If you've been told that protein is all you need to protect your hard-earned muscle mass, you're missing a crucial piece of the muscle-building puzzle.

Learn how the engineering concept of Material Elasticity reveals the hidden superpower of carbs!
 
The often-vilified carbohydrate macro has a superpower that prevents muscle breakdown, especially during fat loss.

Whether you're building muscle or trying to get lean, understanding this overlooked benefit of carbs will transform your nutrition approach forever.

To optimize your carb intake for maximum muscle growth, download my recently updated (and always free) Muscle-Building Nutrition Blueprint or go to witsandweights.com/free

Main Takeaways:

• How carbs protect muscle mass (like the Robin to protein's Batman)

• Why you WANT spikes in insulin if you lift weights

• When to eat carbs to maximize their effects for muscle

• The true effects of low-carb and keto diets on muscle

Why Carbs Are Your Secret Weapon Against Muscle Loss (Anti-Catabolic Science)

If you've fallen for the "carbs are bad" myth or think protein is all you need for muscle preservation, you're missing out on one of the most powerful tools in your nutrition arsenal. Let's use engineering principles to understand why carbs might be exactly what you need for better muscle retention and faster recovery.

The Hidden Power of Carbohydrates for Muscle Preservation

Most people understand that carbs fuel performance and provide energy. But there's a crucial mechanism that rarely gets discussed: their anti-catabolic effects. Using the engineering concept of material elasticity, we can better understand how carbs protect our muscles from breakdown.

Understanding Material Elasticity in Muscle Preservation

How Engineering Principles Apply to Muscle Protection

Just like a metal spring can compress under force and return to its original shape, our muscles need to maintain their structure despite constant stress. This ability to withstand stress without permanent deformation is crucial for muscle preservation.

The Three Ways Carbs Shield Your Muscles

1. Insulin's Anti-Catabolic Effect: When you eat carbs, they trigger insulin release, which blocks protein breakdown pathways

2. Protein-Sparing Benefits: Adequate carbs prevent your body from converting amino acids into glucose through gluconeogenesis

3. Glycogen's Protective Role: Full glycogen stores reduce cortisol and other catabolic hormones

Strategic Carb Implementation for Maximum Muscle Protection

Optimal Timing Strategies

• Prioritize carbs around training sessions

• Maintain baseline carbs even on rest days

• Consider increasing carbs during fat loss phases

• Don't sacrifice carbs for excessive protein

Why Low-Carb Approaches Can Backfire

When you eliminate carbs, you remove your body's primary defense against muscle breakdown. This is especially problematic during calorie deficits, where muscle preservation becomes even more critical.

Practical Applications for Your Training

Four Key Implementation Strategies

1. Training Day Focus: Concentrate up to half your daily carbs around workouts

2. Recovery Support: Keep carbs consistent on rest days for optimal recovery

3. Fat Loss Phases: Don't cut carbs too low - they're crucial for muscle retention

4. Balanced Approach: Remember that both protein AND carbs play vital roles

Engineering Your Nutrition Plan

Think of carbs as structural support for your muscles. Just as engineers design materials with both strength and elasticity in mind, your nutrition plan needs to address both muscle building (through protein) and muscle preservation (through strategic carb intake).

The Bottom Line on Carbs and Muscle

Carbohydrates aren't just fuel - they're a crucial tool for protecting your hard-earned muscle mass. By understanding their anti-catabolic effects, you can make more informed decisions about your nutrition, whether you're building muscle or trying to get lean.

