Originally Posted by
Jordan Feigenbaum
In this example of a diet, fat is about 30% of dietary calories, which is not low unless being compared to a keto style diet in my opinion. I prefer a little more carbs in strength athletes (and physique competitors) in order to help fuel high intensity training sessions, recovery, and when it comes time to start tweaking the diet I have leeway with the carbs.
I like to keep the fat low in the periworkout window for a number of reasons: 1) fat slows gut transit time. I want the glucose to be ready for use (pre workout) or being used for recovery (post) and not hanging out there for hours on end. The insulin response is kinda less important than we've been hearing about, in my opinion, as heavy resistance training promotes insulin-independent glucose transport post workout. So as long as fat doesn't slow down the absorption/digestion of your protein and carbs you can get some pretty cool nutrient partitioning effects. 2) I like having some calories in reserve at other times of the day to boost compliance. Since the meals around the workout have a higher carb count and lower fat count than presumably the rest of the meals, that means that meals outside this window will likely have less carbs but MORE FAT, thereby promoting a bit of satiety (along with the protein) and increased compliance bc they're not just eating a chicken breast and broccoli.