Body Building Resources




Complex Carbs Food - Take In The Good Carbs
By Jean Lam

If your objective is to pack on hard and lean muscle mass, you can't rely only on high protein foods. You will need to eat carbs as well but not any type of carbs. Complex carbs food is the way to go. You absolutely need to take in the good carbs and complex carbs will meet your needs. Complex carbs are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals and are slowly digestible. Why is complex carbs an ideal food for your bodybuilding workouts? Simply because since they are digested slowly, you can be sure to be able to fuel your workouts properly. Don't forget carbs are sources of energy which you will need during training. But you should avoid simple carbs like cakes, plain biscuits, table sugar, jam, honey, chocolate as these are empty calories meaning they are not of much nutritional value. For people who wish to lose weight, this should be avoided as well. If you want to gain muscle mass, your focus should be on complex carbs.

There are various sources of complex carbs and be sure to include some of them in your daily meals. Oatmeal is a really good complex carb food with high fiber content and healthy as well. A good time to include oatmeal in your nutrition is for breakfast. Other sources of complex carbs are wholewheat pasta, brown rice, brown bread, wholemeal bread, sweet potatoes, potatoes, yams. You should also have fibrous carbohydrates like green beans, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli amongst others which are also good sources of complex carbs. Since complex carbs are rich sources of fiber, they help in preventing constipation and regulate bowel activity much more effectively. Overall, they help in promoting good health for the individual.

During the day, eating sufficient amount of complex carbs is vital for your muscle mass goal. If you don't give your body enough complex carbs, you won't be able to fuel it properly for your workouts. Complex carbs give your body energy so that you can exercise effectively. So the downside of not having enough of these can result in protein catabolism for your body which is the breakdown of proteins. The reason is that if your body can't get enough of its energy sources from complex carbs, it will take it from others sources like proteins and fats. While it's a good thing because you will be using fat as energy, protein will also be used up and the end result is muscle tissue breakdown. Even though you are eating high protein meals throughout the day, you will lose some of your protein which will be converted as energy in your workouts.

So to prevent all this, you should eat adequate amount of complex carbs. What is important to note is that the amount of complex carbs consumption is enough to fuel your body during your workouts till your next meal. With high levels of protein in your body as well and enough carbs, you will be able to burn fat too. Too much complex carbs isn't good either because remember, your body will use fat as energy sources after the complex carbs are used up so if you eat too many complex carbohydrates, you will never be able to use the fat as energy. Definitely, your body will metabolize very few protein if you have adequate amount of complex carbs in your body hence preventing muscle depletion. To give you an idea how many carbs, protein and fat you need, here it is: 50% carbs, 35% protein and 15% fat.

About the author

Jean Lam is the webmaster of Body Building Resource which provides articles on weight training, nutrition and fitness, body building book and DVDs.


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