Carb Back Loading: Recalibration Phase

I've been dropping lots of random references to Carb Back Loading (by DH Kiefer) and I believe it's about time I explain myself, and why I am trying to experiment with ditching the traditional bodybuilder's contest diet of dividing macronutrients evenly throughout the day - eating most of my carbohydrates at in the morning, carb-cycling, and having to deal with an on-season and off-season physique.

Let me just remind everyone that I am not very seasoned in any of this stuff. I have only taken up the interest of fitness and nutrition seriously since last year, and my year or so of research is pretty much the baseline for all things I've been doing in regards to getting in shape the right way.

First I must make a disclaimer clear: I am not talking any smack about traditional clean eating or bodybuilding dieting in any way, shape or form. I believe this works very well, as it has worked wonders for me during the entire month of January, as well as last year when I first cleaned up my food intake and calculated my macros.

For many, the traditional way of doing things works. Why? It is a set routine - eating mostly protein for muscle synthesis, tons of veggies for fiber content and numerous other nutritional/health benefits, and clean, good fats, and slow-burning carbohydrates for energy and bulking. Coupled with the elimination of "processed crap," so to speak, and ignited by resistance training and cardiovascular exercise.. this discipline proves worthy results, time and time again. I would imagine it works for people who are mostly diligent in their meal timing, don't mind keeping track of every specific detail of their caloric and macronutritional intake. I became this person, and I pretty much enjoyed the routine and predictability [and security] this plan provided for me.

But above all things, I am also an impatient person. Believe me, I have been trying all my life to be patient and cool, calm, and collected. And I may seem so in many ways (after all, I did have the patience to commence transformation on my body through a complete lifestyle change).

However, it cannot be denied that the very core of me is an eager, hungry, dissatisfied child. My very existence is the antonym of complacency.So I relentlessly, to this day, still research and read and find whatever I can, to improve my results and achieve my almost bottomless list of goals. Also, my brain craves constant learning.

And that is how I discovered Carb Back Loading.

I want to go ahead and thank Kiefer endlessly for all the research and work he has done to put this out for the world, but I have yet to completely see the complete results of it for myself. So I have taken it upon myself to buy his E-book, and begin the experiment on myself:

- Throw all my (and others') preconceived notions of diet and nutrition timing out the window,

- Follow the outlined plan for success.

For starters, carb back loading is the practice of restricting your overall carbohydrate intake for the day until after your workouts, until the evening, until pre-bedtime. No going over 30g of carbs pre-training, train heavy, and then back load. This flies in the face of every resource and article out there that states one must eat most of their carbs in the morning, and abstain from them as bedtime creeps closer.

Kiefer has done numerous research regarding insulin in the body, and it is known that insulin is the most sensitive in the morning. Insulin is anabolic - it will stimulate growth. Growth of muscle cells, but also fat cells. Eating carbs first thing in the morning will grow fat cells simply because insulin sensitivy is the highest in the morning. This is why breakfast is OK to skip, per Kiefer. As long as you get your required caloric and nutritional intake for the day, it shouldn't really matter that you're skipping breakfast. You can put off most of your eating until later on in the day, when insulin levels begin to taper off. Eating carbs in the morning not only spikes your insulin, but also interferes with the fat-burning process your body undergoes first thing in the morning.

The first 10 days are the recalibration phase, where one depletes his or her glycogen levels of any carbohydrates. This is where I'm currently at.

The point is to prime the body to switch to using fat as a fuel source instead of carbs. An example of a day would look like this:

-No eating until after 2 hours (minumum) or later of awakening.

-Coffee in the morning, mixed with heavy whipping cream (pure fat, for filling) or coconut milk (or oil), 10g of whey isolate (to prevent muscle breakdown), and small amounts of Splenda. This mixture accelerates fat-burning during its most active stage (in the AM) and does not increase your insulin levels so that your body is kicked out of fat-burning mode. The whey isolate prevents your body from breaking down your hard-earned muscle as well.

-Grazing ultra low-carb meals during the day, whether training or not. Make sure meals are high in protein, moderate in fat (fat is a slow-burning source with ample calories and, provided you are training, does not harm you), and green veggies are eaten in abundance. The carbs in veggies are mostly fiber, which does not count toward your "usable" carb intake.

-Total daily intake must be below 30g. Any more and insulin will be kicked up and your body will stop using fat cells as fuel.