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Transcript

Philip Pape: 0:01

If you've been told that protein is all you need to protect your hard-earned muscle mass, or that carbs just provide energy and performance and you can cut them out without consequences, I think you're missing a crucial piece of the larger muscle-building puzzle. Today, I'm revealing the number one reason to eat more carbs, and it's not what most people think. Using an engineering concept called material elasticity, I'll show you how carbs can do this one amazing thing. That is perhaps its biggest superpower. If you care about building muscle and fat loss, welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique. I'm your host, philip Pape, and today we're exploring why carbs those beautiful carbs might be the most underrated nutrients for muscle preservation, and how understanding their anti-catabolic effects we're going to define that term in a second could transform your approach to building muscle and losing fat. Before we get into that, I have just released my new and improved muscle building nutrition blueprint totally free. It's a guide that I created maybe a year or two ago after one of my muscle building phases, and I've since upgraded it and updated it based on the latest bulking recommendations according to the scientific literature. It shows you exactly how to use carbs strategically to bulk at the optimal rate and maximize your gains, which will go perfectly well with this episode. So to download your free copy, just go to witsandweightscom slash free, or click the link in the show notes. Again, that's my muscle building nutrition blueprint. It lays everything out from start to finish, with examples of setting up your muscle building phase. Go to witsandweightscom slash free, or click the link in my show notes. So let's start with the topic today, which is how material elasticity helps us understand muscle breakdown. But, more importantly, it's why you should not be afraid of carbs and a reason that is underrated or even not well known for why you probably want to eat more carbs. And when I say carbs, I'm talking about carbohydrates, I'm talking about a macro that covers a vast amount of food sources, and there is a powerful effect that carbs have that people don't talk about. They do talk about its source of insulin response and glucose for the muscles. They talk about it for performance and recovery. They talk about it for having a more variety of foods and fiber-containing foods with nutrients and plants and all that fun stuff. But there's one thing that gets talked about not as much and we're going to get into that and then, finally, I'm going to take that information and give you some strategies so you can apply that to your nutrition plan. So let's talk about the engineering concept and why that's important to what we're talking about today.

Philip Pape: 3:13

There's something called elasticity. Elasticity you might have heard it in the context of your brain development, for example. You might have heard it in terms of materials like a rubber band. Have heard it in terms of materials like a rubber band. Elasticity refers to a material's ability to withstand stress without getting deformed, right, without get permanently altered. So think about a metal spring. It can compress under force, but then it returns to its original shape, as long as you don't quote, pass its elastic limit. And as a child, I really loved my pogo stick yes, I am that level nerd and that ability to come back to its original shape is the thing that allowed you to spring up into the air.

Philip Pape: 3:52

So our muscles face similar stresses during training, during strength training, but also when you're dieting, because of all the shuttling of resources and your body trying to stay in homeostasis. Your muscles need to maintain their structure despite the constant breakdown and rebuilding of tissue. Right, that's what's happening in our body. We're always breaking stuff down. We're breaking muscle mass down, for example, and we're rebuilding it. And this is where most people, I'll say, not necessarily get it wrong, but they kind of oversimplify and they miss part of the picture. They focus solely on protein for building muscle, forgetting about the breakdown side of the equation. Preventing breakdown it's great to ramp up your ability to add new tissue, but if the other side of the equation is outpacing that, or at least keeping up with it in terms of breaking down tissue, you're going to have a real problem, right? Because at best you might be able to preserve muscle, um, and at worst you might lose muscle.

Philip Pape: 4:51

So here's where carbohydrates become so so crucial and why I am, uh, totally in love. I have a love fest with carbs to the point where that is my um, happiest source of YouTube trolls when this stuff goes YouTube and many of you are listening on audio. But go there and just type in carbs to my YouTube channel and find one of the episodes about carbs and just look at the comments. Okay, people have a very emotional attachment to carbs. If you are listening to me right now, I'm going to be giving you tons of permission to just eat the heck out of your carbs to the level that you need, to the level that supports you and to the level that you want, and not worry about demonizing them anymore.

Philip Pape: 5:28

Carbs don't cause you to get fat or any of the other myths that have been perpetuated. Carbs are incredible. They're supportive. There's nothing negative about them. What's negative is over-consuming food, right, just over-consuming to the point of excess, and it has nothing to do with carbs. What's negative is being sedentary. What's negative is not training. So that was my side rant.

