Erich1b, to be honest, I was just trying to suggest an alternative to cardio for fat burning and a definite alternative to low calorie dieting. The OP isn't far behind me age wise and I can definitely appreciate how difficult it is to drive a lorry for 12 hours and then try to muster up the energy for a cardio workout along with weight training.

I will try to explain my take on pre and post workout carbs though. First off, sorry mate, I'm afraid polysaccharides and oligosaccharides (which I've never heard of before) is a bit high brow for me. To me, simple carbs just means glucose, bananas, or any other form of sugar or sugary drinks and for complex or slow burning carbs I mean oats, beans, starchy or fibrous vegetables etc. The important bit is the time it takes for the carbs you consume to turn into ATP. They all do, it just takes some longer than others.

I also believe that if used for post workout purposes, these carbs should not contain fat as this will slow down the digestion of the carbs. That rules out donuts, biscuits and chocolate etc.

Also, I totally get your point about the difference between 15 and 17 minutes. I suppose the reason for saying 15 minutes is because of the need to set a cut off point rather than suggest a general 'as soon as possible' time frame. If 17 minutes is not much different to 15, then 19 is not much different to 17 and so on.

From my understanding, the reason for consuming fast acting carbs rather than slow digesting carbs immediately post workout is because ideally these carbs should digest before protein is consumed. These digested carbs will create an insulin spike which will then help to push the amino acids from the protein into the muscles a lot quicker. Layman's terms I know, but hopefully it makes sense. An added benefit and the main reason I do this is because I know these carbs are going to be used for tissue repair and not to add to my fat stores.

My recovery will eventually happen without these carbs, but I truly feel it has an adverse effect on my next workout if I don't recover quickly.

Having said that, I doubt that consuming slow digesting carbs and protein immediately post workout will be too detrimental and for those who either compete or are on a mission to get as big as possible I'm sure that eating plenty of complex/slow burning carbs is definitely the way to go.

From personal experience I find that the less carbs I eat the more fat I burn. The problem is the intensity of my workouts definitely suffers. So, eating fewer carbs means I have a situation where I might lose fat but grow progressively weaker.

As we all know having or retaining lean mass keeps your metabolism high. Fat burning through a carb deficit as opposed to calorie burning helps retain some, if not most of my lean mass, but the declining intensity of my workouts doesn't really help in the long run. Therefore, eating as many carbs as I can get away with pre and post workout helps maintain as much intensity as possible, which helps retain or with some Test gain lean mass, while burning fat.

I must point out that I'm really advocating this style of dieting for fat loss for those of us who, for whatever reason, find it hard to do the necessary amount of cardio. Right up until my early forties I was a cardio freak - before injuries and wear and tear slowed me right up and the insidious fat gain started and at that point I would never have believed I'd need to find another way of keeping fat gain at bay. I would suggest that all of us will be in this position sooner or later, no matter how hard it is to appreciate when you're young.

Biggin, I know exactly what you mean as well. It doesn't happen that much, but I'm never much more a donut away from a carb binge!