With so much conflicting advice about what we should and shouldn’t eat a personal trainer from Dubai provides some useful tips on why carbs are not that bad for you after all.

Carbs Are Not The Enemy…

It seems to me that people will never stop arguing over the best way to eat. Let’s set the record straight here, on why you SHOULD in fact be including carbs in your diet and how they will aid you in your personal training in Dubai.

Carbs are certainly not a negative, if used proportionately they play a vital and in fact CRITICAL role in the performance of your body.

Once upon a time, whilst the rest of the world continued to live in fear of fat, the fitness community totally embraced it. However, carbohydrates became the target of our frustrations and we began blaming them for making us fat, compromising our immune system and gut function, inflaming our joints and generally ruining our lives.

Since then we in the fitness industry have learnt our lesson and carbs have had their reputation restored!

I’m just not seeing the same revelation in Dubai, as it’s still a misconception I have to address with personal training clients over and over again.

Why? You ask…

Let me go through a few simple reasons to use carbs;

• RECOVERY
• ENERGY
• BODY & MIND
  
  

So Which Carbs Are Best?

Fruits

Let’s starts with fruit, yes that’s right, fruit contains carbs! It shouldn’t make up the bulk, but that doesn’t mean don’t eat fruit.

TIP – PICK A PIECE OF FRUIT AT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET

Fruit is a valuable source of vitamins, minerals and fiber; and has definitely got its place in a balanced approach to nutrition.

However, you would have to eat a lot of fruit to satisfy your carbohydrate/calorie requirements after training. So it’s not optimal to rely upon fruit as an energy source.

Most fruits are low calories and essential for optimizing health, just not optimal as your primary energy source.

Starchy Vegetables

Starch is literally just a long chain of glucose molecules bonded together.

That doesn’t matter too much, although humans have a tough time digesting the stuff raw, which does matter.

Cooking breaks it down into pure glucose ready for utilization as a substrate to produce cellular ENERGY throughout your body.

What doesn’t get used can be stored. Preferably in your biceps, quadriceps or abdominals.

Which while we are on that subject are notably the main areas people store excess body fat.

What you need to think about is the rate of absorption and how it’s affected by added fiber in starchy foods; it’s potentially disadvantageous in situations where we need to shoot for quick glucose uptake like when you train or do excessive activity.

Glucose

The most important thing to note is that you need dietary glucose (CARBS) to effectively replenish muscle glycogen, otherwise the body crashes and that’s when you get the cravings of bad dietary foods.

Supplementing Carb Intake And Liquid Nutrition

Now there is one great way to optimize the balances through supplementation although I STRONGLY recommend you start with REAL WHOLE foods first through a few different means.

For anyone in search of greater performance, incorporating supplements into your plan can really bring your performance to the next level in both spectrums.

For Athletes the most important time to ensure you have adequate energy available is before training. You also need to be able to replenish those glucose stores immediately after for recovery.

For the general public the most important and best use is for recovery; restoring what has been lost before workouts and to avoid crashes to vital parts of nutrition. Any carbs that don’t get used will be stores away if not used.

Now what we mean by supplements…

We mean Modified Starches like Maltodextrin, Dextrose and Waxy Maize. The great thing is they’re affordable and easy to blend right in with your favorite protein powder and provide you with exactly what you need to begin restoring glycogen.

On the other hand; pureed food are a fast and effective way of getting what the body needs. You can be imaginative and creative with what you put in them to make them delicious, making them and interesting yet very effective in post work out nutrition.

E.g. Potato, along with some coconut milk, not forgetting some salt would be a simple solution. You can also use a variety of choices mixed with coconut milk or almond milk.

In terms of quick nutrient absorption and efficiency for time (if prepared properly) this can be a great time saver for those with busy schedules.tar