You're a bit confused, youngling..
I understand that the theory of post workout carbs is that your muscles are depleted of glycogen (or glucose? I don't yet understand the difference) and when you don't take in carbs after working out your muscles will be eaten to be turned into glycogen. But don't the muscles use the glycogen stored in the liver?
I would say it doesn't matter when you take in carbs as long as you eat enough overall, correct?
And why does protein timing matter?
You're a bit confused, youngling..
Everything is bad for something - How do you feel today?
wow, confusion abounds on this one...
after weight training or anaerobic exercise, both muscle and liver glycogen will be depleted. your muscles will fuel their anaerobic activity with locally stored glycogen, as liver glycogen is primarily for the brain and to stabilize blood sugar, but it's not exclusive. both will be used. as will fat, for the aerobic component.
the muscle doesn't hold glucose. in fact, your body either burns glucose, or quickly stores it as glycogen. you eat glucose, but it should not hang around in your blood stream for too long, or problems will abound.
another great reason to take in carbs post-workout (at some point, along with protein - it doesn't have to be as immediate as some people say), is that they bring water into the muscle and volumize the tissue. the volumized tissue can absorb protein and other nutrients much better.
in short, eat food at some point after you workout.
In very simple terms:
Glycogen is mostly stored in the muscles and liver. Glucose is sugar that is ingested via carbohydrate and proteins (or created from the breakdown of glycogen). Glucose is converted to glycogen in the liver using insulin. Glycogen is broken down into glucose, in the liver, using glucagon as the catalyst.
Sometimes the timing thing can be overdone. However, there is a window of opportunity that is better (for lack of a better term) than others for protein synthesis, glucose uptake, efficient glycogen storage, etc. 20 minutes before training and 90 minutes PWO are the optimal window for all of those. Your body will not grow, efficiently, if you do not give it the fuel it needs to rebuild itself.
Gadsie, I am saying this as someone who has seen others like you, over the past 20 years, sabotage themselves because they over-think shit and try way too fucking hard to do everything at once. You don't have to take my advice, you can ignore it and do it your way and you may or may not succeed. However, having worked with power lifters, olympic lifters and bodybuilders for a long time, I highly doubt you are going to get where you want to be by changing gears every 5 days.
Eat, lift, sleep, repeat. That's it. You might lose your abs, you might not. But, you have to decide if you want to keep the emaciated look while never building quality muscle mass, or you want to build the mass and then strip down the fat. Your body naturally wants to be lean and have enough muscle mass to survive. To change that (the muscle mass part) you have to trick your body into adapting. AND, it takes a long time. Much longer than your other posts have eluded to how long you think it should take.
I am not talking about the typical bulk-cut-bulk cycle that a lot of bodybuilders go through. Dude, you gotta eat. I know you are, but give it some time. At least a year. Come back in June of 2013 and report back.
People too weak to follow their own dreams will always try to discourage others.
It's not nessassary to eat after a work-out, but if someone get inbetween me and food after I've been swiming I will kill them then eat the food, and if it's been a few hours in the sea trying to surf I will kill them and then eat them and then eat the food
You know all those pictures of Adam and Eve where they have belly button? Think about it..................... take as long as you need........................