Carbohydrates and Protien.

Andromeda5000

OK. So I think I get the bit about eating protien when having cabohydrates because this will slow down the absorbtion rate of the carbohydrates so that they don't impact hormones such as insulin and glucose.

But WHY don't we want to impact insulin and glucose?
What happens if we do?

Please keep answers simple. My poor little brain can only take so much in at any one time :-)

sandram82

Bump.. Id like to know more on this as well!

TrainingWithTonya

It honestly depends on what your goals are, what your workouts are, and the timing of your meals in relation to your workouts. It also depends on your diabetic status.

Insulin is a hormone that moves glucose (carbohydrate) out of the blood and into the muscles where it is stored as glycogen or into the fat cells where it is stored as fat. In someone with diabetes, they either don't produce insulin or the receptor sites for insulin to be able to work at moving sugar from the blood don't work properly. They may actually need to take insulin or other medications to get the blood sugar levels down because excessively high blood sugar for prolonged periods of time can lead to numerous other issues, including coma and death. The risk that they take when they inject insulin is that the blood sugar can drop too low which is also a risk. People without diabetes usually have pretty regular, healthy levels of blood sugar. When carbohydrates are ingested, they increase the blood sugar level. When this happens, the body naturally increases the insulin level to move the sugar out of the blood and store it in the muscle, liver, or fat cells so that it keeps the blood sugar levels in the safe zone. Where it is moved to by insulin depends on the needs of the body. In bodybuilders or others who do heavy weight training, the body needs to store more muscle glycogen, so an increase in insulin means an increase in stored muscle glycogen, which is a good thing. This is especially true right after weight training because of the need to replace the glycogen used during the workout. In someone who is not weight training or doing high intensity exercise that increases the need for glycogen storage, however, the insulin then moves the blood glucose to the fat cells for storage. Simple carbohydrates raise the blood sugar faster because they are processed in the body faster. Complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates combined with protein and fat raise the blood sugar slower because they take longer to be processed in the digestive system. Because simple carbs raise the blood sugar so fast, they also raise the insulin levels fast. This can cause an issue where too much glucose is moved out of the blood and can cause a hypoglycemic rebound effect. Because the complex carbs and simple carbs mixed with protein or fat don't raise the blood sugar as much or as fast, they don't raise the insulin levels as much so the body doesn't have to find as much storage space for that glucose quickly. So, say you are lifting weights and you burn 100 grams of muscle glycogen. Then you ingest 150 grams of simple carbohydrates for your recovery drink. (These are hypothetical numbers by the way.) The body can use 100 of those grams but still has to do something with the other 50 grams. If 25 grams of blood glucose was used for fuel, then 25 grams of blood glucose needs to be replaced so that would leave another 25 grams that need to be stored elsewhere. The extra 25 grams in the blood would cause the blood glucose number to be too high so the insulin then helps the body store those 25 grams as fat. Now, if you did the same workout, burning the same 100 grams of muscle glycogen and 25 grams of blood glucose to fuel the workout, but your recovery meal was 150 grams of simple carbs and 25 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat, the amount of glucose that is sent to the blood stream from the meal is slower, so only 75 grams go within the first hour. 25 of those replace the lost blood glucose and the other 50 go into the muscle glycogen. Then as the body continues with digestion, you burn some more glycogen from the liver and blood to fuel digestion and whatever activity you are doing like walking the dog or typing on the computer, say 10 grams each. When the other 75 grams are finally released into the blood stream, 50 of them go back to the muscle, 10 grams go back to the blood, and 10 grams go back to the liver. That only leaves 5 grams not used to replace lost glycogen. Now, either the body can keep it in the blood stream because it isn't a big spike so that it can be used for the next time you jump up and run to catch your child who is about to fall, or it can store it. If your workouts have been intense, then the body might store it as muscle glycogen thinking that it needs to increase the amount of glycogen stored to be able to fuel those tough workouts later. If your workouts haven't been intensely using the anaerobic glycolysis system for fuel, then it would be preferentially stored as fat.

So, basically, insulin is vital to prevent high blood sugar. Insulin is also considered an anabolic agent for bodybuilders who want to store as much glycogen in the muscles for fueling their workouts and looking like they have bigger muscles (because the glycogen is stored in water in the muscle which makes it appear as if there were bigger or more muscle fibers). Insulin is bad if you don't have enough carbohydrates in your blood stream because it can cause low blood sugar. Insulin is also bad if you aren't doing intense enough exercise to use the glycogen in the muscles because then the carbs will be stored as fat.

Andromeda5000

Wow! Thank you soooo much for taking the time to explain it in a very clear way. Very much appreciated.

You also answered a few other questions I had. :happy:

chrisdavey

Well said above

THis is also a great article I read about it.
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_insulin_advantage_how_to_bulk_and_cut_on_the_same_day