Eating carbs after a super-hard workout helps you perform better — but only if you were starving before. If you ate the same number of calories from protein or fat, carbs don’t help any more.

Eating carbs before or during a normal weightlifting session doesn't make you stronger or let you lift more reps, as long as you've eaten recently and aren't doing super long workouts.

Eating carbs before a normal weight workout doesn’t make you stronger or let you do more reps, unless you’re training super hard with lots of sets or haven’t eaten all day.

Even when eating almost no carbs after a race, athletes who’ve been on a high-fat, low-carb diet for months can still rebuild their muscle sugar stores just as well as those eating lots of carbs.

Eating carbs before a workout when you haven't eaten all night might make you feel like you can lift more—but it's probably because you feel less hungry or think you're getting energy, not because your muscles actually have more fuel.

After a long workout, drinking a sugary sports drink helps your muscles refill their energy stores much faster than not eating anything at all.