Carbohydrate timing, let’s go! I know you’re pumped, but before we get into how awesome carbohydrate timing is I want to clear the air: carbohydrates are not bad for you. Just like anything in life it’s important to consider the quality of the product and the amount you consume, but carbs have gotten a bad rap that they don’t deserve. We’ll start off today by defining the different types of carbs and why they can be good or bad for you.
What Are Carbohydrates?
So what are carbohydrates, technically speaking? Carbohydrates are essential nutrients (one of the macros we talked about recently) that your body turns into glucose. That glucose gives your body the energy it needs to function properly day to day.
There’s a lot that can be said about the multiple types of carbs, but that’s content for an article on its own. What you should remember is that you should prioritize complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates.
Complex Carbs vs. Simple Carbs
Complex carbohydrates are starches that can be found in food sources like beans, whole grains, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. These carbs are less likely to cause spikes in blood sugar, a definite win for any diabetics out there. And I have some great news if you’re like me and love bread! You can find complex carbohydrates in dense, nutrient-rich whole grain bread, so choose that instead of the typical white or potato bread.
Simple carbohydrates, also called simple sugars, can be found in natural food sources like fruits and milk, giving them their sweet taste. You can also find them in manufactured sources like table sugar, providing energy but lacking any beneficial nutrition. This is why sugar calories (like the Coke example in the article on macros) are often referred to as empty calories. Anyone looking to optimize their diet or lose weight should stay away from these.
How Do Carbs Affect The Body?
So how does carbohydrate timing come into play? Well, it all comes down to understanding how carbohydrates (and the glucose they turn into) impact your body. To help with this I have to reference Shawn Stevens, who put it perfectly in his book Eat Smarter. It’s really helpful to think of glucose and fat stores like your cash on hand and savings account. Glucose is your cash on hand, or the money you have to spend for the day. Your fat stores (the belly fat and love handles we all enjoy so much) are your savings account.
Still with me?
Okay, good – let’s lay out the three scenarios that can come into play with this analogy.
- Perfect Balance (Maintenance): When you have just enough cash to cover your spending for the day, your savings balance (fat stores) stays the same and you spend all the money (glucose) you have. You gain nothing and you lose nothing.
- Strapped For Cash (Fat Loss): When you have too little cash for your day’s spending (glucose), you need to withdraw from your savings (fat stores) to cover the cost. Your savings account decreases so you can pay the bills.
- Too Much Money (Fat Gain): When you have too much cash (glucose) for the day and you have some left over, the extra cash goes back into savings (fat gain). Your savings account increases due to not using all of your cash on hand. Note that this is the only time that I’ll refer to frugality as being counterproductive!
Okay, so now that we know how carbohydrates, glucose, and fat loss/gain work, we can dive into carbohydrate timing and how it can help to optimize your glucose spending.
What Is Carbohydrate Timing?
Carb timing is the process of holding off on eating the bulk of your carbs until a specific time of the day. Looking at the cash and savings example above, you can see how optimizing the amount of carbs you take in on a given day is important to losing body fat. Timing this carbohydrate intake accordingly can significantly accelerate your fat loss!
If you’re like me and have become a member of the 5am Club (which I highly suggest), your most active and product time of the day is the morning. No matter what your morning looks like, but especially if you exercise early, it makes sense to hold off on eating any carbs so your body can burn your fat stores for energy instead. Introducing carbs later can give your body a head start in its fat burning efforts each day.
When Should I Eat My Day’s Carbohydrates?
I personally like to hold off on my carbs until 11am or noon when I’m cutting weight. This lets my 5am workout burn as much fat as it can, both during the workout and after. Once 11am or noon rolls around, I’m more than ready to give myself some complex carbs in the form of an apple, sweet potato, or whole grain bread with my meal.
When it comes to eating the bulk of your carbs, though, I’d recommend waiting until the later part of the day. We all know what a “carb coma” is, and any initiative or drive to be productive is out the window when it hits. To avoid the halt in momentum, I’d recommend eating the majority of your carbs close to dinnertime so that the coma will hit around the time you want to wind down anyway. Everybody wins!
My Experience With Carbohydrate Timing
After learning about this technique, I put it into practice. I was as skeptical as anyone would be, but I didn’t see the harm in trying. What happened was an immediate (well, within 2-3 days) and permanent 2-3lb loss in weight. I felt lighter in the first part of the day and my fat loss accelerated dramatically, going from around 11-12% body fat to the 9% seen at the conclusion of my 75 Hard journey.
Conclusion
So to wrap this up, carb timing is low key amazing. We have so much more insight into how our bodies work than we did even 10 years ago, and each revelation makes locking in our own ideal physique that much easier and sustainable. To summarize:
- Complex carbs are great! You can get them from natural food sources like sweet potatoes, whole grain bread, and vegetables
- Simple carbs are not great! You can avoid them by not eating things with processed sugars, table sugar, etc.
- Carbs turn into glucose, and glucose is like cash. If you don’t spend it all and put the extra into savings, your savings account will increase (fat gain). Optimize your carbs so you have either just enough cash or less than needed to stimulate fat loss!
- Take the majority of your carbs in the afternoon and evening. Let your body burn fat for energy for as long as you can before introducing your daily carbs.
I’m putting carbohydrate timing and intermittent fasting back into play as I knock out this current cut. I expect some pretty fast changes, so stay tuned for updates!
