Xtrell's lowcarb log

[xtrell]

BACKGROUND
As of April 30, 2007:
Weight: 200 lbs
Approx. bodyfat: 12%
Approx. LBM: 180 lbs
Goal: 10% BF by June w/same or greater LBM

I started keto/lowcarb in December of 2006, and I think I finally understand it (yes, it's taken this long). I finally understand the purpose of the carb-ups, I finally understand the basics of how the human body works with foods, I finally understand what is healthy and why, and I think I'm finally ready to take full advantage of this diet. I've learned a lot from hanging out in the keto forums, but Pasquale's "The Anabolic Diet" helped me to a great degree, as well as Eades' "Protein Power".

My log here is somewhat like a traditional Keto diet (well, it is), with a few things taken from the Anabolic Diet to get the muscle I've lost figuring low-carb diets out back while still losing weight. My diet and workouts are intended to maximize muscle growth and maintenece why still losing substantial amounts of bodyfat with a good amount of energy and feeling great.

So basically what you're about to see is the compilation of everything I've learned in relation to keeping muscle while losing fat while feeling good. I welcome input, suggestions, and criticism, but that doesn't mean I'll take it to heart. I'll be updating on my progress here at least once a week. Here goes..

SPLIT


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/xtrellweb/FreeSnap001.jpg

DIET


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Supplements: Multivitamin, 200mcg Chromium Picolinate, 500mg Calcium Citrate with 250mg Magnesium, 20mg Vanadyl Sulfate, 1tsp of BCAA powder, and 100mg ALA will all be taken twice daily; in the morning, and post-workout (assuming the two times don't conflict). I will also be taking 1-2 tbsp of fish oil per day. I'll also be taking fiber tablets.

Foods: I'll be eating one ground-beef patty with cheese per day (minimum), some varied steaks as they come about, lots of chicken breasts with olive oil, tuna with mayonnaise, provolone cheese with salami dipped in ranch dressing (amazing), and natural peanut butter for those hungry moments. "Keto desserts" will be kept to a minimum since I'll be splurging once a week as it is, I don't think I'll crave sweets too much. But if they do come along, I'm a big fan of my low-carb strawberry cheesecake (cream cheese, splenda, and splenda-sweetened sugar free strawberry jam), the low-carb peanut butter cups (unsweetened cocoa, splenda, butter, natural peanut butter), or just a chocolate bar (unsweetened cocoa, a little butter, cream). I will be eating green vegetables and salads. I don't like avacado, but I'll probably throw some in there for the great health benefits they offer.

Drinks: Water and coffee. Half & Half or full cream with the coffee to help fill me up.

Frequency: Basically when I'm hungry, which is every three hours or so. I won't be splitting up the calories equally, but I will be counting them and adjusting each meal accordingly.

WHY

The day succeeding the carb-load will be a day of rest, as my body should still be somewhat sore from my depletion workout just the previous day; so I'll use this day to do some cardio to reject any possible spillover from the carb-load and get my body back into fat burning mode with little to no carbs.

Having my heavy, high volume workouts the next day will result in intense workouts with the energy to do cardio to burn some extra calories as well. I will eat below maintenance, as this is a cutting diet; however this amount of calories will suffice for an adequate level of energy to perform properly in the gym.

I will be consuming PWO carbs only on these high volume workouts to guarantee muscle growth/maintenance. I realize that many believe they are unnecessary on a low-carb diet and I do not disagree with that; however, these two days are not dedicated to fat-burning as much as they are to utilize the energy from the carb-load and have a great workout, and while PWO carbs may slow down fat burning, they can't hurt recovery.

By the end of my workout Wednesday, hopefully most of my carb-load energy/glycogen won't be what it was, so I will lower calories and up the cardio, to go from the strength conditioning phase of the week to more fat-burning for the rest of the week. The workouts will be tougher, but with any luck I should be perfectly depleted by Saturday. As far as catabolism and starving myself, I'll do what Dr. Pasquale suggests: check to see if I'm losing more than 1.5-2lbs per week, and if I am, up the calories. I'll also be using the mirror.

I feel my arms are lagging behind in comparison to my chest and back, so I will work these out on the day that I doubtlessly will have the most energy. I am trying to get my legs smaller (I'm short and they are genetically huge) but still cut, so I am doing high reps and low weight towards the end of the week; this will be a good solution to burning more calories, as well. Having two days of abs, a lower-rep and a higher-rep, is positively stimulating to the ab muscles in my experience, as well, so hopefully it will show.

CARB-LOAD

PreWO, I'll eat a banana. PWO, pre-carb-load, I will consume 60g dextrose, 60g maltodextrin, and 35g creatine with 50g of protein (hello, bathroom). I will have a similar shake to this (30g dextrose, 30g maltodextrin, and 35g creatine with 30g protein) before bed. Midnight will not be the end of my carb-load, bedtime will be.

