Do people track fiber or non-fiber carbs (i.e "net carbs") only or both? Is there a recommended ratio? I once read on bodybuilding that the ideal total carb: fiber carb should be 5:1. Any other thoughts?

Wow, lots of great advice from the group. Made me think even more about my diet and adding more carbs now for a few weeks and check max weights, muscle fullness, scale and how I feel. Yep, diet is everything. Thanks.

what are great carbs for leaning out

Use this - https://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ and MyFitnessPal (or whatever calorie/macro tracking app you prefer) and the advice below and you shouldn't go wrong

It certainly helped me look at calories and food in a much more enlightened way

carbs are EXTREMELY important for gains

Carbs are very important. I pretty much base my weight gain/loss with the amount of carbs I eat. My protein is usually fixed based on body weight and my fat intake doesn't change much, so manipulating carbs is what drives my weight change whether it be a gain or loss in weight.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/weight-gain/carbs-n...

When gaining, my carb intake almost triples my protein.

Essential, so yes you do need to. Carbs are fuel. Carbs fuel muscles during high intensity work (weight lifting for example)
Fats are the preferred fuel for the body the rest of the time and for endurance (breathing, walking jogging swimming living)

The trick is to fuel the body with what it needs, when it needs it. So logically, you would fuel with carbs before, during and after a workout, but only to the point your body can utilise those carbs, which is nearly impossible to measure and results in a loss of sensitivity to insulin over time (this is where cyclical bulking developed from, this and the rebound effect that is)

Proteins supply amino acids which does the magic for every cell and function in your body including muscle fiber growth (but not as a fuel like carbs/fats). You need a supply of this stuff every 3 hours so this should form your base, then add fuel

Some carbs should NOT be considered carbs by 95% of the population - cruciferous veg for example, so eat greens at will.

With a basic understand of what does what, you can then calculate how much is used at different times, and how to actually time the delivery. You can also work out how much volume of each will be needed to achieve the # of cals you need.

Re: cals - its pretty much a load of bollox (all of the info out there. It is impossible to accurately calculate TDEE (it changes constantly!) and a cal of fat is not utilised by the body the same way as a cal of carbs, so therfore cal counting is 100% inaccurate at a minimum. BUT, what it will do is give you an approximation of wwhat you need, so research TDEE, figure the extra # of cals you need (approx) start there and go into your fat/carbs/proteins macros to design a meal plan
Its easier than it sounds and info is changing all the time... latest research showing we dont need the amount of carbs we think and same for proteins. However if you start with the above as a guide, it will give you a base to start from

Layne Norton knows better than I.

Carbohydrates act to maintain muscle mass while dieting by maintaining cellular osmotic pressure and cell volume. Cell size is an indicator of the “state” that the body is in. When cells are of large volume, it signals that the body is in a fed state. When cell volume is low it signals that the body is in a starved state. Without delving too far into the science behind this, trust me when I say that you would like your body to think it is in a fed state as this will increase the levels of fat burning hormones and anabolic hormones. Cell size also indicates the anabolic state of the cell. When cell volume is high, protein synthesis rates increase. If cell volume drops, then protein synthesis levels drop. It is easy to infer we would like to maintain cell volume, especially when dieting.

...

The body stores carbohydrates inside cells as glycogen. For every gram of glycogen stored, the body stores around 2.7 g of water. Therefore, cells that have greater glycogen levels will also have more volume. One can see then how low carbohydrate diets severely decrease cell size due to severe glycogen depletion. Concluding, carbohydrates help maintain muscle by increasing cell volume. One more issue to consider is performance. If you refer to the goals of a pre-contest diet, you will see that number three maintains that you must keep a high level of intensity in the gym. This is important for several reasons. If performance begins to suffer, then a person will undoubtedly lose strength. This could lead to a subsequent loss of muscle mass due to decreased stimulation from a decreased training overload. Therefore, it is important that performance be kept at an optimal level. Low glycogen levels have been associated with increased fatigue and decreased performance in athletes (endurance, strength, power output, etc).

But Makwa probably knows better than Layne Norton.

In my experience, yes, carbs are equally as important as proteins and fats. Probably the most finicky to find the sweet spot for intake volume and timing between the three. I also know that not eating carbs sucked.