blastthru23
Moderator
During the next 22 days (plus the previous 6 days), I'm practicing nutrient timing with respect to my diet, and consequently, meal planning/timing. I'm seeking to get a more solid understanding of carbohydrates, and the resulting blood glucose levels upon and and after consumption. I want to know how this relates to training times, and off days, thus how to optimize carbohydrate intake to achieve fitness goals, and a healthy life in general. Besides, we all overlook our most anabolic substance FOOD. Therefore, I'm taking some time to get this shit down.
I've been spending some time looking into common foods we eat, and their respective glycemic indices and loads. To start, let me define, in simple terms, each of these aspects of carbohydrate sources. The glycemic index relates to how fast blood glucose levels raise once a food is consumed. The glycemic load is the amount of carbohydrates in a serving of a [carb] source, and to a degree tells us how long the carbohydrate will be available as energy, or to be stored as fat. GL is calculated by the serving size of your carb source then divided by 100. These are the numbers that tell us the glycemic attribute of a given food:
Glycemic Load:
High (a lot of carb): 20+
Moderate: 11-19
Low: 10>
Glycemic Index
High (fast acting carbs): 70+ (examples: white rice, rice flour, white potato, sweet potato)
Moderate: 56-69 (examples: brown rice, honey)
Low: 55> (quinoa, oats)
To be clear, let's say I consume 150g of white rice, which has a GI of 72, and a GL of 20. This tells me that I will get a good insulin spike because the GI is high, and will result in a quick blast of energy. Hopefully, I will use the carbs for energy, otherwise, guess what, it'll go to storage. On the other hand, let's say I consume 250g of oats, which has a GI of about 47 and a GL of 13. Here, we have a moderate GI, and a moderate GL. This tells me that the energy from oats will last awhile, though not necessarily raising insulin to such a level that it will get shuttled into fat, so long as I am active.
When should I eat a certain carbohydrate source? It may depend greatly on anticipated activity level, and as a secondary consideration, what my goal is. For me, as a result of my northern European genetics (and I am fast on the approach to 50), I store energy quite readily, thus I have to be careful as to what I consume and when. My goal is almost primarily to keep fat storage to a minimum. It seems to me that the first meal ought to have a fast acting carb to restore energy quickly, (all of the following meals will have to adapt to one's training period) the second, third and fourth meals, a slower acting carb to sustain energy up through my training period (meal 4 is consumed roughly an hour or less from training time). Then the post workout meal should be at least 20g of a fast carb (white rice flour, and tapioca flour have a mean GI of 90, the GL is therefore 18) to restore glycogen, spike insulin to nourish the muscle tissue and organs (of course 30g+ protein, and little to no fat). The final meal of the day, or Meal 6, in most cases ought to have little to no carbs since the body will be sleeping, therefore no need for carbs here (unless carb cycling and it's a re-feed day).
If I missed something, please chime in.