Carbohydrate Tolerance: Is Your Ability To Eat Carbs Determined By Your Genes?

[Dtlv]

Was really happy to see this article shared by Precision Nutrition today via their social media.

As anyone who has chatted with me for a while will know I'm a strong believer that genetic variations play a large role in diet-health-performance interactions, and that the endless stream of black-and-white 'shock' articles ('Sugar is evil', 'High protein will kill you', 'Gluten causes obesity' etc etc) generally do more harm than good in actually trying to understand the real basis of diet-health interactions.... basically I believe that, beyond a few basic general principals, a nutrigenetic approach to diet is the way forward and not blanket recommendations.

This article only deals with one tiny aspect of that vast subject (one of the multitude of discovered and currently being investigated genetic variations) but at least it's a step in the right direction in that it's actually being talked about.

The opening paragraphs also explain well and in simple terms the kinds of genetic variation that can occur - a good read IMO.

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/carbohydrate-tolerance-genes

 

[Guest]

yes i think they are, if i wear my hugo boss 38inch waist genes i get away with alot more carbs than when i wear my armani 32 inch waist genes
big difference imo

 

[Guest]

Bet they're orange label ones as well you horrible bastard.....

never, orange label dosent even count as hugo boss imo

 

[Con]

Now I am confused...does this mean diet and training is not universal and we are actually more unique than first thought?

Damn you prodiver and Mike Mentzer, 1 set to failure coupled with sausages wont let me achieve my genetic potential?! (as a side note Mentzer heavily favored carbohydrates)

 

[Beast]

Now I am confused...does this mean diet and training is not universal and we are actually more unique than first thought?

Damn you prodiver and Mike Mentzer, 1 set to failure coupled with sausages wont let me achieve my genetic potential?! (as a side note Mentzer heavily favored carbohydrates)

His contest diet when at his peak was 60% carb, 30% protein and around 10% fat! Makes you really think! Imo he was one of the leaner guys at the time.

 

[Prodiver]

The amount of AMY1 doesn't alter the effects of carbs. It alters the magnitude of the response.

Eating carbs will still affect bodybuilders' results to a greater of lesser extent.

And how different genetically are the majority of European bodybuilders?

Moderating or minimizing carbs is still an effective way of staying lean while gaining muscle - as many of us old-timers know from experience.

(BTW note the correct use of affect and effect.)

 

[Vantage]

Mentzer was a beast though wasn't he.

 

[TheSurgeon81]

If I even look at a white potato for longer than 30 seconds I put on 9lbs.

 

[neil.rushton]

Interesting article.
But, I couldn't help being drawn to the conclusion of "chew your food".
Kinda got flashbacks to my youth!

 

[hsmann87]

I think it is all a load of bollocks. The body accustoms to what you give it for weeks and months.

Eat keto/atkins style for ages and your insulin sensitivity will drop massively....eat 200g carbs a day and you will blow the fuck up.

Eat 60% carbs per day for ages and you will operate efficiently off that. Simple really.

Drugs skew things so IMO best to see how it affects natural BBers and then implement that notion for drug users as all that will happen is that prime/optimal diet will be used and then drugs will be icing on cake.

It has been proven time and time again visually with natural Bbers that higher carbs are much better. It always seems to be the fat asses who say they dont suit carbs.

Eat in a caloric deficit/maintenance (this is judged by daily tweaks, not an internet calculator) whereby you take in 50-60% carbs for 3 years and then begin a "lean bulk" with mainly carbs and it will suit you fine.

Progressive overload weight training like we train will help all of this. It will not work if someone sits on their ass all day and just eats normally. You have to train hard balls to the wall to create the metabolic pathways to "drive" the carbs to the right places.

I have never come across someone who trains SUPER hard who doesn't fair well with lots of carbs.

Look at Mentzer and Yates - lower volume trainers so if anyone was going to take in lower carbs it would be them but they were smashing them in by ratio for carbs to total calories.

Train hard, eat carbs, be happy

 

[PaulAnderson]

I think it is all a load of bollocks. The body accustoms to what you give it for weeks and months.

Eat keto/atkins style for ages and your insulin sensitivity will drop massively....eat 200g carbs a day and you will blow the fuck up.

Eat 60% carbs per day for ages and you will operate efficiently off that. Simple really.

Drugs skew things so IMO best to see how it affects natural BBers and then implement that notion for drug users as all that will happen is that prime/optimal diet will be used and then drugs will be icing on cake.

It has been proven time and time again visually with natural Bbers that higher carbs are much better. It always seems to be the fat asses who say they dont suit carbs.

Eat in a caloric deficit/maintenance (this is judged by daily tweaks, not an internet calculator) whereby you take in 50-60% carbs for 3 years and then begin a "lean bulk" with mainly carbs and it will suit you fine.

Progressive overload weight training like we train will help all of this. It will not work if someone sits on their ass all day and just eats normally. You have to train hard balls to the wall to create the metabolic pathways to "drive" the carbs to the right places.

I have never come across someone who trains SUPER hard who doesn't fair well with lots of carbs.

Look at Mentzer and Yates - lower volume trainers so if anyone was going to take in lower carbs it would be them but they were smashing them in by ratio or carbs to total calories.

Tran hard, eat carbs, be happy

Completely agree with this. For years I said I was intolerant to carbs and got decent results from a high fat diet. Over the last couple of years I've SLOWLY introduced carbs and have found no issues at all with a carb intake up to 50% of my diet. I'm sure if I jumped from low carbs to high carbs it would have resulted in weight gain as insulin sensitivity would have been through the floor.

 

[Jim]

I remember eating 1000g carbs a day for a while...
Poss one of the most productive periods ever.
Condition didn't get any worse
Fats were low tho...
So I'd not do it for any real length of time.

May give this another go in the new yr...

 

[JANIKvonD]

I remember eating 1000g carbs a day for a while...
Poss one of the most productive periods ever.
Condition didn't get any worse
Fats were low tho...
So I'd not do it for any real length of time.

May give this another go in the new yr...

what did a days eating look like on this? just carb sources & quantities, not fussed about the pro

 

[Jim]

what did a days eating look like on this? just carb sources & quantities, not fussed about the pro

It looked like a lot of carbs buddy
A lot... lol

Can't remember was ages ago
I'd like to say I used brown rice and sweet potatoes lol but to get that volume of carbs in I just treated a carb as a carb...
Thinking back typically I'd use
Lots of cereal, rice, dextrose, malto, oats, raisins, fruit juice, yogurts...
Was prob more stuff but not 100%

Just stuff that's easy to get in.

I'd do it slightly diff now
I'd use c-dextrin, lots of cereal, fruit juice all around training (mainly post)... Try to get as many carbs as poss at this time and then ease off as the day goes.

Nothing worse then ramming food in all day...
I'd rather really ram it in when needed and back off.
I'd also use loads of digestive enzymes where as last time I didn't use any.
I'd also make my pro sources easy to digest where as last time I didn't...

Obviously other things would be in place to make the most of this phase.

Think training frequency was quite high
Volume moderate

Was ages ago so I'm really not 100%

I think it was in my 2013 off season
2012 also run at finals
2013 off season
2014 Brit champ
So must have helped a bit lol

 

[mal]

what did a days eating look like on this? just carb sources & quantities, not fussed about the pro

loads of maltodextrin powder in your shakes...plus 2 for 1 offer on Jaffa cakes..and wraps, will get you there fast bro.