Carbohydrates are an integral part of everyone's diet, especially athletes, as they help provide the body with its main source of energy; what is always questioned is how many carbohydrates it is good to include in your diet.
Since we are all different and our needs of macronutrients differ according to our training volume and goals, we should measure our carbohydrate intake in grams, not as a percentage of our diet.
Le daily recommendations vary from a minimum of 3 grams per kg of body weight up to 10 grams per kilo depending on various factors (men or women, sports activity, lifestyle, etc.).
Due to the widespread mentality that carbohydrates are bad, some people deprive themselves of this all-important macronutrient.
Let's find out when you need to increase the carbohydrate intake in your diet to get the most out of it.
Index
Constant hunger
People who do not eat enough carbohydrates often find themselves constantly hungry throughout the day because they may not replace missing carbohydrates with other sources of energy, such as healthy fats.
Another reason why you can always being hungry is the quality of the carbohydrate ingested; if you only eat fruit or other simple carbohydrates, consisting of only 2 or 3 molecules of cup sugar, these are rapidly absorbed and digested by the body.
This is usually the reason why, no matter how many refined carbohydrates (cookies, snacks, chips) are eaten, the hunger will return very soon.
The solution is to choose healthy, fiber-rich, slow-digesting carbohydrates that provide the body with slow-burning fuel which will have the double effect of keeping you full longer and providing energy throughout the day.
Green vegetables like broccoli and spinach and starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash are good options to consider.
The breath smells bad
THEbad breath could be an alarm bell in our body to warn us that we are not eating the right amount of carbohydratesdespite excellent dental hygiene.
Without an adequate source of carbohydrates, the body will burn fat and protein through a process called ketosis.
Ketosis can cause ketone breathing, in which ketone bodies are expelled through the breath, giving off a bad smell.
Drinking water helps dilute the ketone concentration.
Performance suffers
Feeling lazy and listless during a workout could be a sign of a lack of carbohydrates; glycogen, the form of carbohydrate stored in the body, is the main source of energy for physical activity.
When the body does not have enough glycogen stores, it burns the existing protein reserves in our muscles for energy and this should never happen.
It's important eat the right amount of carbohydrates before and after training to rebuild energy and glycogen stores and help the recovery of post-workout tissues.
There is no fat loss
If sufficient levels of carbohydrate are not supplied to the body, it will turn to fat and muscle tissue for energy; a loss of volume in muscle mass slows the metabolism.
This happens because the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn even at rest.
And you, how many carbohydrates do you eat per day? Let us know in the comments and remember to follow us on our telegram channel