So following on with the nutrition blog posts let’s talk about Carbs today…….Carbohydrates (Carbs) are made up of sugars, starch and fibre. We need carbs for energy. When you eat carbs, your body breaks them down, turns them into glucose, which is used for immediate energy or stored in your muscles as glycogen for use later. When you are active and exercising regularly, means you will need more energy and will need to replenish regularly.
If you choose to overeat/choose wrong kind of carbs, your body will store the excess glycogen and convert it into fat, so will/can lead to weight gain.
You should include:
Starchy vegetables like potatoes and sweet potato, squashes, and soaked/sprouted/fermented grains and produce, eg spelt pasta and rice. Also includes exercise recovery drinks, sugars, sweets, fizzy drinks, etc.
When should you eat them?
Best time to get the best results is first meal of the day and post workout. It’s all dependant on energy and goals. If you do your workout in the afternoon then please include carbs with your evening meal, this ensures your body can recover from the workout.
How much do you need at each meal?
• Women- similar to size to palm of hand, can have more if getting hungry or lacking energy, listen to that body.
• Men-about double the size of palm of hand, again as with woman can play with amounts.
Don’t forget sugar is a carb, so try to minimise or cut back on this. Things like a chocolate bar or bag of sweets, fizzy drinks all limit our progress so try to avoid.
Choosing between good and bad carbs
You shouldn’t necessarily being asking if it’s a good or bad carb but has it been processed and if it has chances are it’s less nutritious for you than say the whole food would be.
If it comes in a box, packet, has ingredients in the list you can pronounce, or doesn’t look like its original state, then the nutrient density is defiantly going to be lower. The fibre content also tends to be lower in such products. Which can irritate the gut, and of course the sugar content in product will be higher, which can therefore result in fat gain, so best avoided or kept to a minimum.
Whole food carbs will be much more nutrient dense and ensure you have a good slow release of energy, resulting in a healthier metabolism to help burn fat and support healthy muscle growth.One of my favourite carbs is oats, I soak overnight to break down the starch and help my body digest it better. It provides a slow release of energy after eating them. The best time to eat carbs for me, is first thing and post workout to replenish energy levels.
Let me know your thoughts on Carbs and please don’t cut them out of your diet as they are a vital nutrient the body needs to be healthy and strong.
My next post in this nutrition series will be all about Fats.
Stay Flawsome my friend,
Lots of love
Jem xx
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Nutrition Info (Carbs)