Reintroducing carbs - important questions

Hi all,

I have been on a fairly low carb diet for quite a while now. Just to give you a basic breakdown (if you need very specific details let me know and I'll post them up) of the macronutrient breakdowns:

I have 6 meals a day. On training days I get about 100g carbs: 40g at breakfast from something like oats, 40g PWO from dextrose, and I estimate another 20g from all the fibrous veges I have throughout the day. On non-training days its around 60g (40g breakfast, then veg throughout the day). My meal setup is normally:

9am P/C
12am P/F/Veg
Train @ 2pm
3:30pm PWO P/Simple Carb
4:30pm P/Veg
7:30pm P/F/Veg
11pm P/F

It has been going very well, but I have found that I am at a stagnant stage (neither cutting nor gaining anything) and some people even say that I am loosing weight (visual appearance) which I am not too happy with. I have already bumped up the protein to about 40g/meal with every meal, and added many healthy fats to the diet. I was thinking of adding some more carbs. My 2 questions are:

1. I believe the best time to add them in would be in the post postworkout meal right? I used to have there about 8 months ago, but cut them out to help me cut (and it worked). Perhaps my body has gotten to use to it and thus I should reintroduce them there??
2. About 2 months ago I introduced a 'carb-up' day on Sunday, where I get around 250g clean carbs, same protein, just take out the fats. Should I continue having this carb up if I bump my daily carb intake as proposed??

Thanks a million!

1-yes
2-yes

thanks for the prompt reply :)

Another very quick question: should I add about 40g post postworkout? Does that sound a good amount or should I start off less and build it up?

tks!

yeh bro have 80g from dex pw and another 80g from like rice in your next meal 1 and a half later. on workout days

i have about 200g carbs on workout days and under 50 on non training or cardio days.

and once a week usually on sunday i have one cheat meal and carb up with oatmeal for the rest of the day. usually shoot for 300g on my carb up day

well, i have about 100g training days, about 50g non training days (currently). keep in mind that I really only have one 'off' day in terms of diet, since I train 5x a week, so one day is off and the other is carb up.

i currently get 40g dextrose PWO and nothing PPWO. I will change that to 40g PWO dextrose and 40g low GI complex carbs PPWO and see how it goes

Sounds good xenithon, let us know how it works for ya.

Xenithon-Your diet looks great for cutting. I think you'd be smart to carb up one day and add carbs a little on the other days like it was said above. Just don't neglect that cardio.

A couple questions though...how long are you keeping the carbs this low? What are you cutting for? What was your BF% when you started and now?

The reason I ask these is b/c I hate cutting for long periods and I'm just curious (cause it sounds like you're cutting for a while). I thought I saw your pics a while back in the member pic section (this may have been someone else from South Africa) and you were jacked with huge quads.

hi there!

Cardio - I found that HIIT works best for me. I do HIIT twice a week for 15 minutes - really does wonders (and I can't stand long period cardio :) ). My BF was around 12-13% and is now at about 9%. I must actually say that I have been doing this 'lowcarb' routine for quite a while now. I believe through experimentation and seeing how my body reacts that I am prone to storing fat from carbs (carb sensitive). Thus, it is not really a DIET I am on, its more a lifestyle. Now I am continually monitoring and tweaking according to how my body is playing up :)

Pics - not yet, but I hope the day will come very soon that someone says I have HUGE QUADS :) :)

thanks all for the help and encouragement!

I just want to ask again on advice about spreading out carbs on carb-up day.

Should I have around 60g carbs for the first 4 meals (8, 11, 2, 5) and then switch to P/F/veg for meals @ 8 and before bed, OR should I make it the entire day carb up and have around 50g carbs @ 8, 11, 2, 5, 8 and then P/F before bed??

Thanks!

I would do high GI carbs in the morning then afternoon switch to low GI then at night slow down with them depending on how many carbs you have gotten, that works for me. You will learn how many carbs your body can handle and then you will be able to judge it.

Pain

So what would happen if you went totally carbless for about 2 days straight??? I would never be able to do it but I did go carbless yesterday to try and accomidate for the pretty ugly cheat day that I had. Just got as much protein as I could.

