Carbohydrates - Designing Your Diet

DESIGNING A DIET

The first step in designing the carbohydrate part of your diet is to assess your daily needs. You are of course expected to have planned out your goals first off in relation to actually achieving what it is you are looking to achieve. Once you have done this, you will have directed yourself to a plan of action with your diet, based upon your personal preferences for body type and metabolic type. With this in mind, and the fact that you do indeed require carbohydrates in your diet (unless following a ketogenic plan) you will want to know how to work out your carbohydrate requirements. This is a little harder than for fats and protein as the levels vary significantly between people, and getting it wrong can result in gaining fat at one end of the scale or having low energy levels and poor physical and mental performance at the other. This is because consuming too many carbohydrates releases too much insulin and both of those convert into triglycerides. And on the flip side, your brain, when not following a ketogenic regime, needs carbohydrates for its fuel source, and so consuming too few, makes you both physically and mentally drained.

If you've already spent time finding how many calories you need to eat per day to maintain bodyweight (you can use the nutrition calculator to give you a rough idea of what you need to be consuming daily) you can follow this rule of thumb calculation for your daily carbohydrate intake:

Carbs (in gm's) = (daily calories / 4) - (bodyweight in pounds * 2.1)

If you're not sure of your daily calorie level, the following calculation gives you a 'good first guess' at what your carbohydrate level should be:

Carbs (in gm's) = (bodyweight in pounds * 2.2) + (hours of exercise per day * 100)

If you find you gain weight, reduce your daily carbohydrates by around 50gm a day, alternatively if you lose weight increase them by 50gm a day for a week. Continue adjusting your carbohydrate intake until your weight remains constant. Gradual carbohydrate manipulation in this manner is going to give you a very personalised and individual figure that is ideal for you alone.

The second step in designing your diet, is choosing when to eat your carbohydrates, and which ones to eat. There are two important factors to consider; replenishing glycogen after training, and maintaining a stable insulin level through the day. It is vitally critical to replace your carbohydrate levels after training, spiking your insulin, and shuttling amino acids into your muscle cells. Throughout the rest of the day, you are advised to maintain steady sugar levels to prevent dips of energy and mental clarity, and produce limited and small amounts of the anabolic hormone insulin.

After training your levels of glycogen are severely depleted, triggering the body to create an enzyme called glycogen synthase, which enables rapid storage of carbohydrates. For the first 2 hours, this enzyme is particularly active with reducing activity over the next few hours and studies have shown that taking around 225gm of carbs in a liquid form in the 4 hours after training will maximise glycogen replacement. These carbs should be mainly simple, derived from glucose polymers with a little fructose. Replacing glycogen in this manner will cause you to feel less sore post training, and rapidily improve your recovery rate from exercise.

The rest of your daily carbohydrate allowance should be spaced evenly through the day to ensure Insulin levels remain stable. Insulin is essential to support high levels of glycogen synthase, and this in turn is required over a prolonged period of time to maximise glycogen replenishment. Carbohydrates during the rest of the day should be derived from starch and fiber (low glycaemic index rated foods). It would be wise that you study the information in the insulin index section of the website to also assess, not timings and types of carbohydrates, but quantities and the reasons why.

For people engaging in training lasting over 90 minutes, you should look to drink a glucose polymer drink from the start of your training. Aim to take 40-50gm of carbs per hour in water diluted to a level of around 8% concentration or less.

Below is a table outlining the carbohydrate content of many popular whole food choices:-