Carb Timing While Bulking

Nutrition
1

Just wanted to get some opinions on carb timing while trying to gain mass. I like John Meadows’ philosophy of staying lean year round even when gaining. That being said, do most of you spread the carbs out with every meal or keep most of the carbs peri-workout?

I’m finding it hard to hit my carb numbers for the day unless I really pile on carbs for my last two meals PWO. For example, which of the following scenarios would be preferable?

Meal 1: 30g protein, 30g fat, 45g carbs
Meal 2: 50g protein, 30g fat, 45g carbs
Meal 3: 50g protein, 10g fat, 45g carbs
Intra-workout: 20g protein, 0g fat, 50g carbs
Meal 4: 50g protein, 5g fat, 45g carbs
Meal 5: 50g protein, 30g fat, 45g carbs

VS

Meal 1: 30g protein, 30g fat, 0g carbs
Meal 2: 50g protein, 30g fat, 0g carbs
Meal 3: 50g protein, 10g fat, 45g carbs
Intra-workout: 20g protein, 0g fat, 50g carbs
Meal 4: 50g protein, 5g fat, 90g carbs
Meal 5: 50g protein, 30g fat, 90g carbs

I guess my question is will carb timing have a meaningful impact on body composition while in a calories surplus, all other aspects of the diet being equal?

2

I don’t think that it will make a difference personally. During my contest prep I haven’t distributed carbs in any particular manner, but I am interested to see how it works during my upcoming offseason. I’ve always consumed over 50% of my carbs in the peri workout area in the past and might continue to simply because I’m very hungry after training, but I plan to distribute them pretty evenly throughout my meals even in a surplus

3

Ivan, I don’t like option #2 at all. If you have the oportunity to eat 3 times before training you definitely want to fuel up; your performance will be much better, which will result in better gains. Especially if bulking I would never go without carbs in a meal, let alone the first meal of the day after an overnight fast! Personally, I would distribute them with every meal, but concentrate a higher amount in meal #3, intra-workout, and meal #4.

Crowbar

4

I like option 2, personally. I like to do the carb backloading thing.

Some people like carbs before they train but I find I do better training carbless.

Unfortunately, this is one of those frustrating times when the only reasonable answer anyone can give you is “try it out and see”

5

I would go with option 2 as well,

I wouldnt include carbs in breakfast anymore after trying myself, whether bulk/cut.

You should try both and see how you respond

6

the bigger the surplus, the less the timing matters IMO

7

[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
the bigger the surplus, the less the timing matters IMO[/quote]

What makes you say that? Not disagreeing, I’m genuinely curious about your reasoning.

8

Does anyone here know John Meadow’s philosophy on ‘offseason’ carb timing? I’ve read he advocates 80% of carbs peri-workout when dieting, although I haven’t been able to find any mountaindog articles pertaining to offseason diet.

It seems like carb timing in a surplus is ultimately one of those scenarios where there likely won’t be a huge difference in results, although it seems reasonable enough carb timing could affect the amount of fat gained while in a caloric surplus.

At any rate, thanks for the input guys, its always helpful to see what’s actually worked for people who’ve experimented.

9

[quote]Ivan Fyodorovich wrote:
Does anyone here know John Meadow’s philosophy on ‘offseason’ carb timing? I’ve read he advocates 80% of carbs peri-workout when dieting, although I haven’t been able to find any mountaindog articles pertaining to offseason diet.

It seems like carb timing in a surplus is ultimately one of those scenarios where there likely won’t be a huge difference in results, although it seems reasonable enough carb timing could affect the amount of fat gained while in a caloric surplus.

At any rate, thanks for the input guys, its always helpful to see what’s actually worked for people who’ve experimented.[/quote]

Pushing your carbs to the evening takes advantage of your body’s bio rythym sand allows you to leverage your fat cells’ insulin resistance toward the end of the day. This gives your muscle cells preferential glucose absorption after resistance training. So, you get the benefit of storing less glucose as fat and storing more as glycogen. That being said, if you try it out, you’ll find you don’t need quite as many carbs as you may be used to simply because very little of it will be stored as fat which you would typically just be burning if doing low level cardio.