Playing with carb cycles

[Daniel Christensen]

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

sweet potato/rice, chicken and broccoli....the carb up choice for many bodybuilders. Eat that 6x a day.

You are suggesting a full day refeed? How often? When I start to feel flat or do you schedule it a bit more tightly?

I'm liking the idea of having at least a mid-week carb reload meal, but I probably still need a weekend 'no rules' cheat meal.

[Greg Davis]

Originally Posted by Grissim Connery

strictly from a performance standpoint, this seems legit. i'll check my bodyweight as i go along. i'm still trying to avoid measuring, but maybe i need to get back into to it since this is a new project...

Hey Grissim how has this worked out for you / evolved?

I'm thinking about trying out some sort of refeed / high carb day approach. I find targeted PWO meals just don't work very well into my schedule and I think it might be my lack of carbs that is causing some weird symptoms:

- my bodyweight remains 10-15lbs lower than I have been in the past (was always lean)
- body temp seems low
- very consistently i fall asleep no problem but wake up around 3am feeling quite awake (i fall back asleep but still think this is not good)

It seems I just can't keep bodyweight on no matter how much I ramp up my fat intake (200+ g /day).

[Mike ODonnell]

Originally Posted by Greg Davis

It seems I just can't keep bodyweight on no matter how much I ramp up my fat intake (200+ g /day).

More fat does not make bigger muscles (for those with already high enough fat intake)....and depleted muscles will be flat and leave you much lighter (less glycogen, and alot less water). Hence why some BBs can carb up for a show and gain 15-20lbs in a week or less. Zone at 5x fat all the time is not going to be anything a BB would ever use, for a reason.

But if you want to know what is going on for sure with you, then just take action and try something new. Take a whole weekend to carb up....2 days....and see what happens. Best approach is whole food carbs, eating every 2-3 hours (because you want to minimize spillover into fat cells), some protein (but not a priority), some fat (but not a priority). You may need up to 2x BW for carb intake for each day depending on how depleted you are. Water is not a priority when carb loading (just the other days)....as you can use the trick of drawing water under the skin into the muscles (to get more the ripped look).

Again....just try something different and see what happens...and that will be the best lesson you can learn over what anyone tells you should do. Worst case....you spend 2 days learning what doesn't work.

My leanest days were trying to go low carbs and high fat too often. Even little pwo meals didn't help much. But taking days to reload put the weight back on.

[Derek Weaver]

Originally Posted by Greg Davis

Hey Grissim how has this worked out for you / evolved?

I'm thinking about trying out some sort of refeed / high carb day approach. I find targeted PWO meals just don't work very well into my schedule and I think it might be my lack of carbs that is causing some weird symptoms:

- my bodyweight remains 10-15lbs lower than I have been in the past (was always lean)
- body temp seems low
- very consistently i fall asleep no problem but wake up around 3am feeling quite awake (i fall back asleep but still think this is not good)
It seems I just can't keep bodyweight on no matter how much I ramp up my fat intake (200+ g /day).

Body temp may be an issue with metabolic rate. Try what Mike said and take a couple days to carb up. Simple carbs like cereal and other starch like pasta, yams, sweet potatoes etc. Two days won't kill you from a Paleo perspective.

2xbw is a good place to start if you make it a 48 hour time span. You can go higher though depending on how well you handle your intake.

[Grissim Connery]

Originally Posted by Greg Davis

Hey Grissim how has this worked out for you / evolved?

I'm thinking about trying out some sort of refeed / high carb day approach. I find targeted PWO meals just don't work very well into my schedule and I think it might be my lack of carbs that is causing some weird symptoms:

- my bodyweight remains 10-15lbs lower than I have been in the past (was always lean)
- body temp seems low
- very consistently i fall asleep no problem but wake up around 3am feeling quite awake (i fall back asleep but still think this is not good)

It seems I just can't keep bodyweight on no matter how much I ramp up my fat intake (200+ g /day).

sorry it took me a while to get back. i do bjj a lot more frequently now than i did before (semester schedule opened up more time). as a result my energy needs kinda went haywire for a bit. i had to start working out less, and even in that state my energy needs were weird. I ended up having to rev up my carb intake everyday. i eat a lot more fruit and tubers now. in the past i used to eat oats a lot and enjoyed them very much. i've been making my own granola now with coconut milk and eating it responsibly.

if you're doing a moderate amount of activity, i think the carb up days will definetly make you warmer. i experienced that. my metabolism has been a lot higher since i added in a good deal of carbs again.

i guess my plan kinda fell through since i made the major change in my training. oh well.