I’ve been experimenting with adding carbohydrates back into my diet to see how I would feel, and more importantly, to see if it made me fat. I got so lean using a ketogenic diet, and it was pretty effortless, that I had convinced myself it was the lack of carbohydrates, and the fat adaptation that comes with keto dieting, that created the lean physique in my mirror.
I didn’t just add them back in randomly, but rather strategically to get the most out of them. I also tweaked the rest of my diet to create a holistic, muscle building, fat burning, make me immortal eating plan I don’t have a catchy name for. Essentially, I take advantage of the cortisol awakening response each morning by delaying my first meal at least two hours. I then eat a very low carb meal much like the way I ate for years during keto. As an example, I had ground beef with zucchini squash and some colby cheese as my first meal today. On training days, I usually get a second meal in of similar design, and then about 45 minutes before training, I have a whey protein shake, usually with coffee and coconut oil.
After training, I eat a very low fat, high carb meal. My carbohydrates of choice are low insulin load choices (see this fascinating and informative site for more info) like sweet potatoes, oatmeal, strawberries, blueberries and my personal favorite, Fig Newtons. The post-workout meal is pretty big, eaten around 4:30-5 since I now train in the afternoons, and then I eat one more meal 1-2 hours before bed, consisting again of very low fat, high protein and medium carbs. The carbs before bed are alleged to help you sleep better and I’ve found that so far, this seems to be the case.
My goals with this change in diet were to feel better and not get fat. Let’s assess:
Feeling better is pretty subjective, but my digestive system seems to be more stable with this diet and that’s a plus. I enjoy eating the post-workout meal very much; also a plus.
I am leaner than I was in August when I got my Dexa Scan. The addition of carbohydrates hasn’t had any impact at all on my body composition. What has is energy balance. There’s no trickery one can employ to avoid the biological and physical laws of the universe. If you’re getting fat, it’s because you’re eating too many calories. If you’re getting lean, it’s because you’re eating fewer calories than your body requires. It’s really that simple. There are better food choices than others, and there are advantages to low carb dieting for one’s health, like lower triglycerides and more stable blood sugar. If I didn’t lift weights for a living (just kidding, no one pays me to do it) I’d probably just stay low carb all the time. But ultimately, even with a low carb diet, if you eat too many calories… well, see above.
At some point in the near future, I anticipate arriving at a body composition where I say, hey, that looks pretty good. At that point, I will increase calories slightly to find a new level of maintenance calories and then decide if I want to add a bit more to try to help coax my body along into building some more muscle.
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