Hey guys.. Finally making better progress on the diet.. I've got about 3-4 weeks to go, and I'm shaping up nicely.. This diet is a pre-contest diet (no carb, 2x refeeds), but I won't be competeing.. Just for looks as of now.. I want to figure out how I can maintain throughout the summer without being in such a calorie deficit.. Also, it would be really nice to eat some of the foods I've been going without for the last 8 weeks.. (pizza, chipotle burritos) Would I be better off sticking with a higher calorie no carb plan and re-feed days or switching to a maintinence calorie diet that includes good carbs.. (brown rice, sweet potatos) I figure I'll give myself a day or 2 to indulge throughout.. I just don't want to lose my hard earned results. Also, I'm thinking the addition of healthy carbs should help fill me out and make me look a little bigger.. (now, I'm completely water free from the diet) I'm not currently using a creatine supplement, so my plan was to start creatine at the end of the diet along with a healthy carb meal plan.. To give an idea: I started at about 185 eight weeks ago showing no abs. I'm now down to 170 looking ALOT leaner.. (good 4 pack showing and obliques coming in) I still have some bodyfat around the bellybutton area, but I've never been this lean in my life, so this is a challenge. Thanks for any help!!
Ill be coming off my contest diet in April and I want to add muscle but stay respectable for summer, probably 8%.
I plan to do a balanced approach, 40/40/20. I will have cheats probably three x per week (meals that is). I will drop my morning cardio back to just 30 mins light intensity every morning. Currently Im doing an hour in morning and 45 mins after training.
That should be enough to maintain.
My point, pick a plan and try it, thats the only way you will know. Will low carb work with cheats as refeeds, quite possibly, but I HATE the flat feeling. If you arent blessed with great muscle bellies I find that the flat look, looks worse on those people. People with great mucle bellies I think look better on low carbs.
Yeah.. I feel rather flat.. That's why I'd like to inccorporate the creatine and carbs.. I'm hoping to pack on about 5 lbs from doing so.. I'm a naturally heavy person.. I gain fat pretty quickly with a non structured diet.. I'm just worried that one ****** cheat meal may bloat me up for like 3 days.. I'll set up a maintinence calorie diet with carbs and cheats and post it up.. Let me know what you think.. Thanks alot!!
it might bloat you for a few days to have a cheat meal, but who cares its just water weight.
Now, if you consider yourself highly carb sensitive you will have to find what works best for you in terms on intake. In that case I suggest you build up to a level. So start by adding 25-50 grams of carbs per day, eaten in the earlier part of the day and post workout.
If you can tolerate that increase again. Give yourself one weak on such approach, you will then be able to systematically determine what works and what does not. This is how I dieted for this show Im doing I started at a certain level and continued to take 50 away until I got to numbers that supports 1.5 lbs of fat loss per week. Being lean afforded me the time to do this.
