Carb Cycling and Glutamine?

Nutrition
1

Hey all ~

I’m a new member, and have been reading Barr’s articles debunking glutamine, and Thibaudeau’s article on carb cycling, and learning about the Metabolic and Anabolic diets.

I have a few questions to throw out to everyone.

I’ve been cycling carbs and calories, keeping them low from Monday to Friday, spiking carbs (and calories) on the weekend. I do a heavy workout on Saturday but not Sunday. I have to admit, I really like that type of eating schedule, and I’ve been able to stay lean and build some muscle.

I’d like to build more muscle and get leaner, and I’m wondering if a slight change in strategy would be beneficial.

During my low carb days, I’ve been taking glutamine after my workouts (which I’m now questioning), and then about an hour later, taking a whey isolate drink without high-glycemic carbs. My logic before was that I could get away with skipping the carbs if I took the glutamine.

Should I be ditching the glutamine in favour of high glycemic carbs with protein after my workout? Or would that ruin the carb and calorie cycling strategy? Is a post-workout shake the one exception on a low-carb day?

Any thoughts?

2

The whole idea of using glutamine in this case would be to replenish muscle glycogen. If you’re using a 40g dose, you might see a benefit.

Having said that, you’ll also be using glycogen as fuel instead of the desired fat -so it really depends on where your priorities lie; fat loss vs. performance.

Cheers

3

so is the take home message that, to burn fat, I shouldn’t bother with either glutamine or high GI carbs after a workout (at least on a low-carb day)?

I’ve been reading about growth hormone pulses and how the post-weight-workout ‘window’ for nutritional absorption is actually a full 24 hours - which makes me wonder if the post-workout rush to spike GH with high GI carbs and fast protein is even necessary for muscle growth (fat burning aside).