[CKD] Does anyone do a two-week carb load?

[Big Dog]

I am toying with only doing carb loads everyother week. Wil this promote fat loss?

If you do this, what does your training schedule look like?

I am thinking of trying a routine where I do the same workout routine each week but on the first friday i do a mini-carb load (probably a Carbo Rush drink post workout, then the following Friday I would do a fullblown carb load.

Ths is the routine i am thinking of trying. I follow this routine now except that i carb load every Friday.

Monday Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Tuesday Back/Biceps/Legs
WednesdayCardio
Thursday Cardio
Friday Depletion (Mini Carb Load, 100grams or so post workout)
Saturday Off
Sunday Off
Monday Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Tuesday Back/Biceps/Legs
WednesdayCardio
Thursday Cardio
Friday Depletion (Carb Load)

Any opinions?

[realdeal]

My 2 cent would be that it would be a great idea, your fatloss would be quit good.

After you take you big carb meal on Friday, try to get back into ketosis at least by Saturday morning.

I know that Lyle Mconald add done this, i read is week by week diary, he lost a good amount of weight.

If you decide to go this route please keep us updated of your progress.

I guess that if someone was stalled and is thyroid would be fine he could go onto doing this and maybe lower is calories a bit.

[Jalilah]

I don't know about you guys, but I did a LAMO carb load last week because of my birthday and PAID for it dearly all week long! Instead of carbing up with the right amount of carbs, I got this bright idea to do my cake and ice-cream on wed. and on thurs. instead. One sliver of cake and a half a bowl of ice-cream. Here's what happened to me after that....

WEAK, WEAK, WEAK!

The first couple of days weren't so bad, but after that it all went to hell in a handbasket. My cardio suffered, my weight training REALLY suffered majorly, and I was sleeping all the time. Needless to say, I will NEVER do that again.

At first I though, heck, I'm just skipping most of my carb up so I'll just lose faster. Well, I did. I lost 2lbs, and a few inches, but strength and stamina were the most major losses.

I've decided that yes, I do want to lose BF, but not at the price of strength and stamina, and not at the price of my long-term goal.

I wish you luck, Big Dog, and would also love to see if you have any results from this.

BTW... I've been keeping my carbs below 20g (7g-17g mostly) during the week, and it wasn't a problem until I did a mild carb up thinking it would carry me through the remainder of the week.

[Beaver]

I did that for a few weeks. Not enough to tell if it worked better int he long run. I am constantly bouncing weightwise, its annoying. I went from a bouncy 255-260 to a bouncy 250-255 after a 2 week state of ketosis. and the carb up was incredible. Some epopel here have been saying they eat upwards of 60grams of carbs a day "for energy" why not TKD for the first week then do normal ketosis the second week, if some peoplea rent getting bumped out or are still seeing results with that many then maybe you can up the carbs around workout time. Eat 20-30g pre workout on lifting days to give you a boost, then cut them out for the second week so you can deplete your muscles of the glycogen and take full effect of the carb up and the superduberrecompensation.

I'm no expert but from what I've read around here this idea is not out of bounds, or unsound, and I think the adding and subtracting of carbs week to week, minimal carbs one week, no carbs the nest, carb up, minimal, no carbs and so on might stimulate metabolism and keep your body in a good ways. I know WEst _on_46 says he fluctuates his weekly calorie intake to keep his body guessin and stop metabolism slow down or something like that. Again I pulled this all from ass so...haha

[Jalilah]

Originally posted by Beaver
Again I pulled this all from ass so...haha

LOL I guess that makes you a smart ass, then, huh? ;)

I've been kind of fluctuating them a bit, too, and the weird thing---when I first used the CKD paramters calculator I misread the chart, thinking that the columns were stats for monday, tuesday, wednesday, etc., not realizing that I was supposed to take ONE column and stick to it! Well, by the end of that week I felt like a million bucks, and I KNOW I lost inches! Of course from day one to day five I'd increased my protein and fat because I'd been using the next column on the chart each day. Oddly, doing that worked. I didn't change the carbs, though, and kept them at EXACTLY 20g all week. But I think I will fluctuate the calories as well next week because, as I mentioned, I did better for some crazy reason!

