid retention when they eat carbohydrates? I'm on a 40/40/20 macro split and still do plenty of cardio despite trying to gain weight... (i want lean muscle not fat) and not sure if the 'fluid' is in my head because i used to be scared to eat too many carbs.. or if its actually true!! some days i feel really heavy in my legs and some days i don't yet my weight is the same!. I avoid salt like the plague and drink copious amounts of water... (possibly too much) but wanting to know if anyone else gets this feeling? I'm wondering if its stress related because i had my cortisol checked and it was above normal... or?????

cwolfman13

do some research on glycogen storage.

mantium999

If you are trying to gain weight, doing "plenty of cardio" is only going to mean you need to eat that much more to compensate. To gain weight, you need a caloric surplus. Increasing your calorie expenditure through cardio requires you to eat those calories back in order to maintain a surplus. If you are doing cardio for it's other benefits, great, but adding it for the purpose of gaining lean muscle and not fat isn't going to help you much. Any weight gain, when done with resistance training, will include both fat and muscle. And all muscle is lean.

auddii

mantium999 wrote: »

If you are trying to gain weight, doing "plenty of cardio" is only going to mean you need to eat that much more to compensate. To gain weight, you need a caloric surplus. Increasing your calorie expenditure through cardio requires you to eat those calories back in order to maintain a surplus. If you are doing cardio for it's other benefits, great, but adding it for the purpose of gaining lean muscle and not fat isn't going to help you much. Any weight gain, when done with resistance training, will include both fat and muscle. And all muscle is lean.

This. You can somewhat limit how much fat you gain by keeping your surplus low (what many people refer to as a "clean bulk" as opposed to eating everything in sight to gain as fast as possible, which is a "dirty bulk"). You have to eat in a surplus to gain weight, so more cardio = more calories needed to hit a surplus. It may not be a bad idea if you love to eat food, but many people find it difficult to out eat a lot of cardio while gaining.

And I always feel like my water level/retention level changes. For the past few weeks I've been retaining a ton of water (my rings are much smaller than they were a few weeks ago. My stress levels are through the roof thanks to doing the workload of multiple people at work combined with not drinking enough water and probably some hormonal fluctuation as well.

Try and ride it out. Some of the swelling is likely real, but it may not be entirely carb related. If you've upped your carbs recently, you body will adjust to the new levels and you'll stop seeing the initial fast gain due to water retention. The bigger issue will be mentally dealing with gaining. Many people have a problem with this, especially if they're attempting to bulk after losing weight. Read the "former fat boy syndrome" links in the sticky section for some guidance on the mental side of this.

goalieman82

BecBeccaBecky wrote: »

does anyone suffer fluid retention when they eat carbohydrates? I'm on a 40/40/20 macro split and still do plenty of cardio despite trying to gain weight... (i want lean muscle not fat) and not sure if the 'fluid' is in my head because i used to be scared to eat too many carbs.. or if its actually true!! some days i feel really heavy in my legs and some days i don't yet my weight is the same!. I avoid salt like the plague and drink copious amounts of water... (possibly too much) but wanting to know if anyone else gets this feeling? I'm wondering if its stress related because i had my cortisol checked and it was above normal... or?????

Hi Becky,
I have that issue as well. You can do a quiz to find your body type and a good starting macro for putting on lean mass. 40% carbs is too high for me. I try and stick around 30 and I don't have too much issue handling that amount. It also depends on what kind of carbs you're ingesting. You want to try and stay away from white foods like white rice, bread, and potatoes. I recently started carb cycling as it's been shown by some that it helps build mass and lose fat at the same time. You'll have one high carb day usually on the largest muscle group or total body workout, a medium carb day for say a back or chest workout, and a few low carb days for the cardio only, smaller muscle groups or rest days. There's a ton of articles on the subject. check them out.

ndj1979

I wish someone would explain the difference to me between lean muscle, fatty muscle, and regular muscle...

ndj1979

goalieman82 wrote: »

BecBeccaBecky wrote: »

does anyone suffer fluid retention when they eat carbohydrates? I'm on a 40/40/20 macro split and still do plenty of cardio despite trying to gain weight... (i want lean muscle not fat) and not sure if the 'fluid' is in my head because i used to be scared to eat too many carbs.. or if its actually true!! some days i feel really heavy in my legs and some days i don't yet my weight is the same!. I avoid salt like the plague and drink copious amounts of water... (possibly too much) but wanting to know if anyone else gets this feeling? I'm wondering if its stress related because i had my cortisol checked and it was above normal... or?????

