[quote]greekmofo wrote:
Well, I just finished my second carb-up weekend and I figured I’d check back in with some progress. I haven’t felt this awesome all the time in a while, and my strength is going up pretty solidly. My only concern is I’m putting on a bit too much fat than I want.
I’m trying for pure lean gains, so I think I need to fudge with my total caloric intake a bit. I basically doubled (12000 to 24000kcal) my weekly calories coming into this diet. I think I’m going to pull in the reigns on my P/F days calorie-wise from about 3250 to 2750 and see how my body responds.
Oh, and I’ve been experiencing a strange phenomenon during my CHO loads. I tend to “smooth out” about 20 minutes after meals during the latter half of my load, but then I lean up again about an hour later. This is making it really hard to gauge when I should cease CHO loading. Anyone else have similar experience?[/quote]
Hey Greekmofo, your smart to pull in the reigns and drop down to 2750. See how you do there then adjust accordingly. If you dn’t have decent gains at 2750cals, then bump your calories up 200 a day every two weeks until you start seeing decent gains, you’ll find your sweet spot. Thats the point where your gains will be lean.
I have to admit I went into this diet and had my calories too high and I ended up putting on more fat than I wanted to:( Don’t make the same mistake. Also some cardio will help keep those gains lean, at least it does for me. I’m not a hard gainer by any stretch of the imagination but I can gain fat easily.
The same thing happens to me with my carb loads. I try to shoot for 800 g on sat and 500 g on sun. This works perfect for me. Trying to see if I “smooth out” doesn’t. Sometimes my appetite sucks and if I have to, I’ll use a carb drink, and sometimes I could really go to town on some tasty pasta and take in a 1000g on sat but I exercise self control and keep it a 800g. If you look back a few pages there’s a really good link to some carb levels via body weight.
from what ive read, my understanding of the carb up is that you initially gain weight (which ive been doing, average a 9lb increase from friday night to sunday night) and then it is supposed to go down over the course of the week. however, after i go to the bathroom after my carb up stops, my weight will be closer to 2-3 lbs over my friday night weight. it seems to me that the carbs are being processed too fast. anyone else experience this?[/quote]
I have experienced this as well. I’ve only been on the diet for about a month, and on average over the weekend I add 4-6 pounds, but lose it throughout the course of the week (and sometimes lose more weight). I don’t know if this is normal and is part of the process, but if anyone can shed light on this, it would be much appreciated.
I haven’t started the AD yet, still preparing and soaking up as much knowledge about it before I start. I plan on beginning it next week
My question is, I will probably soon be starting a job(warehouse work) where I work 3 days a week, sat sun and mon for 12 hours each day. Now if I go ahead as planned- sat and sun will be my carb up days. But considering how many people experience a carb crash or lethargic feelings because of the high carbs, I’m wondering if I should change my carb up days to tues and wednesday or thurs and fri?
Do you guys suggest I change the carb up days? What do you recommend?
So first carb load is over. I felt obligated to junk out a bit, though i wasnt really craving it.
I definatly “smoothed out” or whatever, so i only did all day sat and 1/2 of sunday. looking like i gained alot of fat.
so what exactly is the phisiological process of spilling over? SubQ bloating akin to a sodium bloat? why? carbs arent stored subQ. and by the way i dont feel super glyco-pumped or anything and i definatly had over 800CHO on saturday alone.
im sure im just being over cautious because i am on this diet to be ripped to freeking shreds.
any feedback is appreciated.
and thanks for the advice, ill look into raw cream.
and by the way i had no idea nuts (walnut,almonds,cashews) had so many carbs, damn, i was definatly over 30 during the week.
[quote]Hagar wrote:
Hey Greekmofo, your smart to pull in the reigns and drop down to 2750. See how you do there then adjust accordingly. If you dn’t have decent gains at 2750cals, then bump your calories up 200 a day every two weeks until you start seeing decent gains, you’ll find your sweet spot. Thats the point where your gains will be lean.
I have to admit I went into this diet and had my calories too high and I ended up putting on more fat than I wanted to:( Don’t make the same mistake. Also some cardio will help keep those gains lean, at least it does for me. I’m not a hard gainer by any stretch of the imagination but I can gain fat easily.
