The wrong way to build muscle: glycogen loading

In the early 80s the muscle building craze grew as people fought to lose fat and gain lean muscle. It was not long after that many sought to exploit the most widely accepted weight loss methods combined with fat-stripped protein sources. Not long after this the fitness industry was in the hands of the special interest groups trying to crusade against fats and by that the meat industry. Suddenly this was a typical misunderstanding in the muscle mags and also the fitness ones. It was from here that anti-fat journalism was becoming the quickest health writing craze of the century, because all of these were joining forces to compliment each other.

In the long term this spawned an era of absolute confusion on the truths of nutrition. The writers who were young and naive were completely separated from the medical establishment which had already preconceived a bias which the writers in good intent followed. Much like the greater populace existing today they had no idea that they were simply reinforcing an extremely biased academia.

From here there was a huge outcry from the next generation of gym goers to consume carbohydrate rich diets. This movement sprang forth a large number of industries supporting this way of thinking, carbohydrate rich food sources. Ignorant of the damage they could do, the manufacturers pressed the bar on how high they could permit their foods to be in carbohydrate percentages.

It was never pointed out that a number of problems arose from initial experimentation on glycogen loading. Issekutz discovered and mentioned this first in 1970 reporting that for a muscle’s resting glycogen content to be a part of performing long-term heavy exercise is a theory not backed up by solid science. Ironically even now this is not mentioned by even PhD supporters of glycogen loading. Issekutz’s analysis solidified, that there is a minute difference when it comes to those with low levels of glycogen and those with. The high carb diet had little to do with the effects of experiments pertaining to this.

This was a time when science believed that all of the muscle contraction of a human body was fueled by carb intake. The ironic thing is that even the heart has been proven to prefer fats as fuel. We know that if the heart does not have enough blood flow then there is in fact an anemic effect. Therefore the body requires fats for energy, and the discovery of fatty acids was an important stride as well.

For more information on this and other weight related issues visit:  ByeByeCarbs.com