High carb diet??

Brain5ick

Well-known member
So I got those Kai Greene E-books while they were on sale figuring eh, maybe some of it would help with my cut. Well he does high carb, moderately high protein and low fat. Haven’t been on this for too long but haven’t tracked any weight loss with it just yet. Mainly just curious as to what a high carb diet within a deficit would do to the physique. You’d think that surplus of carbs would make it harder to lose fat. Please correct me here if I’m wrong.
 
That sounds more like a bulk diet to me but if Kai Greene said it, it's worth a try. haha I would think low carb, high protein and moderate fat would be a good lean/cut diet.
 
LeanEngineer said:
That sounds more like a bulk diet to me but if Kai Greene said it, it's worth a try. haha I would think low carb, high protein and moderate fat would be a good lean/cut diet.
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Right? I’m still only at 2,385 cal per day but it’s 225 protein, 252g carbs and 53g fats. I’m retaining strength now but I’m definitely not used to this way of dieting. Seems like too much to me but I’ll go for it for awhile and see what happens. Might take a natural diuretic to get rid of some extra water weight here and there.
 
As long as your are in a deficit you will be able to lose fat. I prefer to keep protein around 1g - 1.2g per pound while cutting, lower fat and higher carb while maintaining a calorie deficit.

From what I've seen, eating more carbs help a lot with strength and energy in the gym. Make sure your fats don't drop too low, but I've never seen any benefits to a low carb/higher fat diet during a cut. The key is to make sure you're eating in a deficit
 
I've done this diet, at a deficit, and carb-backloaded (had most of the carbs in the evening) and it works fine for losing weight. Most of my macros came from carbs first, then protein.
 
john.patterson said:
As long as your are in a deficit you will be able to lose fat. I prefer to keep protein around 1g - 1.2g per pound while cutting, lower fat and higher carb while maintaining a calorie deficit.

From what I've seen, eating more carbs help a lot with strength and energy in the gym. Make sure your fats don't drop too low, but I've never seen any benefits to a low carb/higher fat diet during a cut. The key is to make sure you're eating in a deficit
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Well not entirely true, drop weight sure but you can still add fat.
 
Kai Greene is also on insulin, growth hormone and aas.

Keeping protein at say 60% is the most effective way, not the most fun and definitely not the easiest.
 
This entirely depends on how your body responds to carbohydrates. Higher carbohydrates does assist in having sufficient glycogen stores for lifting. Assuming you are getting all of your essential fatty acids, you should be fine with low fat diet. The higher carb method will lead to higher fluid retention however will also lead to fuller muscles (increased glycogen stores and the associated water).

If you end up feeling uncomfortable with the current plan you can go on a carb cycling diet, go on a zone diet, or if you really want to a keto diet.

I have never been a fan of keto I just don't feel comfortable on it and looking flat most the time drives me crazy.
 
Well carbs spike insulin which I believe makes it easier to gain fat and harder to lose it. Your body will resort to burning off those carbs before it taps into the fat. That’s my take on it. So I think low carb high fat is the way to go. It’s also much much easier to overeat carbs because it makes you crave more of them. I find fat to be more filling and when you’ve had enough you’ve had enough. For some reason it’s easier to control appetite with a high fat low carb diet, at least it is for me. Maybe that’s the result of not experiencing insulin crashes, which spike hunger. Ultimately, being in a calorie deficit should be enough to lose fat but high carb is probably not optimal.
 
YoungThor said:
Well carbs spike insulin which I believe makes it easier to gain fat and harder to lose it. Your body will resort to burning off those carbs before it taps into the fat. That’s my take on it. So I think low carb high fat is the way to go. It’s also much much easier to overeat carbs because it makes you crave more of them. I find fat to be more filling and when you’ve had enough you’ve had enough. For some reason it’s easier to control appetite with a high fat low carb diet, at least it is for me. Maybe that’s the result of not experiencing insulin crashes, which spike hunger. Ultimately, being in a calorie deficit should be enough to lose fat but high carb is probably not optimal.
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Insulin is a bit more of a double edged sword than that. Insulin causes the body to absorb glucose, if it is absorbed into muscle cells you have glycogenesis aka more glycogen stores in the muscles (more energy available for work now). If it gets absorbed into fat cells it will undergo lipogenesis turning into fat (more energy for the future). The liver has the ability to both create fat and glycogen.

Insulin is considered the master anabolic hormone, it also plays a key role in protein synthesis (the reason why bodybuilders take it).

Assuming you are not constantly spiking insulin, you can consume high glycemic index foods around your workouts it can increase your muscular gains substantially by shuttling nutrients to your muscles.


