The last 10 - A Carb Cycling Oddessy (Log)

[aiming45]

Ok, I've come pretty far these past couple two three years. Since I "woke-up" and decided I had gotten waaaaay too out of shape I am now 65 pounds leaner. I now eat clean 6 days a week and workout religiously. I've managed to drop from 235, mostly gut weight (sick) with accompanying asthma and other various health problems I blamed on "allergies" - down to a steady 180.

If I had to guess I'd say I've gone from about 36% BF to around 15% now. I have been at this current weight far too long now. I will not rest until the six pack appears! So, to that end I am going to try and break this plateau with a carb cycling diet. "Big Ups" to Kaden, aka ViperGQ for inspiring me with his amazing 30 day transformation. Read about his run through here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=2113371

I've decided to start a log to hold myself accountable to others and not just myself. Also, the knowledge and advice on these boards I find to be invaluable. So off we go with the first step on our journey.

Diet-wise I am planning on carb cycling around my workout days. I'm thinking of doing low carb days on workout days, no carb days on cardio only days with a high carb day a week. Probably Friday's because I took up long distance running last year and my long run days are on Saturday mornings. I managed to keep most of my muscle size by continuing to weight train 3x a week until about 2 weeks out from the Chicago Half Marathon last August. By the way training for the 2007 race starts next week, so that will be my cardio. I'm about as fast as a turtle crawling up hill, on purpose. The slower pace I believe retained more muscle. The mileage in training increases, but the first 30 days are low enough to support this diet I believe.

I'm 37 years old and have no realistic expectation of looking like Ronnie or Jay so at this point my goal is to maintain current muscle mass while shedding the fat down to about 7%. This coming fall (after the Half-Marathon) I'll be starting a slow clean bulk to put back some of the size I had back in my Army days. I think on my frame I should be closer to 190 while maintaining a single digit BF%. I was comfortable at that most of my adult life, till a decade or so ago when I got lazy and lost my mind. With that in mind my weekly weight training schedule consists of a full body weight circuit on Mon/Wed/Fridays.

I concentrate on classic compound movements. I always start with Squats then alternate Upper and Lower body movements. I move my way down the list of bodyparts from largest to smallest. I tend to train rather instinctively. The general blueprint looks the same but each training day of the week I like to do a different exercise for the named body parts. I'll detail each day as I go.

So the break down looks like this...

Current Stats
Age: 37
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 180

Planned Supplements:
EC stack (1 x 3)
Multi-Vitamin (1 x 1)
Omega 3-6-9 10-20g
B-Complex with C (1 x 1)
Various Protein Powders

Cardio:
Race training on Tue (3 miles), Thu (3.5 miles), and Saturday (4 miles).
Mon, Wed, Fri 30-45 minutes on a stationary bike after weight training.

Weight Training:
Monday
Squats
Flat BB Bench
Leg Ext.
BB Rows
Deadlift
BB Curl
Seated Calf Raise
Pressdowns
Military Press
Reverse Curl
Crunch/Reverse

Wednesday
Squats
Incline Bench
Leg Ext.
Cable Rows
Lying Leg Curl
DB Curl
Standing Calf
Overhead press
Side Laterals
Hammer Curls
Crunch/Reverse

Friday
Leg Press
DB Flyes
Leg Ext.
Lat Pulldowns
Seated Leg Curl
Cable Curls
Seated Calf
CloseGrip Bench
Front/Rear Laterals
Reverse Cable Curls
Core Work (planks, etc.)

So Mondays are heavier weight/low reps, Wednesdays are moderate weight/moderate reps, Fridays are low weight/high rep. Got all my bases covered as far as every training philosophy out there is concerned? Ya think!

Proposed Carb Cycling Schedule:
Mon - Low
Tue - No
Wed - Low
Thu - No
Fri - High
Sat - Low
Sun - No

How's that look to you folks? Any suggestions and tweaks are welcomed.

I'll post before pics soon as I get the b@lls to take em.

Thanks to all in advance.

Joseph

[aiming45]

So technically I started yesterday as a "no" carb day. Per fitday.com the following is my macro breakdown and what I ate.

Calories Eaten Today
Total Calories: 1745
60g FAT
54g CARB
222g PROTEIN

Wake
EC Stack
Stationary Bike 45 minutes

Breakfast
3 Whole Egg Omelet with 6oz lean Ham/Turkey
Multi + Omegas + B-complex w/ C

Mid Morning
MuscleMilk 1 Scoop
EC stack

Lunch
MuscleMilk RTD Large (was in a hurry)

Mid Afternoon
Isopure Protein Drink
EC Stack

Dinner
Beef, rib-eye steak 6oz
Green Beans sauted in Olive oil
green salad with/mushrooms red cabbage
100 calorie Fudgsicle bar (I had to do it and it fit in the macros for the day)

Evening snack
2 scoops GNC Whey Protein

Think I overdid the Protein intake. My goal is 1g per 1lb of lean body mass which should be about 165g per day. More is not necessarily worse, I'm torn between adding more protein or fat via some natty peanut butter or a handful of raw almonds or something to keep my calories up. It felt like more, but ended up being less than 1800 calories yesterday. I'm not sure if I should go much below that.

Joseph

[DJohnson]

Looks like you're right on track. I just wanna add it though that under the advice of Tom Venuto's book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle I never do a "no carb" day and it has worked great. I don't think they help at all and they really seem to hurt performance in the gym. 25% carbs is low enough to get all the benefit in my experience.

Oh yeah, and cutting into single digits, even though its hard work, is a ton of fun. It makes the whole weight loss process worthwhile. I can't wait to see your progress.

[aiming45]

Thanks for the advice. Man, you're telling me about the hurt your performance in the gym! I just got back from the gym and I was suckin serious wind.

Today is day two and I'm doing "Low" carb. I usually eat 5 meals a day, so I plan on incorporating carbs in 3 of the 5 meals. Kind of following TwinPeaks suggestions in his articles here on bb.com.

However I did not have any carbs for breakfast and only a minimal amount in a MuscleMilk RTD before my workout at lunch time and it sucked. I got through it, but was weak and had to push to complete it.

Also, I went to the dentist yesterday and discovered an infection under a tooth. He's started me on Amoxocillin anti-biotic for the next 7 days. Does anyone have any advice/experience on how this may/may not effect/interact with my current supp stack listed above?

Thanks.

Joseph