|Nutrition| Did You Know?

10-day HIGH CARBOHYDRATE diet resulted in higher TESTOSTERONE levels (compared to low carbohydrate diet).

Evidence for this statement comes from PMID = 3573976

In this study, 10 healthy, physically active (but apparently non-resistance trained) males (aged 22 to 43 years) followed a high carbohydrate diet or a low carbohydrate diet each for 10 days

The high carbohydrate diet was comprised of 70% carbohydrate, 10% protein, and 20% fat

The low carbohydrate diet was comprised of 35% carbohydrate, 44% protein, and 21% fat

The subjects followed each diet for a 10-day period and the meals were from prepared foods (most meals were supervised by the researchers)

After the 10-day diets, it was reported that the high carbohydrate diet significantly increased total testosterone levels by 26% (468 vs. 371 ng/dl)

When looking at the totality of the scientific literature, I come to the conclusion that very low carbohydrate diets are suboptimal for maximizing muscle growth

However, there may be some physique advantages to lower carbohydrate diets at times (particularly their ability to suppress appetite — which may make them more appealing to those in a caloric deficit during a fat loss phase to lose body fat)

Generally speaking, for physique enhancement, a good base diet is one that is moderately high in protein (0.75 to 1 gram/pound bodyweight; 1.6 to 2.2 g/kg), and moderate in carbohydrates & fat.