The devil's stuff or necessary? - Carbohydrates in the diet!

Alongside fat and proteins, carbohydrates are one of the three macronutrients and provide the body with energy. Unlike the other two, the human body could theoretically do without carbohydrates for its entire life. But does that make sense?

First of all: No. Carbohydrates are neither "bad" nor unhealthy, nor are they harmful to the body in any way. On the contrary, they are a valuable part of every person's diet, especially that of an athlete! As fat and protein are essential for the body (i.e. they cannot be produced by the body), carbohydrates are usually the key for people to cut calories when dieting. Because, as we all know, the only way to lose fat is to get into a calorie deficit. But now we'll explain why it's not advisable to cut out carbs completely when dieting.

Energy supplier number one

Why are carbohydrates so interesting for us athletes? Quite simply, they provide the body with quick energy. On the one hand, they are digested more quickly than protein and, above all, fats, and on the other, they are less complex for the body to digest and therefore provide more "net calories". For us, this means that if you want to achieve maximum performance, you should focus on carbohydrates just beforehand. Even in the diet. For example, meals such as rice pudding with a little whey or rice pudding are recommended approx. 1-2 hours before training. These ensure a sufficiently high blood sugar level during training. By absorbing carbohydrates quickly, the body can convert their energy optimally during training. Fats, on the other hand, should be avoided around training, as they literally sit in your stomach for a long time and hinder your training performance.

How much you should consume at the pre-workout meal depends on the athlete. As a rule of thumb, we recommend 1g of carbohydrates per 1kg of body weight and approx. 0.5g of protein per 1kg of body weight. In concrete terms, this means that if you weigh 80 kg, you should consume 80 g of carbohydrates and 40 g of protein before training. A pre-workout meal is now standard among ambitious athletes. Because a machine needs fuel.

No carbs, no drive

This sentence sums up well what happens if you cut back too much on carbohydrates during the diet. You feel limp, listless, tired, bored and can hardly get up for anything. In addition to the general lack of calories, this is due to the lack of sugar. For this reason, more and more athletes are now advising against extreme low-carb diets such as the ketogenic diet. The benefits of ketosis do not outweigh the reduced performance in training. (If you would like to find out more about this form of diet, please read our article on the ketogenic diet) Because one thing is clear: if you only eat protein as a pre-workout meal and avoid carbohydrates, you will definitely miss out on gains.

Nevertheless, carbohydrates are and will remain an adjustment screw that should be tightened as part of a diet. How does this fit together? Quite simply: Meal timing. Ideally, you should only eat carbohydrates when you really need them. This is the case on two occasions, you guessed it: Immediately BEFORE and AFTER training. This way you get all the benefits of carbs by providing you with full energy during training, but you don't consume unnecessary fast calories. Because carbohydrates have one major disadvantage: they don't really fill you up. You're probably familiar with this: you eat a plate of pasta or a bowl of rice and as soon as you've eaten it, you're ready for the next one. Fat and protein are far more filling and should make up the majority of your diet outside of training, especially protein. This is because the body needs more protein during the diet phases so that it does not have to metabolize the muscles it has trained in its emergency situation. Here it can make sense to consume more than 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight.

So remember: if you want to give 100% in training, carbohydrates are a MUST!

Clusterdextrin - Super+ for the muscles

Now it's time to find the right source for your carbs. In old-school bodybuilding, tricks such as apple juice in training or similar were often advised, but today there is a new insider tip: clusterdextrin. Clusterdextrin is a relatively new and much sought-after form of carbohydrate. Extracted from starch, it is much more soluble than other fast carbohydrate sources such as dextrose or maltodextrin. In addition, maltodextrin can be absorbed, processed and absorbed into the bloodstream faster than any other type of intra-workout.

And that is the great advantage of the substance: it is so quickly and easily digested that it can be drunk just before or even DURING training without hesitation. It doesn't sit in your stomach, it doesn't make you sluggish or tired, quite the opposite. It literally floods the body's glycogen stores, giving it the energy to perform at its best.

We need to dispel one myth about training during a diet once and for all: When dieting, it doesn't make sense to drastically increase volume or do sets of 30 reps to sculpt the muscle. On the contrary, it makes sense to increase the intensity of the training in order to maintain as many strength values as possible. Depending on the athlete, training level and performance, it is sometimes even possible to get stronger during the diet.

Due to the rapid digestion of cluster dextrin, it places only minimal strain on the digestive tract and the athlete can give full performance during training. However, cluster offers a decisive advantage: while other sources of carbohydrate quickly flow completely into the bloodstream and quickly "fizzle out", which can lead to a sharp and sudden drop in performance, cluster is released into the blood more evenly, so that blood sugar and performance remain constant. And that's exactly what we want as athletes: constant performance, consistent blood sugar and a regulated insulin output.

Your health will thank you for this effect, because blood sugar fluctuations are not healthy in the long term. Clusterdextrin is therefore ideal for strength and endurance athletes.

The ideal dietary macro distribution

An optimal distribution of macronutrients and especially carbohydrates in the diet is more difficult to find than you might think, as it depends on many individual factors. Studies also show that different people react differently to different diets. Simply put, low-fat works better for some people, while a balanced reduction in fat and carbs works better for others.

Similarly, some people tolerate high calorie deficits better than others. However, a rough rule of thumb can be given to you. In principle, you won't go wrong with the following formula:

• 2-2.5g protein/kg body weight
• 0.6-0.8g fat/kg body weight
• You can fill up the rest of your calories with carbohydrates.

As a rule, you always have some leeway to eat according to your mood, even as part of a clean diet, because the less you have to force yourself, the more likely you are to stick to it. We can also highly recommend the following sources of carbohydrates:

• Oatmeal (it's cheap, contains lots of zinc, iron, protein and other nutrients, and is more filling than almost any other carbohydrate)
• Rice (the classic in boybuilding, take advantage of its lack of satiety before training) - Rice cakes (low in calories, high in volume, very cheap)
• Fruit (contains a lot of valuable vitamins and spices up your meal)
• Skyr (rich in protein and filling, combines well with fruit)
• Vegetables (have virtually no calories and also provide you with vitamins and minerals)