Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I dont know much about how our bodies work yet, so please dont hold this against me.

I understand we need carbs for energy, and the average lifter should consume on daily about 60% carbs.

so i understand why ppl tell me to eat lots of things like pasta, bagels, oatmeal, cereal, etc.
but doesnt our digestive system use most of our energy?
so why should we stuff ourselves full of foods that take up a lot of our energy to digest?
shouldnt we instead stuff ourselves full of simple carbs? so we have energy....but we dont need to use a lot of energy to digest?
and instead our body can focus on the task at hand, and then use the rest of its energy for repairing and maintaining itself?

Complex carbs are carbohydrates that are slowly ingested. Use this for your training and daily meals.

Simple carbs (sugars such as fruit juice, candy bars, soda, etc) go through the body fast and can cause insulin spikes. Bodybuilders will consume these right before competition to look fuller and bigger. Try and avoid these as much as possible.

If you want an indepth chemistry on this, let me know, and I'll explain it.

an in depth chemistry would be great, please. I know i will learn this over the next 6 months, but im anxious to learn it now.

Ya I feel ya, I am the same.

Well Carbohydrates are made of Carbon, Oxygen, and Water. You can tell from the name, Carb-O-Hydrate.

A Simple Carbohydrate, a sugar, is composed of glucose, sucrose, fructose, and lactose.

A Complex Carbohydrate is a longer chain of sugars. Simple Carbohydrates.

The reason it takes a while to digest complex carbohydrates is because they are long chains of Simple Carbohydrates and they need to be broken down, while the simple carbohydrates are already there so it doesnt need to be broken.

Complex Carbohydrates have more vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals than simple carbohydrates. Generally simple carboydrates are zero nutrition, meaning they don't containt anything but sugar and calories.

However, if you were to choose between soda and fruit juice, fruit juice would be the better alternative since it at least has some. Always opt for the whole food than the drink whenever possible.

Don't forget fibre! Complex carbs have fibre, this slows the digestion, so you have energy over a longer time & aids passage through the alimentary canal, so you don't "block up".

Also with simple carbs you can get a sugar crash, where the body over-produces insulin, so the blood sugar can actually drop so much you feel tired & depressed (after the "quick sugar hit" you just experienced). Also repeating this process can set you up for type 2 diabetes (not saying it will, but it increases the likelyhood).
The body was designed to run on fats, proteins & complex carbs. By giving it simple sugars you are giving it a fuel it can't cope with too well, it deals with it, but often at a cost to long term health if you do it too often.
Sticking to whole foods almost guarentees you'll have enough energy (if you're taking in enough calories), & will help protect you from bowel cancer, constipation, minimise your risk of type 2 diabetes & you'll be getting just about all the trace nutrients you need too. So, it's a win-win situation!

ahh alright makes sense.


so then a raw food diet wouldnt be best for a bodybuilder? since it contains lots of fruit (simple carbs) and will just spike my sugar, rather than giving me energy throughout the day (complex carbs)?

Glucose is the simplest carb… its pure sugar. And it is the ONLY thing your brain runs on. If glucose was a string then all other forms of carbs would be ropes made up of it. Your body needs to break them down into glucose before they can be used; the more complex the longer it takes. However the brain is a greedy bastard and likes instant gratification, that’s why people crave sugar. This is also why if you go to long without eating (or you’re an idiot on a low carb diet) you get irritable…. You brain is hungry. Also, on a side note, if you were to cut open a cadavers head it would smell like confectioner sugar because of the glucose.

Fruit depends. I assume from the simple sugar quote you mean sweet fruit. They are great for adding to your post workout shake (or eating after training) or dilute juice during training, or after a heavy cardio session.
You can have some outside of that time, but don't go crazy & tend to eat it AM, so you'll burn it off, not store it as fat.
There are other fruits though, avocados, olives, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers which you can eat (remember that technically even olive oil is actually a fruit juice, as it's squeezed from olives!).
You mention a raw-food diet. You can eat unlimited amounts of lettuce, cabbage, watercress, infact ANY green leafy, brocilli..All fibrous type raw foods you can eat & should, pretty much as much as you like.
Things to watch are eating in the evening stuff like sweet fruits, carrots, potatoes which are better during the day. Just aim at more fibrous carbs in the evening (your green leafy stuff & brocilli), with your protein & fat (keep the fat a bit lower towards evening too if you can).
But these are just "ideal" guidelines the odd variation isn't going to kill you or make you fat, you only need to get major strict when you're dieting for contest. Just bear things in mind & if you can choose say a plate of mixed salad & quinoa with your veggie steak instead of say potatoes, carrots with apple sauce, then just choose the best you can.
I know cash is short for you at the moment & leafy veg is pretty expensive, so just do what you can & don't over-worry about your diet for now. Just go for the best stuff you can afford & once the finances are a bit less shaky, then you might want to think about how you can optimise your diet.

I see its pretty much done here. If you have any more questions Topher, feel free to ask.

thanks Pete!