My January low carb diet/cutting plan

[baldy]

For the last 18 months I have been hovering around 100kg, peaking at about 102kg. Not getting anywhere close to my goal of 105kg.
I go on crazy bulking for a week or so put on kg then slip back into my normal eating. My normal eating is not very clean but obviously not enough calories to get me to 105kg.

In weightlifting there is no point being 100kg, you are either 94kg or 105kg athlete. So in Jan I am going to try lose about 5kg and get down to 94kg (hopefully with abs ).
My appetite is not huge so intermittent fasting is pretty appealling, I think I could easily not anything till 1 o'clock as long as I can have a few cups of coffee and tea.
Once I get down to 94kg will see how it feels, fad diets might make it easier for me to put weight on and go back up to 100kg+

Also would like to try some low carb and see what the hype is about. Had a read over of devils play things diet -> http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... ng-t24.htm and it looks do able for a limited period of time, like a few weeks.

Also been looking at eco-Atkins -> http://www.theveganrd.com/2009/06/the-a ... vegan.html

Training wise I plan to keep the volume low and try keep my lifts up to 90% of 1RM.

With the low carb thing I am not really clear at what I should be aiming for. Is there a magic carb number for the day I should try stay below, like eat less than 50g of carbs.
Or should I avoid certain carb foods, how do I know which food besides the obvious potatoes, rice and bread to avoid?

Even better an Intermittent low carb vegan meal plan.

[Talyn]

Going low carb will make no difference other than vastly reducing your food options and making the whole process more difficult than it needs to be.

Just eat fewer calories, get enough protein and train hard. Intermittent fasting will also help with adhereing to the reduced calorie amounts.

[Koa]

Good idea. Going low-carb high-fat, good amout of protein is well established as getting a lot of fat moving.

I've played around with developing a vegan carb-nite version but stopped it for now since I found it is not very good for increasing strength, maintaining works well for me. Instead I am carb-cycling now intermittent fasting-style which in my case is better for increasing strength.

Anyway, for the carb-nite I went for 10 days low-carb which came from nuts, I didn't count the veggie carbs; high-fat which came from nuts, flax oil, olive oil and coconut oil; and protein came from rice and pea protein, spinach and nuts (next time I'll do it I might include soy yoghurt and soy milk although there I have to be careful with the carbs). After 10 days you carb up one night and keep fats low. Next 5 days low carb again, then high carb etc. And you follow an IF eating style. I only ate after training, during the day I had coffee + coconut oil, maybe snacked on some nuts. In any case I didn't feel deprived with food choices, I enjoy a regimented routine and being master of my eating. There is a lot you can do with veggies, nuts, salads etc. The advantage with these food choices for me I got rid of the bloat and flatulence from the lentils and other legumes I was eating regularly. I don't like hemp and soy protein, so I didn't include those two protein powders.

If you give it a try I'd be curious how it goes.

[JP]

...i would be suprised if you needed any gimmicks for this one mate, your natural weight level is not at your current level, once you decide to lose some weight you probably lose couple kg in the first day, and then the rest in couple of weeks without even noticing

Losing weight from high weight is easy!

[knackers]

I dont like the look of this man, you suggest not having anything but few cups of coffee up until 1pm in the afternoon and want to restrict calories aswell....
It looks like you are setting yourself up for failure here. The lowcarb stuff just looks like a fad diet.
You were saying that your normal diet isnt that clean anyway, why not start there first and try to clean it up a little bit, i.e... exchange the shit for some fruit/vegies in whole form or make stir fry type stews, smoothies,,etc.. if on a protein powder change it to hemp as hemp speeds up the metabolism.. things like that.
Dont lower the fuel coming in, change it up a little.

If your bulking only gets you to 102 you should easily nail 94 with a clean diet.

[hardcore iv]

Screw that. Keep bulking. You just need to surround yourself with successful bulkers for a week or so and you will see the bulking light. 105kg for the animals!

[^toby^]

What about 250 reps of KB Swings per day for 28 days?

[baldy]

I dont like the look of this man, you suggest not having anything but few cups of coffee up until 1pm in the afternoon and want to restrict calories aswell....
It looks like you are setting yourself up for failure here. The lowcarb stuff just looks like a fad diet.
You were saying that your normal diet isnt that clean anyway, why not start there first and try to clean it up a little bit, i.e... exchange the shit for some fruit/vegies in whole form or make stir fry type stews, smoothies,,etc.. if on a protein powder change it to hemp as hemp speeds up the metabolism.. things like that.
Dont lower the fuel coming in, change it up a little.

If your bulking only gets you to 102 you should easily nail 94 with a clean diet.

I know what your are saying but feels like I am stuck in a bit of "diet" rut at the moment. Feels like if I mix it up for a few weeks then things will get moving either up or down.
Cleaning up my diet would get my down to 94kg without a couple of months, but dont think my body composition would change that drastically and when I start bulking again don't think it would respond as quickly. Basically I am just trying to jump on the bodybuilder style cut/bulk. Losing some weight might also help my knee a little. It is all an experiment, will see what happens.

Now back to low carb, I see paleo diets let you eat sweet potato and devils play things includes corn salad. Not really sure if I get the rules.

[Talyn]

Now back to low carb, I see paleo diets let you eat sweet potato and devils play things includes corn salad. Not really sure if I get the rules.

[JP]

if body composition is a worry, just clean up the diet, up the protein, and up the "cardio" - not cardio of course but some movements aimed at fat burning.

the 94 comes so quick, its possible you wont see huge changes in the body composition with dieting, you would need to nail the bodybuilding moves to bring up the musculature to emphasise the change in the look with such a small drop.

I noticed quite a change now since the summer to be honest, but my BW is about the same, just the body is a bit bigger in areas which make it look a bit more muscular

[mouche]

I think low carb works and doesn't have to be too drastic.

What I would do is: 20-30mins low intensity exercise first thing in the morning - jog or even just walking to work or something. Then a decent breakfast (oats, fruit, nuts, protein shake), protein shake as a snack if needed, lunch with a decent hit of protein (eg veggie mince, 2-3 portions of veg, small portion of starchy carbs), high protein high fat afternoon snack (eg protein shake and nuts and/or yoghurt), high protein lower carb dinner (eg tofu, 2-3 portions of green veg - avoid tomatoes, peppers, carrots, etc - nuts/seeds/sesame oil), maybe an evening walk or something if you have time, protein shake before bed if needed.

I didn't really cut anything out of my diet, just shifted more stuff to earlier in the day (ate most of my fruit at breakfast or just before training) and cut out grains and starchy carbs in my evening meal... Still had chocolate in bed, still often ate almond butter from the tub before bed, but lost a bit of fat and just generally felt a bit better physically.

Obviously this is just one approach, I didn't have 5kg to lose, but if you are naturally a lower weight then as JP said I'm sure you'll snap right back to it, and maybe this approach will help you lose the fat and not feel deprived. Good luck!

[baldy]

The bodyfat calipers are being ordered, IF being read up on, leangains 16/8 is looking good.

[KaliBaby]

Screw that. Keep bulking. You just need to surround yourself with successful bulkers for a week or so and you will see the bulking light. 105kg for the animals!

So far this looks like the best advice

[^toby^]

I wonder what can you eat for mains for vegan paleo diet?

[Talyn]

The bodyfat calipers are being ordered, IF being read up on, leangains 16/8 is looking good.

What is your maintenance calories / how much will you be eating under this figure?