View Full Version : Carbs when cutting
iamthemacattack
04-22-13, 6:06 am
Sup Bro's
Just a quick query,
Want to get everyone's opinions on carbs and amounts in cutting phases.
I am cutting now and am on very minimal carbs, less than 50g a day. My weight loss is going well and I feel great.
However I don't seen to be getting any more cut - so perhaps bodyfat isn't dropping the way I was hoping - still around about 15-17% mainly hold weight around the mid section from years of alcohol abuse and generally not watching what I eat.
This is only my first year of serious training so any ideas and thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated and will be used in the future.
All the best and thanks for your help as always.
Ian
BB-FLEXPRO
04-22-13, 6:50 am
Hey Bro!
Very very debatable topic......For me personally I am cutting as well and like you I am on less than 30g of Carbs per Day because Iīm doing a Keto Diet. As an Endo/Mesomorph cutting Carbs out of the diet is the best way to achieve my goal and Iīm doing very well with fats as my primary Energy-Source. But I believe that naturally "leaner" people donīt have to cut out their Carbs completely when they want to lose Body fat. They do well with a more balanced approach. There are different phenotypes out there, some donīt tolerate carbs very well so if they want to be cut, carbs are definitely not their friend but others seem to have no problem with carbs because of their faster metabolism. At the end of the day this really depends on your Bodytype.
One Suggestion of mine, regarding your stop of weight loss (?) would be that you donīt want to be without carbs for weeks and weeks because it slows down certain Enzymes which are very important for a steady fat loss. So be sure to incorporate Cheat Meals on a weekly basis to boost your metabolism, thatīs necessary, especially when doing low carb diets.
If you already doing this, there could be other things like maybe youīre not in a caloric deficit or you donīt get enough good fats? Tell me a little bit more about your diet and write down an example of a typical day, maybe i can help you a bit more with some Input from you!
(Sorry for the bad English Iīm from Germany)
Peace FLEX
Hey man, I'm going to give you my personal experience with it. Because it is a very debatable subject, its hard to say there is a right answer. But for me I have done a cut on low carbs, and yeah I lost weight, but I felt like crap most of the time, and the weight loss wasn't worth it, like you said, I didn't look to be losing body fat. Now that was over a year ago. I am now starting my reverse diet into a bulk, but I was on a cut for the past 2 months, and got from 15% body fat to 9% and also gained strength and lean weight, I did a BodPod test so its pretty accurate. Anyways, on this cut I just did, I was eating 315g of carbs on my training days, and on off days I would cut it back to about 285g of carbs. Still lost bodyfat and loved the results. Also I never felt the effects of a usual cut, lacking energy and all that crap that affects performance in the gym. So for me, I say keep the carbs!
RaisingTheBar
04-22-13, 5:32 pm
To put a coined name on what Flex and Ajoaks are talking about, you might want to try "carb cycling". If you keep carbs super low all the time, there's a good chance your metabolism is slowing down. If you deprive it for too long, that's when you stop losing weight. By throwing in cheat meals, or cycling carbs into high carb, medium carb, low carb, no carb days, you keep your metabolism fueled. There below thread is about carb timing for general use, but a lot of the same principles apply.
http://forum.animalpak.com/showthread.php?33293-Carb-Cycling-awesome-read&highlight=carb+cycling
iamthemacattack
04-24-13, 5:44 am
Hey Bro!
Very very debatable topic......For me personally I am cutting as well and like you I am on less than 30g of Carbs per Day because Iīm doing a Keto Diet. As an Endo/Mesomorph cutting Carbs out of the diet is the best way to achieve my goal and Iīm doing very well with fats as my primary Energy-Source. But I believe that naturally "leaner" people donīt have to cut out their Carbs completely when they want to lose Body fat. They do well with a more balanced approach. There are different phenotypes out there, some donīt tolerate carbs very well so if they want to be cut, carbs are definitely not their friend but others seem to have no problem with carbs because of their faster metabolism. At the end of the day this really depends on your Bodytype.
One Suggestion of mine, regarding your stop of weight loss (?) would be that you donīt want to be without carbs for weeks and weeks because it slows down certain Enzymes which are very important for a steady fat loss. So be sure to incorporate Cheat Meals on a weekly basis to boost your metabolism, thatīs necessary, especially when doing low carb diets.
If you already doing this, there could be other things like maybe youīre not in a caloric deficit or you donīt get enough good fats? Tell me a little bit more about your diet and write down an example of a typical day, maybe i can help you a bit more with some Input from you!
(Sorry for the bad English Iīm from Germany)
Peace FLEX
Sounds as though you are exactly the same as me - I am following a Keto diet also. I am also an Endo/Mesamorph.
