Is There A Beneficial Time To Eat Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates form a big part of the western diet.

Rice, potato, bread and pasta are consumed on a daily basis by people all over the world. 

Many people have been led to believe that they need these foods in their diet to help them feel fuller for longer and give them energy to make it through the day (I should know as I used to be one of the people that believed this !

What actually follows eating white refined carbohydrates is a huge release of glucose (sugar that carbs are broken down into when consumed) into the blood stream. 

The glucose will have you feeling on top of the world for 10-20 minutes, until insulin removes the sugar and stores it as body fat to protect you (having extremely high levels of glucose in the blood could be fatal if it was not for insulin).

The feeling of being full after eating white refined carbs does not last for long, because your body doesn't respond to carbohydrates in the same way as it does with protein and fat, in terms of sending signals to the brain which tell you to stop eating.

When insulin removes the glucose from your blood and stores it as fat for later use as energy (a limited amount can be stored within your muscles), your blood sugar levels plummet.

This causes you to feel sleepy, low on energy and crave more carbs. 

After you have done a training session, or a modified lactic training session (MLT) if you are a DVCC client already, your body will be more sensitive to insulin. This means that your body will use the glucose received from carbohydrates in a much more effective and healthy way.

However this doesn't mean you should eat white refined carbs.

The best carbohydrates to eat in the meal, immediately following exercise, are: amaranth, sweet potato, whole grain rice and quinoa. It is very important that you only eat these carbs within a hour of exercising, and limit your intake to 50 grams. IF weight loss is your goal.

These types of starchy carbohydrates will replenish you glycogen stores (glycogen is what glucose is stored as), which means you will recover quickly and have more energy to train the next day.

If your main goal is to reduce your body fat, you want to remove white refined carbs from your diet and switch to eating starchy carbs after exercise instead.