Draft of Problem Statement

The problem I have come up with for my paper is: many people underestimate or are not aware of the importance of carbohydrates for muscle growth when doing resistance exercise. Usually people think that proteins are the most important thing to consume a large amount of when exercising, but carbohydrates are just as important.

Here is a visual of muscle protein synthesis. Note: hypertrophy is another word for muscle growth.
Link to this webpage: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/figure-1-protein-turnover-b-copy.jpg

Carbohydrates fuel muscles for resistance exercise, decrease muscle protein breakdown during exercise, and benefit muscle recovery when ingested with proteins or amino acids. As I mentioned in my last post, glycogen stores in muscles are the stores of carbohydrates in muscle tissue which provide the energy for people to put the most effort into their workout. Since carbohydrates are our most quickly and often metabolized source of energy, it is best to have plenty stored in muscles because, if there isn't enough, your body will start to burn proteins for energy (muscle protein breakdown). Carbohydrates also help fuel processes to carry amino acids to muscle tissue for the rebuilding and recovery of torn muscles.

Note: See my previous blog post for definitions of bolded terms.