The Macronutrient Everyone Loves to Blame, and Why That’s Not Fair
Carbohydrates have taken more heat over the last twenty years than almost any other food group, and honestly it drives me a little crazy sometimes. I’ve watched clients, smart, disciplined, successful people, cut carbs down to almost nothing thinking it’s the secret to fat loss or better health, and then wonder why their energy is tanking and their workouts feel like garbage. Carbs aren’t the enemy. Bad carb choices and poor timing are usually the real problem.
Let’s talk mechanics first because understanding what’s actually happening in your body changes how you think about this. When you eat carbohydrates, they get broken down into glucose, which is your body’s preferred and most efficient fuel source, especially for your brain and for high intensity exercise. That glucose either gets used immediately for energy or gets stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver, you’ve got roughly 400-500 grams of glycogen storage capacity in an average adult, split mostly between muscle tissue and the liver. When those glycogen stores run low, which happens with very low carb diets or intense training, your body starts feeling it, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, and a noticeable drop in strength and endurance during workouts.
I had a client, a former marathon runner, who came to me eating under 50 grams of carbs a day because she’d read it would help her lose stubborn weight around her 50s. Her energy was so low she could barely finish a moderate training session, and honestly her mood was suffering too, she told me she felt “foggy” most afternoons. We gradually brought her carb intake up to around 130-150 grams a day, focused mainly around her training windows, and within about three weeks her energy and workout performance improved significantly, plus the weight loss actually picked back up because she had enough fuel to train hard and build the muscle that drives metabolism.
So how much do adults actually need? General guidance from most nutrition research points to carbs making up somewhere between 45-55% of total daily calories for active adults, though this shifts depending on activity level, goals, and how your body personally responds to carbs, some people are more insulin sensitive and handle carbs better than others. For someone eating around 2,000 calories a day, that lands somewhere around 225-275 grams of carbohydrates daily. Athletes or people training intensely most days can push that higher, sometimes 3-5 grams per kilogram of body weight, especially around workouts when the body’s actually primed to use that glucose efficiently instead of storing it as fat.
Timing matters more than people realize too. I generally recommend most of your daily carbs get consumed around your training window, roughly an hour before and within that first hour or two after exercise, this is when your muscles are most insulin sensitive and best able to shuttle glucose into storage as glycogen rather than fat. This is sometimes called nutrient timing or the “anabolic window,” and while the exact window size gets debated in research, the general principle holds up pretty well in practice with my clients.
Not all carbs are created equal though, and this is where a lot of people go wrong even when they’re eating enough. Fiber rich, slow digesting carbs like oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa, and vegetables cause a gradual rise in blood sugar, which keeps energy steady and appetite controlled. Refined carbs, white bread, sugary cereals, most packaged snacks, spike blood sugar fast and crash just as fast, leaving you hungry and tired an hour later. I tell clients to aim for at least 25-35 grams of fiber daily from whole food carb sources, this also supports gut health and heart health, which becomes more important as we get into our 40s, 50s, and beyond.
One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of my more athletic clients, former competitive athletes especially, is they carry an old mentality that carbs are only for “bulking” or that cutting them out entirely is the disciplined choice. That mindset usually backfires, poor recovery, stalled strength numbers, and honestly just feeling worse day to day. The body needs fuel to perform and to heal, restriction for the sake of restriction rarely serves anyone well long term.
There’s a principle in Proverbs 31:17 that always resonates with me here, “she sets about her work vigorously, her arms are strong for her tasks.” Strength and vigor require fuel, they don’t come from depriving the body of what it needs to function well. Nourishing yourself properly isn’t a lack of discipline, its actually part of stewarding the body well.
If you’re unsure how to structure your carb intake around your specific training and goals, that’s exactly the kind of detail I build out for clients in my online coaching program, feel free to reach out anytime at Rushww1957@gmail.com. I also carry some great training tools over at Rushfitnesstools.com to help support your routine. And for those in the north Atlanta area, I currently have a few in-person morning coaching slots open for anyone wanting hands-on guidance.
Thanks for reading this fitness blog. I hope you enjoy a healthy day, Walter