Making friends with carbs
Making friends with carbs
It’s a common theory that carbs are the enemy. Atkins, Paleo, Keto – they have taught us to minimise carb intake to achieve fat loss. In reality, limiting your carbs can help with weight loss, but that depends heavily on how much you were or are consuming in the first place.
First and foremost, it’s very important to understand the role in which carbohydrates play in the overall performance of your physical body. Their main responsibility is to provide you with energy. As the body’s natural go-to source of fuel, they are needed for physical as well as brain activity, and the healthy function of your organs.
Once consumed, carbs are turned into glucose, which is also referred to as blood sugar. Whilst a some of the glucose is used for energy, the rest is being stored for later use. As your blood sugar levels rise, your pancreas pumps out more insulin, which is a hormone that tells cells to absorb glucose for energy or storage. Then effectively stored glucose is released due to signals being sent and glucagon being made.
How does this develop our performance as individuals?
Well, it makes sense now that your athletic performance can only be increased by carbohydrate intake. This is of good use to you, if you are looking at doing back-to-back classes, for example.
Without an adequate amount of stored glucose in the body, other nutrients, such as muscle protein (unfortunately we do break down muscle first) and fat are used as a form of energy. The last thing we want is to lose muscle as muscle mass burns calories even while we’re inactive. So, it is important we take in adequate amounts of protein especially post training.
In simple terms, the over-consumption of carbohydrates in anyone’s diet can increase body fat and lower your energy, however if you dwindle your intake down to a minimal amount, your body will suffer and potentially your efforts during training will decrease, i.e. you will not be able to push yourself to your limit.
Your body needs carbs to perform efficiently and effectively. So if your training includes intense routines, such as Melt & Burn or Ride, you need high quality energy to perform at your best!
Need more fuel?
If you want to fuel your body well, you should be eating healthy and regularly. Pick some good fuel sources post class from our coffee lounge – here’s the menu to pick your favourite snack!
And if you need to get your intake under control with a dedicated weight loss and dietary plan, than you should get in contact with us for our next 6 week transformation!
