So I have decided to put some effort into leaning out via the Leangains style fasting method. Has anyone had experience with this in the past? I am trying to figure out how many carbs I should be eating on workout days versus rest days. I don't want to put my body into shock or go through the "low carb flu" every other day. I was thinking about 50g on rest days and 100-150 on workout days. Any thoughts or previous experience would be super helpful.
|
6
|
Martin posted an example of a post workout meal on his site. He also mentioned it was something he had been eating a lot. http://www.leangains.com/2010/08/intermittent-fasting-meals-part-two.html It was: 500 g roast beef Just focusing on carbs this is (#s from nutritiondata.com) 100 g potatoes = 21 g carbs x 5 for 500 g total = 105 g carb Total of the above is 200 g carbs. If you plug in all the data, it was very high protein, low fat, high carb meal. And just one meal! He didn't list what else he ate that day, other than maybe an additional protein powder kind of dessert after the berries. Martin is a bigger guy and has plenty of muscle to keep his metabolism high, but this is just one more piece of evidence that bias against carbs has gone too far in parts of paleo community. OK Martin isn't strictly paleo nor does he claim to be, but he is paleo friendly in many respects and definitely pro-carb per this post here: http://freetheanimal.com/2010/12/leangains-the-dietary-approach.html "In between carbs and fat, carbs are the superior choice due to the insulinogenic effect and contribution to muscle glycogen. This is desirable for muscle gain and recovery. The combo of high protein and high carbs impacts gene expression related to muscle hypertrophy more so than a higher fat intake in place of carbs. Furthermore, in the context of the Leangains approach for fat loss, there are other desirable effects of this high-carb refeed, such as the impact of carbs on leptin, which is superior for carbs." Bottom line, if your carbs are 150+ it isn't something to worry about; in fact maybe desirable to eat 150-200+ on workout days. |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
2
|
Your numbers look good to me. If you have been low carb for a while you might want to ramp up slowly on the workout days. Martin recommends a starch and a dessert for the postworkout meal. I have about 100-150g for postworkout meal, usually a sweet potato (around 25g) and big slice of pumpkin pie (around 100g), and 50g for my evening meal. My rest days work best if they are very low carb. |
|||
|
|
0
|
What is your workout volume? How many sets and reps of each exercise? And at what poundages? If your workouts are rather high in volume, you should be able to get away with more carbs on workout days, 200gm or more. On rest days, carbs should hover ~100gm or you feel comfortable, ~50gm. But there's no need to go zero carb per se because protein foods are mighty insulinogenic.... |
|||
|
