Amount of carbs

[ITW]

I'm highly active. Lift 4x week (5/3/1), swim 6 days a week. Currently eating at a 250 calorie deficit. I make sure to always get AT LEAST bw/g protein, but my question is regarding carbs. I'm at ~10%bf (flexed six pack) and looking to dip down to ~8% do I NEED to cut carbs below what I'm at (consistently eating over 200g/day) to lose that last little bit. I know I could answer this in a few minutes using google, but I'm lazy haha. Thanks!

 

[JudoJosh]

You don't HAVE to but some do feel it helps.

 

[3clipseGT]

I'm highly active. Lift 4x week (5/3/1), swim 6 days a week. Currently eating at a 250 calorie deficit. I make sure to always get AT LEAST bw/g protein, but my question is regarding carbs. I'm at ~10%bf (flexed six pack) and looking to dip down to ~8% do I NEED to cut carbs below what I'm at (consistently eating over 200g/day) to lose that last little bit. I know I could answer this in a few minutes using google, but I'm lazy haha. Thanks!

If you lower carbs a bit it will most likely speed up the process but if your losing on what you are taking in now, why change it?

 

[Torobestia]

If you lower carbs a bit it will most likely speed up the process but if your losing on what you are taking in now, why change it?

Agreed. As long as the weight loss is steady and continuous, I wouldn't change anything. Losing the weight slowly is better anyways for preserving muscle mass. If you have stalled, you might want to drop carbs since I'm assuming your cals may be rather low when you're deep into your cut. If you have plenty of cals to spare, though, in theory you can cut all macros and achieve the same result.

 

[ITW]

Thanks for the input guys

 

[eluruguayo]

Sorry double post, the line breaks were weirdly f*cked on this one. See below.

 

[eluruguayo]

There's no information here about the TIMING of your food. Or of anything, for that matter.There's only so far you're going to get with macros alone. Try the following:


* Fast for 16-20 hours per day, and eat all your food in the remaining 4-8 hour window.


* Skip breakfast. No one should eat a big breakfast—no one—except farmers who go out and work in the fields all day.


* If you get hungry in the morning. drink moderate caffeine. And, more importantly, go places and do things—it's hard to notice hunger when you're busy (= easily the most underrated diet principle out there).


* If you're still hungry, OWN that sh*t. Convince yourself that's not "hunger", it's "the feeling of torchin' fat". The best part is that this is actually the truth.


* On swimming days, swim fasted, except for 5-10g BCAA. Then eat all the world's smorgasbord in the following 4 to 8 hours.


* 30-60 min before weight workouts, eat 200 to 400 calories of medium-fast carbs (like breakfast cereal) and 10g BCAA. Then make a during-workout shake with 10g BCAA and about 100 calories of carbs.


* Within 60 min of a weight workout, eat at least 100 grams of rice, cereal, oatmeal, lentils, blah blah blah. Try to eat it plain, with as close to zero fat as you can.


* Within 90 min of a weight workout, eat at least (0.5*body weight lbs) grams of protein, preferably whey, but whatever type. E.g., if you weigh 180 lbs, eat at least 90 grams of protein.


* If you can fast for 16 to 20 hours a day, you will lose weight and fat even if your total calories are at your previously calculated "maintenance" levels. Weird but true, and supported by plenty of research.


* Fer Christ's sake, don't do so much cardio. Fat loss is in the kitchen, not in the pool or on the treadmill. And, if you COMBINE a calorie deficit with tons of cardio, that may work in the short-term, but in the long-term you'll just look pasty and deflated.The secret to NOT having deflated-looking muscles is to do as little cardio as possible, and to have your diet on point. (Or: How many shredded marathon runners do you know? Oh, that's right... none.) And you get an extra hour of free time that way, too.

 

[Nickmort]

There's no information here about the TIMING of your food. Or of anything, for that matter.There's only so far you're going to get with macros alone. Try the following:

* Fast for 16-20 hours per day, and eat all your food in the remaining 4-8 hour window.

* Skip breakfast. No one should eat a big breakfast--no one--except farmers who go out and work in the fields all day.

* If you get hungry in the morning. drink moderate caffeine. And, more importantly, go places and do things--it's hard to notice hunger when you're busy (= easily the most underrated diet principle out there).

* If you're still hungry, OWN that sh*t. Convince yourself that's not "hunger", it's "the feeling of torchin' fat". The best part is that this is actually the truth.

* On swimming days, swim fasted, except for 5-10g BCAA. Then eat all the world's smorgasbord in the following 4 to 8 hours.

* 30-60 min before weight workouts, eat 200 to 400 calories of medium-fast carbs (like breakfast cereal) and 10g BCAA. Then make a during-workout shake with 10g BCAA and about 100 calories of carbs.

* Within 60 min of a weight workout, eat at least 100 grams of rice, cereal, oatmeal, lentils, blah blah blah. Try to eat it plain, with as close to zero fat as you can.

* Within 90 min of a weight workout, eat at least (0.5*body weight lbs) grams of protein, preferably whey, but whatever type. E.g., if you weigh 180 lbs, eat at least 90 grams of protein.

* If you can fast for 16 to 20 hours a day, you will lose weight and fat even if your total calories are at your previously calculated "maintenance" levels. Weird but true, and supported by plenty of research.

