Do You Need Carbs Post Workout to Build Muscle?
All right, so I’ve got a story for you guys.
Back when I first got into bodybuilding, I remember mixing up gatorade and whey protein post workout to get a big insulin spike to shuttle the amino acids into my muscles and get more jacked.
Yes, it was nasty as hell.
But yet it was still delicious because I thought I was making better gains.
Back then, I was under the impression that fast acting carbs post workout were key to growth.
But was I really making better results?
Unfortunately, a lot of supplement companies will lie to you and say that you need carbs post-workout to get jacked so they can sell their overpriced sugar powders for fast-acting workout recovery (!!!)
It’s ok, bro. I know you just want an excuse to eat candy and not get judged
And a lot of fitness professionals will tell their clients and the public how important post-workout carbs are.
I’ve even seen some of them go so far as to recommend sugary drinks or candy because of how “important” this is. Ridiculous. And even in competitors and small women who are cutting at 1300 calories a day…
But a careful review of the literature reveals that you’re just wasting your money and your calorie currency.
So in this article, I’m going to be talking about post workout carbs for muscle growth and whether or not they’re really even necessary to maximize growth.
Lifting weights and depleting glycogen
First, let’s talk about glycogen.
To keep things simple, you can think of glycogen as stored carbs in your muscles. Some is stored in your liver, but the majority is in your muscles.
Lifting weights relies heavily on glycogen as a fuel source for your muscles during your typical bodybuilding-style training in a moderate rep range.
So by hitting the gym, you’re going to be burning up all that glycogen and need to put it back asap, right?
That’s like riding around in your car with your gas tank on E — a bad idea.
But this is wrong.
Lifting Weights Doesn’t Burn Much Glycogen
For starters, your typical workout is not going to burn up all your glycogen.
Multiple studies have shown a modest depletion of muscle glycogen at best – even after high volume weight training.
In this study, even a volume of 9 exercises for 3 sets each (yes, that’s 27 sets) only depleted glycogen by about 1/3.
Now before you start pounding your chest talking about how high volume and intense your workouts are, based on the current best evidence we have for training volume, most people are going to maximally benefit from 10-20 working sets per week.
Not per workout…per week.
And that’s well within the realm of sets within the studies I just talked about.
So needless to say, you are not at risk of full on glycogen depletion from your workout.
You Don’t Need Rapid Glycogen Replenishment Post-Workout
Okay well…what about glycogen replenishment? Is it important to slam the carbs to do that after?
On top of lifting not burning that much glycogen, you also don’t need to be in much of a hurry to restock either.
Glycogen is re-synthesized very quickly after a workout session.
Research shows that within 24 hours, you’re already back to normal after endurance training (burning much more glycogen than traditional lifting).
In fact, you don’t even need to eat any carbs at all afterwards for this to happen.
Glycogen was already back up to 75% of pre-workout levels within 6 hours in this study.
And to top it all off, glycogen replenishment is only relevant in the first place when glycogen stores become a limiting factor for your performance if it isn’t done in time.
This can be the case for endurance athletes or athletes performing multiple intense sessions for the same muscle groups per day.
Now as much as you think of yourself as hardcore, as a lifter only performing moderate amounts of volume once or twice a week per muscle group, there is no hurry whatsoever to restock your glycogen stores because they’ll be locked and loaded by the next time you train anyways.
Insulin Spikes or Insulin Sikes?
The second thing I want to look at here is this idea of insulin spikes.
It’s commonly said that by eating a bunch of carbs post-workout, you are going to be spiking up insulin which will help drive muscle growth even more.
This also doesn’t seem to be the case.
Only a small amount of insulin is needed to maximally inhibit muscle protein breakdown, and protein is capable of doing this itself, which is why fasted cardio after taking protein or BCAAs is a silly idea.
Big insulin spikes are not needed to boost muscle protein synthesis.
Furthermore, adding carbs to protein post workout doesn’t further boost protein synthesis when compared to protein alone.
In this study, even adding a whopping 50g of fast acting carbs did nothing to boost protein synthesis or inhibit muscle protein breakdown when compared to protein alone.
The size of your muscles comes down to the balance between muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown, so if post workout carbs aren’t doing much for either of them, how do you plan on getting better gains?
Not to mention, your muscles are growing for up to 24-48 hours after a workout, so this isn’t a big deal anyways even if it did have a small effect.
The Verdict:Do you need carbs post workout to build muscle?
You’ll get all the carbs you need from your regular diet. No need to add sugary sources post workout
So what’s the verdict?
Do you need post-workout carbs or not?
No. You don’t.
This is just another antique idea floating around in fitness that doesn’t have much substance.
Don’t let supplement companies steal your money and save your hard-burned calories for foods that you actually enjoy.
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Well, guys. That’s all I have to say about this topic.
If you’ve got any questions or experiences of your own, drop a comment below.
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Til next time.
Joseph Murci
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