ALLAN! But carbs are nothing BUT, AWESOME!!! Why would I NOT want to touch them?? Well Bucc-o, because you don’t really NEED those delicious carbs in your system. If you were able to read one of my most recent articles about salt consumption, you would see why you don't really NEED them. But anyways, if you haven't and you’re already here, let's go ahead and dive into this matter a little more.
Carbs nowadays are a very controversial subject. So many people out there are doing Keto, carnivore, paleo, low-carb, Atkins, etc. The list goes on forever, but why are all these people doing all these different diets that try to completely omit carbs from their lifestyles? Because with a reduction in carb intake, you hopefully get into a state of “ketosis” which in layman's terms means that you will start using your fat stores or dietary fat as energy, rather than using your glycogen or carb stores or dietary carbs as fuel. And why do people want to do this so much nowadays? Because everyone wants to lose weight and look better naked!
So, what's the issue with everyone trying or wanting to get LEAN AF? Most, or A LOT of these people want to achieve this “toned” physique, when in reality, this WILL NOT happen because once again, most of these people haven't built the muscle tone in order to have that nice “toned” physique that they want so much.
Too many times have people come into my gym, and when I ask them what their goal is, they go ahead and say “well, I just want to “tone” up, i just want to lose 10 pounds” to which I reply, “and how long do you think that’ll take?” (this is my follow up that sets them up to hang themselves. Sounds kind of shitty, but I'm not in this business for the short term goals) to which they reply “well, I think maybe a month or two” to which I just purse my lips (similar to Miranda Priestly in The Devil wears Prada) and just nod in agreement. Too many people nowadays think getting fit, or losing weight or anything in that realm will just happen with relative ease without much work being put in. Losing weight, or getting toned up is not as easy as it sounds, you have to put A SHIT TON of work to get very little results, and this is the main reason why over 90% of people (and I'm being conservative with this number because it's more like 95% (19/20 people) fail at realizing their fitness goals because they do not see the results in 1, 2, 3, 4, even 6 months. The biggest issue is that you put in so much time, and so much effort and most of the time the only metric you care about is the number on that scale. This right here will mess with your head SO MUCH and will make you quit because of how slow progress is.
But anyways, we were talking about carbs and why you want to be eating them or not eating them. My suggestion would be to earn those carbs. And what do I mean when I say “earn those carbs''? I mean, you put in a good amount of work at the gym, or during a pretty strenuous workout, maybe go out for a long run and have those carbs afterwards. And you're having those carbs because you have earned them, and once again you are earning those carbs because your body does not NEED carbs to survive. As I said in my recent salt article, as long as you’re having an adequate amount of electrolytes and staying well hydrated, you should be able to hit long, hard workouts on the regular, because what your muscles mainly use to fire are electrolytes, and unless you're getting multiple training sessions a day, your need for carbohydrates isn't that big to begin with. Something that is VERY tricky when “earning” your carbs is how many carbs you're having. You can't go bananas when you get those carbs in, if you do go bananas, you're just delaying your progress because, let's say it together, “your body does not need carbs to survive!”.
Now here's an interesting fact about carbohydrates, it is NOT an essential macronutrient, which means, YOU. WILL. NOT. DIE. if you do not get any carbohydrates in your diet. And, more usually than not, if you're feeling fatigued because you're not getting carbohydrates in, its usually because you're not hydrating (meaning that you are getting a good amount of electrolytes with the fluid you're consuming daily) well, and once again, not because you're not getting carbs in your diet. And before you tell me, “BUT ALLAN, electrolytes do not have any calories, how am i going to have energy to workout if I'm not getting any carbs?” Well Bucc-o, its called ketones, which is the energy that your body makes either from body fat or dietary fat after you have completely depleted the carb stores in your body, and you have, trust me, A LOT of these to produce, regardless of the fact whether you’re 7% body fat or 25% body fat, you have a lot more energy to produce when it comes to fat stores rather than carb stores.
In reality, salt is more important in your diet than what carbs are, if you don’t believe me, try this little experiment out; try and go one week without eating any carbs and see how you feel on day 7 or 8, if you’ve been getting enough calories and electrolytes in your system, you will probably feel great, your inflammation will have probably gone down a ton, and once again, you will probably feel like you have way more energy on a day to day basis. Now try going 3-4 days without having any salt (electrolytes), you'll probably feel really lethargic, really low energy, and will probably not want to be doing any physical activity, because like i said earlier, your muscles NEED salt (electrolytes) to fire, and if they don't have them, they don't really feel like firing, plus, the risk of getting cramps, especially right now during the summer months will go up, A LOT!!! And believe me, if you have never gotten a cramp, it's one of the worst pains you can get.
So now, try and go earn your carbs on a day to day basis, don't have too many unless you actually go out there and EARN them. Go do a bit more research and see what your body is capable of doing with a reduction of carbs on a day to day basis, once again, as long as you're getting enough calories and electrolytes in. If you do not want to do much research, go ahead and shoot me an email or a DM through the SISU ATHLETIK IG page and I'll be happy to answer any questions, comments or concerns you have about this matter!
Comments