Bodybuilding Forums

Has anyone tried a low carb carb up on their carb up days?

I am having a hard time with my carb up days because I feel SOOOOO out of whack.
My insulin seems to increase so easily whenever I have any sort of carb.

I have eaten things like chili or beans in the past and not had a spike, but now it seems like it will spike it noticably.
I can tell, because I will have rapid heart beat, feel hyper, anxious and then get sleepy, tired and essentially get the sugar blues.

I am taking in only about 200 or so grams of carbs on each day of my 2 day weekend carb up. It's usually pizza, burgers and fries and some weight gainer drinks.

I am thinking of dropping them down to maybe only 1 day (Sunday) and making it one meal, like burgers and fries, fried chicken, tacos/beans and rice etc. rather then just carbing up the whole day.

I have tried in vain but I feel simply delirious whenever I eat too many carbs.. it's like my body can't deal with excess insulin or something..

I watched an interesting interview with Tony Freeman the other day -- a pro bodybuilder who low-carbs and looks fantastic -- and he mentions that as his body fat reduces, he doesn't "carb load", he "fat loads". He eats low-carb all the time (though his definition of "low carb" is "less than around a hundred grams a day") with impressive results.

Never really heard about fat loading before; so far Google's just turning up "night before a competition"-type stuff on it.

--Matt B.

redgiki wrote:I watched an interesting interview with Tony Freeman the other day -- a pro bodybuilder who low-carbs and looks fantastic -- and he mentions that as his body fat reduces, he doesn't "carb load", he "fat loads".

I actually do the same thing! It's based off the traditional Bodybuilding idea of a re-feed. It allows you to cut calories during the week, stay in fat burning mode even after the refeed.

The idea is that it boosts your leptin, which controls hunger and the slowing of metabolism.

As you cut calories, over time the leptin falls and eventually your metabolism slows to match your reduced calories, doing the fat load boosts leptin to keep your metabolism at maintenance level and allows you to have a more consistent fat loss

what is someone supposed to eat on a fat load or fat fast? just fat?

I think I may be at a point where my body prefers fat over carbs so much that I NEED fat in order to function.
Maybe that's the adverse reactions I am feeling, rather then burning and using the carbs I eat on the carb days it's saving it as glycogen, but I might actually be starving my body of fuel since I need to burn FAT not carbs (??)

The only thing I have heard about fat fasts is on the Atkins fat fast... I think it's something like butter, mayo, whole eggs, double cream, bacon etc. and such. Virtually zero carbs, including veggies...

I think I will make Sunday my official 1 day carb up day, 1 meal, high carb, that's it.. no exceptions.

I drank a few weight gainer drinks after my last workout and I feel very sore still and much weaker. I used to drink a pure protein shake and feel really tight, strong and nearly recovered the next day...

GT_907 wrote:I think I may be at a point where my body prefers fat over carbs so much that I NEED fat in order to function.
Maybe that's the adverse reactions I am feeling, rather then burning and using the carbs I eat on the carb days it's saving it as glycogen, but I might actually be starving my body of fuel since I need to burn FAT not carbs (??)

I think this is actually a good thing, because your body will feast on your body fat and let the carbs do their thing. I can't remember if I just assumed that or if it was somewhere on these forums or in the ebook though.

Maybe we should change the name to "compliance-enhancing re-feed period" and then each person can choose whether or not to implement an increase in fat or an increase in carbs...