Matching Carbohydrate Intake To Activity Levels
Recently Katie P from Thin Enough To Go To The Gym asked:
Carol
I agree with not viewing carbs as evil. Like you, I don't do very well on 20-30g carbs because of how much I exercise.
Could you please remind me how you cycle your carbs and whether you match low/medium/high carb days to particular workouts.
I am doing my first BFL challenge after following a low carb eating plan for almost a year and I am finding controlling the carbs challenging.
My answer is that I do tend to cycle carbohydrates to match my workout load. A no exercise day is usually low carbohydrate (10 to 50 grams) as I’m not going to need carbs to fuel a workout. Mid-level workouts like playing soccer with my son, swimming, aerobic dance or any aerobic exercise of about one hour requires a medium carb intake (40-75 grams). On days I blast it and do Power 90X combined with an additional aerobics session (a program called Power 90X Doubles I did all summer) I particularly pay attention to eating adequate carbs (75-150 grams) to fuel a grueling workout schedule.
For an example of my workload check out this one hour Power 90X workout that’s typical of my program and includes 24 exercises in all: Power 90X Chest Shoulders Triceps Workout
At least a few low carb advocates and dieters will argue you do not need carbohydrates at all to fuel your workouts and that your body will use fat for fuel through a process called gluconeogenesis. But these people are not engaging in the levels of activity we’re talking about. They usually report workouts of low to moderate aerobics of less than one hour or low impact resistance training (or none at all). Relying on this mechanism to fuel intense workouts – especially one’s like Power 90X, Body For Life, endurance running, intense weight training, or long duration aerobics, is unnecessary. It forces the body to work harder to produce its fuel and lessens energy levels which lowers performance. The less intense your workouts, the less rewarding your results.
You can read more on my carbohydrate cycling experiences here.
I lost scale weight (from 124 down to 114) and body fat (7 percent lost) doing 3 months of Power 90X Doubles combined with carb cycling. Not to mention quite a few inches off my waist, hips, and thighs (my measurements are listed on my sidebar). It works for me.
And I enjoyed portion controlled servings of high carb foods like pizza, beer, whole wheat bread, sour dough bread, tortillas, apples, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and other healthy but taboo foods to low carb dieters. The key is portion control and timing when carbs are eaten.
Most importantly, I added muscle mass of about 4 pounds which equates to roughly 200 calories burned daily just from having that added muscle. I'll wager those low carbers who don't do resistance training added no muscle to their bodies and might have lost some muscle mass.
I'll put together a few of my menus with my workout schedule soon to demonstrate better how I cycle carbs and post them.
By the way, I did Body For Life in 2000 after the birth of my son and lost fat while building muscle. I still have my Body For Life t-shirt. You’ll find it quite doable and effective I think.
Thanks for dropping by, Katie!
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How The Body Loses Body Fat
This brings up an excellent point many low carbohydrate advocates and dieters overlook. Active amateur and professional athletes including those who weight train or pursue bodybuilding have different energy needs than sedentary and moderately active people.
The physiological mechanism behind low carbohydrate weight loss theory is ketosis. Ketosis is one way the body uses body fat. The mechanism “is a stage in metabolism occurring when the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which can be used by the body for energy.” Read more here.
But ketosis is not the only way to lose body fat. If it were moderate and high carbohydrate diets like Weight Watchers, Nutri-system, and The Dr. Oz Diet would not work at all. And we all know these diets work if you stick to them. My brother once lost over 100 pounds on Weight Watchers and kept it off while he stuck to their principles. He only gained it back when he returned to eating processed and junk foods, stopped exercising and ignored portion control.
The human body will lose body fat in several situations besides low carbohydrate induced ketosis:
Increased Energy Demands Including Exercise
Calorie Deficit
Increases In Metabolism Including Adding Muscle Mass
Illness and Wasting Diseases
Increased Energy Demands Including Exercise - It’s quite possible to lose body fat through increasing your energy demands alone. You will still have to be aware of your diet and eat within your daily energy needs (example: daily caloric requirement of 2000, daily calories consumed between 1800-2200).
The obvious method to increase the energy demands on your body is exercise. This can be through a combination of increased daily activity (taking the stairs instead of the elevator), aerobic exercise (treadmill, jogging, dance), and resistance training. As long as you burn more calories than your body requires you will lose body fat.
Calorie Deficit – This can be achieved through cutting calories alone or by limiting a macro-nutrient - carbohydrates, fat, or protein - as long as you do not increase consumption of other macro-nutrients (limiting protein is not recommended for healthy active individuals). Combined with exercise a caloric deficit is doubly effective.
One of the pitfalls of low carbohydrate diets when not combined with portion and calorie control or at least awareness of portion size is you can out strip your diet by eating too much. Dr. Atkins warned of this in his “Atkins For Life” book.
I read a LOT of blogs and I can remember reading one entry by a low carb dieter who went out to dinner after a brief fast and ate two slabs of prime rib with vegetables. One 12 ounce restaurant portion of prime rib is 1187 calories, 105 grams of fat, 56 grams of protein, 0 carbs. Two restaurant size portions of prime rib with vegetables will run you over 2400 calories, 100 grams of protein, and 60 grams of fat. Unless you’re Jay Cutler or Ronnie Coleman there is no way you need that much calories, protein, or fat in one sitting. And these pros know better than to eat that many calories, protein and fat at one meal. That meal would have been enough for two or three Jay Cutler sized meals!
Later in the entry this blogger wondered why his one day fast combined with the low carb meal (mega-feast) didn’t result in weight loss. Simply put, this dieter outstripped his daily caloric requirement by indulging in gluttonous amounts of low carbohydrate food at one meal. It's a low carbohydrate diet fallacy that calories don't count. Check out Dr. Atkins "Atkins For Life" pages 73-75 if you don't believe me.
Beware that cutting calories too drastically (under 1200 for women and under 1800 for men) for long periods of time lowers your metabolism and slows body fat loss. It will also result in loss of muscle mass and other vital tissues. The pitfalls of extreme low calorie dieting are discussed here.
Increases In Metabolism – Metabolism – specifically how many calories we burn in a day - is influenced by factors you cannot control including age, sex, genetics, and by factors you can influence, particularly how much muscle mass you have and how many calories you burn through activity. Adding muscle to your body is an efficient metabolism booster with a plethora of other benefits.
A pound of muscle is more compact than a pound of fat and more metabolically active. A pound of body fat burns roughly 3 calories a day while a pound of muscle burns roughly 50 calories a day. Muscle is firm and attractive while body fat is soft and in too great a quantity unappealing. Muscle increases your strength, endurance and metabolism.
People who are sedentary or ignore resistance training naturally loose muscle mass (about 3 percent a decade between 30 and 80 years of age). This is the chief reason people experience a slowed metabolism as they age. With loss of muscle mass comes a lowered calorie demand. If you eat them same amount of calories as you did before losing muscle you will gain body fat.
Illness and Wasting Diseases – not a desirable method, folks. I just mention it because it’s a common phenomenon.
