It’s the night before the biggest game of the season. Nervousness and intensity radiate from every player on the team as practice ends early to make sure everyone goes home to get a full belly and a good night sleep. All hearts and minds are set on a huge plate of Alfredo pasta with garlic bread and a bit of dessert! This similar situation, whether Friday night lights, endurance running, or the next wrestling match, plays out all over the country multiple times a week; consensus believes that the energy needed to play hard and fast comes from loading up on carbs – right? This may only be a half-truth, stretched out over time like the popular game “telephone”. Eat some extra carbohydrates the night before the game to gain some energy; turns out it may be more beneficial to structure your pre-game ritual a tad bit differently.
A calorie
is a unit of measure that is defined as: the amount of energy it takes to heat
one gram of water one degree Celsius. One gram of carbohydrate is 4 calories
and one gram of fat is 9 calories, meaning fats are a more dense form of
energy! Most individuals will naturally burn carbohydrates for energy
expenditure before their bodies will switch to burning fat. Therefore, it makes
sense that having more carbohydrates present in the system will allow for a
larger “fuel tank” with which to create energy when competing. Yet, contrary to
popular belief, this way of thinking can cause adverse side effects. When we
eat carbohydrates, whether they are simple or complex (i.e. sugary or not), our
body cannot immediately use them whatsoever. Our pancreas must secrete insulin
into our bloodstream to attach to the carbs to signal to the body that they are
now usable – it is then, if carbs are needed - both the carb and the insulin
are processed. The more carbs we consume in a meal, the more insulin is
secreted, if too much is secreted and there aren’t enough carb molecules to
attach to – the insulin floats in our system and are then immediately stored as
fat. The more that this happens, the more our response to insulin is dulled. This
idea is shown in a study published in Metabolism:
Clinical and Experimental, Nov. 2015. The study shows that consistently
loading up on carbs will increase an athlete’s carb sensitivity. Having a high carb
sensitivity will mean that whenever this individual ingests carbs, they purposely
secrete excess insulin that will stay in the blood stream for a longer amount
of time. Insulin that stays in the blood stream will cause lethargy and weight
gain – both of which are no good for an athlete. On the contrary – an athlete
should keep a diet low to moderate in carbohydrates to ensure this athlete’s
insulin sensitivity will stay low, so that the individual can metabolize an
intake of carbs efficiently and allow the body to use them for energy and not
store them.
Although both carbohydrates and fats are used
primarily for energy, they also have other effects in the body as well, which
is where the difference in their pre-game effectiveness comes into play. Have
you ever eaten a big carb-laden meal and felt bloated? That is the body’s
natural response to getting rid of the insulin spike created by carbs.
Carbohydrates and the insulin response that is created will produce
inflammation all over the body, especially in the gut and joints. Your body
immediately tries to reduce and fight off the inflammation; and because of
this: muscle recovery is slowed, energy is low, and general apathy sets in.
Dietary fats are known to reduce inflammation in the body, especially the
joints. Athletes often need a reduction of inflammation in their joints before,
during, and after a big event. Keeping energy focused on performance and
recovery, not on reducing inflammation allows for better overall output as an
athlete.
For proper growth and recovery of:
muscles, tendons and ligaments – athletes need to keep overall calorie intake
high. If an athlete is to switch from a diet high in carbs to low or moderate
in carbs, this will equate to low overall calories…bad news right? Nope…enter
fats! Adding in the appropriate amount of good fats to your diet will allow
your calorie count to stay the same and your insulin sensitivity stay high
enough to use the carbohydrates that are ingested, properly! Dietary fat, as it
is used in this article does not refer to trans-fat but all other fats, saturated
or unsaturated. A list of good fats include: nuts, nut butter, oils (olive,
macadamia, avocado, coconut, palm, flax), fish, avocado, coconuts, flax seed,
real butter, cheese, heavy cream, meat, eggs, etc. Although the mainstream
ideology is to limit fats, our bodies need them to create all sorts of functions
in the body. Of course, as with anything – too much is bad for you – but fats are
necessary and important parts of the average diet. As argued here, they can
help an athlete with positive insulin sensitivity as well as a positive
inflammation response!
Although carbs are an important
energy source and are an integral part of our daily lives, the idea that
engorging on them prior to a big competition is a myth that needs to be busted.
Our bodies respond well to carbs when we keep our diet low in carbs and higher
in fats. New nutritional breakthroughs show that carbs are not the
end-all-be-all of energy, and that fats are vastly more energy dense and create
a better response to our bodies’ daily functions. To end, it must be stressed
that all individuals react to nutrition differently and each athlete must gauge
their insulin sensitivity and increase or decrease carbs as it allows. Either
way – put old carb mantras away and remember: fats are friends and food.
Reference:
Rossi,
Carey. "The High-Carb Myth." Muscle & Performance Aug.
2016: 22-23.
Murakami,
I., Et Al. "Significant Effect of a Pre-exercise High-fat Meal after a
3-day High-carbohydrate Diet on Endurance Performance." Nutrients
4.7 (2012): 625-37. PubMed. Web. 31 Aug. 2016.
"Calorie."
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 4 Sept. 2016.
Brown,
RC. "Nutrition for Optimal Performance during Exercise: Carbohydrate and
Fat." Current Sports Medicine Reports 1.4 (2002): 222-29. PubMed.
Web. 28 Aug. 2016.
Eastwood,
Paul. "Insulin Sensitivity: Why You Can't Blast That Fat For Good!" Bodybuilding.com.
N.p., 19 Apr. 2016. Web. 10 Sept. 2016.
Kasim-Karakas,
Sidika, Et Al. "Responses of Inflammatory Markers to a Low-fat,
High-carbohydrate Diet: Effects of Energy Intake." The American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition 83.4 (2006): 774-79. American Society for Clinical
Nutrition. Web. 9 Sept. 2016.
