Body Building Blog

There has been substantial argument and debate over how bodybuilders and sports enthusiast should reconcile between a low carbohydrate diet and a program that aims to build muscle mass. The former is a great prescription for weight loss and fat burning, while the latter is essential to gain the muscle bulk needed for ideal bodybuilding. In the opinion of most experts, both are equally important. The trick here is to strike an optimal balance between a low carbohydrate diet and a muscle building program. In this article we will look at the key effects of a low carbohydrate diet on bodybuilding and what are some of the ways that we can overcome these effects and yet promote muscle growth.

With a low carbohydrate diet, the number of calories available for energy production is severely limited. Imagine a country ravaged by war with little food. Rationing will most likely be imposed on what little food is available. It is the same with a low carbohydrate diet. You need to practice rationing of the few calories available to the body to execute your training program. One of the main rationing measures that you can carry out and yet still promote maximal muscle growth is to train using shorter but more explosive workouts. Muscles respond to stimulus. If your stimulus is powerful enough, growth will still take place. By performing less repetitions but heavy lifts, the stimulus to the muscles is still high. This will result in growth. Thus, all the rationed energy is used for fewer but more intensive lifts. This type of workouts can still help you gain muscle mass even when you are on a low carbohydrate diet.

Another effect of a low carbohydrate diet is the onset of the state of ketosis rapidly. Ketosis is basically a state whereby the lack of carbohydrate fuel in the body will lead to the start of fat metabolism to produce the necessary energy for work. Ketosis is actually a useful state for bodybuilders or sportsmen trying to lose weight. But for someone with very little body fat, this may not be such a good idea, as the lack of fat stores in the body will lead to usage of proteins with the body to provide the fuel instead. Taking away proteins for energy conversion will mean that less protein will be available for muscle building and repair work. Not a good idea for muscle builders. The way to counter the effect of ketosis in a low carbohydrate situation is to ensure that the carbohydrates been taken in are of the top quality type. These high quality carbohydrates comes mainly from complex carbohydrate sources like fruits, oatmeal, brown rice, buck wheat,  whole grain bread and cereal. High quality carbohydrates do not cause blood sugar levels to spike but actually allows for maximum utilization of whatever carbohydrates is present in the system.

The third and most important effect of a low carbohydrate diet on muscle building is the utilization of protein as energy fuel once carbohydrate stores are exhausted rapidly. For bodybuilders with low fat content, this is very rapid. In women, whose fat composition is higher, this is not so significant. The protein utilization for energy is not good for bodybuilders because under training circumstances, all these building blocks are especially necessary for repairs and growth. The only way to counter or delay this mechanism is to ensure that your low carbohydrate diet consists of a large amount of proteins. This is to allow for quick restoration of protein and amino acid levels within the muscle and body systems. A lot of these protein building blocks will be lost, hence it is vital to ensure that replacement supplies are high through ingestion.

A low carbohydrate diet that produces low energy levels, ketosis and protein utilization is not necessarily a bad thing for a bodybuilder or someone that is keen to gain muscle mass. But when implementing this low carbohydrate diet to complement your training, one needs to consider factors like, the athlete’s level of training, the objectives, stage of training program and even gender. Low carbohydrate diets will not be helpful for beginning bodybuilders for example. For this group of people, their main focus is to make sure that maximum stimulus is elicited to induce growth. By limiting energy levels through a low carbohydrate diet will be counter-productive.

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