Philip Pape: 5:48

But when you eat carbs, they trigger insulin release. Oh no insulin. Oh yes insulin. We love that because insulin is a powerful anti-catabolic hormone. What does that mean? Anti-catabolic means anti-breakdown. Okay, trigger insulin. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone. We love insulin if we are training, if we're active and we're trying to build muscle.

Philip Pape: 6:17

Just like a well-engineered material needs the support to maintain its elastic properties, your muscles need adequate carbs to prevent breakdown and retain their properties. You've built them up. You've gone to the gym, you've taken so much time to give them the TLC right. You're doing those heavy squats that you may not be the biggest fan of, but you know how effective and powerful they are and helpful. And you've gone through all that work. So why do you want to give it up by not supporting, by allowing them to get broken down right? So let me break down the three main ways that carbs protect your muscles. First, insulin blocks protein breakdown pathways. When insulin is elevated from eating carbs, it literally shuts down the mechanisms that would otherwise break down muscle tissue, so important. This is why we need to flip the frame on insulin as not a bad thing, but a very good thing that we take advantage of. Second, carbs spare protein. When you don't have adequate carbs, your body converts amino acids into glucose through gluconeogenesis, literally breaking down muscle tissue for energy.

Philip Pape: 7:27

Now, I don't want to overstate this or make this a fear monger type of thing. Like well, so does that mean I have to have like 400 grams of carbs or else my protein starts getting broken down? No, quite the opposite. It's when carbs are just abysmally low that this can be a problem, and usually it's more of a problem in a dieting phase when just overall energy is low. When you are eating in a surplus, there's a lot more wiggle room Like you can have. You can jack up your protein and have moderate carbs. You can jack up your carbs with moderate protein. There is a lot of wiggle room. So I'm not saying you have to like stuff yourself with carbs, but I'm saying when the carbs go very low, that's when the issues start to happen.

Philip Pape: 8:04

Third is that carbs replenish glycogen, which has its own anti-catabolic effects, because full glycogen stores send a signal that reduce your cortisol and other catabolic hormones. Again, it's your body saying, hey, I'm in a good state here, I've got enough energy, even though you're slamming the heck out of these muscles through your lifting, I'm good because you gave me all those carbs. So that is why low-carb diets, keto diets, often lead to faster muscle loss in a calorie deficit and much lower muscle gain in a calorie surplus. Part of it is because you're removing your body's primary defense against muscle breakdown by keeping those carbs so low. It's a matter of degrees. Could you build muscle or prevent muscle breakdown on low carbs? Yes, is it harder? Yes, and that's kind of the thing I'm saying. Why make it harder, unless you have to for some reason or you want to, but if someone's telling you you need to? That's the problem that I have in the industry with when we talk about spreading misinformation. So how do we apply this right?

Philip Pape: 9:13

I want to give you four practical strategies, super simple. First, prioritize carbs around your training. This is one of the best things you can do. It creates an immediate anti-catabolic environment when your muscles need it most, so as much as half of your carbs might be around your training. The lower calories you're on, the more crucial. This is to do to the point where, if you're on a very severe deficit, almost all your carbs might be around your training. Okay, so just keep that in mind. When you're in a surplus, you know you probably have a lot of carbs coming in anyway. If you're in a balanced diet, so you still want carbs around your workout, but it's going to be a smaller percentage, okay.

Philip Pape: 9:49

Second, maintain baseline carbs, even on rest days. I'm not a big fan of calorie cycling, so the way I like to frame it is if you think it's super helpful to jack up your carbs on training days, you're now taking away from your rest days when the recovery occurs, when the muscle breakdown would occur. So think about that. It's not just that you need your carbs during the training session, you also need them for the anti-catabolic environment outside your training session, and so I like to distribute carbs fairly evenly day to day Now, on non-training days, when you eat those carbs, is less important. That's the main difference, all right.

