Same Calories with More Protein and Less Carbs?

Hey everyone, I have a question about daily carb/ protein intake.

I have been working out for over half of a year now doing Wendlers hardgainers 5/3/1. I’m 6’ and around 184-189 lbs. Still not very strong at all to be honest but I have been noticing some decent visual muscle gains.

My macro split I’ve been adhering to is 45/35/20 carb/protein/fat. Just kind of a ratio I picked out of not knowing what to do and picked numbers in the ballpark of what I had read to do.

My question is, would I be hurting myself if I starting eating more protein and less carbs? I’m not a huge fan of rice/quinoa/bread as they seem to “weigh me down” eating them at work and I feel almost lethargic afterwards. I also find it difficult to eat as much as I have designated in my macros. Protein, on the other hand, I love. I love eating any type of meat and even though I am already eating quite a bit of protein I definitely feel as though I could eat much more. Keep in mind- I do eat tons of vegetables every day, and I do enjoy them, I just don’t know how I’d down pounds of them to meet my carb goal for the day. It may not be beneficial to be eating more protein as far as gains are concerned, but I feel as though I would be much more energetic, upbeat and willing to work harder at work (and while working out) if I wasn’t feeling like garbage after eating so much rice.

Thanks for reading and I hope someone can shine some light on my situation.

You could try eating most of your carbs around your workouts and eat protein with fats on the other normal meals. This way you don’t have to decrease your overall carbs and you can eat more meat to get the fats.

Also what kind of carbs are you eating and what are you eating with them? The issue with lethargy can most likely be alleviated coupling carbs with foods that slow down digestion.

I typically eat chicken or ground beef with brown rice and/ or quinoa with handfuls of spinach, arugula and onion thrown in. Some olive oil and seasoning on there too. Lately I’ve been adding black beans to the mix as well. Another combination is eggs or chicken/fish with handfuls of spinach and onions on a couple whole wheat wras. Both of those examples are for lunch and dinner.

I also eat natural peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread during work before and after lunch to tide me over.

As for eating carbs around my workouts- the way I have my macros calculated right now that would mean 400g carbs in a couple of meals- I wouldn’t be totally opposed to that but I don’t know if I’d be able to take down 200g of carbs before working out and then another 200 afterwards. I’m trying my best to stay away from sugar because it makes me crash pretty hard. But I guess drinking a good amount of fruit juice around my workout would help?

Not quite—fruit juice has a high content of fructose, which really shouldn’t be consumed in very high quantities, and isn’t the best choice for carbs around workouts.

I’d say try and consume 250 g of carbs around workouts:
50 g pre
30 g during
170 g post, for example

You can buy Dextrose, which is pretty cheap, and mix it with water and protein and drink both 1 hour before the workout and during.

Then after your workout you consume the remaining 170 g from a source like white rice.

That way you are left with 150 g of carbs for the other meal which amount to 50 g per meal if you only eat three more meals. You can choose lower GI carbs like you’ve been doing for those meals, along with some fruit.

Awesome, I will give that a shot. Thank you very much for your help

you’re very welcome man!