View Full Version : How does the "180 Diet" work?
brandon69
09-22-10, 12:31 am
i was reading the article and ive read it like 4 times adn im still kinda confused on how to exucute it. could anyone help me out maybe explain a little better than the articale did??
thanks in advance
SpankyC
09-22-10, 12:42 am
lol i read it a bunch of times too, up to this day im still confused!
mnmvilla2002
09-22-10, 11:11 am
Here is a link to the 180 Diet
http://www.universalusa.com/muscledigest/
IronWilson
09-22-10, 12:39 pm
Its a really old school diet. It relies on you analyzing how you feel and your training performance, which is something that comes with experience.
From what I gather, you start at 180 grams of carbs per day and stay there until you start to feel weak and depleted, then add 50g of carbs for a day, then take out another 50. All the extra carbs are supposed to come from pasta I guess?
This diet requires you to eat instinctively. Which, arguably, is the best way to diet.
Aggression
09-22-10, 12:52 pm
Its pretty simple one you grab the overall concept.
Basically, you start at 180g carbs. Once you start to feel drained/depleted and can no longer get a pump, you let it go for another 2 days. Then, you eat your normal diet and on top of that, eat an extra pound of pasta (16oz) in that day. So if you eat 4 meals, just eat your normal meals plus 4oz pasta per meal.
After the one day of carb-loading with pasta, remove it again, which will put you back down to 180g carbs. When you hit that 'tired/run down feeling again', add another 50g of carbs and keep those 230g carbs in your diet until that tired/run down feeling goes away. It could be 1 day, it could be 3. Once it does, eliminate the pasta AND another 20g. So once you remove them, you'll be down to 160g carbs.
Train as long as you can until the 'symptoms' happen again. Carb up with 50g extra carbs, which at this point will be 210g for however long it takes to rid yourself of those symptoms. When you feel good, take the extra 50g plus another 50 from the 180. So now, you're eating 130g carbs total on the low days.
See how low you can go while still holding onto muscle mass. When you notice muscle being lost, then you know your limit. Stay there and you'll be good.
spyderman4g63
09-29-10, 10:34 am
It seems like any carb cycling diet. The one thing I didn't understand about it was what point to you stop taking carbs out? I think this was answered in the post above. Keep pushing the limits until you lose muscle. At the same time do you want to keep your carb intake at that level lor do you still carb up and then just drop back down to 130 (if that's your limit)?
I've actually just started this but i'm actually have trouble hitting 180 most days. I usually end up in the 130-160 range.
My meals end up looking like this right now
Meal 1 - 5:30 - 6 egg whites 2 eggs 1/2 cup oatmeal + pak
Meal 2 - 8:30 - 2 scoops Ultra Iso Whey
Meal 3 - 11:30 - 8oz chicken with 1 cup rice (after cooking) or a yam
Meal 4 - 3:30 - 2 scoops Ultra Iso Whey, storm on the way home from work
Workout - 6:30 - 1 serving of Storm
Meal 5 - 8:00 - 8oz chicken with 1 cup rice (after cooking) or a yam and usually add a salad
I'm 285 and probably 22%+ bf. I don't feel like I am making any progress yet but my calorie intake is pretty low for my weight.
Most days I end up around 230g protein, 130g carbs, 20g fat, and 1600 calories. I sit on my ass all day at work and lifting + cardio is really my only physical activity in the day. I am going to have to try to find some time to get some more cardio in I think. The only other issue I have is that I can't get more than 5 hours of sleep most nights, which is probably really screwing with my metabolism.
Good luck if you give it a try let us know how it turns out.
Aggression
09-29-10, 10:41 am
One you find your lowest limit, you add in that 50g carbs whenever you need to and then go back down to your lower number. If you've just started this, give it time. If you read the article, it stated that you have to stay consistent for months. Nothing worth doing is easy. You're gonna need to stick to it.
G Diesel
09-29-10, 10:41 am
Its pretty simple one you grab the overall concept.
Basically, you start at 180g carbs. Once you start to feel drained/depleted and can no longer get a pump, you let it go for another 2 days. Then, you eat your normal diet and on top of that, eat an extra pound of pasta (16oz) in that day. So if you eat 4 meals, just eat your normal meals plus 4oz pasta per meal.
After the one day of carb-loading with pasta, remove it again, which will put you back down to 180g carbs. When you hit that 'tired/run down feeling again', add another 50g of carbs and keep those 230g carbs in your diet until that tired/run down feeling goes away. It could be 1 day, it could be 3. Once it does, eliminate the pasta AND another 20g. So once you remove them, you'll be down to 160g carbs.
Train as long as you can until the 'symptoms' happen again. Carb up with 50g extra carbs, which at this point will be 210g for however long it takes to rid yourself of those symptoms. When you feel good, take the extra 50g plus another 50 from the 180. So now, you're eating 130g carbs total on the low days.
See how low you can go while still holding onto muscle mass. When you notice muscle being lost, then you know your limit. Stay there and you'll be good.
Precisely. It is an advanced form of carb cycling meant to constantly keep your metabolism firing and your body adapting.
Peace, G
Sean_Warrior
09-29-10, 12:34 pm
Quite like the idea of this.
It might work quite well with the Low carb diet i do. Instead of rotating carbs i use my cheat meal on the weekend to bump them up a bit (something like Pasta and meatballs or i'll have KFC with a couple of fries lol). This sounds a bit more precise than my method does haha.