Why It Is Important You Manage Your Carbs Differently On Exercise & Non-Exercise Days

Here is the most interesting thing you need to know about carbs, they stimulate insulin, and this is important for two reasons, one that it helps with muscle building, but too much stimulation will result in blocking your ability to burn fat.

Now in the traditional 6 week cycles of bulking and cutting, it can be great to help muscle building, and you do feel great because you are generally in a calorie surplus so there is a sense of enjoyment in this phase.

However, come the 6 week cut, you are in need to be in more of a calorie defecit, but it is hard to break the habits that the 6 weeks of bulking has given you, mainly eating carbs.

Instead, you perhaps have been lowering your fat content in the belief that if you avoid eating fat you will burn more fat.

This is unfortunately a falicy, you see carbs, and more so processed carbs - think white rice, pasta, bread and chocolate as examples - cause increasing stimulation of insulin, which in effect firmly shuts the door on your ability to burn fat.

So if you want to burn fat, you actually want to eat more good fat. Remember, food is merely an instruction to the body. Pump a load of carbs in, and you run on carbs, and the same is true for fat.

This means that on exercise and non-exercise days you need to be on different strategies when it comes to carbs.

It is important that if you going to be eating carbs on exercise days, the type of carbs matter. Too much of the processed carbs, and you risk telling your body to remain running on carbs. So make sure your carb sources are the wholemeal variety. This will still help build muscle, but the wholemeal carbs will not stimulate insulin too much.

On non-exercise days, it is important that we are not stimulating insulin to the point where the door is shut on utilising fat as energy.

From a personal perspective, intermittent fasting is a great way to lower insulin sensitivity and allow the body to take fat out of storage and use as required.

This will allow you to get in to a calorie deficit with ease. The best thing is the fact your body will use its stored carbs first, then start utilising fat.

So when it comes to meal structure, you need to be thinking about fats and protein with low amounts of carbs, which will come from vegetables.

And if you are only eating two meals a day you can definitely speed up your fat burning potential.

This strategy when it comes to carbs, allows you to be able to keep alternate between exercise and non-exercise days, and you can make it work all year round.

If you want more information on how to lose body fat, I have a free guide - The Ultimate Guide To Help You Burn Up To 7lbs A Week Without Breaking A Sweat - that you can download and get more information on how you can get yourself in a calorie deficit without having to count calories or macros that will actually get you the result you are looking for!

This is certainly something that you do not want to miss out on, so if you are serious about losing body fat make sure that you download it.

Tomorrow, I will be talking about exercise and why you need to be having different strategies to achieve great results.

Until then, have a great day!

John