Simple vs Complex Carbs: When to Eat Each Around Workouts

Nikkiey: Hey everyone, what's up? Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe, and I'm stoked to talk about today's topic. In this video, you are going to learn the difference between the two types of carbohydrates, the overall functions they provide you for your daily strength training workouts, and how important they are. I'm going to break it down so that you know exactly what each type is, when it's best to eat them pre- and post-workout, and provide you some food examples of each of the types.

That way, you can begin to incorporate these types of carbohydrates to better fuel your workouts, which are going to better fuel the results you want to accomplish. If you stay until the end, you are not only going to gain a better understanding of carbohydrates and how they are key for your muscle building success, you are going to love them even more than you do, or don't, right now. So get ready and enjoy. But before we dive in, please smash that like button. It will help make carbs great again.

First and foremost, the most important thing you could understand about carbs is that they are a major macronutrient and one of your body's primary sources of energy. As you may or may not know, a lot of programs out there really discourage eating carbohydrates. But the key is finding the right carbs, not avoiding them completely. They do wonders for building muscle and changing your body composition.

You may have heard that eating complex carbs is better than simple carbs. But the thing is, in a grocery store, nutritional labels don't always tell you if the carbohydrate content is a simple or a complex carb. So understanding how these foods are classified and how they work in your body can help you choose the right carbs that are going to get you the right results.

Simple carbs are broken down quickly by the body and used almost immediately as energy. Simple carbs are more like sugary foods, whereas complex carbs are much higher in fiber and starch. Complex carbs are also packed with way more nutrients than you will find in simple carbohydrates. And like I said, there is a time and place in your day where simple carbohydrates can work better, and I'll explain that in a couple of seconds.

Simple carbohydrates break down fast and they're used as energy pretty quickly, whereas complex carbs digest slower and provide a longer period of energy release within your body. I personally recommend simple carbohydrates for those of you who are AM workout goers. If you work out first thing in the morning, a simple carbohydrate is your best fuel source because it gets broken down quickly by the body. Then you can immediately use that energy for your workout and you're going to feel amazing. Your strength is going to increase, your energy is going to increase, and you're going to see the results that you want by fueling your body properly.

Simple carbohydrates are also great for your post-workout. You'll always hear me say muscle is not built in the gym or during your workouts. It's broken down. After is where the building process starts, and nutrition is a key part of that building process. Simple carbohydrates post-workout help to immediately replenish your energy stores, and those carbs start the recovery process for your muscles to build them up. And that's what's going to get you that toned look. My number one post-workout carb is listed in the description below, and you can mix it in with your protein shake post-workout.

Complex carbohydrates are great for your pre-workout if you have some time to spare before you actually start your lift for the day. Those carbs are slower to digest, so they provide a longer period of time for your body to use their energy. I specifically prefer complex carbs prior to a lift because those will help you have energy throughout the entire duration of your workout, whereas you could burn through simple carbs pretty quickly and kind of bottom out within your workout. But whatever works best for you, you've got to utilize. So simple carbs are best 30 minutes prior to a lifting session, and complex carbs are best 45, 60 or 90 minutes prior to a lifting session.

And now, as promised, the food examples of both types. Simple carbohydrate examples in foods are rice cakes, fruit, white rice and some cereals. Anything else, really, you're teetering with that bad sugary stuff, which is in a lot of simple carbohydrates like candy and baked goods.

Complex carbohydrate examples to eat are whole grains like bread, rice, oatmeal and quinoa. Yes, I said bread. And yes, you can eat bread. Also potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn. My go-to complex carb is oatmeal. I eat that before almost every workout, and I mix in egg whites as my protein source. Again, you need carbs pre-workout and you need protein pre-workout.

That's all I've got for today. I hope that you learned something and that you can apply these simple and complex carbs into your current nutritional rotation daily and be on a good path towards the results you want to get. And if you want to be sure that you get sustainable macro, nutrition and workout information for your individual needs, head on over to WarriorBabe.com, where you can find even more amazing resources around each of those topics to help you build the lean muscle that you want, change your body composition, and most importantly, keep your results forever. And please make sure to subscribe to this channel, because videos like this are going to come out on a recurring basis every single week. I'll see you next time.