I tried re-introducing acarbs a couple months ago. I added brown rice and oat meal. I expected to immediataly gain 10 lbs of fat and/or water. Interestingly it did not happen. Over the next few weeks my weight began creeping up and I began losing my definition tha I like so much. Over about a month 10 lb gain - near as I can tell - water and fat cause it aint muscle. Any way the result- I am back on low carb and on occasion will do a little brown rice. I have increased my green veggies because they dont seem to harm much. My point is that it will take you some time to figure out what your body can tolerate. I suspect that lots of cardio will burn a lot of the carbs, which is really only an issue if you are where you want to be in bf% anyway.

BTW Xenithon, I haven't seen you around so much anymore. Is it me, or you?

hey beenie!

I think its you perhaps :) I have been here for sure. I was wondering where you were (you are quite reveered in the low carb caegory ;) )

I think there are some differences, just wanted to double check:

1. you were on SERIOUSLY low carb, like 10g a day or something like that. that's keto, something which I never went into
2. I was on this low carb diet for a long time, introduced the carb up day (which helped mentally tremendously without affecting fat loss) so I know I can tolerate that; whereas you went direct from super low carb to reintroducing carbs, right??

If these points are true, then perhaps the body reacts differently to them for those reasons. Then again everyone is different, so maybe you are more carb sensitive than I. I say that cause the carbup day did not affect me, wherease reintroduction of those carbs affected you (10lbs - ouch!). has it stablised yet?? Also, how many carbs were you getting in when introducing them again, and how much are you getting in now?

cheers!

Quote:

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Originally posted by xenithon
hey beenie!

I think its you perhaps :) I have been here for sure. I was wondering where you were (you are quite reveered in the low carb caegory ;) )

I think there are some differences, just wanted to double check:

1. you were on SERIOUSLY low carb, like 10g a day or something like that. that's keto, something which I never went into

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Probably 20/day the last year to about 100g/day

Quote:

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2. I was on this low carb diet for a long time, introduced the carb up day (which helped mentally tremendously without affecting fat loss) so I know I can tolerate that; whereas you went direct from super low carb to reintroducing carbs, right??

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That works for a lot of guys. For me carbs only make me want more carbs. As the potato chip ad says: no one can eat just one. For me, I am better off without it. If you can control yoursef, and you, unlike me seem to be able, great. Otherwise it has to be a full-time thing.

Quote:

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If these points are true, then perhaps the body reacts differently to them for those reasons. Then again everyone is different, so maybe you are more carb sensitive than I. I say that cause the carbup day did not affect me, wherease reintroduction of those carbs affected you (10lbs - ouch!). has it stablised yet?? Also, how many carbs were you getting in when introducing them again, and how much are you getting in now?

cheers!

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Right now, I am back to 20 or less a day, and I upped my cardio and downed my weight losing the 10 lbs I have gained in a couple weeks.

Just remember these rules to help you spare any lean mass while trying to cut.
1- a low carb day should be .8-1.0 g's per bodyweight.
2-every fourth day, have a carb up day. eat 200-250 g's more of carbs that you had on the low day.

-trust me, it works. I have never seen better results. unless you weigh 100pds or are extremely overweight, i would up the carbs a bit.

Quote:

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Originally posted by buffmike
Just remember these rules to help you spare any lean mass while trying to cut.
1- a low carb day should be .8-1.0 g's per bodyweight.
2-every fourth day, have a carb up day. eat 200-250 g's more of carbs that you had on the low day.

-trust me, it works. I have never seen better results. unless you weigh 100pds or are extremely overweight, i would up the carbs a bit.

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That formula may work for some people - perhaps many, but it would turn me into a blimp. And I wanna be REALLY lean!

I agree with beenie - it depends on the body. In my case, I went from low carb, to having a carbup day once a week - it went well so I stuck with it. Now I will add another carb meal on training days PPWO, and see how my body reacts. If good, then it stays, if not, back to what I was doing before. It's all about listening. But, I also must say you have to give it a chance. You cannot try something for a week or two and then stop. Give it a month or two minimum and see. Perhaps reintroducing carbs after a major period of constant ketosis may make you gain in a month due to the water retention and so on since your body has been depleted soooo long. Perhaps you need a bit more time for it to subside and your body normalise??

One quick question: what else can I have in the carb meal?? Being post postworkout, I want low GI complex carbs with little or no fat. I currently will have brown rice/basmati rice, sweet potato, wholewheat pasta. Anything else?? I won't have things like oats since they have a fair bit of fat, which is okay in the morning but not PPWO for me.

Thanks!