Philip Pape: 10:30

Third, you can increase your carbs during fat loss. Now, this might sound counterintuitive because the calories are low, the protein is high and don't carbs, by definition, come down. Yes, but I have found with many clients who really like their protein and have become quite consistent, their protein actually ends up being maybe even higher than they need and it sacrifices carbs, or their fats are higher and it sacrifices carbs. And what we do is we tweak it. We say, all right, let's drop protein by 20 grams and increase your carbs by 20 grams, and let's shuttle those carbs right before your workout. And boom, all of a sudden, more energy in their workout. They feel better, they don't get shaky, they don't get um, you know, they don't feel winded or wiped after the workout. And it just changes the whole equation from feeling kind of miserable and like am I doing the right thing? To hey, I can get through this, no problem, like I've got the energy to go. To hey, I can get through this, no problem, like I've got the energy to go.

Philip Pape: 11:23

So think about whether your carbs are actually too low, even though you are trying to anchor your protein, there could be a little trade-off that you can make, and it might be with the fats, right, like maybe your fat is too high and you can bring that down and give it to carbs, all right. Fourth strategy Don't fall for the protein only advice, like there are some people that all they talk about is protein, or protein and fiber, and I've done that sometimes just because people don't get enough. And, of course, protein is crucial to build muscle, but carbs play an equally important role in preventing the breakdown and that's the message I want you to take home today. All right, so here's something fascinating, right To tie all this together. That ties it back to our concept from engineering.

Philip Pape: 12:05

When we design materials to withstand stress, we don't just think about the strength, but on the resilience of the material, the plasticity right of the material, the elasticity, its ability to resist being deformed, because if it's too hard it's just going to break, but if it has a little bit of give in it, right, it won't. So in a similar way, building muscle is not just making this scaffolding out of protein and just focusing on one side of the equation. It's creating the overall environment that prevents the breakdown and resilience and elasticity by focusing on the carb side as well, the anti-catabolic side, and I see this all the time with clients who will get into a fat loss phase and will start to see a little bit of lean mass loss, which is, it's, very unlikely the way we have it set up. But if you're losing strength rapidly and it's faster than you expect, it could be because the carbs are too low, right. And you're like why is that? Well, increase the carb intake, keep the calories the same, right. So you're gonna make a trade-off and support yourself in the gym. What happens? Well, now you can lift a few more reps, or you can have that extra reserve to really hit the maximal strength on your lifts. And now you're not gonna lose the strength as quickly, if at all, for a while at least, right. And that could accelerate the fat loss, because now you're supporting your metabolism and you're supporting your muscle. You're giving yourself the maximum training stimulus. Isn't that cool Like that? That's the interesting part about it is that increasing carbs during fat loss could improve your fat loss, all right.

Philip Pape: 13:41

So, as we wrap up, let's recap again why carbs are your muscle's best friend, all right. Number one they trigger insulin, which is anti-catabolic. Number two, they prevent protein breakdown that would otherwise occur through gluconeogenesis. Three, they maintain glycogen stores that protect your muscle. And then, fourth, they create an optimal environment, both in fat loss and muscle building, to preserve and build muscle.

Philip Pape: 14:07

So the next time anyone out there a fitfluencer, someone you follow on YouTube wherever says, cut carbs and you'll get better results, remember that you might be sacrificing a very, very powerful tool for actually preserving or building that muscle. All right, so if you want to put all this into action and get some exact numbers and rates for you, download my new and improved muscle building nutrition blueprint. Go to witsandweightscom, click the link in the show notes and I'll show you exactly how to implement all of the nutrition strategies to build muscle. Stay lean, do it at the right rate, not gain too much fat and uh, and be totally strong. Jacked lean, tone whatever word you're going for. All right, until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember understanding the science behind carbs can unlock your results. This is Philip Pape and you've been listening, as always, to wits and weights, and I'll talk to you next time.