Hey guys, I just started the journey toward fat loss in January 2016 and am down from 330 to 290. I met with a trainer who set my macros up at 40p, 30c, 30f, and Im doing a heavy lifting regimen to gain muscle to more naturally burn fat… and keep it off.
My question is, obviously I always need protein on workout and non for recovery, but what of carbs? It makes sense to load carbs before a workout, but should I be eating less fat on a workout day and more on a rest day? Same with carbs, more on a workout day and less on a rest day?
Thanks in advance.
Good work so far mate.
IMO you’re on the money. Limit carbs on rest days, load up on training days. I do that to keep my body composition more or less consistent as I gain muscle slowly. I go with 100-150 g of carbs on rest days and 200-400 g on training days. I couldn’t say what would work for you. You could try going super low carb on rest days and on training days have just enough to recover. What those numbers are you’ll find out by experimenting.
Edit: with fats, I can’t help too much. Personally, I don’t pay too much attention to them but that’s mainly because it seems like my body uses them well and honestly, the amount of effort to control them along with carbs and protein would be more than I’m prepared to make. Since my focus is strength I’m OK with that.
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Really a personal preference. It is not going to change your results much and personally the few ounces more a week I may lose is not worth it. I have also found that Intermittent Fasting has done more for results than micromanaging carbs when I am attempting to lose weight.
Thanks for the tips guys. I read a nice article about basic nutrition and it all pretty much was exactly what my trainer had told me, no suprise.
Tell me more about this fasting thing. Is it more for overall fat loss or fine tuning kinda stuff. Right now I’m gaining muscle to burn fat naturally and keep it off. From there I’m sure a different kind of macro will likely apply.
As far as I’m aware IF comes in various forms. I’ve used a version of the 5/2 diet for lifters that’s on this site. Very simply, you eat breakfast and dinner but nothing in between two non-consectutive and non-training days a week. Lots of water, of course, and coffee helps. I think you’re meant to have small breakfast and dinner too (I never did though).
I did that for a year or so, but the more muscle I gained the harder the fasting days got. I started out being able to do 12 hours and by the end of the year eight was a struggle. I wasn’t doing small breakfasts and dinners either.
Yes, it works but I’d say a very simple carb cycling approach will work too and will be sustainable for longer.
EDIT: I think it’s for fat loss, which it did help with, but for me it was more of a controller for body composition because on my non-fasting days my diet was not so fantastic. Plenty of calories, and just about enough protein to add muscle but that’s about it. Carb cycling let me actually clean up my diet while still getting heaps of calories and plenty of protein.