[quote]fairbairn wrote:
Gentlemen,
I’m reaching the end of my initiation period (12 days at <30g CHO) and am preparing for my first carb-up.
I’m 42 years old, train 2-3 times a week with high intensity and low volume, and am dieting for the purpose of dropping body fat - currently at around 20% (ugh - coming back from a long post-surgery layoff).
So far the diet has been great: I’ve lost at least an inch from my waist, feel a lot harder, and haven’t experienced any loss in strength.
Questions:
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Would I be better off doing my carb-up per the “Carb Nite Solution” - i.e. 6-8 hours one night on the weekend - or sticking with the full weekend (~ 36 hours) per the classic Anabolic Diet? I am leaning towards wanting to keep it limited to one night, because I’m at 20% b.f., my goal is fat loss, and I train low-volume. Sound right, or a mistake?
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Would I better off keeping the carb-up clean (oats, rice, wholewheat bread) or going crazy (ice cream, cookies, doughnuts, cheesecake…)?
Thanks in advance guys!
Fairbairn
[/quote]
Congrats on making it through the initiation (it sounds so cult-ish now that I type that out)…
If you are focusing on fat loss I definitely think it is advisable to “carb nite” it. I got incredibly lean (photos in profile) doing it this way. As for how “dirty” you can go you will have to experiment, but if you are going to keep it to a small window I think you can have a bit more leeway.
The way I did it was to eat a single, balls out cheat meal once a week. Its not exactly the “anabolic diet” but it followed the same outline. I would typically make things like a box of waffles with real maple syrup, followed by a dessert of some kind, and usually one other “treat” or big carb item. All in all it was probably something like 400g of carbs in a few hours.
Of course, you will have to experiment to see what you can get away with and how far you can push it.