Eat carbs at the right times for the best results.

If you’ve been coming to this website religiously its pretty safe to say you’re an advocate of the swole. Making massive gains is your goal in life, muscle growth the absolute reward for your hard work and dedication. In order to get to that level however you need to not only train your ass off, but you also have to eat right. You can’t just stuff anything in your mouth and hope to be a jacked and shredded monster. That may be fine for a strongman or powerlifter, but not for a bodybuilder. Eating right, eating clean, it’s the only way to go if you want to look a certain way. What food passes your mouth is of great importance as well as when you’re eating.

Enter carbohydrates.

Probably the most equally demonized and celebrated macronutrient is the carbohydrate. It has a tremendous amount of benefits as well as drawbacks if handled wrong. Consuming carbs causes your glucose levels to rise. This causes the pancreas to secrete insulin into the bloodstream which forces glucose into body tissues. Simple carbs like white bread and pasta raises blood sugar levels quickly while complex carbs like beans and whole grains causes blood sugar level to rise slowly.

All of that may sound like confusing mumbo jumbo to some people, but they are important factors to muscle growth. Eating the right kind of carbs before a workout can offer a great deal of energy. Eating carbs after a workout can also have a beneficial effect as well. Eating slow carbs before a workout is great to have long lasting energy stores while eating simple carbs after a hard training session means replenishing glycogen levels and pushing glucose to the damaged muscles to aid in their repair and subsequent muscle growth.

Where eating carbs can really do damage however is if you consume them before sleep. When you go to sleep it’s a chance for your body to rest and recover from a hard training session. It’s during this time that your body is producing muscle building growth hormone as you enter the deep-sleeping phase or slow-wave sleep. If you consume carbs before sleep however, your body will be using energy to digest the carb based food and can potentially inhibit HGH production during sleep. So if you plan on consuming something directly before bed, your best bet would be to consume food that will kill your cravings that are low in carbs like spinach or a handful of nuts. Be smart about your carb intake and you’ll be that much closer to being an aesthetic beast.

What type of carbs do you consume?

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