All over the internet, as of the past couple of years, every health or fitness influencer, every diet advice website, has been spreading a rumor – that carbs are bad, or at the very least not necessary. This was something that I, before I was educated on nutrition, fell for, specifically in the summer between my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college. That summer I was determined to hit many fitness goals that I had been trying to achieve, and I took it very seriously. I was in the gym 5 to 6 days a week lifting weights, progressively overloading, and taking my nutrition seriously and strictly. I was eating, what I thought was a very healthy nutritious diet that would fuel my workouts and make gains. Little did I know that advice had only been coming from the media. This is what I was eating: Fruit, almond milk, vegetables, chicken and other lean meats, sometimes rice, peanut butter, Greek yogurt, protein shakes, and protein bars. In the beginning, I noticed some significant fat loss but, after that, my progress started to slip. I couldn’t give as much effort in my workouts and I wasn’t gaining as much muscle as I should have, not to mention the effects in my everyday life. I was tired all the time, sometimes taking three naps a day. I had a really difficult time gaining muscle and getting stronger because I was eating so much protein that I was too full and had a hard time exceeding my calorie goals. Well what is the thing missing from this diet I was eating? Carbs.
At the time, I wasn’t able to put the dots together, but as soon as I started my nutrition classes in the fall semester, I realized that my lack of carbs was the single reason why I had all of these side effects. So to understand why carbs are important, let’s break down what a carb is. In its simplest form, it is a unit of sugar. Bread, whenever your body breaks it down, breaks it down into sugars. It is the same thing with pasta or any larger carb-based food. Now, these sugars go from our bloodstream to our muscles to give us fuel for activity. When we don’t have enough sugar, to use for energy we will burn fat cells in our body. When we have too many sugars, we will deposit them as fat cells in our body. I was eating almost no sugar or carbs. Therefore the only type of energy that I was burning was my fat cells, and for me, this did not work, it led to extreme fatigue. So once I learned this during my first semester of college, I started implementing the proper amount of carbs into my diet, and I made a lot more gains and felt a lot better. In fact, I was even able to completely cut out caffeine because I felt so fueled throughout the day.
Now, I understand that this does not work for everybody – everybody’s body is different. I know some people are extremely successful with the carnivore or keto diets where they eat primarily protein and fat. This may be very sustainable for some people while it is not for others. But in my experience, carbs are important, especially to athletes. The reason why carbs are important for athletes, or any individuals training or doing any sort of physical activity, is because it is necessary to refuel your muscle glycogen stores in order to, continually, have well-fueled workouts day after day. What is muscle glycogen? Whenever you do a brief intensive activity, such as sprinting or powerlifting, you burn up carbs in your muscles that are stored for this short burst of activity instead of the sugar in your blood. After that activity, preferably within 2 hours but at the very most within 24 hours afterward, you need to restore that muscle glycogen or you will not be able to perform those short intensive activities as well, because your muscles physically do not have the energy. This is why some marathon runners or long-distance runners consume gels or energy beans in order to maintain that constant flow of carbohydrates.
So there is it… the truth. I’m not saying that if you don’t consume many or any carbs at all, you need to change your diet if that is what is working for you. Everybody’s body is different and everybody’s body reacts differently to certain foods. I just want to help those who many be in a similar situation as me, knowing that you don’t have to be afraid of carbohydrates.
P.S. For those of you that say, “Well you are just a nutrition student and are not a certified dietitian or nutritionist yet, why should I listen to you?” You are correct, I am not, but I am taught by all registered dietitians for all of my nutrition classes, with many other Sports Nutrition certifications. I am taught by true experts in the field. This information comes directly from those classes and is backed up by studies. If you don’t want to listen to me, there’s nobody saying that you have to.
I hope this is useful to somebody, and helps somebody out there in their fitness or nutrition goals. God Bless, peace – Alexis