Fat should not be feared. Animal fats, oils, nuts (in moderation), even butter are okay. Fat isn't really what makes people get fat - it's the carbs, especially eaten frequently and at the wrong times - that make our fat cells grow.

Undergoing this recalibration phase myself, I have not been calorie counting, but I must be aware of every gram of carb I might consume. Going above 30g is too easy to accomplish, especially when Americans consume 5 times that per day. Almost everything has carbs! Consider that Americans love to eat out and get fast food and buy convenience food. I'm not exaggerating that everything has carbs. THIS IS WHY AMERICANS ARE FAT.

Anyway, as for the 30g or under of carb consumption, I need to maintain ketogenesis in the body. The body needs to be depleted of carbs for 10 days, so that when I finally train & carb back load, my muscles will be super sensitive to soaking up the carbs I will finally be eating, and hungrily store them, not giving fat cells a chance to absorb them. Besides, post-training, the fat cells are not in a state to react to insulin, which is of great benefit.

And on the 10th day, especially after training, your muscles are in a catabolic state. You just tore them down by lifting weights, and they need to repair themselves. Insulin levels spike after working out. This is the optimum time to feed your muscles. Consuming carbs post-training between 3-7pm is highly advantageous since muscles are desperate to tap into your glycogen stores, yet the fat cells (post-training) do not respond to insulin. Insulin helps transport all those carbs - the simpler, the better - to your muscles. This is where the "junk food" comes in - from white rice and potatoes to straight up donuts and pastries, etc. One may eat these simple carbs up until bedtime. The simpler the carbs, the better the results. Slow-burning carbs would be of great disadvantage during this phase since they will take longer to digest.

Carbs go to muscles, fat gets burned in the morning. When muscle increases in mass, even more fat is burned. This means simultaneously bulking (packing on lean muscle mass) and cutting (losing body FAT), which is almost unheard of.

If you are seriously interested, go purchase this guy's E-book and even check out dangerouslyhardcore.com, where he frequently posts articles and you can even check out the forum for lots of great tips and such. The forum contains a bunch of people who are doing this.

I've tried for weeks now to find something wrong with this, or anything proving that it doesn't work. So far, the only negative thing I see in it is that IT IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY. This is for people who train hardcore & push themselves to failure (not just cardio). This is for people who don't mind cutting out their carbs during the day, and not eating them until post-training. This is for people who don't mind skipping breakfast and having very little calories during the day. Because as soon as you start eating carbs early in the morning, you automatically kick your body out of fat-burning mode. Then you pack on fat.

With this knowlege, I'm certain I never wanna eat another carbohydrate during the daytime ever again.

And besides, what better than rewarding yourself with tasty food after a rigorous, badass lifting session? And having that splurge work directly in YOUR favor?

I'm not sure what I'm more excited about - the fact that I'm losing this long-unwanted body fat from my pregnancy, the fact that I get to eat all kinds of food during this contest prep (I can have healthy veggies, full-flavored meats, cheese, butter, healthy oils & nuts, AND the "forbidden" foods), or the fact that all that "cheat food" is going to go straight to my muscles post-workout - which means significant MUSCLE GAINS!

So far, my waist has shrank significantly. I''m seeing a faint hourglass shape, as opposed to the apple my previous 30%+ body fat body likes to sport. To be blunt and to put things into perspective, my stomach doesn't stick out past my boobs anymore. And I have small ones, so it didn't take much - but now, there is no GUT there. Even during this ultra-low-carb portion of the plan, I find I'm becoming more focused, and my weights have all gone up by a few pounds. (Someone who's getting weaker would not be able to do this). I'm sleeping much deeper and less likely to wake up in the middle of the night for no reason. I'm seeing muscles pop in the gym that I didn't know existed, and I see striations IN THE MUSCLES when I'm straining hard with the iron.

Besides the few days of dizziness, and excruciating desires to look at "food porn" involving upclose shots of carby, sugary foods - I cannot complain about this. It is garnering me some wild results, and I have not even begun the carb back-loading portion of the plan.

(This explains why I never got fat in high school, binging on Burger King and pizza with my guy friends after every excruciating night session at the gym - and why I had some nice muscular definition back then. I'm super stoked.)

Once I'm finished with the recalibration phase (This Sunday evening, post-training, will mark my first carb back load meal), I will update you all with my progress.

Until then!