Question from a client today:
Are all carbs created equal? In a precontest diet is it better to stick with "healthy" carb sources like veggies or is it okay to incorporate carbs like rice cakes, bread, wraps and etc...throughout the day? For that matter, are protein sources like cottage cheese (fat free) and greek yogurt just as good as chicken, fish and the like? I am trying to get some variety in my life but I want to eat the best things for maintaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.
My reply:
When you look at carbs and qualify them by quality...things like Glycemic Index value, complexity (fiber, starch, sugar), etc, it's easy to conclude that complex, low-Glycemic is better....healthier, right? You certainly need enough fiber to keep your GI system happy and moving and you don't want so much simple carb as to create really unstable blood sugar levels and insulin dumps, but you do need a good amount of starch and some sugar as an athlete. It would be very inefficient to use just fibrous carb or stored fat as energy when you need it most - during training. So, even prior to a good cardio session, I recommend a small simple carb, certainly before training even more quantity, and post-workout is a place you want some carbs to replenish enough glycogen to stop catabolism and increase recovery/anabolism. So, get enough fiber, use enough starch to keep energy levels as high as possible, and use a little simple carb here and there for performance and recovery.
