Don Alessi doesnt seem to be a great fan of carbs. According to him it doesnt seem to be of great importance even to athletic performance. Then why does he recommend “carb up” days? He even admitted that he felt aweful in the first few weeks waiting for his system to change gears. After which he said he felt great. If carbs are of little value, why put your system through that again?
If i may speak for Don here, I’ll try and elaborate.
As pretty much everyone knows, I am a fan of keto style dieting (strict and modified). Carb ups serve to upregulate leptin and T-3, in addition to refilling muscle stores. Other posters on this forum have told about the “shitty” feel they get when going into ketosis. however, its my contention that after repeated bouts of keto, this isn’t as bad, not anymore so than regular carb dieting and the periodic shitty feeling we all get once in a while. Also, the energy/mental shitfullness (if you will) depends on a myriad of factors including body fat percentage, degree of caloric defecit, and particular type of fat or carb taken in (i.e., MCT fat, Low GI-high fiber). I am actually finishing up a a guide that incorporates modifications for strict keto cut (under 30g/day), modified semi-keto maintain (e.g., carb rotation with overall kcal rotation) and keto lean gain. One theoretical point: insulin is primarily anti-catabolic and not anabolic (lets say its mostly anabolic to the fat cells)…well, we know that ketones can stimulate muscle anabolism, however, in the absence of insulin, excess ketones may used for muscle anabolism or may be excreted (small amount)…these are just theoretical notions, but the more i follow my own rigid plan, the more i am convinced (esp if you ate like hell when younger --spec. cereals and bagels and whatever).
I’m out
Vain
PS: note: fat is a more efficient fuel source than carbs at 9kcal per gram…thus, as I have experienced and others (it seems incl don), after in keto, and getting 9g of energy per gram of fat as opposed to 4.1g for CHO, you may notice IMPROVED workouts and overall feeling.
Just thoughts
I know its not everone’s game
Peace out