Being an Athletic Vegetarian Woman(Part 2): Carbs

Featured, Health — By Ryan on September 12, 2010 3:57 am

Well in the first part of this series we discussed protein and what you as a Vegetarian Athlete can do to ensure your body has exactly what it needs and just how much that is.  Today we are going to go over a topic that certainly has received the bulk of the press when it comes to a woman’s diet, and just like protein the Dietary needs in regards to protein for a highly active woman are going to differ a lot compared to someone living a much more sedentary lifestyle.

With all the recent hype about high-protein diets–and the carb bashing that’s accompanied it–an important fact has gotten lost in the shuffle: Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of fuel.

Vegetarians / Vegans have never had to really worry too much about where they are getting their carbs from as there is more than an ample supply of sources that don’t come from animal products so we won’t devote a huge portion of this article towards the vegan aspect but focus more in on what kinds, how much why and when you should be consuming your carbs.

Let’s start with the most important question here:

Why are carbs so bloody important?

Well the main thing to remember here is that while protein may repair and help build your muscle tissue it is the carbohydrates that actually power them.  What happens when ingest carbs is that your body converts them into glucose which is them transported to your muscles for consumption, what isn’t used or needed is then converted into glycogen and then stored in the muscles and liver for later use.  The maximum glycogen you body can store depends of course on your body size but it is fair to say it will be between 300-400 grams, any additional glycogen will be converted to fat.  So you can see why it is not only important to monitor how many carbs you are taking in, but also what kind of carbs.  If you are over indulging, without training hard enough to burn those reserves then you will see an increase in fat but more importantly for your performance if you under consume then when it comes time for your muscles to pull from these energy reserves there won’t be anything there and you will fatigue sooner.  Again I want to reiterate that what I am saying here applies to the highly active woman who is engaged in intense training.  You will see the most significant increases in overall endurance and performance when engaging in periods of intense exercise 90 minutes or longer which is roughly the amount of time your glycogen reserves will last before they need to be replenished.  The bottom line, regardless of how intense your training regime is, is that carbs are what power your muscles and allow you to push yourself far beyond where you would fail normally(upwards of 37% according to some studies ).  This not only will ensure your performance outlasts the norm but you will be able to get that much more out of your training sessions, enabling you to build your body faster, getting you closer to your peak state of performance sooner than before.  Lastly the brain needs to use glucose as an energy source, since it cannot use fat for this purpose, and keeping your body’s glucose at optimum levels will not only give your increased physical stamina but also sharper mental acuity, which most athletes can attest challenges the physical for importance in high performance sports.

The different forms of carbohydrates:

If we want to get fancy then there are technically 6 different types of carbohydrates:

CLASSIFICATION OF DIETARY CARBOHYDRATES
Monosaccharides	Glucose, fructose, galactose
Disaccharides	Sucrose, lactose, maltose
Polyols	Isomalt, sorbitol, maltitol
Oligosaccharides	Maltodextrins, fructo-oligo-saccharides
Polysaccharides	Starch: Amylose, amylopectin
Polysaccharides	Non-starch: Cellulose, pectins, hydrocolloids

If you want a more detailed explanation of what all of these entail there is a great article here to read through, however for the purpose of simplicity we can break them down into 2 main groups that you will probably recognize much more readily: Simple and Complex, and the big difference between the two is how they are absorbed into the body.   Simple carbs, which normally come from sweeter products high in sugar, are absorbed very quickly through the small intestine directly into the blood.  This is good if you need need a quick boost of energy for your muscles, although if you’d planned ahead properly this shouldn’t be necessary.  Complex carbs aren’t as quick to be absorbed into the blood and require digestive enzymes in order to break them down into simple sugars, this also goes for the long chains of starches.  This has clear and obvious benefits to the competitive athlete over simple sugars.  Mainly that if properly planning you can eat enough complex carbs to replenish your muscles glucose levels as they are being depleted without needing to stop and eat(a luxury rarely afforded in the middle of an event).  Secondly complex carbs are also usually much higher in fiber which is essential for a healthy digestive system.

Now not to say that simple carbs don’t have their uses, they are surely helpful in a pinch, however they become less and less needed once you start properly monitoring your carb intake and planning in advance of big competitions or strenuous training sessions.

Here are some great sources for both complex and simple carbs:

Complex Carbs * Bagel * Barley * Beans * Bran * Brown Bread * Brown Rice * Buckwheat * Cassava * Corn * Cornmeal * Granary Bread * High Fiber Breakfast Cereals * Lentils * Macaroni * Maize * Muesli * Oatcakes * Oatmeal * Pasta * Peas * Porridge Oats * Potatoes * Shredded Wheat * Spaghetti * Whole Meal bread * Wholegrain Cereals * Yam

Simple Carbs: * White / brown sugar * honey * agave nectar * corn syrup * maple syrup * sorghum syrup * molasses. * Dried fruit * sweet / ripe fruit * licorice. * Fruit juices * canned fruit * Manitol * sorbitol * xylitol * maltodextrin * stevia. * cookies * sweetened cereal & granola * jam * marmalade.

