- Jan 2, 2006
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I remember in high school people would often tell you to eat a lot of spaghetti or something the night before a long distance run or some-such. All those carbs will help keep you fueled during the run.
But now I read that simple carbs break down incredibly fast and basically turn into a load sugar in a short amount of time. And if this sugar isn't used up immediately, it gets stored as fat. And this is also why after eating a large meal with a lot of simple carbs people get a food coma due to the insulin response that makes them crash. On the flip side, because complex carbs digest slowly, the conversion of the carbs into sugar is more gradual, more controlled, and better for consistently powering long workouts.
So in light of this, should the old adage be to eat a lot of *complex* carbs the night before a long workout to keep you consistently energized throughout the workout, and to, well, never eat simple carbs since the energy release is too sudden and unless you're doing some explosive short term workout it'll just get stored into fat?
But now I read that simple carbs break down incredibly fast and basically turn into a load sugar in a short amount of time. And if this sugar isn't used up immediately, it gets stored as fat. And this is also why after eating a large meal with a lot of simple carbs people get a food coma due to the insulin response that makes them crash. On the flip side, because complex carbs digest slowly, the conversion of the carbs into sugar is more gradual, more controlled, and better for consistently powering long workouts.
So in light of this, should the old adage be to eat a lot of *complex* carbs the night before a long workout to keep you consistently energized throughout the workout, and to, well, never eat simple carbs since the energy release is too sudden and unless you're doing some explosive short term workout it'll just get stored into fat?
