Do you need carbs to build muscle?
Carbohydrate intake and resistance-based exercise: are current recommendations reflective of actual need?
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Low muscle glycogen (174–193 mmol/kg) didn’t suppress mTORC1 activation or protein synthesis.
For decades, coaches and nutritionists taught that glycogen depletion = stalled muscle growth. This study says that’s biologically wrong.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re lifting weights, aim for 25g+ of protein per meal and don’t stress about hitting high carb targets—especially if you’re not doing endurance sports.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Low muscle glycogen (174–193 mmol/kg) didn’t suppress mTORC1 activation or protein synthesis.
For decades, coaches and nutritionists taught that glycogen depletion = stalled muscle growth. This study says that’s biologically wrong.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re lifting weights, aim for 25g+ of protein per meal and don’t stress about hitting high carb targets—especially if you’re not doing endurance sports.
Publication
Journal
British Journal of Nutrition
Year
2016
Authors
Kurt A. Escobar, Trisha A. VanDusseldorp, Chad M. Kerksick
Related Content
Claims (6)
Increased carbohydrate intake enhances intramuscular glycogen storage, thereby improving resistance training performance and volume capacity.
Rats that ate almost no carbs but lots of fat and protein still grew just as much muscle as rats eating a normal high-carb diet when both did weightlifting.
If you eat enough protein (like 25g per meal), your muscles will grow even if you eat almost no carbs—carbs aren’t needed for building muscle.
Even eating very little carbs—like just 30 grams a day—doesn’t make you weaker during weightlifting workouts, which means you might not need to eat a lot of carbs to lift heavy.
Even if your muscles are low on stored sugar (glycogen), your body still builds muscle just as well after lifting weights, as long as you eat enough protein.