Diet Questions

Training
61

Hey Coach,

If I’m not focused on fat loss and only maintainence of my fat % while trying to build muscle, how much carbs would you be taking in daily? Would you do that for all 7 days or would it be varied?

If I’m doing your para-workout protocol of two of everything for 1-3 times per week, would I keep the same amount of carbs? You wrote on other posts that you would do no carbs for rest of the day, but that was if you wanted to cut some fat.

Since the para-workout protocol is only to be used 1-3 times per week, what are you taking for your other workouts? Thanks

Doug

62

Hi Coach,

Do you see any issues with obtaining all carbs outside of para workout from fruit (i.e. liver glycogen overfill from fructose).

I go mostly for apples and berries, I just find them more satisfying than plain oats or rice etc.

Many thanks

63

CT,

After being on my own hybrid of intermittent fasting and the Anabolic Diet, how do you suggest I bridge into appropriate paraworkout nutrition? Since February, the diet looks like this:

WEEKDAYS
4:00 A.M.- 2 HOT-ROX Extreme & water
(Daytime)- coffee, tea, & water
3:00 - 2 HOT-ROX Extreme
-TRAINING SESSION-
5:00 - Dinner #1: 6 eggs, 1 bell pepper, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 lb. perch
7:00 - Dinner #2: 1 lb. ground turkey, 1 bag frozen broccoli & cauliflower, 1/2 avocado
9:00 - Before Bed: (Leg training days only) 1/2 cup raw almonds
*Very little variation.

WEEKEND
(Daytime)- coffee, tea, grapefruit juice, & water
Dinner- oats, quinoa, high-fiber tortillas, apples, blueberries, spinach, raisins, dates, almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanut butter, etc. until I feel very thirsty.

I have peeled down to a legitimate 7-9% bodyfat. At the beginning, the diet went fine. The problem is, my strength has stalled, I cannot grow, & I am starting to feel lethargic during the day. I was very excited to see the I, BODYBUILDER segment, & would like to follow the proper paraworkout protocol so I can start making progress again. I just don’t want to look like a tub of goo when I get off this diet.

64

Hey coach, you’ve mentioned that oatmeal is a very common allergen. Would cream of wheat be a better replacement?

65

[quote]Needmassquick wrote:
Hey coach, you’ve mentioned that oatmeal is a very common allergen. Would cream of wheat be a better replacement?[/quote]

Oatmeal isn’t bad if you are not allergic/intolerant to it. So the first thing to do is find out if you handle oatmeal well. Do you bloat or get gassy when you eat it?

66

[quote]Pickles wrote:
Hi Coach,

Do you see any issues with obtaining all carbs outside of para workout from fruit (i.e. liver glycogen overfill from fructose).

I go mostly for apples and berries, I just find them more satisfying than plain oats or rice etc.

Many thanks[/quote]

Most of my carbs come from fruit. Don’t forget that not all fruits contain a lot of fructose. Most of them are less than 50% fructose.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/fruits_table.html

67

[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Sorry I posted this in the Fat Loss section by accident but it’s more about diet in general so I’m putting it here

Coach, after being on keto for awhile I’ve recently added carbs to my diet. 75g on cardio only days and 100g on workout days (this is total). All added carbs (~40 on off days and ~65 on workout days) are placed peri-exercise.

After 2 weeks at this level I haven’t gained any fat (if anything I’ve lost a little) and am up maybe .5-.75lb (obviously nothing signifcant and likely water/glycogen). My plan is to keep adding calories slowly until I hit a point where there is some fat gain and stop adding calories at that point if that seems like a good plan.

I’m only at 1750-1850 calories right now (195 g protein (~1.2g/lb), 75-100g carbs, 72g fat).

  1. How much would be a good amount to add this week? 2-300?

  2. What should be added? At a first glance I see protein could probably be brought up to 225 so thats about half of the added calories, what would you raise in terms of energy nutrients?