* Fer Christ's sake, don't do so much cardio. Fat loss is in the kitchen, not in the pool or on the treadmill. And, if you COMBINE a calorie deficit with tons of cardio, that may work in the short-term, but in the long-term you'll just look pasty and deflated.The secret to NOT having deflated-looking muscles is to do as little cardio as possible, and to have your diet on point. (Or: How many shredded marathon runners do you know? Oh, that's right... none.) And you get an extra hour of free time that way, too.

Could have saved some time and just told him to look up LeanGains

 

[eluruguayo]

Could have saved some time and just told him to look up LeanGains

Lol, I cut and pasted 90% of that from an email I wrote to someone last week. Laziness ftw.

 

[eluruguayo]

And, what I'm saying isn't entirely the same as the LG dogma.
I think LG is an excellent starting point, especially for people who don't otherwise know much about human nutrition and/or are newbs in general, but my (and my friends' and clients') experience differs from it on two levels:

1/
An eight-hour eating window is still pretty long. Unless you're already a hardgainer (in which case LG is a somewhat questionable protocol to start with), a window that long will likely lead to overeating, especially if you're still at the stage where fasting induces significant hunger.
Once you've been IFing for months or years, it won't be as much of a big deal—but, in those first couple of formative months, the 8-hour window is more likely than not to contain too much bingeing. Especially for people who don't weigh their food (= most people).

2/
Most of the LG stuff I've seen describes workouts in the middle of the afternoon—which is all good if you're a personal trainer or a freelancer, but, for people with standard job schedules, well, um... no.
On top of that, for most people it's really hard to go to bed with an empty or empty-ish stomach, so, if your feeding window ends 5+ hours before bedtime, you're less likely to sleep well, and more likely to wake up prematurely and unrefreshed.
Instead, if you can work out in the evening, then you can eat your food in those last few hours before bedtime. Not only does this help to stabilize your insulin response and protect against diabetes, but, fasting during the day also allows a greater adrenergic response during the period of time when you actually have to Get Sh*t Done.

The only part about my recommendations that's even moderately hard is the idea of fasting for the first 12 hours of the day. But, it's not that hard after a couple of weeks, and shouldn't be very hard at all if you have any experience with low-carb (which mimics fasting in many body systems).
And if it's hard, well, you just have to decide whether you're in, or whether you're out. Mental toughness, and all that.

 

[ITW]

There's no information here about the TIMING of your food. Or of anything, for that matter.There's only so far you're going to get with macros alone. Try the following:

* Fast for 16-20 hours per day, and eat all your food in the remaining 4-8 hour window.

* Skip breakfast. No one should eat a big breakfast--no one--except farmers who go out and work in the fields all day.

* If you get hungry in the morning. drink moderate caffeine. And, more importantly, go places and do things--it's hard to notice hunger when you're busy (= easily the most underrated diet principle out there).

* If you're still hungry, OWN that sh*t. Convince yourself that's not "hunger", it's "the feeling of torchin' fat". The best part is that this is actually the truth.

* On swimming days, swim fasted, except for 5-10g BCAA. Then eat all the world's smorgasbord in the following 4 to 8 hours.

* 30-60 min before weight workouts, eat 200 to 400 calories of medium-fast carbs (like breakfast cereal) and 10g BCAA. Then make a during-workout shake with 10g BCAA and about 100 calories of carbs.

* Within 60 min of a weight workout, eat at least 100 grams of rice, cereal, oatmeal, lentils, blah blah blah. Try to eat it plain, with as close to zero fat as you can.

* Within 90 min of a weight workout, eat at least (0.5*body weight lbs) grams of protein, preferably whey, but whatever type. E.g., if you weigh 180 lbs, eat at least 90 grams of protein.

* If you can fast for 16 to 20 hours a day, you will lose weight and fat even if your total calories are at your previously calculated "maintenance" levels. Weird but true, and supported by plenty of research.

* Fer Christ's sake, don't do so much cardio. Fat loss is in the kitchen, not in the pool or on the treadmill. And, if you COMBINE a calorie deficit with tons of cardio, that may work in the short-term, but in the long-term you'll just look pasty and deflated.The secret to NOT having deflated-looking muscles is to do as little cardio as possible, and to have your diet on point. (Or: How many shredded marathon runners do you know? Oh, that's right... none.) And you get an extra hour of free time that way, too.

To address your last point, I swim competitively not recreationally. Other than that thanks for the advice. Gonna try this out as soon as my schedule allows it. For now, because of school, I swim and lift around the same time mid afternoon but as soon as summer hits ill be swimming in the am and lifting pm. Then ill give it a go

 

[eluruguayo]

Ah, I see. The competitive swimming, so that explains why your stated goal is 8 percent, and not, say, 4 or 5 percent. Makes sense.

One correction btw, that's 100 grams OF CARBS post-workout from rice/lentils/etc. That's about 290 grams of cooked rice, not sure about the other foods off the top of my head.
Not 100 grams OF rice, which is what I accidentally wrote up there.

Good luck.

 

[ITW]

Yeah after my swimming career ends ill be a bit more extreme haha. Thanks again for everything. The clarity was much appreciated.