How Many Calories on Carb Up?

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hey guys,

I started anabolic diet at 3100 cals, i think my maintenance cals were around this level. Third week now and i decided to eat 2500 cals since i wasnt losing any weight. Tomorrow i have my carb up day, im planing of taking 500g of carbs (since im fairly lean-around 9% bf, i guess this shouldnt be too much carbs).

The problem is that if i only add upp calories from carbs its already 2000 cals. I also wanna add a pwo shake, some proteins and some fats.

The question is: since im in a cutting phase, and i normally consume 2500cals, how many cals should i consume on carb up days? Im assuming the answer would me ‘more than on normal days’ since 2500 cals i can get almost only from carbs, without any additional food. Now eati g only carbs for the whole day would not be very exciting lol

2

Actually, when the AD was developed, Mauro had a “total weekly calorie count” in mind (as opposed to a daily calorie count). So if your maintenence cals are at 2500/day, that’d be 17500/week. He did this so that you could eat very low cal during the week with crazy anabolic calorie binges over your carb up and still see progress.

You’ll have to figure out what works best for you, especially on the AD (tons of people love it, but there seems to be a pretty big variance in how people respond to it). You could try 2500 cals everyday for the whole 7 days in the week, or you could eat 1500 cals during the week and then eat 5000 cals on your carb days - either way, you’ll still be getting your 17500 cals/week.

Beyond that, you could even wave calorie intake during the week suited to your workout vs. non-workout days.

All of that said, if you’re going to try the low cal days during the week and huge cal days on your carb up, I would slowly drop cals as you’re still new to this diet being only 3 weeks in.

Good luck, man! This diet’s pretty legit.

3

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
Actually, when the AD was developed, Mauro had a “total weekly calorie count” in mind (as opposed to a daily calorie count). So if your maintenence cals are at 2500/day, that’d be 17500/week. He did this so that you could eat very low cal during the week with crazy anabolic calorie binges over your carb up and still see progress.

You’ll have to figure out what works best for you, especially on the AD (tons of people love it, but there seems to be a pretty big variance in how people respond to it). You could try 2500 cals everyday for the whole 7 days in the week, or you could eat 1500 cals during the week and then eat 5000 cals on your carb days - either way, you’ll still be getting your 17500 cals/week.

Beyond that, you could even wave calorie intake during the week suited to your workout vs. non-workout days.

All of that said, if you’re going to try the low cal days during the week and huge cal days on your carb up, I would slowly drop cals as you’re still new to this diet being only 3 weeks in.

Good luck, man! This diet’s pretty legit. [/quote]

Cheers man, that makes sense.

What if i eAt 2500 cals during the week and 4500 on saturdays? Would i still be losing weight?

Im 80 kg, so my maintenance at 18x bw is 3100.

4

No one can answer that but you. Weight loss is dependent on tons of individual factors.

In your case, I’d honestly keep calories at or just below (no more than 250-500) only because you’re still pretty new to the diet. If you read the anabolic diet threads (there are like a bazillion pages, though), many people really got “comfortable” with the diet after 6-8 weeks, I got the impression.

If you’re looking to lose weight, I’d really just up your fibrous veggie count and/or increase energy expenditure. But again, since you’re still new, I’d keep cals high enough while your body really adjusts to running on fat. I think you’ll really like the diet, but it just takes a bit of time. Most people seem to recomp slowly but surely just from switching to the diet, so you’ve got that goin for ya, keep in mind.

5

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
No one can answer that but you. Weight loss is dependent on tons of individual factors.

In your case, I’d honestly keep calories at or just below (no more than 250-500) only because you’re still pretty new to the diet. If you read the anabolic diet threads (there are like a bazillion pages, though), many people really got “comfortable” with the diet after 6-8 weeks, I got the impression.

If you’re looking to lose weight, I’d really just up your fibrous veggie count and/or increase energy expenditure. But again, since you’re still new, I’d keep cals high enough while your body really adjusts to running on fat. I think you’ll really like the diet, but it just takes a bit of time. Most people seem to recomp slowly but surely just from switching to the diet, so you’ve got that goin for ya, keep in mind. [/quote]

Im already loving this diet! I think its absolutely awesome! I think so coz just in 20 days i dropped 2 kg (seems to me like fat waste). Hopefully its not muscle.

I think im a hardgainer. Im pretty thin (now im 179cm at 79 kg, probably 8-9% bf). I find it extremely hard to build muscle. I hope this diet is going to help me. I’ll give this diet a final shot before i turn to steroids.

So what im doing now seems to work for fat loss (not sure yet coz its only my third week). I eat 2500 cals in 4 big meals during week and on sat id have like 5000 cals with 500 g carbs. Ur opinion is that 2500 is too low?

I used to follow poliquin style of diet but i prefer ad, simply coz i do calorie caounting, whereas poliquin doesnt recommend cal caounting. This way i have a lot of control over losing fat and it goes much faster.

Can i post my daily menu im interested in your opinion?

Thanks a lot!

P.S. When i did conventional bulking before i put 3 kg on, but all fat. Do. You think the same will happen on ad (simplu coz im a hardgainer).

6

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
Actually, when the AD was developed, Mauro had a “total weekly calorie count” in mind (as opposed to a daily calorie count). So if your maintenence cals are at 2500/day, that’d be 17500/week. He did this so that you could eat very low cal during the week with crazy anabolic calorie binges over your carb up and still see progress.

You’ll have to figure out what works best for you, especially on the AD (tons of people love it, but there seems to be a pretty big variance in how people respond to it). You could try 2500 cals everyday for the whole 7 days in the week, or you could eat 1500 cals during the week and then eat 5000 cals on your carb days - either way, you’ll still be getting your 17500 cals/week.

Beyond that, you could even wave calorie intake during the week suited to your workout vs. non-workout days.

All of that said, if you’re going to try the low cal days during the week and huge cal days on your carb up, I would slowly drop cals as you’re still new to this diet being only 3 weeks in.

Good luck, man! This diet’s pretty legit. [/quote]

ReAding more about AD, this is how i understood this issue of mine.

On a cut, it is only important that we are in caloric deficit on low carb days. On carb up days, its normal that we consume much more food simply coz most of the calories will come from carbs (50-60%). however, those carb calories will not go into fat, they will refuel muscles with glycogen and hence why we need more calories on a carb up day, even during cuts. the body still remains in a fat burning mode and The rest of the calories (40%) will be used for daily activities and the metabolic requirements of our bodies.

Might not be true but this is only my understanding of it.

Also when u mention weekly calories, i think mauro was refering to smth else. He just wanted to say that we dont feel like eating same amounts of food eery day and he wanted to make it more simple for us. I think his teaching is that we still need higher calories on carb up days.