As my PWO shake showed, I'll be creatine loading on this carb-load day with about 70g of creatine to last the next six days. I've never loaded with creatine before; for the past few months I've just been taking 5g of CEE per day, so I'm interested in seeing how it works out if it does at all.

During the carb-load, I will not be counting calories as much as the rest of the week, and I will not be eating completely clean. If I feel like taking the girl out to ice cream and then apple pie afterwards, I will. I will never be hungry, but I will never be full. I'll be consuming a good amount of oatmeal and brown rice given its availability, but the majority of my carbs will be from stuff like hamburgers or cereal or pizza.

I've never had too much of a problem doing carb-loads this way, however I am still at 12% body fat, so if I ever get to 8%, I may have to slow down and get a little more disciplined.

Well guys, I'll keep you updated. Thanks for reading.

[Druluv75]

Good Luck man, just tagging along on your journey!

[aznxdgnz]

subscribed and good luck

[The Director]

Good looking back man (no homo). Good luck on this.

[Mainframe]

Frequency: Basically when I'm hungry, which is every three hours or so. I won't be splitting up the calories equally, but I will be counting them and adjusting each meal accordingly.


I like this idea more. You still have to keep track of your calories but etaing them at random amounts at random times makes the diet more of a lifestyle to me and keeps your body guessing more.

Only thing is you gotta have good self control.

[ronz0r]

Looks good! I'm curious to see how a fairly standard keto approach works. I've always thought that you would have to use a more drastic approach to get sub 10%

[aznxdgnz]

hey no creatine? any reason?

[xtrell]

hey no creatine? any reason?


As my PWO shake showed, I'll be creatine loading on this carb-load day with about 70g of creatine to last the next six days. I've never loaded with creatine before; for the past few months I've just been taking 5g of CEE per day, so I'm interested in seeing how it works out if it does at all.

Creatine on the weekends.

[xtrell]

So far so good.. Monitoring calories, but my appetite seems to be fluctuating per day.. For example, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I start class at 8am, take a nap at about 1 or 2, and then usually don't get to sleep before midnight, 1 am. On Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, I wake up around 10 or so, no nap, and go to bed around the same time..

So on Tue, Thurs I eat more because I'm up longer, and on MW it's a bit different, since I'm eating when I'm hungry as opposed to a strict eating schedule.

As far as the workouts are going, I had a little less energy this morning for HIIT which made it a mediocre cardio session; however I like to look at it in good light since I hadn't had breakfast yet and this supposedly means that you're burning fat as opposed to food [glucose- does that 'fact' hold true on keto, that it's best to do cardio on an empty stomach?]. My muscles feel very full and I have a great amount of strength. I need to figure out a new bicep workout, because by their sag I can tell their sick of my current one.

[Druluv75]

Xtrell - Don't worry about creatine loading, it seems like creatine can be absorb with Whey Protein, and you'll still get the same strength inceases as if you did it with carbs. So you don't need carbs to load creatine, whey protein while do just fine.

Another win for Keto!!

The following was taken from Muscle & Body Magazine may 2007

Real Science Studies On Athletic Enhancement by Tim Ziegenfuss, PHD

Source -->
Cribb PJ, Williams AD, Stathis CG, Carey MF, Hayes A. Effects of whey isolate, creatine, and resistance training on muscle hypertrophy. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007 Feb;39(2):298-307


Scientists have know for years that when creatine is co-ingested with simple carbohydrates, the insulin response afterward helps drive creatine into skeletal muscle, resulting in greater increases in muscle size. The problem is that the amount of sugar necessary to increase creatine uptake is rather large (~90-100g per 5g of creatine). A recent study from Australia compared the effects of creatine plus carbs to creatine plus whey protein on muscle strength and muscle size during 11 weeks of a weight-training regimen.

For Kicks, two other groups were included in the study: carbohydrate only and whey protein only. All groups were matched for total caloric intake during the study. When the smoke cleared, the carbohydrates-only group faired the worst in terms of gains in lean mass, strength and muscle size. Surprising, creatine plus carbs and creatine plus whey protein were similar in their effects on training adaptations.

Practical Applications >
Once again, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of creatine monohydrate on gains in strength, size and lean mass. It also shows that mixing creatine with carbs or whey protein is equally effective.

[xtrell]

I'm only taking carbs PWO twice per week, though. I'm going to see how loading works on the weekend, then maybe I'll switch to that. It's different for everyone.

[ironstrife]

why no PWO carb on shoulder and leg days?

[xtrell]

^Because the workouts aren't as hard, they're almost off days if it wasn't for the cardio. Plus I'm not really a fan of my huge legs so they don't deserve extra calories for healing. Plus I wanted to lower the calories and food intake those days and see what happens. I've actually spread shoulders across arms and back/chest day, so it's basically ab day.