  3. If carbs are added would they only be placed around workouts and if so does that mean adding no energy nutrients on off days? As of now it’s been 30g pre, 35g post.

I’m about 13% body fat and gain fat easily.

Thanks a lot, I know thats a bunch to throw out a once so I appreciate any answers you can provide [/quote]

  1. Go up in steps of 50g per day. So bump carbs intake to 125g on cardio days and 150g on weight days. Next week, bump it up by another 50 if you have not yet added fat.

  2. I don’t like to uniformly jack up protein. Yes, at first, this will give you some gains. But in the moderate term it will simply get your body used to that amount and anabolism will go down. What I’d do is increase protein intake by 100g for the week but instead of adding 15g or so per day, keep 6 days the same at 195g and have one very high protein day at 300g.

Heck it would be even better to LOWER protein intake on one day to 100g and have 400g the next day.

Something like:

Monday: 195g
Tuesday: 195g
Wednesday: 100g
Thursday: 400g
Friday: 195g
Saturday: 195g
Sunday: 195g

Your most important workout would be place on Wednesday as the contrast between super low and super high protein intake will create an anabolic surge.

  1. First don’t take carbs post-workout (read my para-workout threads)… put all 65g BEFORE the workout. Since you are adding 50g of carbs on your workout days, have them pre-workout too. 50g of LOW GLYCEMIC carbs 60 minutes before and 65g of HIGH GLYCEMIC carbs plus protein 10-15 minutes prior to the workout.

On the other days add the 50g of carbs at breakfast.

68

CT, I know your a fan of Vince Gironda. What do you think of his theory on not eating carbs with protein because they don’t digest in the same medium and the carbs turn to fat? Was he only referring to starchy carbs? He also said that protein in excess will be stored as body fat.
Thanks

69

[quote]Rocky101 wrote:
CT, I know your a fan of Vince Gironda. What do you think of his theory on not eating carbs with protein because they don’t digest in the same medium and the carbs turn to fat? Was he only referring to starchy carbs? He also said that protein in excess will be stored as body fat.
Thanks [/quote]

I’m not a ‘fan’ of Gironda. I love the history of the iron game and my passion is training itself. As such I love researching old school experts and their methods.

I like some of Vince’s stuff but not all of it. He was brilliant in that he was able to intuitively come up with concepts that were scientifically developed years after. But since they functioned by intuition, he was often incorrect. And this food separation thing is one of those times.

70

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Pickles wrote:
Hi Coach,

Do you see any issues with obtaining all carbs outside of para workout from fruit (i.e. liver glycogen overfill from fructose).

I go mostly for apples and berries, I just find them more satisfying than plain oats or rice etc.

Many thanks

Most of my carbs come from fruit. Don’t forget that not all fruits contain a lot of fructose. Most of them are less than 50% fructose.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/fruits_table.html [/quote]

Are you looking only at fructose or Total metabolic fructose?
And up to what number you prefer your fruit to be?

71

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Pickles wrote:
Hi Coach,

Do you see any issues with obtaining all carbs outside of para workout from fruit (i.e. liver glycogen overfill from fructose).

I go mostly for apples and berries, I just find them more satisfying than plain oats or rice etc.

Many thanks

Most of my carbs come from fruit. Don’t forget that not all fruits contain a lot of fructose. Most of them are less than 50% fructose.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/fruits_table.html [/quote]

Great, thanks for that link CT. Do you have any preferred fruits or ones you avoid with this in mind? or do you just eat any and not worry about it?

Thanks again.

72

CT,

on a carb cycling diet, is there a need for medium days? if following a mon/Wed/Fri weight training type of routine, would just having high carb days on training day and low carb on non-training days be sufficient. Adjusting the macronutrients depednig on overall goals?

73

Thyroid Questions

On a recent T-Nation article the author talks about low carb diets and T3 function.

I understand the concept but if I remember correctly you once went a year on very low to carbs. Was there any problems?

