Best way to cut? carb manipulation?

[Docmattic]

Ive been on a cut for exactly three weeks now. I have been reducing my carb intake and (i just realised as i type this) my fat intake too. This week my carbs have been minimal and i've only have them for breakfast. However, its getting harder and harder at the gym even though im taking natadrol (getting some great results from this stuff too).

Can someone help me workout how to do carb manipulation properly?
I was thinking:
Workout day- a small serving of Low GI carbs every meal before 4pm.
Offday- carbs only for breakfast and/or before basketball if i am playing

*When i say carbs it only includes rice, bread, pasta etc. Any carbs found in vegetables such as peas, corn, carrot i am not including. I am eating large servings of these to stop me from getting hungry.

Would this still be effective at cutting? I weigh about 193 pounds and am having between what i estimate 224-260 grams of protein a day. I have three protein shakes a day. breakfast, post workout and before bed.

Thanks

 

[Rosie Chee]

Ive been on a cut for exactly three weeks now. I have been reducing my carb intake and (i just realised as i type this) my fat intake too. This week my carbs have been minimal and i've only have them for breakfast. However, its getting harder and harder at the gym even though im taking natadrol (getting some great results from this stuff too).

Can someone help me workout how to do carb manipulation properly?
I was thinking:
Workout day- a small serving of Low GI carbs every meal before 4pm.
Offday- carbs only for breakfast and/or before basketball if i am playing

*When i say carbs it only includes rice, bread, pasta etc. Any carbs found in vegetables such as peas, corn, carrot i am not including. I am eating large servings of these to stop me from getting hungry.

Would this still be effective at cutting? I weigh about 193 pounds and am having between what i estimate 224-260 grams of protein a day. I have three protein shakes a day. breakfast, post workout and before bed.

Thanks

No one can tell you what is the best way to manipulate carbohydrate intake for YOU for the best effects and results. However, I will note that you don't seem to be getting in very many carbohydrates at all - I am personally not an advocate or fan of elimination or low carbohydrate diets and would never recommend them.

I personally recommend looking at calorie/carbohydrate cycling (look around - there are plenty of article on this) - the best nutritional method for fat loss, IMO. For fat loss, do 2-4 days lower than Maintenance calories and then 1-2 days at higher than Maintenance (the difference in calories usually made up with carbohydrate intake). Or you could be like me and do every other day as higher than Maintenance. You need to experiment for yourself re carbohydrate consumption times.

Remember not to cut your calories or carbohydrates too low. And also try and get as much of your energy requirements from food as opposed to shakes.

~Rosie~

 

[warsteiner]

Take a look at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par30.htm for an overview of carb cycling. The article has some great information. If I am cutting I will normally do something like:

Low Carb: 2000 cals, 125g carbs, 230g pro, 65g fat
No Carb: 1500 cals, 30g carbs, 230g pro, 80g fat
High Carb, 2500 cals, 300g carbs, 230g pro, 65g fat

The article I linked mentions have Low Carb days with 1g carbs per lb bodyweight but I find this too much if I am trying to cut although for maintenance it's fine.

As for training with the diet:

Mon: Weights/Low Carb
Tue: Fasted LISS/No Carb
Wed: Weights/High Carb
Thur: Fasted LISS/No Carb
Fri: Weights/Low Carb
Sat: High Carb
Sun: Low Carb

If I want to really step up the fat loss I will add in HIIT cardio on Wed evening and fasted HIIT Cardio on Sat morning.

You will need to experiment with the high/low/no carb days to see what works best for you and also the amount of cals/carbs each day but the recommendations in the article are a good place to start.

 

[EasyEJL]

Carb manipulation isn't particularly necessary (or even helpful) unless you are in single digit bodyfat for males, and trying to go lower. Total calorie manipulation is more important. You could afford to drop off 30-50g of protein easily from what you are taking in and replace those with carbs preworkout to help.

also, although not counting the carbs in green leafy vegetables is fine, corn isn't any better than wheat flour, so that needs to be counted.

 

[Beelzebub]

personally tried carb cycling from 300 to 0 on different days and had great results. this year, i just lowered overall carbs everyday and attained the same results, but was able to have entire cheat weekends and slowly continue dropping fat. for me, much more fun and easier to maintain over a long stretch of time knowing i can enjoy weekends again. but like the others indicated, you may have to experiment a few times to see what's best for you. carb sensitivity may come into play for you.

 

[MakaveliThaDon]

I'm with easy on this one. It's not necessarily about carb manipulation per se. It's about overall total CALORIES taken in manipulation.

When I first started training over a decade ago and was trying to lose fat I had no idea what I was doing and used to slam nothing but dextrose shakes all day long for meals and I swear to you I had prolly 300g of nothing but pure dex per day, but I did over an hour of cardio a day and I lost like 30lbs, haha.

 

[Docmattic]

Thanks for the replies guys,
so the main message im getting is - dont cut out carbs, just reduce them a little. So i'll put a few carbs in for breakfast, pre and post workout and just make sure my calories at the end of the day are in deficit.

Im at about 15 or 16 percent body fat now i think...im starting to get veins back in my biceps. Ive been increasing carbs back up a little this week. I must admit i do feel better than before.

I'll make sure i get one or two days a week where i have a small surpluss on calories.

 

[Docmattic]

FYI, i think the cut is going good. Check out my progress pics.

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplement-reviews-logs/171446-first-log-lg-2.html