Carb nite solution... Anyone tried it?

I can attest that low carb diet works. I did a low carb diet with one refeed per week for three months straight. As a warning to those who are doing it, you might want to consider what would happen after you stop.

From first hand experience, I noticed that after I started eating more carbs (for the purpose of gaining energy at the gym), I noticed that my body was very sensitive to it. It was as if my body quickly converted the carbs to fat and held onto it. So if you are prepared to take the plunge to low carb, do so at the risk of regaining your weight once you are off it. Needless to say, after a month, I gained 1% BF. Kind of a bummer.

Currently, and for almost a year now, I haven't really been on a diet, but have gained more muscle mass and have maintained a lower BF% than the last day of my low carb diet. What works for me? Taking in approximately 200g protein, 180g carbs and 50g fat. I don't count calories, but I do to a degree count macro nutrients. I take 50% of my carbs at least 1.5 hrs before my gym session. I find that doing so gives me the most amount of energy.

On the low carb diet, I relied on supplements for energy (pre-workout, BCAA and whey). I have not taken supplements for over a year now and feel better than ever. Each gym session, the beast comes out. Unfortunately, low carb diets just don't cut it if you are going to do any type of intense workout routine.

As a warning to those who are doing it, you might want to consider what would happen after you stop.

From first hand experience, I noticed that after I started eating more carbs (for the purpose of gaining energy at the gym), I noticed that my body was very sensitive to it. It was as if my body quickly converted the carbs to fat and held onto it. So if you are prepared to take the plunge to low carb, do so at the risk of regaining your weight once you are off it.

...Unfortunately, low carb diets just don't cut it if you are going to do any type of intense workout routine.

Well, yes. Those are definite concerns (and every time I've done low carb in the past there was a nasty "rebound" afterward). My hope is that phasing in more and more exercise (up to a reasonable point) will help to bridge the gap.

I would need to work my way UP to anything resembling an intense workout at this point, so my hope was to get the excess fat (mostly) off while building up the exercise, and hopefully graduate to a more sustainable diet as the level (frequency and intensity) of exercise becomes sufficient.

I was not terribly impressed with the results of the 10 day induction I did after my first post in this thread: Going by waist measurement it seemed to be a mere 3-4 pounds reduction, at most (and some of that would have been water weight). But then again, I was eating fairly conservatively up to that point.

Now I'm trying to get enough going in the exercise department to actually make progress. For me this includes walking and mild (for now) resistance training workouts.

I am hoping that a combination of adding exercise and observing the macronutrient timing and other guidelines (as mentioned in Carb Backloading) will also help me to make some real progress this time.

If anyone has more thoughts to contribute on resources, ideas to fine-tune the program, etc. I'll be very interested to hear them. Thanks to all who are here to help!

Hey guys don't forget that most, if not all, of the weight lost during the induction phase is strictly water weight from carbs. On average the body holds roughly 3,000 calories worth of carbs in the body on a regular diet full of carbs. I lost 10 pounds during my induction phase so I know that if I just stopped and started eating carbs I can expect to gain all of that back as my body loads up on carbs and starts storing it. What little fat you may still have will swell up and retain more water also. Only gaining 1% bf after eating carbs again is way better than gaining 5% when you stop following the diet which is what Kiefer says happens with most other diets like low fat and low calorie.

I keep carbs at 102 or lower, proteins at 100 or higher. I first lowered carbs when I hit a plateau and lost 5 lbs the first week after not losing anything for about a month or more. After reading one of the latest medical studies on increased protein I upped protein from 75 to 100 (two weeks now) and while the scale hasn't moved in two weeks I have lost a pants size so the inches are coming off. I weighted again this morning and overnight have lost 3 lbs so I am confident this week I will see a change in the scale. I always keep in mind that weight lose is not a linear thing and try and stay focused even when it seems I am doing everything correctly and having no results.

Bump

Yesterday I started CBL and today I blew it by forgetting to ask for no sauce when I ordered bunless cheeseburgers at McDonald's but yeah I'm making sick gainz.

Hey I was wondering if anyone is having the same problem as me - I keep losing and gaining the same 3 pounds. I'll go down about 3 pounds then gain weight on my carb nite and lose the 3 pounds right before my next carb nite; if Friday I'm 185 then Saturday is carb nite and get back down to 185 by Thursday right before my next carb nite. It seems like I can't get below 185. So every week even though my weight fluctuates I haven't seen a net change since the induction phase.

I am also usually 200-400 calories short of 1200 so I try to eat lean meats or cheese to bring up my cals to 1200. Is that my mistake? I'm just hesitant to go under that number. I've been making sure my carbs are always under or at 30 g carbs each day. I have read the book, and am going to reread it in the next week or so. I was just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this or has any advice?

Can anyone offer up advice on what an actual carb nite food selections look like? Sample menu? Plates of pasta? Beef and noodles?

I've been on the diet for a little over a month now. I to have been getting a little bit frustrated with the scale, but I need to remember muscle weighs more than fat. I've had 3 carb nites so far. I think I need to start being a little more careful with my meals on that night. Unlike my boyfriend who is doing this with me (he's lost 30 pounds so far) where as I have only lost about 8-10. Rather than basing your whole meal on a pasta dish or pizza and bread I think i'm going to start having Chicken breast with pasta and or rice on the side (just an example). I really recommend checking out athlete.io (its a website created by John Kiefer who is the creator of Carb Nite Solution). He posts several helpful videos and answers a lot of these questions right on his blog. I have found this extremely helpful so definitely check that out! Just type that into google and its the first option that comes up. Anyways good luck to anyone else on this diet! I really do think it's a good diet, as long as you stick to your carb limit and make sure you watch what your eating you should see progress. I have really been focusing on weight training rather than cardio. This was suggested in the book as well! Good Luck.

I'm so happy to have found this board. I love low carb put always hit a plateau about 4 months in. Now I know how to get past it. I saw the book on Amazon and wondered if it was worth the paper it is printed on. Now I'm going to buy it and do some research. Thank you.