Hi Becky,
I have that issue as well. You can do a quiz to find your body type and a good starting macro for putting on lean mass. 40% carbs is too high for me. I try and stick around 30 and I don't have too much issue handling that amount. It also depends on what kind of carbs you're ingesting. You want to try and stay away from white foods like white rice, bread, and potatoes. I recently started carb cycling as it's been shown by some that it helps build mass and lose fat at the same time. You'll have one high carb day usually on the largest muscle group or total body workout, a medium carb day for say a back or chest workout, and a few low carb days for the cardio only, smaller muscle groups or rest days. There's a ton of articles on the subject. check them out.

no, no, and no ..

source of carbs does not matter.

and when bulking you want a majority of your calories to come to carbs. Please take that pseudo science back to the main forums.

ndj1979

auddii wrote: »

mantium999 wrote: »

If you are trying to gain weight, doing "plenty of cardio" is only going to mean you need to eat that much more to compensate. To gain weight, you need a caloric surplus. Increasing your calorie expenditure through cardio requires you to eat those calories back in order to maintain a surplus. If you are doing cardio for it's other benefits, great, but adding it for the purpose of gaining lean muscle and not fat isn't going to help you much. Any weight gain, when done with resistance training, will include both fat and muscle. And all muscle is lean.

This. You can somewhat limit how much fat you gain by keeping your surplus low (what many people refer to as a "clean bulk" as opposed to eating everything in sight to gain as fast as possible, which is a "dirty bulk"). You have to eat in a surplus to gain weight, so more cardio = more calories needed to hit a surplus. It may not be a bad idea if you love to eat food, but many people find it difficult to out eat a lot of cardio while gaining.

And I always feel like my water level/retention level changes. For the past few weeks I've been retaining a ton of water (my rings are much smaller than they were a few weeks ago. My stress levels are through the roof thanks to doing the workload of multiple people at work combined with not drinking enough water and probably some hormonal fluctuation as well.

Try and ride it out. Some of the swelling is likely real, but it may not be entirely carb related. If you've upped your carbs recently, you body will adjust to the new levels and you'll stop seeing the initial fast gain due to water retention. The bigger issue will be mentally dealing with gaining. Many people have a problem with this, especially if they're attempting to bulk after losing weight. Read the "former fat boy syndrome" links in the sticky section for some guidance on the mental side of this.

cosign ...

mantium999

goalieman82 wrote: »

BecBeccaBecky wrote: »

does anyone suffer fluid retention when they eat carbohydrates? I'm on a 40/40/20 macro split and still do plenty of cardio despite trying to gain weight... (i want lean muscle not fat) and not sure if the 'fluid' is in my head because i used to be scared to eat too many carbs.. or if its actually true!! some days i feel really heavy in my legs and some days i don't yet my weight is the same!. I avoid salt like the plague and drink copious amounts of water... (possibly too much) but wanting to know if anyone else gets this feeling? I'm wondering if its stress related because i had my cortisol checked and it was above normal... or?????

Hi Becky,
I have that issue as well. You can do a quiz to find your body type and a good starting macro for putting on lean mass. 40% carbs is too high for me. I try and stick around 30 and I don't have too much issue handling that amount. It also depends on what kind of carbs you're ingesting. You want to try and stay away from white foods like white rice, bread, and potatoes. I recently started carb cycling as it's been shown by some that it helps build mass and lose fat at the same time. You'll have one high carb day usually on the largest muscle group or total body workout, a medium carb day for say a back or chest workout, and a few low carb days for the cardio only, smaller muscle groups or rest days. There's a ton of articles on the subject. check them out.

Oh, do explain the negative impacts on white foods as a carb source.