I have a fair bit to talk about about this week, I have been reverse dieting for the past few weeks which basically means I have been increasing my calories slowly by 100 or so calories a day for the last 3 weeks.
I have done this for a few reasons, the main one being that I had been in a calorie deficit since January 1st, which I'm sure you will agree is a hell of a long time! The second reason (and my favourite) was that was I felt I was lean enough I had achieved my goal - I was waking up ripped to shit and it felt good. The third reason was that I wanted to learn more about my body and how I reacted to an increase in calories, and to a greater extent how I reacted to an increased in carbohydrates.
During my diet I was consuming 1600 kcal's net per day, with one re-feed day where I would go up to 2200-2300, so over all I was still well in a weekly deficit of about 3000 kcals. The first week in I jumped to a 1800 kcal a day limit, eating the same foods and training using the GVT method that I posted in my previous blog, which in theory would be more taxing and I would burn more kcals than how I was training previously, which is why I opted to jump up 200 kcals a day in the first week. The plan was to use a higher carb ratio than I had been doing. Previously around 55% of my calories would come from carbs; the reason for this came from doing more reading about coming out of a deficit and deciding that as carbohydrates are muscle sparing I wouldn't need as much protein as I had been eating. So, I lowered it to about 1g per lb of body weight (I was around the 1.5g per lb of body weight ). I believed that my body would react well to the increase in carbs and wasn't concerned too much about fat gain. This assumption proved to be right, after the first week on 1800 a day I had lost 0.5kg which for me was brilliant, I had just learned something! I can tolerate higher carbs and not worry about fat gain, so far so good.
Week two, I upped the calories to 2000 - after the success of week one and losing weight I decided another 200 kcals a day would be OK. I wasn't finding the amount of food I had to eat a problem (I could still manage my 16 hour fast and then consume 2000 kcals in my 8 hour feeding window without feeling bloated or having the feeling of not wanting to eat). In the gym I was seeing some radical results; the vascularity in my arms and shoulders has been like nothing I have seen before, which again is down to the increase in carbs and my muscles glycogen stores being full, or fuller than they were. While we are on the subject, I have taken I slightly different approach to where I get my carbs from ...these next few sentences may be confusing but stick with it... I've been getting the majority of my carbs from white potato, white pasta, low fat oven chips - maybe go and have a breather a hot drink and come back and I will continue.... You feeling ok again now? This came about from mistaking chilli penne pasta for whole wheat pasta and after three days of eating it with no side effects other than DAMN, this chicken and bacon pasta sure is tasty this week! I began to think of other carbolicious goodness I could get my hands on - AH the baked potato, nothing simpler to prep than a good old jacket spud! Now don't get me wrong, I have still been eating my wholemeal tuna pittas, I have just been eating a wider variety of carbs to see if I felt any different and I do like an experiment (albeit not very scientific). I haven't seen any difference day to day or week to week with any fat gain, so for me it's a keeper, plus I've missed white potato and I may even try some tiger bread with some stew this week - why not? As long as It doesn't take me over my 290g carb limit It won't be much of an issue, well not if these past few weeks are anything to go by. By the end of week two I had put the 0.5kg back on that I lost on week one.
I will write about my third and fourth week in the next post.
Some progress shots
I'm still feeling and looking lean, I feel my back is wider, I'm really vascular and in a very good place at the moment. I'm getting to the gym 2-3 times a week but I feel that's enough. I really need to stay focused over these next few weeks. I suppose the last sentence and the one to remember would be this: any bulking or muscle gaining diet should be as strict as a cutting diet...if not more so!
Speak to you all soon
Barbell Benny
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