What is the validity to the T3 function and low carbs because I don’t handle carbs so well and respond better to the fruit or carb in the AM and at training time but no other time and do really well with a ketogenic like diet.

Should I be concerned in the long run to the T3 function??

thanks for the input.

74

[quote]brmnstl wrote:
Thyroid Questions

On a recent T-Nation article the author talks about low carb diets and T3 function.

I understand the concept but if I remember correctly you once went a year on very low to carbs. Was there any problems?

What is the validity to the T3 function and low carbs because I don’t handle carbs so well and respond better to the fruit or carb in the AM and at training time but no other time and do really well with a ketogenic like diet.

Should I be concerned in the long run to the T3 function??

thanks for the input.[/quote]

There is no such thing as “T3 function”…

See your body has two main thyroid hormones, T4 and T3 (and T2 to a smaller degree). T3 is the most active of these hormones, having an important role on metabolism and even protein synthesis.

However the body actually produce very little T3 directly. Rather it produces a lot of the less active T4. When it needs T3 it converts T4 into it.

The conversion of T4 into T3 is influenced by your carb intake meaning that if you are too low in carbs, the conversion is less efficient.

The best way to know when this happens is you body temperature. When it goes down by more than 1 degree it indicates that your T3 levels are probably running low. You will normally feel cold at that time.

Did I suffer these problems when I was on low carbs for more than a year? Yes, I was cold at some point, but I was very strict… meaning NO carbs… not even veggies. When I increased my carbs intake to 50g (mostly from fruits) the problem did went away.

With my dieting clients I have them take their body temp every morning and if it goes down by more than 1 degree and stays there for 3 days, I increase their carbs intake slightly until their body temp is back to normal.

75

[quote]Pickles wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Pickles wrote:
Hi Coach,

Do you see any issues with obtaining all carbs outside of para workout from fruit (i.e. liver glycogen overfill from fructose).

I go mostly for apples and berries, I just find them more satisfying than plain oats or rice etc.

Many thanks

Most of my carbs come from fruit. Don’t forget that not all fruits contain a lot of fructose. Most of them are less than 50% fructose.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/fruits_table.html

Great, thanks for that link CT. Do you have any preferred fruits or ones you avoid with this in mind? or do you just eat any and not worry about it?

Thanks again.[/quote]

When I’m not dieting down I don’t really worry about it. When I’m trying to lose fat I avoid high fructose fruits EXCEPT for morning (to refill liver glycogen at the start of the day)

76

Thanks for the reply and I do understand the T3 to T4 conversion and that makes sense with being cold and I have tried the basal temperature test in the AM.

One question with the temp. test most say not to move or even wake up with an alarm clock because even that small amount will throw the test off.
Is that true or am I doing a little paralysis by analysis with this one and it really doesn’t matter as long as you are laying down still and do it upon waking.

Also do you reccomend the 5 day test like Duchaine and others reccomend.
A slight increase in carbs would be to typically start at 50 grams in the AM a day?? then retest for a couple of days?

thanks for being so helpful

77

hey Thib,

what do you know about getting rid/curing allergies?

I heard NAET has worked for a lot of people? Is there anything you know of?

Also i’m planning on doing a detox for about 2 wks. Any recommendations for a certain type and how does exercising and lifting work while i am doing the detox? I figure i won’t have tons of energy and i won’t be consuming much so i’ll use it as a short period to cut some body fat but not sure about intensity and frequency and length of workouts when doing a detox?

78

Why do most people (most that I know, anyway) get bloated from carbs?

79

Coach,

I quit drinking soda and have been drinking carbonated water as a substitute. Recently i have read that some believe carbonation is bad for the body. Is carbonation in any way detrimental to the muscle building process in your opinion?

Thanks

-Big-B

80

[quote]Loui.s wrote:
Why do most people (most that I know, anyway) get bloated from carbs?[/quote]

Could be…

  1. Food intolerance (e.g. to gluten)
  2. Carbs attract water