With the total calorie and protein requirements covered on a mass building diet, next we move on to the carbohydrate requirements for building muscle effectively.
This nutrient is not quite as cut and dry as protein tends to be and can vary widely from individual to individual depending on their own body, activity levels, and desired preference for rate of muscle building.
That said, there are a few guidelines you can be following that will help make things more clear.
Avoid Ketosis
While some individuals do do fairly well on a ketogenic diet for building muscle, for the better part, your best bet is to stay away from ketosis when packing on the pounds.
Due to the fact that insulin is what will help drive the protein and carbohydrates into the muscle cells, which are then used for recovery and rebuilding, and that insulin is very low if not non-existent on ketogenic diets, it’s not surprising this is something you’d want to avoid.
So, in order to stay out of a state of ketosis, you should be consuming about a minimum of 100 grams of carbohydrates a day, not including those that around the training period.
Keep in mind we are talking bear minimums here. Most of you will have carbohydrate intakes higher than this.
Taking Into Account How You Feel
Next up, it’s important to take into account how you feel on different diets. Should you eat a higher carb bulking diet or is a moderate carb diet a better approach?
in order to figure this out, there are a few questions you’ll want to ask yourself.
First, envision you have just eaten a very carb-dense meal, containing little fat. Examples would be a large plate of pasta, a big pancake breakfast, two bagels, or a huge bowl of perogies.
Now, if you were to eat these, how do you typically feel?
Do you feel energized and awake?
Or do you feel tired, sleepy, and rather bloated?
If you’re the former, then a higher carb diet is probably a good thing for you. On the other hand, if you feel the latter, you’re best bet is to control your carbohydrate intake a bit more and opt for adding more fat in your diet.
Figuring Out Your Carbohydrate Needs
So, now in order to figure out how many carbohydrates you should be eating, you’ll do a few things.
First, understand how many calories you need to be taking in. If you’re not sure about this, see this post:
- Calorie Requirements of a Mass Building Diet
Next, you’ll figure out your protein needs (see this post), and then subtract the total protein calories (grams X 4) from your total calorie requirements.
This is how many calories you have left to divide amongst your fat and carbohydrates.
You should ideally have fat at no lower than 20% of your total calorie intake (fat has 9 calories per gram), so you can work that out and factor it in as well.
For those with a moderate carb intake, I’d recommend staying somewhere around 40% of your total intake from carbs, with the remaining of the left-over calories coming from dietary fat.
Out of that 40%, I’d place at least 20% of those carbohdrate calories around the workout period to maximize muscle glycogen resynthesis and workout performance.
Now, for those who are sticking to a higher carb approach while building muscle, aim for about 50-65% of your total calories coming from carbohydrates, placing similarily, at least 20% around the workout period.
To Sum Up
So, to summarize this, carbohydrates are a necessity for building muscle. Some of you will not react so well to high carb diets, and that’s fine, but you should still be eating enough carbs to keep out of ketosis, provide fuel for working out, and leave enough carbs over for maximum muscle glycogen resynthesis.
Also remember that if you aren’t gaining weight, you’re going to need to bump the calories up higher. This will mean adding more carbohydrates or dietary fat to the diet, as protein should stay relatively constant once needs are met.
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