So it has been 4 years since I started my fitness journey… My first goal was to get a true six pack, I came close a number of times… but never was truly satisfied. My closest was this last summer where I was at 7.5% Body Fat at 183 pounds. To get to that % I cut out carbohydrates completely and ran about 30+ miles a week for a good 4-6 weeks. I was thin and a bit cut but did not retain my strength very well, most of my lifts plateaued or plummeted.
This time around I am taking a different approach, first off since September I have been in a “Bulk” phase where I would make sure to eat no less then 2300 calories and 200 carbohydrates a day! I have maintained 200 pounds to date and am currently sitting around 10-11% body fat. Now I have been doing a TON of research and came across this article. The goal behind this(for me) is to reach 5% body fat but retain all my Maximums on my lifts. To do this, I have to eat a large amount of carbohydrates on the days I do my heaviest lifts, eat a low amount of carbohydrates on moderate-low intensity lifting days and finally NO carbohydrates on days that I do not lift. The article mentions to phase out cardio… that is not happening, maybe if I was up on my feet all day but unfortunately I sit on my ass for most of it writing code to better the world. So my new workout/eating split looks like this:
- Monday-High carb *Chest/Back*
- Tuesday-Low Carb *Bi/Core*
- Wednesday-High Carb *Legs/Tri*
- Thursday-No Carb *Light Cardio w/ Yoga, Tai Chi or long stretch*
- Friday-Low Carb *Pushups*
- Saturday-Low Carb *Light Cardio*
- Sunday-No Carb *off*
I plan on Blogging each day about my new plan! SO…
It has been 2 days now since I started this, Yesterday was a NO carb day. It sucked. Enough said. I still tracked using my FitFoodDiary, I ate around 60gs of carbs. The hardest part was finding something for breakfast, I ate steamed veggies with a little olive oil and grated cheese… For lunch I made an omelet, then had some mixed nuts for snack and for dinner I made my homemade peanut butter protein pudding.
Today! was a High Carbohydrate day (Yippie!) For breakfast I had oatmeal with french vanilla protein, and 2 open faced whole wheat peanut butter sandwiches with sliced bananas. Lunch was a Whole Wheat Wrap(The Popeye) from better gorumet it has grilled chicken egg whites and spinach and a side of hummus with whole wheat pita. Pre-workout was a normal protein shake, and dinner immediately after for my post-workout meal was 1 cup rice with 1.5 cups black beans! Around 300gs of carbohydrates attained! With 100 calories left to SPARE!
you forgot to add that you also run six days a week on top of your lifting, tisk tisk..