insulin & bodybuilding
insulin
insulin doesn't affect bodyfat storage as long as the insulin levels rise slowly and remain fairly consistent. Throughout the day, sugar consumption can spike insulin levels and induce bodyfat storage. Eating a high carb diet without sugars will cause a steady release of sugar into the system causing a high level of insulin release, but since the rate of release is steady, it does not trigger an 'open door' in adipose for bodyfat storage but provides an extremely anabolic environment as the benefits of insulin are realized. Complex carbs are a much bigger molecule than simple sugars. They have many sugars bonded together. To turn complex carbs into glucose, they must be broken down. There is a series of steps that they must undergo to be broken down. Enzymes must be present to break each molecular bond of these polymers. All this takes a while to complete. By the time some of it is broken down into glucose, in the small intestines, some of it has already passed into the large intestine where absorption is almost completely ceased. This process allows for a slow and steady rate of glucose production that fuels the brain and muscles throughout the day without causing a release of insulin. This is very important because, as previously stated, you don't want insulin in your body during a workout; you need its recipicle, blood sugars.
Animals release natural sugar stores, glycogen, for energy. The body will regulate itself with insulin when it no longer needs the sugar in its system. It doesn't matter whether the sugar comes from internal (from glycogen) or ingested sources (table sugar), insulin is released to counteract it. There will be rushes and fatigue with high consumption of sugars as your body tries to regulate itself. It can be almost impossible to workout when one's blood sugar levels are low due to sugar consumption beforehand.
insulin signals the body to begin repair after a workout. Your body thinks that glycogen has been released when sugar is present in the bloodstream. Why? Glycogen (blood sugar) is released when your body meets high output demands. After strenuous activity, the body has to repair. When one is undergoing activity such as weightlifting, he needs energy, glucose from broken down glycogen. insulin is released after the workout to counter the now not needed glucose level. When muscles sense the presence of insulin, they see that its time to begin healing and recuperation. insulin 'opens doors' in the muscles to accept nourishment and helps to shuttle in vital nutrients such as amino acids.
Just imagine your muscle cells as having an irresistible attraction to insulin, a chemical attraction. The insulin wants to get into the muscle. What is so significant about insulin is its chemical make up. Its structure causes it to bond to nutrients. Nutrients include creatine, prohormones, anabolic hormones, some vitamins, minerals, glutamine, and other amino acids. This is the cause of the 45-minute window for taking supplements and refueling your body for the nextworkout. The body sucks up needed amino acids during this period. Remember, muscle tissue is made from the assimilation of various amino acids. So, to have protein synthesis within the muscles, your cells must have sufficient amounts of various amino acids. Glutamine is the biggest component of muscle fiber. Adequate glutamine is essential for the addition of new muscle. All of these nutrients are sucked into the cell for 45 minutes due to the increased amount of insulin in the body after a workout, and because the muscles themselves are 'starving' for them, a phenomenon called intercellular thirst.
With this in mind, you can see how ingestion of huge amounts of sugars after a workout is beneficial. Your body will have some insulin naturally released after the workout but the more, the better in causing a hormonal environment that's good for forming new muscle. IGF-1 (insulin like growth factor), a Growth Hormone, is also released in the presence of insulin. Growth Hormone is what causes gigantism. That's one factor in determining why some people are mesomorphs and others are ectomorphs. It's why people like Andre 'the Giant' don't even have to work out to be huge, but if they do, they gain much more muscle than the normal person. The growth hormone is released by the pituitary gland.
could ever hope to achieve. So how do you achieve that? Well that's one of the biggest dilemmas faced in the underground world of competitive bodybuildingtoday. And in fact it's one of the biggest reasons that bodybuilders are bigger, stronger, and more defined than bodybuilders ten years ago. They have employed the injection of artificial insulin.
Imagine, all day long, almost everything that is consumed is converted into anabolic fuel. insulin is more powerful than any steroid ever formulated. But it's also the most dangerous. Bodybuilders inject incredible amounts daily. The pancreas may soon stop its own production of insulin and the body can become solely dependent upon the exogenous injections. One could cause himself to become a life long diabetic. They sell their health to the sport of bodybuilding.
Well, this should show you the importance of insulin in the bodybuildingworld. The main theme of insulin is: complex carbohydrates inadvertently cause a slow but steady release of insulin all day long. So, if you up your consumption of complex carbohydrates, you put your body into a more anabolic state without
artificial insulin.
Never drop carbohydrates from your diet no matter what you hear unless you want to end up fatter with more flab and less muscle than you did before you started your 'diet.' People have made millions because they get a degree and come up with a new 'diet' plan and sucker people into following it and inadvertently wreck their bodies in the long run. If you drop carbs, even though you consume vast amounts of protein, your body will not be as anabolic, and you will loose muscle. Cut back the fat from your diet and increase the complex carbs as high as you can. EAT EAT EAT. That's how you loose weight. Not that
everyone is looking to loose weight per se, but gaining muscle = loosing bodyfat. Muscle is the only mechanism by which to burn fat (except from heat that is produced through various means).
I'll reiterate upon one of the advantages of this 45-minute window. After strenuous activity, your body is more receptive for storing up energy as glycogen than any other time. Glycogen is not stored as fat. It's stored in the glycogen stores. Ingestion of sugar at this time will allow it to be stored as energy to be
consumed during the healing process as well as your fuel for the next day and the next workout.
The body is most receptive within 30 minutes of a workout. After 45 minutes, it begins to taper off drastically. The protein and carbs that you consume after a workout would be more beneficial for you if they were in a liquid form, such as a whey protein drink or meal replacement shake. Solid food must sit in the stomach and wait on digestion before it will be sent to the small intestine where the needed nutrients will be absorbed. It's a race against the clock. This is your critical time. About an hour to an hour and a half after a workout you can eat a good meal. To eat it before then will cause your sugars and proteins to have to sit in the stomach until the rest of the solid food can be broken down before it is absorbed. You don't want to hinder the absorption of liquid proteins and sugars. Also, casienate (a protein supplement) should be avoided at this time due to the fact that stomach acids cause this protein to gel and it takes considerably longer for your stomach to digest it.
Be careful not to ingest any sugars before your workout. You don't want insulin in your system during a workout. This is for obvious reasons. insulin depletes blood sugar. With low blood sugar, your can't make strong muscular contractions. You will be holding down your gas pedal for growth while you are holding down your brake for muscle breakdown. The only reason a muscle gets bigger is through the body adapting to stress by not only repairing the muscle from this breakdown, but repairing it to be MORE powerful than it was before.
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