Here is the whole thing...
The ABC's of HBCD's
Written by David Reid
It seems everyday that there is a new miracle supplement discovered that will revolutionize the world as we know it. It will do everything from fat loss, muscle gain, fight cancer, arthritis, heart disease and even make a mans "junk" bigger or breast's grow to the size of watermelons! This industry can be the Wild West; not much law or regulation to keep snake oil salesmen at bay. So how do you find what works? First,we must define what a supplements role is. A supplement by definition is "Something added to complete a thing, make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole". The whole is a sound nutrition program. Without rock solid base nutrition, supplements can do little. There is no miracle pill that allows you to stuff your face full of garbage food and yet maintain a top level physique or for that matter, health. In a simple equation, proper diet = 95% + supplements = 5%; Supplements are the icing on the cake. I can't tell you how many people approach me with a Jack in the box diet yet have a gym bag full of the latest and greatest supplements.
So, now that we understand what a supplements true role is, what is something fairly cutting edge to help out most people who train hard and value recovery. In the past decade, high molecular weight starches have become more prominent. The first one I encountered was Vitargo way back in 2003. I tried it and I could tell a profound difference in my recovery from even the toughest sessions. I also used to swallow 40 grams of BCAA tablets per hour session. So what does it this have to do with supplements? After Vitargo came out, there were many cheaper versions of waxy maize starch that hit the market. True Nutrition, always a leader, brought out an affordable version that benefitted many. I had all my athletes on it. So now in 2014, the new kid on the block is Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin's or HBCD's for short. What is this mystery molecule and how may it benefit me you may ask? That is what I will try to answer in terms most can understand by simplifying the science.
HBCD's are made from amylopectin (Starch) molecules which are enzymatically altered so that they cross bridge and link up. This changes the shape, de-naturIng the original molecule, much like cooking egg whites. Egg whites are still egg whites and contain the same amount of protein, they just change structurally. Imagine taking a tree branch and making it into a circle. All the leaves, branches and stems would still be on it, it's now a circular tree branch, but it's still a tree branch. How does this help? We will see shortly. Now that we defined what HBCD's are, we need to know how they benefit a body. When we work out, we create a deficit of energy, nutrients, and some hormones. So how do we climb out of this self created hole? The body needs the proper building blocks i.e. amino acids and glucose to repair damaged muscles. The idea is to use HBCD's pre and inter-workout so that the body has a constant supply of energy so that you can get through intense training. You also need a protein source (BCAA's, whey hydrolysate, or a combination of the two) to fight off catabolism. A simple carbohydrate source that doesn't cause a blood sugar spike and insulin response would be best. So what gets there optimally? How about just high glycemic simple sugars you may ask? The issue with fast sugars is two fold: with a rapid rise in blood glucose comes a rapid insulin response that almost always leads to hypoglycemia. This would be a poor choice during a workout, but a great choice post workout. With simple sugars, you would probably see your energy nose dive before you finished your lift. Simple sugars also have a very high osmolality, which we will see is problematic. So just what the hell does this osmolality word mean!
Let's first define osmolality. Osmolality is the number of molecules of a given substance (solute) in a kilogram of liquid (solvent). To be high in osmolality, means it has many molecules in solution. Imagine a bucket of water with a 100,000 sugar (sucrose) grains in it. So after these molecules dissociate, you would have 100,000 glucose and 100,000 fructose molecules floating in solution. It makes sense that this solution has a high osmolality, due to having 200,000 molecules in solution. The following example should provide simple understanding: you could have 200,000 fructose and glucose molecules in solution vs 2000 one hundred long glucose chains. Of course these numbers don't represent the reality, they were just an off the cuff comparison. So how does the above jumbo jumbo affect you? The stomach has osmo-receptors that sense osmolality of the incoming solutions. The higher the osmolality, the slower the gastric emptying rate. So the high sugar solution is actually held up longer in the stomach while the HBCD's travel like a bowling ball through your stomach into the intestine to be absorbed. The beauty is, that these molecules are so interlinked and complex, it takes a long time to hydrolyze (break down) the glucose bonds, therefore resulting in a rapid but sustainable release of glucose into the bloodstream. This helps avoid insulin spikes and resultant blood sugar crashes.
Peri-workout nutrition ( nutrition taken in before, during, and after) a workout is becoming more prevalent. High glycemic carbohydrates are great post training. They in essence force feed the muscle glucose in a hurry, usually resulting in blood sugar dips. While this is great post workout, it would be terrible for workout performance. So a great way to maximize this anabolic window is to drink HBCD's before and during your workout, along with either BCAA's or whey hydrolysate to deliver nutrients to your muscles while you train, yet doesn't crash your blood sugar. Right now, you can buy HBCD's from
True Nutrition - The Highest Quality Supplements and Protein at the Lowest Prices or use Glycofuse from Gaspari Nutrition. They are both excellent products. There are other companies out there, but I can't speak for their products personally. HBCD's come in alpha, beta, and gamma chains. The beta chain is currently the preferred molecule in bodybuilding as it seems to favor rapid protein uptake according to the most recent research. Gaspari Nutrition and True Nutrition carry the beta chain and they are trusted sources so I highly recommend either. Powerhouse Gym Clinton Township carries Glycofuse so pick it up from your gym . Go buy some today and improve your recovery and make those hard earned gains you are seeking a reality!
As for dosing, this inter-workout drink could contain anywhere from from 10-50% of the daily carbohydrate intake totals. It would depend entirely on how lean the person is and how much lean muscle mass they have. I personally dilute 75 grams in 1/2 gallon of water. You get no bloating and it seems to fill out my muscle nicely and doesn't interfere with fat loss. By keeping the mixture high in water content, you make the mixture lower in osmolality, which is our goal. A good rule of thumb I have found through trial and error is if you don't dilute the solution enough, you get a rather unpleasant effect called "dumping syndrome". It is a real medical issue, but literally feels like your colon is trying to turn inside out. You will pass feces like a 12 gauge shotgun blast. At that point, you know you have a hyper-osmolality solution. Simple fix, add more water. The drawback for bigger bodybuilders, 240 lbs +, is that some can utilize up to 250 grams of HBCD's. This may take 3/4 of a gallon to keep the solution with lower osmolality. Drinking high amounts of water during a workout could either force you to pee a ton or rely on Depends panties! All kidding aside, most people will have to tinker with "their" mix so they can maximize the load they are able to consume.
Why is it important to keep the mix dilute enough? If it isn't diluted properly, you will find the solution has an osmolality higher than your serum(blood), which has a normal reference range of 278-300 mmol/kg of water at roughly a 15% solution. So for the HBCD's to be absorbed rapidly, the solution needs to be lower than serum. HBCD's are roughly 160,000 Daltons in weight versus dextrose at roughly 160 Daltons, which simply means they are 1000 times larger and more complex. Obviously, we need the solution to be lower in osmolality than serum. I believe roughly 100 grams HBCD's mixed with a half gallon of water would provide an osmolality of around 11. This would be a good dosing for a male middleweight bodybuilder. The larger the muscle mass, the higher the gram dosage of HBCD's therefore you need more water to dilute the solution enough to bring it below serum to allow for rapid gastric emptying.
Hopefully this article makes sense to most people so the terms Daltons, osmolality, and rapid gastric emptying are no longer a mystery. That way more athletes can take advantage of HBCD's in their quest for gains.
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