Looking for Bigger, Stronger Muscles? Eat Some Sugar - Marie Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD, Sports Performance Nutritionist

Sugar has become the demon among gym goers, trainers and even some dietitians. The word on the street is that you better cut it out of your diet completely for a ripped bod. The problem with this all or nothing philosophy is that it completely ignores an entire body of research about what sugar can do for you, if you drink or eat it at the right time.

When it comes to building some serious size and/or strength in the gym, carbohydrate is the macronutrient of choice for fueling your muscles through your training session. In fact, studies conducted several years ago (Haff GG. et al 2000) show that resistance training depletes your muscle glycogen levels (glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrate in your body and it is tapped into for fuel during workouts). If you don’t replace this glycogen by consuming carbs either during and/or immediately after working out, over time your glycogen levels slowly become depleted and your training volume and intensity may suffer.

Other studies show that the combination of carbohydrate + essential amino acids can decrease protein breakdown from resistance exercise (as measured by blood cortisol and urinary levels of 3-methyl-histidine, (Bird SP, Tarpenning KM and Marino FE 2006). In one particular study, the combination of carbohydrate + amino acids taken during resistance training over a 12-week period decreased protein breakdown compared to placebo and led to an increase in muscle cross-sectional area in the carb + essential amino group compared to the placebo group.

So what’s the take-home message here? Some carbohydrate, namely from sports drinks or gels can decrease protein breakdown (the scales are tipped in favor of breakdown after a resistance training bout if you don’t ingest some combination of carbohydrate + protein), promote greater levels of muscle glycogen and increase muscle cross-sectional area. I.e. – if you want size and/or strength it’s time to lighten up a little and realize what a sports drink can do for you. If you are really serious about putting on mass, mix some unflavored essential amino acids (or BCAAs) into a sports drink and start sipping on it while you are stuck in traffic on the way to the gym.

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