Carbohydrate Timing

This is going to be brief, nothing too crazy, but I'm going to put most of the "technical" stuff I have read into something more easy, something you can apply to yourself and your own nutritional programming.

Now, there is lots of talk over which is the best. carbs? no carbs? fats? no fats? and the ever elusive "how much protein is correct?" question that seems to be popping up in every magazine/media outlet/EVERYTHING.

This is my attempt.

So the very simple answer to all the questions is:
it depends.

On what?
Goals, level of experience, need, progression in current nutrition/training program, tolerance, body type, blood type... LOTS

BUT, like I said, here is my attempt to get rid of a lot of the confusion.

Think of carbohydrates at nitrous. they are packed full of energy, and the body's preferred source of fuel. without "getting into it", what they do best is fuel some form of exercise/movement/voluntary process.
so, having that, when is the best timing? exercise in which you are looking to lay down muscle, not destroy muscle, or not lose strength, no lose weight, etc.

SO

IF you are trying to gain weight, or trying to set some form of timing (sprint, distance, etc) then carbohydrates are a great choice.

IF you are trying to lose weight/bodyfat, carbohydrates need to be looked at on a "when i need them" basis.

Also, while sifting through a lot of paperwork/textbooks, women tend to do better (composition wise) on lowER carbohydrates.

So if you are predispositioned to be fat, carbs timing will help you. I would keep them to morning and post workout
If you are more muscular, and are looking to gain weight, look more into packing yourself full of them around the workout, AND in the morning/daily process.

The more weight you can lift (bench press, squat, deadlift etc) then the more carbohydrates you can potentially use to fuel these processes (recovery, actually lifting the weight, energy levels)

ladies then, cannot lift as much as men, hence their need being lower. I like to use carbs in the first meals, and around workouts if their training has been going very well.

Carbs around cardio?

Unless you are trying to increase speed/timing, I would say no. If you have carbs before a cardio session for fat loss, you're essentially burning the carbs you just ate. afterwords your body could potentially use them to repair/rebuild muscle or another process (immune, injuries etc) and be more efficient at it due to your heart rate/metabolic rate being elevated.

Protein - goes up when carbs go down
fats - go up when carbs go down
carbs - go up when protein and fats go down.

I expect LOTS and LOTS of questions on this.

BUT HAVING SAID ALL OF THIS...

everything is individual. I do not want "But Marty, I'm a girl and eat TONS AND TONS and lose TONS of weight!" to come back at me, or any other case.
If you are not the genetically gifted like myself, you/we need to try harder than others to achieve our gym/physique/fitness goals.

so remember:
carbs fuel exercise
fats can fuel you the rest of the time
protein repairs and rebuilds muscle.