My daily diet is as follows;
6 whole eggs 7am
Protein Shake 10am
Chicken Breast, Green Beans and Peas (with 2 spoons of Oive Oil) 1 pm
Protein Shake + Almonds 4pm
Chicken Breast, Green Beans and Peas (2 spoons Olive oil) 6.45
same Again 9pm
I've worked this out to be roughly 2000 cals a day which should be a deficit. I am loosing weight steadily, just not so sure about loosing as much body fat as I would like.
I will definitely look into having more cheat meals though... I haven't really had a cheat as such, I would just have steak and asparagus on a Saturday, but there's no carbs or rubbish in it.
I am 5ft 10 and currently weigh around about 212lb
Any more advise or input is greatly appreciated.
Cheers Bro
Ian
iamthemacattack
04-24-13, 5:45 am
To put a coined name on what Flex and Ajoaks are talking about, you might want to try "carb cycling". If you keep carbs super low all the time, there's a good chance your metabolism is slowing down. If you deprive it for too long, that's when you stop losing weight. By throwing in cheat meals, or cycling carbs into high carb, medium carb, low carb, no carb days, you keep your metabolism fueled. There below thread is about carb timing for general use, but a lot of the same principles apply.
http://forum.animalpak.com/showthread.php?33293-Carb-Cycling-awesome-read&highlight=carb+cycling
Cheers bro I will look into it.
It's my first year of properly training so this is all pretty new to me!
BB-FLEXPRO
04-24-13, 6:14 am
Sounds as though you are exactly the same as me - I am following a Keto diet also. I am also an Endo/Mesamorph.
My daily diet is as follows;
6 whole eggs 7am
Protein Shake 10am
Chicken Breast, Green Beans and Peas (with 2 spoons of Oive Oil) 1 pm
Protein Shake + Almonds 4pm
Chicken Breast, Green Beans and Peas (2 spoons Olive oil) 6.45
same Again 9pm
I've worked this out to be roughly 2000 cals a day which should be a deficit. I am loosing weight steadily, just not so sure about loosing as much body fat as I would like.
I will definitely look into having more cheat meals though... I haven't really had a cheat as such, I would just have steak and asparagus on a Saturday, but there's no carbs or rubbish in it.
I am 5ft 10 and currently weigh around about 212lb
Any more advise or input is greatly appreciated.
Cheers Bro
Ian
Diet sounds pretty much on point mate! I would shoot for 2000 -2300 calories per day, depending on your activity level...if you are busy and work out hard enough, doing some cardio along with that you could go for a little over 2000 calories. Remember youīe already doing Keto which is very effective for fat loss so donīt go to crazy with the calorie deficit. And yeah try the thing with the cheat meals if you didnīt incorporate them until this point and youīre already dieting for several weeks that could be the key for you. One cheat meal per week (last meal of the day) should be enough though.
Peace FLEX
iamthemacattack
04-25-13, 8:22 am
What are your favourite cheat meals guys.... All I can really think of is Pizza? Or an Indian takeaway or a Chinese Takeaway?
Is it really okay to have a take away once a week?
BB-FLEXPRO
04-25-13, 9:22 am
What are your favourite cheat meals guys.... All I can really think of is Pizza? Or an Indian takeaway or a Chinese Takeaway?
Is it really okay to have a take away once a week?
I would experiment with it....it may be not a good thing to advise someone to eat "junk" on that cheat meal but hey...everybody is different! Some people just need this little break with crappy food to get through their diet others never eat forbidden things even on a cheat meal. If you had a successful week and eat some junk on your Cheat meal all that matters is that next week before your next Cheat you lowered your bf% a bit more. So you make a steady progress and if thatīs the case you can eat whatever you want on your Cheat meal. If you notice that dirty Cheats throw you to much back in your diet you should go for some "cleaner" foods and keep the fats low during your Cheat...Go for high glycemic Carbs but no Junkfood.
For my Cheat meal i often eat things like Cereal, Pasta, Rice and some Sweets...Just reward yourself if you had a hard week of training and diet. The progress will let you know if your intensity in the gym and your diet is on point.
peace FLEX
I personally would not cut nearly that much out of my diet. This runs the risk of causing metabolic damage. I'd first figure out my daily caloric needs, make approximately 25% to 30% of those calories from protein sources (Split up in 4-5 hour increments between feeding making sure Leucine intake each time is approximately 3.5 to 4g) and follow that up with 60-70g essential fats. The rest would be dedicated to CHO.
Obviously you'd want your diet to be a little under the maintenance range, but I wouldn't put it much more than 200-300 cals below. Once again, obviously this has to do with your daily activity range as well as other metabolic factors.
HIIT cardio and heavy lifting would round out my routine. Simple, simple stuff for me.