Lol, if you think Kleen is dropping info now....try challenging his stance. Poke the bear. Haha.
I would say you can absorb an almost unlimited amount, digestively, but can you effectively utilize it?
You can only put so much glucose into your muscles for storage and you don't want elevated blood levels, but you can keep absorbing it almost without limit. You will just get fat and eventually have glucose tolerance issues and insulin resistance and all those problems.
Maybe I don't really understand your question, but MrKleen has pretty much laid out a lot of the paths you have to increasing the usage - increase muscle mass, take carbs post-exercise habitually (the Glut-4 translocation will force carbs into muscle more easily), etc.
I would also suggest that excessive limitation of carbs will create a lot of the issues that high carb environments create and hurt your ability to utilize carbs, which will mean your muscles don't burn the carbs as readily, and thus they stay more full of glycogen even through exercise...ultimately reducing the number of carbs you can handle. I honestly think this is a big reason people believe they see such "rebound" after a diet of any sort. MrKleen and I don't agree on this fully, and I don't think I have ever seen anyone lay it out the way I have been thinking of it lately, maybe because I am wrong.
We agree on a lot of that, but not 100%. Definitely a short period of no carbs will increase insulin sensitivity, but after long enough without them the body turns of the creation of the enzymes and what not needed to process carbs. So upon returning to carb intake after a long period without them you not be efficient at processing carbs. WHILE you are readjusting, your ability to burn carbs for energy is limited. So the body stores the glycogen in the muscle but it is not being used for energy and therefore is not depleting. Once the stores are full and the body needs to store the carbs somewhere it will convert them to fat.
HOWEVER, where we differ is that when we discussed this you spoke as if that was the end and now we were no longer efficient with carbs and insulin sensitivity is now lower. Therefor not ideal.
For me that is also true but it only takes about week in general for the enzymes and what not to get back to normal production levels. There are simple things you can do to help ensure a smoother transition...
+ Introduce the carbs in a reasonable manner, You do not want to overwhelm your impaired ability to process carbs in the beginning. Reasonable / gradual introduction rather than just blasting into it allows your body to signal for the production of the enzymes and what not. Doing so gradually will help make sure you are able to process them properly while still adapting.
+ Avoid a caloric surplus during that period - If you avoid a a high carb level, and a caloric surplus during this period, storing fat is very unlikely, and the glycogen stored in the muscle will stay burned off at a slower pace due to lack of enzymes but the calories from it are held hostage, so even more fat is having to be burned for energy during that transition.
+ Incorporate a lot of explosiveness, and speed into your resistance training - Explosive resistance training, sprinting, and other explosive movements increase the amount of Glut4 is activated and brought to the surface of the muscle cells. This will increase insulin sensitivity by a great margin during that time.
I think where we differed was in my assessment that after a short period of adaptation the ability to process carbs will return, but having not been exposed to high levels of insulin in a while with all the other gears in place you should most likely have better insulin sensitivity, and increased ability to burn fat for energy than when you started the keto diet in the first place. I don't think you had come to a different conclusion so much as perhaps has not gone so far as to think about the adaptation back to being efficient at carb processing.
Thanks again dr.kleen! I’ve heard of the concept of carb backloading where you only eat carbs after your workout. I haven’t seen it in depth but I have an e reader and I’ll def purchase the book and start reading. Got another question for you seeings how your muscles are most receptive to nutrients 24h after exercise what are your thoughts on active recovery? As in cardio and abs and stretching? Is it optimal only for a cut, a bulk or both?
I would say active recovery is good for any time in general. Anything that increases blood flow to a trained muscle is going to improve recovery so long as it is not intense enough, or long enough in duration to dig a whole in the recovery ability. Being in a fed state while doing so is even more beneficial. When you have nutrient dense blood and increase circulation you feed the muscle while also clearing out metabolic garbage, and toxins from the muscle cells. Both are vital to recovery.
I would just apply the laws of specificity here. What are your training goals, if you have something specific then you should probably be working toward that with your active recovery too. You want bigger muscle then maybe a feeder set, you really trying to increase strength or speed, then add in explosive lifting, or some sort of "jump training or plyometrics". If just trying to increase overall bloodflow while trying to lean out then a walk, or some LISS cardio.
Of course playing any game or activity comes in with this, and those have benefits but also remember if you have a hobby that is intense, say you play basketball for 2 hours twice a week... Well you probably don't need any more cardio in your life if you goal is to get bigger.
One more question what about feeder workouts more so as in workouts for stubborn muscles like calves how should they be trained
That one just really depends... like
Hyde mentioned a lot of that is going to be genetic. Some people seem to respond better to daily training, some to once a week... Some don't respond to training at all other than to get stronger but no change in size or shape. I would try hitting them 3 times a week with decent volume over the course of the week.
The best results I have really heard people talk about though are with John Meadows style calve training. IE... supersetting your calves with the tibialis anterior. Something about that superset worked really well for him and some others I know have put on about 1/2-3/4 inch over time with that method. It is far from a magic bullet, but seems to have the best actual results out of the stuff I have recommended to others. I have great calves and get asked all the time what I do for them. My answer is "Walk... I walk on them and they look like diamonds!" So I started looking into calve training long ago so I could at least have something to offer up.
Damn not looking too good for me but even if I can get them maxed out to their potential I’ll be happy and I’m after the chase for that particular sort of training.
The good news is that even in competition bad calves isn't going to hurt you much. It is kind of a given that they are a genetic limitation, and unless in upper level physique shows they aren't going to be the problem you think. Now of course if you are dead even with someone and they have better calves, then you will probably place lower than them. I wouldn't place too much importance on them otherwise. If they are strong enough for you to sprint then they are doing their job well.