Late to the carb-cycling/minimizing conversation. I can briefly summarize what helped me.
I used to a bit fluffier as a younger man but at 50, I am pretty lean these days. I really don’t want to count carbs or calories, but do like being relatively lean so have played around with approaches.
I get most of carbs from fruit, honey, and rice/potatoes. For me, just cutting out (most) breads, crackers, pasta, etc… was the real game-changer. I still have them sometimes, but really only if it’s “worth it” - homemade sourdough, a homemade pasta dish, a homemade dessert, etc…
I also think Surge is awesome to add in on training days. It gives me plenty of carbs to really go hard on my workout and actually seems to help be stay leaner.
Last thing for me - eating about the same amount at about the same time each day is really useful. My lunch is always an apple, raw nuts/seeds, and usually leftovers from the night before (meat/rice or similar). For dinner, I eat what my wife makes but she cooks real foods and basically follows the “meat and rice/potato and veggie” platform. My snacks/desserts are honey, peanut butter, greek yogurt, and fruit.
Thanks for asking! It looks like I’ll advance to the quarterfinals! Official invitations will be sent April 1, but with my overall ranking after the three Open WODs I expect to qualify based on the projected cutoffs.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it’s great to move on (I’m actually the only male in my gym that looks like they’ll qualify, along with two of our women). On the other hand, I’m still relatively new at CF so at least some of the quarterfinal workouts will be more than I can do in terms of prescribed weight (for the OLY lifts) and technical movements (like handstand walks, bar kipping, fancy jump roping).
And I would think there’s no better way to get exposed to what you’ll need to compete at higher levels than to compete. It gives you a bar to bets next year, regardless of how it goes.
Super excited for you - keep us posted on April 1!
How bad is your workplace re placement of random chocolate easter eggs this time of year? dang, there must be 500+ small eggs spread over our 100ish staff office. Along with 6-8 smaller eggs on each staff desk this morning. I’ll palm mine off to junior tonight when I get home, and enjoy a plum from the staff fruit bowl instead.
I’ll certainly partake in a bit of quality chocolate over this easter long weekend, enjoyed with good company.
@boilerman is killing it! How are the rest of us doing? There’s just enough time to start pulling out stops if you’re a little behind where you want to be. How are we trending, everyone?
Depending on the day, I’m down 5-6lbs, about half of what I’d like to lose. I’ve cut calories once, from maintenance (around 2500) to about 2200.
My weight is all over the place, but I think I’m getting leaner–I brought the weightlifting belt in a notch this week.
At the next plateau, I’d rather add more activity than cut cals again. I have a weighted vest, time to walk with/without the vest, and an exercise bike.
How would you younger, stronger, jackeder folks handle this? What would your next step be?
How many sessions are you doing a week at the moment? Keep in mind that it’s pretty time consuming to burn calories, which is part of the reason it’s a lot simpler to cut 300cals per day in food than consistently burn the additional cals.
Not always of course, but adding a little extra exercise like a weight vest walk and reducing some carbs together is a pretty good approach. That way you’ll get both, if that makes sense. But again, it depends on you, how much time you have any what your body can handle
I found this to happen when my carbs varied from day-to-day, as I was going by IIFYM rules.
When I changed to eating the same thing every single day, my weight got far more steady.
Literally same foods, same quantities, everything.
You said you’d rather increase activity instead of cutting calories, so I would go with this. Keep in mind that 250cals deficit is hard to generate with activity, and easy to generate with eating less/better. “easy” being a relative term.
I am unfortunately with the gents above - cutting calories is more reliable/ practical than forever increasing activity. I get myself up to a baseline of activity early in a diet, say an hour daily walk, and then it’s hard to consistently find more time than that (because life puts me on a computer), so it just has to be calories from there.
All that said, I am hoping this eternal warrior plan to which you introduced me brings that caloric baseline up.
Yes, for me, it’s not about having more willpower, but rather the lack of time to get 10,000 steps in a day or some other cardio. I’d rather give up the calories than the time to do other activities on my needs list.
It’s also so derailing if your plan demanded you get 2.5 hours of activity, and you go a couple days where that’s not feasible (you know, families to feed and all that), and now it throws your whole world off track. I have way more control over just not eating something.
…I say, having let myself get pretty heavy last year… so apparently not infinite control, but more!
Caloric cycling, rather than just a straight reduction. I’d slash carbs, focus on meats and fats. I’d have some days where it’s just pure protein (protein sparing modified fast), and some days with protein and fats. I’d bring carbs in for one meal once a week. Basically, controlled chaos, to prevent stagnation.
For activity, I’d do a lot of walking, specifically outside in the sun whenever possible. I’d continue weight training as well, of course, to preserve muscle.
Great point! I haven’t done a run with your exact tactics, but I have used the strategy. When I did, I would have higher carbs on leg and back days, some carbs on chest and shoulders, and then very few the rest of the days. Fats stayed somewhat stable, so I created a deeper deficit just by taking carbs from those days.
Then I could go deeper into a deficit by taking carbs away from the training window on the carb days. I really, really like carbs around training, and I like a little before bed (helps me sleep). I always lifted in the morning, so I’d pretend dinner was my pre-workout meal. On the lowest weeks, that left basically Surge during the morning workout and a potato or something with steak or salmon at dinner. I’d have an egg or two, egg whites and chicken sausage for breakfast, a salad with chicken for lunch, and a protein shake with a string cheese midafternoon.
Something like that was always kind of “home base” for me. Your approach is likely more sustainable/ flexible in the real world, as evidenced by how long you’ve been able to employ it.
I’m running Thib’s Eternal Warrior. Three lifting sessions that include conditioning, plus one metcon day. Getting 8-9000 steps per day on top of this.
I like this idea. I’ll probably add some weight vest walks and if/when that stops working, I’ll cut out 50 ish grams of carbs.
