If you haven’t yet, I’d recommend checking out http://rippedbody.jp/. Andy Morgan has built a really solid site with practical explanations for implementing the LeanGains protocol.

In my experience, I didn’t find that LeanGains caused excessive carb cravings. That said, if you want to eat “clean” and paleo, you might have a hard time eating the recommended amount of carbs anyway. I avoided wheat and oats but upped my intake of milk, quinoa, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes greatly. When you’re eating that much food, you’ll quickly find yourself satiated and it will be hard to put away 200-400g of carbs between 1-9pm on a workout day. I was never able to eat the prescribed amount of carbs, but I did ingest enough to add some additional muscle mass over 12 weeks and burn off some fat. If anything, I had a harder time with cravings on rest days as I was trying to eat at a slight caloric deficit.

Call it “modified LeanGains” if you want, or don’t call it LeanGains at all since I adapted the protocol for my own use, but I think you’ll be fine if you stick with whole foods and your paleo diet. You’ll see pictures of cheesecakes and bowls of fruit loops on the LG website but there’s really no reason to go down that road if you don’t want to. And, since you’ll be eating whole foods, there’s a chance you won’t experience the carb addiction brought about by some of the additives and simple sugars in Oreos and Freetos.

Here’s what worked for me, based on the core principles of the LG protocol: -8 hour feeding window, 1-9pm, 7 days per week -Fasted weightlifting workout 3x per week, using reverse pyramid training method -BCAAs pre-workout, protein shake and high-carb meal post-workout -Higher calorie intake on workout days, slight calorie deficit on rest days -Lower fat intake on weight training days, normal paleo-level of fat intake on rest days -High protein every day, low carb on non-training days

I didn’t get “ripped” over the 12-week period but I did see some positive results. I’d give it a try for three months and see what happens. If you find yourself falling off the carb wagon, you can always stop. Be sure to take photos and measurements of yourself up front and periodically thereafter to track your progress.

As EDouble said, it's sooo difficult to get as many carbs in as reccomended on training days. If anything it will kill your desire for carbs.

I've also gone from low carb paleo to leangains.. So it's hard to eat paleo and leangains and get all those carbs. Most leangain people use cereal, potatoes, rice etc to get their carbs and I have to rely on sweet potato, bananas, chestnut cakes.

I tried rice one day but my blood sugar went through the roof...

I think it might actually help with your carb cravings. But then I prefer high fat and protein anyhow.

I've been doing Leangains since January, eating between 1-9pm, training in the evening after a single pre-workout meal. In the last couple of weeks after reading lots about Paleo I've started to cut out wheat/dairy/legumes, relying mostly on potatoes (sweet & white), white rice and lots of fruit and veg for my post workout carbs (more difficult but not impossible to hit macros).

Previously i was eating baked beans, pittas, wraps, cereal, milk, low-fat yoghurt, cottage cheese and not much in terms of healthy fats (spoonful of omega 3 and some fatty meats). Hunger was sometimes quite bad on rest days, cravings varied & would sometimes binge on carbs.

Since cutting out most of the above and increasing my good fat intake, I've definitely noticed reduced hunger, less cravings and no urge to binge. If I fancy something sweet I'll have some berries or after a workout some sweet potato, banana, cinnamon & honey mash!

I will say this, I look forward to my lower carb days on Leangains. I eat over two pounds of sweet potatoes and a few pieces of fruit on training day, and that's on top of my veggies and meats. I am so stuffed for three days of the week, that my lower carb days are almost a relief. haha

Leangains is a great program. Modify it slightly to YOUR version of Paleo. For me, this basically means I keep the carbs as "Paleo" as possible and tend to keep them in the range that is comfortable to consume. With that said, I'm a huge fan of some very starchy carbs like yams, butternut squash, carrots and love my green veggies that have relatively higher levels of carbs (brussel sprouts, kale). I have no problem getting to 200 grams of carbs per day just with these. I guess if you weren't in this group and struggled to eat a single yam or serving of brussels, it might be tough.

I lift weights 5 days a week with leangains (single body parts). Does that mean it would be ok to eat high carb 5 days a week and higher fat on rest days? Does this mean it's carb cycling?