As for appetite control, fibrous carbs help and make you poop better. Another helpful tip is don't eat like its a job eat like its a hobby take your time, chew more. If you can consume a pound of broccoli and be hungry with the 200 calories you just consumed I am very impressed.
 
Gerbil said:
Insulin is a bit more of a double edged sword than that. Insulin causes the body to absorb glucose, if it is absorbed into muscle cells you have glycogenesis aka more glycogen stores in the muscles (more energy available for work now). If it gets absorbed into fat cells it will undergo lipogenesis turning into fat (more energy for the future). The liver has the ability to both create fat and glycogen.

Insulin is considered the master anabolic hormone, it also plays a key role in protein synthesis (the reason why bodybuilders take it).

Assuming you are not constantly spiking insulin, you can consume high glycemic index foods around your workouts it can increase your muscular gains substantially by shuttling nutrients to your muscles.


As for appetite control, fibrous carbs help and make you poop better. Another helpful tip is don't eat like its a job eat like its a hobby take your time, chew more. If you can consume a pound of broccoli and be hungry with the 200 calories you just consumed I am very impressed.
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Well broccoli isn’t a great example of a high carb source. This guy is eating high carb so I assume he’s eating more caloricly dense carb sources like rice, potatoes, maybe a little bread and pasta. It’s those starchy carbs that cause overeating. Broccoli is easy to not overeat.

And I agree that increasing your glycogen stores by eating carbs before a workout could make your workout more productive. You’re essentially fueling your muscles so that makes sense. But the OP is trying to lose fat so I think it’s best if his glycogen stores are low during the workout so he’ll be able to burn his own fat instead.

I know you said your basically useless when you go keto and many others claim their workouts suffer, but then there’s people like me who can eat nothing but meat and eggs for a few days and still have pretty solid workouts. I don’t think the OP needs to be that extreme and go carnivore but I think lowering his carbs could help.
 
YoungThor said:
Well broccoli isn’t a great example of a high carb source. This guy is eating high carb so I assume he’s eating more caloricly dense carb sources like rice, potatoes, maybe a little bread and pasta. It’s those starchy carbs that cause overeating. Broccoli is easy to not overeat.

And I agree that increasing your glycogen stores by eating carbs before a workout could make your workout more productive. You’re essentially fueling your muscles so that makes sense. But the OP is trying to lose fat so I think it’s best if his glycogen stores are low during the workout so he’ll be able to burn his own fat instead.

I know you said your basically useless when you go keto and many others claim their workouts suffer, but then there’s people like me who can eat nothing but meat and eggs for a few days and still have pretty solid workouts. I don’t think the OP needs to be that extreme and go carnivore but I think lowering his carbs could help.
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You can get away with consuming more carbs around your workout as most of it will be used to restore those glycogen stores you just burned through. The overall process of burning fat is mostly calories in vs calories out, assuming protein and overall calories remain constant whether you eat fat or carbs is personal choice (assuming you are getting your EFAs).

Also a majority of the calories burned throughout the day are through your BMR and EPOC. The actual calories burned through exercise is fairly low assuming you are not doing insane durations.

Basically as shown on countless occasions you can either go low carb, low fat or something more inline with a zone diet and lose weight/ body fat (assuming calories are low enough). I prefer the addition of carbs to allow my workouts to be the most productive which helps me preserve muscle.
 
Gerbil said:
You can get away with consuming more carbs around your workout as most of it will be used to restore those glycogen stores you just burned through. The overall process of burning fat is mostly calories in vs calories out, assuming protein and overall calories remain constant whether you eat fat or carbs is personal choice (assuming you are getting your EFAs).

Also a majority of the calories burned throughout the day are through your BMR and EPOC. The actual calories burned through exercise is fairly low assuming you are not doing insane durations.

Basically as shown on countless occasions you can either go low carb, low fat or something more inline with a zone diet and lose weight/ body fat (assuming calories are low enough). I prefer the addition of carbs to allow my workouts to be the most productive which helps me preserve muscle.
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Fair enough. Personally, I need to do intermittent fasting and lower carbs to see results. But that approach fits with my personality. I kind of have to be extreme and rigid to accomplish anything or else I’ll fall back into doing and eating what I want. For others that approach would be unnecessary and they could continue to eat carbs moderately, or even in a high amount, and still lose weight. At the end of the day calories in vs out is the king, just as you said.
 
It's calories. A traditional hard core vegan diet is 80carbs. 10protien. 10 fat. Japan is the thinnest country in the world with a 70% carb diet.
 
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