There's always a chance that using the lowest calories from the parameters chart could possibly put your body into starvation mode, thus slowing metabolism.. in fact, the more I think about it, the more that seems QUITE possible, depending on the person, workouts, etc.

[Doug H]

I'm trying out a two week cycle right now. I'd been doing a TKD since last big carb up two weeks ago. But on Friday's back/bi workout with my trainer (who has bee kicking my tail btw) I burned out, just like old times on strict locarb. Ran out of gas, got no pump going.
I took it as a signal that glycogen was too low, so today I've had a sort of free day, not a formal mega carbup but plenty of complex carbs, pasta, some sherbet, probably 300g. Tomorrow I'll get back to lc.
Ya know the idea of all that sweet and carby stuff is better than the actuality. It isn't tasting all that good.

[Jalilah]

Originally posted by Doug H
I burned out, just like old times on strict locarb. Ran out of gas, got no pump going.
I took it as a signal that glycogen was too low, so today I've had a sort of free day, not a formal mega carbup but plenty of complex carbs, pasta, some sherbet, probably 300g. Tomorrow I'll get back to lc.

Boy, Dough, I know what you mean. I kept my carbs WAY low during the week, then had a LAMO carb up that weekend (not this one). It was AWFUL---the fatigue---and like you said, burnout. I learned my lesson big time.

You know, I'll be SO glad when I'm done losing this weight. I'm a really slow loser, so it's been difficult, and no matter how active I am it just doesn't seem to make any real difference.

Patience----I have it, but am on short supply these days. :(

[mojoKID]

a two week carb-load totally depends on your bodyfat percentage, and how much above maintainance level you are going over. If you do a two-week carb-load you should have A LOT of lean body mass and you wouldn't be able to consume as much as say someone on a 2 day carb load or 1 day carb-load, you could quickly gain a lot of fat if you ate say 500-600-700 carbs a day for two weeks straight, maybe 150-200 everyday for two weeks with some training still thrown in there.

That should definately restore leptin levels and prepare you from some big losses ( good fat losses that is ) for the upcoming weeks

The great thing about KNOWING how to low carb is that you can make the mistakes you need to, to see how many carbs you can tolerate with different types of physical activity ( none, low, medium, high ) and THEN still be able to easily take the weight off just because of the sole fact that we know what the foods we eat are doing to us, and if we gain 10 pounds ( of fat ) carbing up for 2 weeks, at least we know how we can lose that fat.

So many people who have no understanding of how dieting works get so discouraged because they lose their willpower and gain weight and don't know the right way to go about it, hell, I hate about 1500 calories and 250 carbs one morning by eating 6 breakfast honey buns ( I usually don't lose it like that ) but you know what, I curtailed the rest of my meals for the evening, kept protein up for the day, but nothing of carbs, not even a post workout carb shake, because I already filled up my stores, and I took some trusty ALA, I had NO bloat and no weight gain whatsover, it's all about understanding and controlling your body, it's phenomenol to be able to understand how your body works, sad though, to look at everyone else who doesn't know, my little nephew who is currently growing up on ice-cream, McDonalds everyday and all sorts of afterschool sweet treats followed by video games and TV, he's about 60 to 70 pounds overweight.

and so it goes

[Big Dog]

I think you might have misunderstood Mojo, I meant a one or two day carb load once every 2 weeks rather than a weekly carb load.

[mojoKID]

Sorry! I did misread. You may be spreading it too far apart though, looking at your stats you should refeed every 7-10 days for 24-48 hours. That also depends on how much below your maintenance calorie levels you are taking in during the low-carb days, the lower you go below maintenance the more often a refeed is required.