Are carbs necessary for building muscle?

If you’ve ever set foot inside a gym, or even just glanced at an Instagram feed of fitness enthusiasts flexing their biceps, you’ve probably heard people rave about the importance of protein intake for building muscle. But what about carbohydrates? Do they play a role in muscle growth as well? Let’s dig into this topic and find out.

What are Carbs?

Let’s start with the basics – what exactly are carbs? Carbohydrates are one of the three macronutrients that provide our body with energy (the other two being protein and fat). They’re found in an array of different foods such as grains, fruits, vegetables, and baked goods – think breads and pastries!

Carbs come in two forms: simple or complex. Simple carbs like sugar molecules enter your bloodstream quickly to spike your blood glucose levels while complex ones take longer to digest because they have a more complicated molecular structure.

So why do we care about all this carb business when talking specifically about building muscles?

Firstly it is important to understand how our bodies utilise food groups.

Nutrient Partitioning

Nutrient partitioning refers to how nutrients from consumed foods move throughout your body towards various metabolic pathways responsible for maintaining energy balance. Depending on genetic makeup or physical activity-intensity differences among individuals individual diet manipulation can be counter-productive due not only altering testosterone-to-cortisol ratio but also mechanism that drives nutrient flow between fat storage tissue over skeletal muscles during exercise causing instead less let said desirable adaptations 1.

This flow itself is called traffic essentially gathering cell machineries we will note:

  • Glucose uptake by
  • Muscles
  • Liver

When working-out one might wish that circulation would favour Muscle-wanted Glucose As Opposed To Liver-driven processing which will put brakes on burgeoning muscular development

This brings us back therefore to the question, are carbs important for building muscle?

Do Carbs Help Build Muscle Mass?

In short -yes!

Without carbohydrates, the body can turn to using muscle fibers as fuel which is utterly unproductive and counter-intuitive for a person trying to gain muscle. Carbs provide energy that helps fuel workouts resulting in more efficient training- leading to building leaner muscles.

Carbohydrates also help facilitate recovery after strenuous exercise which gets your body back on track so you can continue seeing those gains 2. It’s crucial to keep in mind that carbohydrates come naturally with essential vitamins and minerals necessary for carrying out integral muscular functions.

However, it is important not just any kind of carbs but instead focus on consuming complex carbohydrates high in fiber-rich sources like whole-grains because they break down slowly facilitating prolonged energy availability- keeping you full while promoting stable blood sugar levels 3.

Timing Is Everything

For optimal performance eating nutrient dense foods around our workout routine will maximise results achieved[ ^ 4]

from pre-workout snacks designed towards providing steady release of protein / amino acids fostering gradual sugar supply through completion decreasing fatigue hence facilitating post-workout efforts allowing better growth & repair. To next having quicker absorbing carbohydrate rich food/drinks within an hour post-exercise promotes higher glucose uptake/ glycogen synthesis making a prime case for carb intake

As alluded above timing does pan magnify effects showing how strategic planning yields biggest gains hitting target outcomes required by individuals.

Succinctly put: Nutrient partitioning benefits athletic endeavours giving competitive edge when performing optimally.

How Much Protein Should You Consume When Building Muscles?

While we’re here discussing macronutrients let us tackle another macro-normous enigma:

“How much protein should one consume when interested in developing bigger or leaner muscles?”

It’s common knowledge that athletes need more protein than the average person but it is often unclear what exactly that number should look like.

The ideal protein requirement varies depending on muscle mass, activity levels and age 5. Aiming for approximately 1g of protein per pound of body weight seems to be a good round number without excessive over consumption leading to potential detrimental effects on kidneys even though data does not necessarily support such incorrect claims.

Incorporate complex carbohydrates while pairing them with appropriate amounts of protein to ensure maximum benefits when building muscles.

Importance Of Eating Enough

It may seem easier said than done especially when trying to track macro-nutrient intake strictly, challenging aspects can lead one astray. Not consuming enough carbs and energy-dense calories can greatly stunt your workout results as lack or insufficiency will almost certainly reduce intensity & duration in exercise ability, limiting optimal adaptation creating favourable environment for reducing fat stores leading to completing foundational pieces required

By eating enough carbohydrates from whole food sources specifically those high in fiber macronutrients you ensure continuous replenishment of glycogen fuel storage within the muscle tissue promoting efficient function after breaking down during intensive workouts.

Conclusion

Carbohydrates provide necessary nutrients including sufficient glucose required by different metabolic activities carried out during our day-to-day life in addition proteins aiding directly all muscular development processes mentioned before.

So the answer remains yes, you cannot build proper lean muscles without including (specifically more slower releasing) carbohydrate-rich diet regime into supplementing fitness efforts. Proper timing within context together with progressive overload training regimes guarantees facilitating athletic performance maximizing desired outcome expected thus making sure each gram consumed contributes towards overall goal aiming for better results reflecting actual physical transformations seen while continuously applying knowledge gained.


  1. Lancha Jr AH et al., Sports Nutr Rev J:Introdution: Nutrition Strategies-beyond Macronutrients:,2016;13(Suppl 1):37 DOI:10.1186/s12970-016-0128-9 

  2. Ivy JL et al., Muscle glycogen synthesis after exercise: effect of time carbohydrate intake J Appl Physiol. 1988;64(4):1480–5doi:10.1152/jappl.1988.64.4.1480 

  3. ‘Acute and long-term effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction’ PLoS One, 2017 DOI: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.l0176326. 

  4. Jeukendrup A, Gleeson M.Body fuel during exercise in Textbook of sports medicine basic science and clinical aspects of sports injury management,London : HarcourtBraceJovanovich ;1991.pp 413-421. 

  5. Phillips SM et al., Protein “requirements” beyond the RDA: implications for optimizing health Am J Clin Nutr,21045;101(Suppl):635S–47SDOI: .3945/ajcnU11434394 

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