Sugar & Sweetners

Kinda true Powerhaus. Sugar won't do to much to those of us who eat it in moderation or very low levels anyway. And being active, I know that I could have a candy bar or two every single day and not really gain any fat and I'd still have great workouts.

Where refined sugars come into play is when you get serious about that 6-pack or you are competing.

Me on 2 candy bars a day is very different from me who cuts out refined sugars as much as possible (cutting them entirely is unrealistic and probably nearly impossible unless you make your own food sources).

Sugar isn't so bad unless you have it to excess. Which a lot of people who drink a six pack of coke a day do. And it's not so bad unless you want to obtain that 4% bodyfat for some competition.

It's not all bad you are correct. But depending on your goals you might be happy to just switch to diet soda or you might need to eliminate sugars as much as possible.

Generally speaking you are on target. Being sedentary is a lot worse then eating sugar. But the low carb thing is messed up because it's not just about sugar, it's about eliminating carbs. And that goes for starchy carbs like potatos, yams and brown rice. We need carbs as bodybuilders to get energy. Fat can be used as energy but it's not an efficient source.

The only time low carbs or nearly none will work is that part of competition when you want to burn off as much fat as possible and get as lean as possible. Not something you do for long periods of time. But it's used a lot in competitions. The whole low carb thing as a lifestyle is not a good idea.

Marc C. David
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The low carb thing for contest prep seems to be used by those who like the "sacraficial muscle" method, that is, you drop 10 lbs of fat and 10 lbs of muscle in 1 month or somesuch nonsense. Since in-shape people have a lot more muscle mass than fat mass, this has some logic to it, especially if you have pleanty of muscle bulk and are more concerened about getting cut as quickly as possible. However for most bodybuilders, the muscle loss isn't worth the short timeline.

Yes I suppose if you are in the "I am at 9% bodyfat but I feel like a tub of lard and I want to be at 3%" club, you should avoid sugar. Of course you might also need a good shrink... (no, I'm not fat and old and bitter, really)

I myself am starting the long, slow, burn. *sigh* Hopefully by applying everything I've learned over the years I can keep making muscle gains, although they will be slower, but my goal is to get from 20% bodyfat to around 13% by June. I'm finding that making sure I eat some protein every 2-3 hours isn't as easy at is sounds, and I'm also working on figuring out how much I would normally eat, and then taking a LITTLE BIT less than that. Starving myself is easy, but GRADUALLY starving off the fat while keeping the muscle well fed isn't.

It's not easy but the whole point of buring the fat and feeding the muscle is well documented.

Marc C. David
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Now where have I heard that before? Must have been one of those late-night infomercials with a "fitness personality"...

You saw me on TV?

Just get enough of your essential fats and you'll do fine. I have no doubts we'll be hearing your progess and 13% is very reasonable.

Marc C. David
Support DB! Buy your supplements at Supplements101.com

A great post. I usually read the ingrediants to see if there is anything im allergic to, and come to find out a lot of what i drink has a ton of high fructose corn sugar. So i have reduced my intake and now i drink more water.

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Yes, I think high fructose corn syrup may be contributing to the obesity epedemic more than people realize. It's in EVERYTHING, because it's dirt cheap.

Some good points for and against sugar.

Regarding contest prep...you don't have to lose muscle mass, even on a low carb diet. Those who know what they're doing lose very little muscle mass. And low carb diets aren't "stupid"...what's stupid is people who follow them w/o educating themselves on not only low carb dieting, but how carbs work in the body, why and when we need them. That is just stupid.

Overall, a regular non-competing dieter can have success by lowering carbs slightly, eating cleaner foods and generally eating more consistently.

When you've been in the game a while, and when you're prepping for a show, things become a little more intricate. And the placement of sugar in the diet does become an issue.

And I have to respectfully disagree that fat is an inefficient source of energy. :)

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