Making Sense of Fructose

Fructose, one form of carbohydrate that is typically found in fruit, has traditionally gotten a bad rap in the bodybuilding and fitness world in the past few years. Many individuals feel that this type of carbohydrate is going to increase the likely hood of going into their fat stores and causing unwanted weight gain. It is the number one reason why many individuals feel they should be avoiding fruit in their diet, despite the vitamins and fiber that these foods provide. Here is some information to help set you straight.

What's Good About Fructose

The good thing about fructose is that it serves to increase the hepatic (liver) glycogen levels. These stores of carbohydrates are what determine whether your body is in an anabolic or a catabolic state, which proves to be very important to the bodybuilder. If you are trying to add lean muscle mass, being in a catabolic state is definitely not what you will be wanting. By keeping your hepatic stores full, you can prevent this from happening and therefore hopefully have an easier time adding lean muscle mass.

Do note though that consuming glucose/dextrose can also work to fill the liver stores, so that is another option as well.

What's Bad About Fructose

On the other end, the bad part of fructose is that it isn't going to be a direct energy source for the muscle nor the brain. Therefore, if you plan on eating a great deal of fructose to meet your carbohydrate needs and hope that this will lead to pounds of muscle gain, you are going to be mistaken. While you need some to get out of that catabolic state, more is definitely not better.

The second issue with fructose is that when you ingest larger quantities of it (20 to 50 grams per say), some individuals will have a very hard time digesting this and it can cause intestinal distress.

It Gets Worse

Now for the fat gain portion of fructose. The issue here is that it is very easy for the liver to store fructose as fat in the body. This type of nutrient is not handled by the body in the same way that glucose is and will also not stimulate the secretion of insulin. When it comes again to adding muscle mass, one of the biggest reasons you are eating carbohydrate rich foods on a mass gain program is to get insulin levels up as this is what will cause the muscles to uptake the calories and build new tissue. If fructose isn't doing this, it definitely isn't helping you build muscle.

This means that once the liver storage is full of fructose, the remainder has to be put somewhere. Since it cannot go into the muscles and will not be used by the brain, it will get stored as fat - and at a fairly readily pace.

Do take note though, this is only going to occur with an overabundance of fructose consumption - meaning you must be eating more than your liver can store. If you don't, there is no need to worry.

Additionally, the timing of fructose will also play a large role here. Since fructose is not going to cause an insulin surge, and that is what you are most looking for during the post-workout period, having fructose after working out is not ideal. At this time your muscles are very glycogen depleted so first and foremost, this is what should be addressed. Fructose is not going to get the job done.

Lastly, it is important to note that fructose will not have any influence over leptin levels. If you know what leptin levels are, you will realize that this is a big concern. If you don't, to put it simply, leptin is what sends messages to the body about your current fat store levels and when they become too low, also signals you to start eating. It is basically the enemy of the dieter and what makes prolonged dieting extremely difficult. By implementing 'refeeding' periods (times of higher calorie eating), you can help leptin levels return back to normal. If you use fructose as your 'higher calorie eating' though, this isn't going to work as it should and you will not solve the leptin issue.

So the key here is eating enough fructose when you don't need to see an insulin surge to keep your liver stores high enough as to prevent catabolism, but not eating so much that the excess gets stored as fat. When you can manage that, then there is no reason to fear fructose at all.