A little update:

The thing I've noticed most of all this is the cardio. I can't believe my progress in just two or three weeks of doing cardio 4x a week. It's more weight loss than three months of straight keto.. I'm carbing up for almost two full days a week, too, with minimal spillover that hinders my progress. It's very encouraging.

Workouts and strength are good, and now that I'm starting an EC+green tea stack I'm interested to see what happens in the next few weeks. I think I might actually exceed my goal by June if I keep up at this rate, but I guess we'll see.

[ironstrife]

what kind and how long was your cardio sessions?

[xtrell]

Up until I started the EC stack it was Mon + Wed AM: HIIT around the track for ~15-20 minutes (2 miles or so); Thursday afternoon: HIIT on the bike or stairmaster (even intervals), and then Sunday morning post-carbload HIIT around the track. There's nothing like running.

But now that I'm on EC and they don't recommend HIIT on it, I go on the treadmill and let it take me on a "random hill" with max speed 7 or so and max incline 7-10. It's a leg workout that doesn't absolutely kill your heart while still making you sweat and burn an ample amount of calories in just 20 minutes. I still don't know what else I'll do, probably stairmaster the same way.

[Druluv75]

Stair Master Hiit are good, I use them to spice up my cardio routine. EC no A, why can't you use EC on HIIT?

[xtrell]

HIIT is for raising your BMR for the day anyway (assuming you do it in the morning, else it's just good for your heart and burning calories), and EC does this without HIIT. Plus if your heart really is pumping faster and harder on EC like it's supposed to, raising your HR doing HIIT could be somewhat dangerous.

A little update...

I'm changing my carbups from essentially 2 days (working out 8-9AM, but PWO shake w/75g carbs fills me up until at least 1PM) to about 1.2 days, depleting myself Friday afternoon/night so I don't eat as much during Friday night but still can be free of stressing over a diet for the night.

It worked well (carbing up 2 days) the first few weeks, but this last week I noticed a little spillover.. Whether it was because at 11:30PM I drove to Alberton's to buy pudding and donuts, or just because of finals week causing me to not be able to do cardio 4-5x a week like I've been doing, I still decided to cut it back and keep it a little healthier.

Anyway, progress is good. On the EC stack I find myself being totally content at around 16-1800 calories per day, if that (maintenance ~3000). I kind of have to force myself to consume food because even though I feel week with hunger I have SOOOO much energy all the time. Anyway, I figure if I am consuming so little calories, weekly carbups will be nothing but a benefit for keeping muscle mass while eating so little during the week.

As far as Keto goes, my macros the past few days and today have been:
(the carb count comes mainly from ON 100% whey, aside from one day I had a bag of peanuts)
5/24: on pace for 55% fat, 42% protein, 3% carbs @ ~1800 calories
5/23: 54% fat, 44% protein, 2% carbs @ 1925 calories (more than enough protein)
5/22: 55% fat, 41% protein, 4% carbs @ 1646 calories (not enough protein)
5/21: 57% fat, 40% protein, 3% carbs @ 1836 calories (good amount of protein)
5/20: 60% fat, 38% protein, 2% carbs @ 1375 calories (ouch, overall)

To keep myself from overeating and to balance out what I may measure wrong, on FitDay I always enter in at least 10 calories over what it really is, so I'm guessing each day should be no more than 100 calories too high.. As you can see, some days I was especially low in calories, but the cool part was I had no lack of energy thanks to what I am guessing is the EC stack (not even at the full dose yet, either). Whether it's helping burn fat or not, it's great for energy.

As far as my split goes, I'm mixing it up week to week depending on how good of an arm workout I get in the beginning of the week and how sore I am, to prevent overtraining them during back and chest.

Moderate intensity cardio is boring, even when I get to read A Song of Ice and Fire books, so I'm going to try to figure something out in regards to EC and HIIT. There's nothing like running.

One last thing: I move out of the dorms today, for the whole summer. This excites me greatly- I'll finally have access to all the red meat and eggs I want ALL day, instead of every morning for eggs and select days for beef. My loving mother bought me a ton of supposedly healthier red meat from cornfed cows on private farms or something, because she fears for my life on a diet like this. But anyway, so it'll be all eggs, beef, and whey now. I'll have peanuts once in a while as well.

Anyway, until next time....

[curly-top318]

Nice Log....you Are Keeping Track Of Every Crumb..;)..nice Work...200lbs And 12% Bodyfat! Damn! You Must Be A Beast!! Lean,mean Muscle Machine

[xtrell]

Here goes, it's 2PM... I finished my PWO shake at 12:30 and wil be going out for coffee and maybe some food in about half of an hour.... Once I consume some sugar I know this wil not be a clean carbup, but I'm debating on finding the discipline... I'm also thinking of just ending it tonight, if I do splurge, just to maybe prevent the same spillover as last time...