You should only eat starchy and/or sugary carbs immediately after your workouts. Other than that, avoid starchy/sugary carbs all-together (still eat mounds and mounds of vegetables). Carbs are hard on your body because of your relationship with insulin. Insulin is a hormone that tells your body to absorb glucose (sugar) from the blood and use it as energy. Fat and protein both have very little effect on insulin. Carbohydrates, however, have a profound impact on insulin. The problem is, through a combination of genetics and environmental conditioning, your body isn’t efficient at using insulin to lower blood sugars. Make it easy on your body by not giving yourself sugary or starchy carbohydrates that send your blood sugars and insulin levels bonkers. The only exception to this is post-workout. Because of a physiological cascade of hormones released during exercise, your body is actually in a good place to process carbohydrates after your workout. In fact, an insulin spike post workout helps switch you into recovery mode. This means you can have carbs post workout, but the rest of the day, no dice.
In this special-edition of The Fit 5, two mixed martial artists, Johny Hendricks and Jamie Varner give us an inside look into living life as a pro fighter.
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