Power of Carbs for Muscle Building

Philip Pape 0:01

If you've been told that protein is all you need to protect your hard-earned muscle mass , or that carbs just provide energy and performance and you can cut them out without consequences , I think you're missing a crucial piece of the larger muscle-building puzzle . Today , I'm revealing the number one reason to eat more carbs , and it's not what most people think . Using an engineering concept called material elasticity , I'll show you how carbs can do this one amazing thing . That is perhaps its biggest superpower . If you care about building muscle and fat loss , welcome to Wits and Weights , the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart , efficient systems to achieve your dream physique . I'm your host , philip Pape , and today we're exploring why carbs those beautiful carbs might be the most underrated nutrients for muscle preservation , and how understanding their anti-catabolic effects we're going to define that term in a second could transform your approach to building muscle and losing fat . Before we get into that , I have just released my new and improved muscle building nutrition blueprint totally free . It's a guide that I created maybe a year or two ago after one of my muscle building phases , and I've since upgraded it and updated it based on the latest bulking recommendations according to the scientific literature . It shows you exactly how to use carbs strategically to bulk at the optimal rate and maximize your gains , which will go perfectly well with this episode . So to download your free copy , just go to witsandweightscom slash free , or click the link in the show notes . Again , that's my muscle building nutrition blueprint . It lays everything out from start to finish , with examples of setting up your muscle building phase . Go to witsandweightscom slash free , or click the link in my show notes . So let's start with the topic today , which is how material elasticity helps us understand muscle breakdown . But , more importantly , it's why you should not be afraid of carbs and a reason that is underrated or even not well known for why you probably want to eat more carbs . And when I say carbs , I'm talking about carbohydrates , I'm talking about a macro that covers a vast amount of food sources , and there is a powerful effect that carbs have that people don't talk about . They do talk about its source of insulin response and glucose for the muscles . They talk about it for performance and recovery . They talk about it for having a more variety of foods and fiber-containing foods with nutrients and plants and all that fun stuff . But there's one thing that gets talked about not as much and we're going to get into that and then , finally , I'm going to take that information and give you some strategies so you can apply that to your nutrition plan . So let's talk about the engineering concept and why that's important to what we're talking about today .

Philip Pape 3:13

There's something called elasticity . Elasticity you might have heard it in the context of your brain development , for example . You might have heard it in terms of materials like a rubber band . Have heard it in terms of materials like a rubber band . Elasticity refers to a material's ability to withstand stress without getting deformed , right , without get permanently altered . So think about a metal spring . It can compress under force , but then it returns to its original shape , as long as you don't quote , pass its elastic limit . And as a child , I really loved my pogo stick yes , I am that level nerd and that ability to come back to its original shape is the thing that allowed you to spring up into the air .

Carbs Role in Muscle Preservation

Philip Pape 3:52

So our muscles face similar stresses during training , during strength training , but also when you're dieting , because of all the shuttling of resources and your body trying to stay in homeostasis . Your muscles need to maintain their structure despite the constant breakdown and rebuilding of tissue . Right , that's what's happening in our body . We're always breaking stuff down . We're breaking muscle mass down , for example , and we're rebuilding it . And this is where most people , I'll say , not necessarily get it wrong , but they kind of oversimplify and they miss part of the picture . They focus solely on protein for building muscle , forgetting about the breakdown side of the equation . Preventing breakdown it's great to ramp up your ability to add new tissue , but if the other side of the equation is outpacing that , or at least keeping up with it in terms of breaking down tissue , you're going to have a real problem , right ? Because at best you might be able to preserve muscle , um , and at worst you might lose muscle .

Philip Pape 4:51

So here's where carbohydrates become so so crucial and why I am , uh , totally in love . I have a love fest with carbs to the point where that is my um , happiest source of YouTube trolls when this stuff goes YouTube and many of you are listening on audio . But go there and just type in carbs to my YouTube channel and find one of the episodes about carbs and just look at the comments . Okay , people have a very emotional attachment to carbs . If you are listening to me right now , I'm going to be giving you tons of permission to just eat the heck out of your carbs to the level that you need , to the level that supports you and to the level that you want , and not worry about demonizing them anymore .