The same thing happens to me with my carb loads. I try to shoot for 800 g on sat and 500 g on sun. This works perfect for me. Trying to see if I “smooth out” doesn’t. Sometimes my appetite sucks and if I have to, I’ll use a carb drink, and sometimes I could really go to town on some tasty pasta and take in a 1000g on sat but I exercise self control and keep it a 800g. If you look back a few pages there’s a really good link to some carb levels via body weight.
Good luck, Hagar
[/quote]
Thanks for the heads up on that carb level link. Turns out I’ve been about 350g short of the 900g I need for my CHO load. I’ll have to tweak that in the future sometime, after I see what dropping my cals during the P/F days does to me.
I have the same issues with gaining as you do, muscle and strength come easy, but fat will pile on even easier if I’m not conscious of my total calories. Personally, I have found running sprints 3-5 times a week helps me stay leaner than cardio sessions.
Thanks for the heads up on that carb level link. Turns out I’ve been about 350g short of the 900g I need for my CHO load. I’ll have to tweak that in the future sometime, after I see what dropping my cals during the P/F days does to me.
I have the same issues with gaining as you do, muscle and strength come easy, but fat will pile on even easier if I’m not conscious of my total calories. Personally, I have found running sprints 3-5 times a week helps me stay leaner than cardio sessions.[/quote]
Those sprints do help a lot but I can only do them once or twice a week. I’ve just added a session on friday night. Any more and I feel like I’m overtraining my legs and my squat and legpress #'s don’t go up, but I don’t have that problem if I do some light cardio and walk around more.
If I may ask, how do you schedule 3 to 5 sprint sessions around your leg workout?
the same thing happened to me this weekend. carbed up on mostly junk on Day 1 and was feeling good, but after a mostly clean load on Day 2 of oatmeal/blueberries and barley/beans became extremely bloated and painful…and the pipes that were working ok were suddenly backed up again the entire weekend despite the high fiber content on the load - could possibly be water intake related? i did not drink as much as i normally would on the load in an attempt to minimize water retention during the week. also maybe i ate too many carbs? too much sodium on the load?
i’m not sure…actually i’m sure i ate too much, but not sure about the cause of the bloat. it’s not like i have never eaten oatmeal before, but probably not in the quantities i’m taking in on the carb loads. don’t know how much you are used to eating, but possibly the high fiber load from the cereal + oatmeal caused the problem if you are not used to eating that much.
For some people, fiber plugs the pipes. Especially as fat acts as a stool softener. Once your body gets used to processing fatty foods, the introduction of a large amount of fiber will cause everything to clog up. So it’s not despite the fiber, but rather, BECAUSE of it.
Try alternation fibrous carb meals with junk carb meals, instead of a junk carb day and a fiber carb day. That should help with a more even spacing of fiber intake.
Also, fuzzm, any water retention will be intramuscular, so there is no reason to cut back your water intake.
Greekdawg’s milkshake is the bomb. Man, I feel like I’m cheating it tastes so good!
Here’s what I used:
Crushed ice
Splash of water
5 Tbsp. heavy cream
3 raw eggs
1 scoop chocolate Muscle Milk
2 scoops French vanilla ON 100% Whey Gold Standard
This shake was great. Next time I’m leaving out the water. I do have to think of a way to make it a little more low carb. This shake had at least 14g of carbs (6g from MM and 8g from the ON 100%).
I didn’t use vanilla extract because I decided mine has been on the spice rack for way too long and I need to throw it away.
Kudos to Greekdawg! May I ask, do you have any other variations that have worked well? This one is great.
[quote]TravisCS84 wrote:
Greekdawg’s milkshake is the bomb. Man, I feel like I’m cheating it tastes so good!
Here’s what I used:
Crushed ice
Splash of water
5 Tbsp. heavy cream
3 raw eggs
1 scoop chocolate Muscle Milk
2 scoops French vanilla ON 100% Whey Gold Standard
This shake was great. Next time I’m leaving out the water. I do have to think of a way to make it a little more low carb. This shake had at least 14g of carbs (6g from MM and 8g from the ON 100%).
I didn’t use vanilla extract because I decided mine has been on the spice rack for way too long and I need to throw it away.
