So today will be a moderate carb day like no sentoguy’s plan and will cut-off carbs after my workout around 2 or 2.30.
[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
Good luck with the conference.
The reason you probably looked better this morning is because the carbs have replenished your glycogen stores in your muscle causing you to look fuller but w/out fat gain. That is the reason bodybuilders carb load on a low fat/no water physique. you will wake up and continue to eat carbs and watch your body fill out throughout the day. lol
The Carb Cycle I believe was designed to give enough carbs to keep glycogen levels in the muscle high enough to prevent the burning of muscle but low enough to prevent fat gain and to burn fat as well.
Gerdy[/quote]
Yeah, I think that’s probably right. I am still hoping that since I’m at the lowest body fat I’ve ever been that I can handle carbs better finally.
Here’s the macros for today. I am rushing around to get ready so I just show what fitday says:
cals 2222
fat 37 (12 g fish oil)
carbs 221
protein 252
Also went on an hour jog/walk before breakfast and did a workout of:
10x5 of
a1)Bench 220
a2)rows 220
I finished it so my strength seems to be ok to me. Def get better workouts with the carbs in. And I can think better too, which is important for my last quarter at Uni!
I will get back to some hardcore diet and recording action when I get back guys. I will also try to keep these days clean. I am bringing things like veggies, protein powder, and small qtys of mixed nuts. Wish me luck!! I will be back thursday night. Have a good one guys.
hows it going, those numbers in food are GREAT!
I mean it. I am 190 and 12% and when i am looking to drop a few pounds, i have a very similar ratio and calorie allowance… so you must have it falling off…
I am concerned that you may have dropped the calories too much? I know you know what you are doing though…!
Joe
Okay! So the conference didnt go as well diet wise as I had hoped. But that’s okay, I just need to get everything going again. Starting out right this morning with:
-whey
-.25 cup applesauce
-.25 cup cottage cheese
-apple
-4 oz yam
I’ve got a good workout later. I am still exhausted from the conference, but I think I can push through and nap later maybe. Economics wise, we kicked ass so that’s good and I am glad that I went. Got to meet and impress the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and all that jazz, so it was cool.
First, sorry it’s taken so long for me to get back to this thread.
[quote]doctasarge wrote:
Hey Sentoguy thanks for all the info! Great stuff. I like your ideas on the carb cycling. Hope you dont mind if I ask a couple more questions…
-Do you have suggestions for macro percentages for the high, mod, low carb days?
[/quote]
I’m actually not all that big on macro percentages, as everyone is a little different. But, I’ll give you a couple guidelines.
-
on your low carb days make sure not to go below 50g of carbs (any less and you will go into ketosis, not good), then just fill the rest of your calorie needs out with proteins and healthy fats (omega 3’s especially as they will increase insulin sensitivity). Generally the protein will be quite high on these days (somewhere around 2x bw) as well.
-
on your moderate carb days try to keep the majority of carbs around your workout and early in the day. That’s when your body is most efficient at storing and utilizing carbs, so there’s very little chance that they will get stored as fat. You would probably be okay eating somewhere around a 33/33/33 diet on these days, but once again, this will vary from individual to individual.
-
on your high carb days keep fats to a minimum. On these days drop protein to about 1X bw and eat the rest of your caloric needs in the form of carbs. This can mean quite a high amount of carbs (also remember that these days are hyper-caloric), but don’t worry as your body should be pretty much craving carbs by this point, so what you do eat will be stored as glycogen in the muscles. As well as shuttling other nutrients to your muscles (sodium is also something that you want high on these days), which should also help to fuel your muscles, as well as giving you better leverages (a fuller muscle is a more advantageously leveraged muscle).
From here you may have to tweak some here or there. Like I said these are just basic guidelines.
Once again, somewhat of an individual preference/matter. But remember that what builds muscle best, will also help keep it on best. If what you have been doing so far has been working, stick with it. If not and Gerdy’s routine sounds interesting to you, give it a shot.
Yeah, pretty much what I said above. Don’t get trapped into always second guessing your routine because you think there might be something better out there. If the program is working, then stick with it. If not, then change it.
The whole TBT/split thing gets a lot of attention. But, honestly unless you are a beginner, then if you goal is BB’ing I personally think you should be on some sort of split. Now whether that’s a full blown body part split, or something simpler like an Upper/Lower, or Push/Pull split will somewhat depend on your experience and your preferences.
Well, you’ve been on a mostly ketogenic diet right? So, in that case I’d say that the majority of what you lost wasn’t contractile protein (the actual “functioning” parts of the muscles), but instead water and glycogen. Now, the truth though is that this may mean that you have lost some “muscle” as muscle is arguably around 70% water/glycogen.
The good thing is though that this can be regained fairly easily (much more easily than contractile protein mass) through the use of intelligent nutrition.