Just how many carbs should I be taking in?

According to studies, the active woman should aim for 55% of their caloric intake to come from carbohydrates, now this of course requires you to calculate what your recommended caloric intake should be.  The Harris Benedict Equation is a great way to deduce your calorie needs.

Harris Benedict Equation
Daily calories (kcal) = [447.6 + 9.2 (Weight in kg) + 3.1 (Height in cm) -4.3 (age)] x 1.7

Note the 1.7 number at the end, this number is there based on a very athletic lifestyle of heavy training 5+ days per week.  If your training schedule is less intensive than this you can multiply the results by 1.6, 1.5 or as low at 1.4.  Just imagine the multiplier for a completely sedentary lifestyle is 1.2 and the multiplier for a professional athlete in training is 1.6 or 1.7.  Figure out where you are on that scale and multiply it accordingly.  This figure gives you an appropriate caloric goal for the day, from there you can extrapolate where you are getting your carbs from and how much you are taking in.  A general rule of thumb is that you should be looking at 2.2x (220%) more carbs than protein per day.  If you are the example woman in Part 1 of this series who is a professional athlete consuming 130 grams of protein per day your goal should be 286 grams of carbohydrates or so.

Please note that these are all goals, this should not turn into an obsession, they are just numbers to keep in the back of your head as you go through your day.  Keep a rough running tally on what you are taking in and if need be you can always pound back a quick shake or make yourself a sandwich if you begin to fall behind during the day.

When is the best time of day to be ingesting carbs?

The main objective here is to make sure that your glycogen is kept at optimal levels throughout the day.  This will of course be affected by the intensity of your activity.  Re-iterating once again that this advice is for the highly athletic woman you should be looking to start your day off with more carbs than you end it, and most importantly to ensure that carb rich meal is consumed roughly 60 minutes before your train.   This is not ‘weight-loss’ advice, so if you are looking to loose weight you can refer to the up-teen million articles online about ‘how many carbs for 6 pack abs’ that are available.  This article is for the trained athlete that wants to get the most out of each training session and the highest levels of performance when she competes.   Your goal should be to make sure that your glycogen reserves are always at optimal levels.  Sound advice to accomplish this is to look at achieving your optimal carb intake with 3 main meals and 2 light snacks during the day.  Again you will want your meals and snacks early in the day to be slightly heavier in carbs as your body needs to replenish itself after a good nights sleep, and have it taper off slightly and gradually as the day goes on(with the exception of the meal/snack before your training session or competition)

The goal should be to go into a training session or competition with your glycogen reserves full and then ensure what you’ve eaten in the hour before will allow you to replenish these reserves as efficiently as possible.  There is no way that you will be able to ensure your energy reserves are always kept at full while your train/compete but with a proper diet before hand you can prolong your endurance significantly.  It takes roughly 90 minutes to burn through your glycogen reserves, putting that burn rate at about 233 grams per hour.  Complex carbs are oxidized at a rate around .6 grams per minute(36 grams per hour) while the right combination of fructose and glucose(simple sugars) can be oxidized at peaks rates of up to 1.26 grams per minute(80 grams per hour).  So even though, with complex carbs ahead of time plus the right combination of simple sugars during the activity, the rate at which your body will be replenishing it’s glucose will be no where near the rate it is burning it, you will be able to to stave off the effects of exhausting a considerable amount longer than normal.  In fact studies have shown that the optimal oxidization rate of glucose from carbohydrates during exercise is roughly 65 grams per hour, so while you are only replenishing your energy reserves at 27% of the rate which they are being burned, you are still buying yourself 27% more time before your body begins to run off fumes.

Some of the articles and studies I referred to for this piece can be found below:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KGB/is_9_4/ai_n6005630/

http://www.runtheplanet.com/trainingracing/nutrition/vegetarian.asp

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/011209p38.shtml

http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0201/cf-e.htm

http://www.edulife.com.br/dados%5CArtigos%5CNutricao%5CNutricao%20Esportiva%20e%20Suplementacao%5CCHO%20intake%20in%20sport.pdf

http://www.acu-cell.com/gi.html

http://www.iloveindia.com/nutrition/carbohydrates/complex-carbohydrate-food.html

Tags: athlete, carbs, compete, train, vegetarian diet, woman