Kudos to Greekdawg! May I ask, do you have any other variations that have worked well? This one is great. [/quote]
But you know you aren’t absorbing the nutrients from the raw egg white. You need to cook them to benefit from the egg white. Instead of the egg whites, why not some mascarpone cheese. Keep the raw egg yolk, that is absorbed well uncooked.
[quote]Hagar wrote:
Those sprints do help a lot but I can only do them once or twice a week. I’ve just added a session on friday night. Any more and I feel like I’m overtraining my legs and my squat and legpress #'s don’t go up, but I don’t have that problem if I do some light cardio and walk around more.
If I may ask, how do you schedule 3 to 5 sprint sessions around your leg workout? [/quote]
I’d be happy to oblige.
My lifting schedule goes like this:
Sun: Plyos (including sprints)
Mon: ME Bench, light squats(AR), sprints
Tues: ME deads, front squat, moderate olympic, DE squat
Wed: light squats(AR), sprints
Thurs: Heavy olympic, heavy box squat, DE bench, sprints
Friday: light squats(AR), sprints
Saturday: ME squat, light olympic, DE dead
So I’m actually working them into and around like… 4 leg days? Heh.
I think there are three keys to working in so much sprint work:
I had to eat a bit more, as that much interval work burns a huge amount of calories. Eating very cleanly also helps.
Keep the sprints short and intense with plenty of recovery time. I’ve found the optimal workload for me is 40 meters, 6 sets on lifting days and 8-10 sets on non-lifting days with 3 minutes rest between sets.
I had to stick it out initially and force myself to adjust to the workload. It took me 2 weeks to adjust; I felt like crap, sort of “overtrained.”
You’d have to experiment as see what (or if this) works for you. I respond very well to this much sprinting volume, but I doubt everyone does.
[quote]cesliwakan wrote:
and by the way i had no idea nuts (walnut,almonds,cashews) had so many carbs, damn, i was definatly over 30 during the week.
[/quote]
Well I know cashews have quite a bit of carbs, and I guess almonds have a bunch, but the nutritional content on the walnuts I buy at my grocery store says 4g carbs, 4g fiber which is basically no carbs (although I add 1g of carb when calculating my 30 day total because I figured it can’t possibly have no carbs).
So I usually stick to eating just walnuts and a few almonds here and there. Hope that helps!! Also, I figure if you want to lose some BF you have to watch the calories in walnuts, a 1/4th of a cup has almost 200! =(
My buddy and I are considering giving the AD a try, but we had a couple questions first. We’re both collegiate baseball players, and we have almost a full year until our season comes around.
Neither of us do any bodybuilding, but we do lift fairly seriously, and we were just wondering how long we could/should continue the diet? Is there a good way to phase off the AD, i.e. a moderate carb diet?
We are both looking to put on some muscle mass while reducing body fat, and from all the reading on this site and elsewhere, this seems like a good way (if not the best way) to achieve our current goals.
[quote]Inner Hulk wrote:
I’ve got another question.
I haven’t started the AD yet, still preparing and soaking up as much knowledge about it before I start. I plan on beginning it next week
My question is, I will probably soon be starting a job(warehouse work) where I work 3 days a week, sat sun and mon for 12 hours each day. Now if I go ahead as planned- sat and sun will be my carb up days. But considering how many people experience a carb crash or lethargic feelings because of the high carbs, I’m wondering if I should change my carb up days to tues and wednesday or thurs and fri?
Do you guys suggest I change the carb up days? What do you recommend?[/quote]
There’s nothing magical about Saturday and Sunday, except that those are the days most people have off work and that is when they will most likely go out, visit with friends, etc, so it makes sense to be able to eat whatever you want on those days.
If you work weekends, and have other days in the week off, then maybe you should carb up on those. It makes more sense to carb up on days off than on days you’ll be working.
My lifting schedule goes like this:
Sun: Plyos (including sprints)
Mon: ME Bench, light squats(AR), sprints
Tues: ME deads, front squat, moderate olympic, DE squat
Wed: light squats(AR), sprints
Thurs: Heavy olympic, heavy box squat, DE bench, sprints
Friday: light squats(AR), sprints
Saturday: ME squat, light olympic, DE dead
So I’m actually working them into and around like… 4 leg days? Heh.
