When it comes to eating fruits and veggies, bodybuilders fail. Miserably. We’re so focused on protein, how much and what kind, or carbohydrates – we love them to bulk or despise them while cutting – wholesome foods like apple apples, bananas, cabbage and broccoli take a back seat. Fiber, a key ingredient in plant based foods is an important substance that’s not only plain ole healthy, but can indirectly help you stay lean and build fat free mass when combined with a bodybuilding diet rich in protein and carbohydrates. Here’s the low down on fiber:
Fiber is classified as a ‘non-digestible food substance.’ In other words, your body doesn’t break it down so it passes right through you! Picture for a minute making juice from oranges, grapes, apples or from any type of vegetable. The ‘roughage’ or collection of skins and pulp that remains is (the) fiber. Indirectly, fiber could be considered an important part of the anabolic process. How? Fiber enhances nutrient absorption by ‘scrubbing’ parts of the intestine walls that resemble brushes. Once these brushes are clean and stimulated, absorption increases. Better absorption leads to better growth.
Fiber actually binds with some of the dietary fat you eat and drags it out of the body. If your eating a fattier cut of steak or whole milk dairy products like cheese, yogurt or milk, a side salad can help neutralize a bit of the extra fat calories. Even if your eating low fat protein foods, adding fiber rich veggies or ending the meal with a piece of fruit offers the same fat-fighting benefit.
We know natural carbs like yams, red potatoes, 7 grain bread and oatmeal are some of the better energy foods. Not only to the provide glucose, the energy source muscles need to work & grow, but they digest slower than many carbohydrates. One reason; they’re higher in fiber which effects the duration or longevity of the carbohydrate. Fiber helps slow the entry of carbohydrates into the blood and the benefit is prolonged fuel rather than a quick wallop. Prolonged fuel helps you stay mentally alert – an important component contributing to increased training intensity - and it is thought to exert a beneficial effect on body composition. When carbohydrates break down slowly – the result of eating fiber at meals – the body tends to store more of the carbohydrates as muscle glycogen rather than body fat.
When you eat carbohydrates, the body releases insulin, a strong anabolic hormone. Insulin drives carbohydrates into muscles and it also helps move protein into muscles. The net result: greater recovery and growth. A potential limiting factor determining the benefit of insulin is something called insulin sensitivity. Here’s the scoop. Muscles have receptors for insulin located on their outer edges. The greater the receptor affinity or attraction for insulin, the more likely insulin can drive carbohydrates and protein into the muscles. Training, one’s degree of muscle mass and low levels of body fat enhance this attraction. Fiber also plays a role. Soluble fibers such as the kind found in oatmeal, applesauce, peas, pears and black beans enhance the attraction and therefore impact insulin sensitivity. If a lean & muscular physique’s the goal, including soluble fiber in your meals goes part and parcel success as fiber is part of an overall strategy that upgrades a muscles ability to bind and make use of its own anabolic hormone.
Pretty obvious veggies are great for dieters and those ripping up. For example, 3 cups of broccoli yield 75 calories. A lot of chewing, hardly a bit of calories. Simplicity aside, the added benefit of fiber: it blunts the appetite making you feel fuller. Fiber not only slows the digestion of carbs and slower digesting carbs curbs the appetite, but it also contributes to the release of cholecystokinin (CCK) a hormone released in the small intestine that triggers the brain signaling “You’ve eaten enough” Mixing veggies into rice, pasta or complimenting a baked potato with a medium size salad help control the appetite- an important point for all pre-competition bodybuilders.
Anecdotal evidence. It’s the stuff bodybuilders lay claim to, only to be affirmed at a later date by science. Years ago a torn-up competitor told me salads and veggies made him cut. I assumed that may have been true due to the lessons 2, 3 and 4 listed above. Turns out there’ more to it. Actually, science is confirming what the ripped up bodybuilder had claimed. Some fiber rich veggies like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach contain compounds called indoles. Indoles can lead to slightly lower levels of estrogen in males which leads to less water retention and every-slightly greater levels of testosterone. Not a bad benefit, one that every bodybuilder I know wouldn’t mind.
Skip the fiber at the post training meal. That’s because a goal of the post training meal is speed – to get glucose from carbohydrates into the blood as fast as possible to stimulate muscle recover and re-growth. Fiber with the post training meal would only slow down digestion. Save the fiber; the fruit, the veggies, beans, oats, yams etc for all other meals.
Authors Note: World's Best fiber Supplement is Fiberlyze. Order yours at www.speciesnutrition.com
Check out my books Championship Bodybuilding and Everything You Need To Know About Fat Loss at www.amazon.com
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