Philip Pape 5:28

Carbs don't cause you to get fat or any of the other myths that have been perpetuated . Carbs are incredible . They're supportive . There's nothing negative about them . What's negative is over-consuming food , right , just over-consuming to the point of excess , and it has nothing to do with carbs . What's negative is being sedentary . What's negative is not training . So that was my side rant .

Philip Pape 5:48

But when you eat carbs , they trigger insulin release . Oh no insulin . Oh yes insulin . We love that because insulin is a powerful anti-catabolic hormone . What does that mean ? Anti-catabolic means anti-breakdown . Okay , trigger insulin . Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone . We love insulin if we are training , if we're active and we're trying to build muscle .

Philip Pape 6:17

Just like a well-engineered material needs the support to maintain its elastic properties , your muscles need adequate carbs to prevent breakdown and retain their properties . You've built them up . You've gone to the gym , you've taken so much time to give them the TLC right . You're doing those heavy squats that you may not be the biggest fan of , but you know how effective and powerful they are and helpful . And you've gone through all that work . So why do you want to give it up by not supporting , by allowing them to get broken down right ? So let me break down the three main ways that carbs protect your muscles . First , insulin blocks protein breakdown pathways . When insulin is elevated from eating carbs , it literally shuts down the mechanisms that would otherwise break down muscle tissue , so important . This is why we need to flip the frame on insulin as not a bad thing , but a very good thing that we take advantage of . Second , carbs spare protein . When you don't have adequate carbs , your body converts amino acids into glucose through gluconeogenesis , literally breaking down muscle tissue for energy .

Philip Pape 7:27

Now , I don't want to overstate this or make this a fear monger type of thing . Like well , so does that mean I have to have like 400 grams of carbs or else my protein starts getting broken down ? No , quite the opposite . It's when carbs are just abysmally low that this can be a problem , and usually it's more of a problem in a dieting phase when just overall energy is low . When you are eating in a surplus , there's a lot more wiggle room Like you can have . You can jack up your protein and have moderate carbs . You can jack up your carbs with moderate protein . There is a lot of wiggle room . So I'm not saying you have to like stuff yourself with carbs , but I'm saying when the carbs go very low , that's when the issues start to happen .

Philip Pape 8:04

Third is that carbs replenish glycogen , which has its own anti-catabolic effects , because full glycogen stores send a signal that reduce your cortisol and other catabolic hormones . Again , it's your body saying , hey , I'm in a good state here , I've got enough energy , even though you're slamming the heck out of these muscles through your lifting , I'm good because you gave me all those carbs . So that is why low-carb diets , keto diets , often lead to faster muscle loss in a calorie deficit and much lower muscle gain in a calorie surplus . Part of it is because you're removing your body's primary defense against muscle breakdown by keeping those carbs so low . It's a matter of degrees . Could you build muscle or prevent muscle breakdown on low carbs ? Yes , is it harder ? Yes , and that's kind of the thing I'm saying . Why make it harder , unless you have to for some reason or you want to , but if someone's telling you you need to ? That's the problem that I have in the industry with when we talk about spreading misinformation . So how do we apply this right ?

Philip Pape 9:13

I want to give you four practical strategies , super simple . First , prioritize carbs around your training . This is one of the best things you can do . It creates an immediate anti-catabolic environment when your muscles need it most , so as much as half of your carbs might be around your training . The lower calories you're on , the more crucial . This is to do to the point where , if you're on a very severe deficit , almost all your carbs might be around your training . Okay , so just keep that in mind . When you're in a surplus , you know you probably have a lot of carbs coming in anyway . If you're in a balanced diet , so you still want carbs around your workout , but it's going to be a smaller percentage , okay .

Philip Pape 9:49

Second , maintain baseline carbs , even on rest days . I'm not a big fan of calorie cycling , so the way I like to frame it is if you think it's super helpful to jack up your carbs on training days , you're now taking away from your rest days when the recovery occurs , when the muscle breakdown would occur . So think about that . It's not just that you need your carbs during the training session , you also need them for the anti-catabolic environment outside your training session , and so I like to distribute carbs fairly evenly day to day Now , on non-training days , when you eat those carbs , is less important . That's the main difference , all right .