I’d suggest using the mirror as your primary “scale”. Scale weight doesn’t tell you the whole story. Are you looking leaner while not starting to lose significant muscle size (from a visual standpoint)? If so, then you’re most likely okay. If you aren’t looking leaner, then you need to lower your calories (or up your cardio/activity). If you are looking leaner, but also noticing significant muscle size loss then you might be eating too little.
On the other hand, you don’t want to go too low (especially on a regular basis) as this will cause your metabolism to slow down (one reason for the hyper-caloric “high” days), which will sabotage your progress. So, if you feel cold on a regular basis (even if it’s not particularly “cold” around you), you may need to kick start your metabolism to continue losing. But, I wouldn’t worry too too much about this unless it actually happens (at which point your progress will more of less stall).
[quote]
I hope you dont mind these additional questions. There’s no rush for an answer since I won’t change my diet til at least monday anyway. I thank you in advance.[/quote]
No problem.
Hey Sentoguy. Some great stuff there. I will definitely use the info. Thanks again man.
Hmm, my fitday doesnt seem to be working but heres what I remember my macros being (they are low since I still have some stores from my cough conference cough, which had amazing buffets and I was not able to cope. I will have to get back on track though quick.)
Cals: 2000
Carbs: 210
Fat: 40 (17 g fish oil)
Protein: 210
The carbs I have been using have been some fruit (1 or 2 in morning, and 1 after workout), yams, tomatoes and carrots. I got some pumpkin too today. Sounds delicious. you guys have any suggestions on others or does this sound good?
I will start carb cycling with the guidelines sentoguy suggested tomorrow.
Have a good one guys.
oh, and Joe. I wanted to ask you about supplements in England (my work-permit is in the mail by the way, which is pretty exciting). Should I stock up on Flameout and creatine and bring it with me? Any pointers? thanks man
Definitely bring Flameout. And a few bottles for me, too, while you’re at it.
Creatine should be ok.
Oh… i’ll give you some links.
Maximuscle - expensive but a very high quality brand:
maximuscle.com/Content.asp?PageID=1&TC=tradedoubler&mc=TD
Myprotein - i use these regular, they provide Bulk powder protein,HMB,flax, methoxy - everything you could want from 100g to 10kg. REALLY Cheap. Fantastic:
(you can get 10lbs of whey for a little over £30 - thats $60. BTW, $ for £ - it feels the same once you are used to it.
This one is a good all around supplier. Very good value:
And as for Biotest you can either buy their products straight from them (Probably cheaper due to the strength of the good old sterling, but shipping may tip the scales. OR you can get their supps from one of the british supplement merchants they supply. Be care ful though some like to take the cost in$ and just change it straight to £-thus being twice the cost… some are reasonable though.
Anything else, just ask.
My wife and have decided i should come back there now! See you as we pass… 
Joe
Cool guys, thanks for the info. Sounds like the availability and prices are a lot better than I had feared. I will just have to find a good gym when I get there. You talking about the unflavored “impact whey”? Sounds like some good stuff.
Here’s my day so far:
Wake up- 4 g BCAA/G
4 mile walk/jog
Breakfast:
-Scoop of whey
-cup nonfat cot cheese
-2 cups pumpkin
-splenda
-apple
I’ll go do some HIIT after I do some Uni work. Then, I will go donate plasma later. Swweeet.
i want to change my training next week. Anyone have any suggestions? i know that’s broad, but i’d be interested to hear some thoughts.
I know you guys have said it is mostly personal preference for training, so i agree with that too. I was looking at edt for fat loss like was suggested. may do that or maybe a bit more bodybuilding type split. i’d love to give dc a try, but want to wait till i’m trying to build muscle more than lose fat.
Oh man, this canned pumpkin, cottage cheese, splenda, and cinammon is sooooo damned good. I could eat it allll day long. And pumpkin has such an amazing nutritional profile. Fills you up great!
If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to make my fitday journal public and record what I eat there and report my macros and calories here as well. Just so I dont have to record it twice. Unless you guys find it useful.
Here’s for today:
cals 2056
fat: 40
Carbs:168
Protein: 253
Lots of pumpkin and made some new bread. Delicious!!
Did HIIT for 400 cals and really pushed it. That with my 4 mile+ walk/jog should be pretty good. I do feel pretty bloated tho today. I dont like it. Feels like I am not losing. But I will see how it goes.
here’s the fitday limk:
http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=doctasarge
[quote]doctasarge wrote:
Oh man, this canned pumpkin, cottage cheese, splenda, and cinammon is sooooo damned good. I could eat it allll day long. And pumpkin has such an amazing nutritional profile. Fills you up great![/quote]
Lol!
Sarge, i think if you put this in training logs, then you may get a whole lot more interest.
Ask the moderators?
Joe