I think there are three keys to working in so much sprint work:
I had to eat a bit more, as that much interval work burns a huge amount of calories. Eating very cleanly also helps.
Keep the sprints short and intense with plenty of recovery time. I’ve found the optimal workload for me is 40 meters, 6 sets on lifting days and 8-10 sets on non-lifting days with 3 minutes rest between sets.
I had to stick it out initially and force myself to adjust to the workload. It took me 2 weeks to adjust; I felt like crap, sort of “overtrained.”
You’d have to experiment as see what (or if this) works for you. I respond very well to this much sprinting volume, but I doubt everyone does.
[/quote]
Thanks for the info. Interesting. I can see how you felt overtrained at first but I’ve gone threw the same thing when cutting and you do adapt. Do all those sprint sessions hurt your squat numbers at all? It just seems like my legs just don’t get any stronger if I do anymore than 2 cardio sessions a week especially if my heart rate gets around 75%. Maybe I’ll try adding some more sprints and see how I do.
[quote]Miserere wrote:
There’s nothing magical about Saturday and Sunday, except that those are the days most people have off work and that is when they will most likely go out, visit with friends, etc, so it makes sense to be able to eat whatever you want on those days.
If you work weekends, and have other days in the week off, then maybe you should carb up on those. It makes more sense to carb up on days off than on days you’ll be working.
That’s my $0.02.[/quote]
Right. I just was wondering how badly carb up’s affect your guys energy levels. I can only go off from what you guys have experienced with it. I suppose I’ll change my carb up days to tues and wednesday and just see how my energy levels are effected.
Just a question: I’ve been on the induction phase for 3 days now. However, in the 2 weeks leading up to that I had already tapered carbs drastically going down to 80-100 grams per day. But now at something under 30grams, with fat being 55-60 % per day and the rest protein (using fitday), I have in fact become more defined throughout. Love it!
Energy is okay, even great at times, but I’ve been having headaches the past 3 days in the late afternoon that go on until late evening. I wind up taking an aspirin. Is this just part of the downside of the induction period?
Thanks, John Oh, yes. I’m 5’9", 170lbs. I’ve been eating mostly beef, chicken, turkey burger, whey, olive oil, broccoli, green leaf lettuce, eggs and a little bacon. My other carbs are half a cup of blueberries and 1/3 banana I stick in my protein shake. Again, thanks!
[quote]Hagar wrote:
Thanks for the info. Interesting. I can see how you felt overtrained at first but I’ve gone threw the same thing when cutting and you do adapt. Do all those sprint sessions hurt your squat numbers at all? It just seems like my legs just don’t get any stronger if I do anymore than 2 cardio sessions a week especially if my heart rate gets around 75%. Maybe I’ll try adding some more sprints and see how I do.
[/quote]
I was about a month into a hard cut and my progress sucked, I lost maybe 5 pounds down to like 165lbs, and most of my lifts regressed. My squat squat came down from 315 to 275ish. When I added in all that sprint work, my numbers skyrocketed and my fat disappeared. I didn’t even add much extra calories, just an extra scoop of protein in between my lifting and sprints.
In the two months after I added in the sprint work, I took off an additional 20 lbs (mostly fat, my thigh measurements even increased), my squat went up to 350, my deadlift went up from 435 to 465, and my power jerk went up from 215 to 245. I was the leanest and strongest I’d ever been.
And this was before I was on the AD; I was on a big caloric deficit eating 70/15/5 protein/fat/carb. I feel even better sprinting on the AD; my recovery is ridiculously fast. As long as I keep the sprints to 40m and the rest to 3min I feel like I’m hardly putting a dent in my glycogen stores as well. I’m pretty sure triglycerides are used during rest periods to replenish most of the expended ATP used while sprinting. Burns fat like a mofo, especially on this diet.
Does anyone else experience this: the second day after a carb up I appear to be my fullest, rather than, say, the first day after it ends. I lift on m-w-f and do light intensity cardio on tuesday thursday, so by the second day i’ve had one weight workout and one light cardio.
Not complaining, just something I noticed =) Anyone else?