Philip Pape 10:30

Third , you can increase your carbs during fat loss . Now , this might sound counterintuitive because the calories are low , the protein is high and don't carbs , by definition , come down . Yes , but I have found with many clients who really like their protein and have become quite consistent , their protein actually ends up being maybe even higher than they need and it sacrifices carbs , or their fats are higher and it sacrifices carbs . And what we do is we tweak it . We say , all right , let's drop protein by 20 grams and increase your carbs by 20 grams , and let's shuttle those carbs right before your workout . And boom , all of a sudden , more energy in their workout . They feel better , they don't get shaky , they don't get um , you know , they don't feel winded or wiped after the workout . And it just changes the whole equation from feeling kind of miserable and like am I doing the right thing ? To hey , I can get through this , no problem , like I've got the energy to go . To hey , I can get through this , no problem , like I've got the energy to go .

Philip Pape 11:23

So think about whether your carbs are actually too low , even though you are trying to anchor your protein , there could be a little trade-off that you can make , and it might be with the fats , right , like maybe your fat is too high and you can bring that down and give it to carbs , all right . Fourth strategy Don't fall for the protein only advice , like there are some people that all they talk about is protein , or protein and fiber , and I've done that sometimes just because people don't get enough . And , of course , protein is crucial to build muscle , but carbs play an equally important role in preventing the breakdown and that's the message I want you to take home today . All right , so here's something fascinating , right To tie all this together . That ties it back to our concept from engineering .

Philip Pape 12:05

When we design materials to withstand stress , we don't just think about the strength , but on the resilience of the material , the plasticity right of the material , the elasticity , its ability to resist being deformed , because if it's too hard it's just going to break , but if it has a little bit of give in it , right , it won't . So in a similar way , building muscle is not just making this scaffolding out of protein and just focusing on one side of the equation . It's creating the overall environment that prevents the breakdown and resilience and elasticity by focusing on the carb side as well , the anti-catabolic side , and I see this all the time with clients who will get into a fat loss phase and will start to see a little bit of lean mass loss , which is , it's , very unlikely the way we have it set up . But if you're losing strength rapidly and it's faster than you expect , it could be because the carbs are too low , right . And you're like why is that ? Well , increase the carb intake , keep the calories the same , right . So you're gonna make a trade-off and support yourself in the gym . What happens ? Well , now you can lift a few more reps , or you can have that extra reserve to really hit the maximal strength on your lifts . And now you're not gonna lose the strength as quickly , if at all , for a while at least , right . And that could accelerate the fat loss , because now you're supporting your metabolism and you're supporting your muscle . You're giving yourself the maximum training stimulus . Isn't that cool Like that ? That's the interesting part about it is that increasing carbs during fat loss could improve your fat loss , all right .

Philip Pape 13:41

So , as we wrap up , let's recap again why carbs are your muscle's best friend , all right . Number one they trigger insulin , which is anti-catabolic . Number two , they prevent protein breakdown that would otherwise occur through gluconeogenesis . Three , they maintain glycogen stores that protect your muscle . And then , fourth , they create an optimal environment , both in fat loss and muscle building , to preserve and build muscle .

Carbs as Vital Muscle Tool

Philip Pape 14:07

So the next time anyone out there a fitfluencer , someone you follow on YouTube wherever says , cut carbs and you'll get better results , remember that you might be sacrificing a very , very powerful tool for actually preserving or building that muscle . All right , so if you want to put all this into action and get some exact numbers and rates for you , download my new and improved muscle building nutrition blueprint . Go to witsandweightscom , click the link in the show notes and I'll show you exactly how to implement all of the nutrition strategies to build muscle . Stay lean , do it at the right rate , not gain too much fat and uh , and be totally strong . Jacked lean , tone whatever word you're going for . All right , until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember understanding the science behind carbs can unlock your results . This is Philip Pape and you've been listening , as always , to wits and weights , and I'll talk to you next time .