04/01/08 Training:
None
Notes:
Had 6th injection today. Everything went well. I am 2 weeks and 1 day in and haven’t really noticed anything as of yet. I will get you guys a body weight read tomorrow.
Diet:
High fat day
This is something I found by Justin Harris where he talks about the idea behind carb rotation. I found this to be interesting.
"In the offseason, I have 2-4 high carb days, where the carbs are VERY high, fat is low, and protein is moderate.
The goal is to have elevated insulin levels all day.
Insulin is powerfully anti-catabolic. This allows a MUCH higher percentage of the protein you eat to be available for the synthesis of new protein.
So, even though you may eat LESS protein, there is a higher percentage available for synthesis of new muscle tissue.
Insulin is also effective at lowering SHBG steroid hormone binging globulin. SHBG binds to sex hormones (testosterone), and inhibits their function.
It is not the amount of testosterone in your system, but the amount of FREE testosterone, and insulin increases the potential for free testosterone in the body.
Insulin is also a storage hormone, so the other macronutrients you eat are more likely to be ‘stored.’
We keep fat intake minimal, in an attempt to minimze fat storage.
And, with protein not being used for creation of new glucose, and more free testosterone available in the body, we increase the likelyhood that the protein we eat will be converted to new muscle tissue.
Now, insulin stores nutrients, and activates glycogen synthetase to store more glycogen…but once glycogen stores are loaded up, the insulin will be looking to convert excess blood sugar to triglycerides and store them as fat…which is why we lower carbs on the non high days, to create a mildly glycogen depleted body…to allow the insulin and high carb intake to supersaturate glycogen stores.
On the low days, we increase protein intake, and also raise essential fatty acid intake.
This creates a caloric total that isn’t necessarily much below our basal metabolic rate.
Carb intake is kept lower, but not LOW. There is still enough carbs to facilitate proper training, as well as recovery from training. But, low enough to create some glycogen depletion, to allow us to properly load glycogen on the hgih days.
With high essential and ‘healthy’ fatty acids, we increase the potential for sex hormone production.
Good fats, and higher fat levels promote higher testosterone levels (which we then increase ‘free’ testosterone on the high carb days)
Essential fatty acids also help fill the muscle’s essential fatty acid stores, and create intramuscular fat stores, which can be used for energy later, and also create a more favorable leverage environment for strength.
And of course, the protein is high to make sure we have available protein for synthesis of new muscle tissue. Since carbs are lower, and insulin levels will be lower, we will be more likely to use some of our dietary protein for creation of glucose to be used as energy. So, protein will be higher on this day than on the high carb days."