Hi Everyone,

I've been tweaking my diet a bit in order to continue to see progress in burning off the last of my fat while adding on just a bit more muscle.  Based on information I've been gathering about more bad news on what Insulin spikes can do to your body and my ongoing need to keep my body's inflamatory system working well so I can workout with my neck/spine injury, I've decided to take grains out of my diet.  (Note: I've already taken all added sugar out of my diet.)

What I want to clarify is that this is NOT the Atkins diet which restricts carbs to less than 50 grams a day.  My diet continues to be about 100 - 125 grams a day which keeps me out of ketosis (a state your body will go into if you restrict your carbs to below 50 grams a day).  What has changed is that I've shifted the carbs to be almost exclusively from fruits and veggies.  I will eat beans and legumes.

Also I continue to eat organic where ever possible.  That means fresh fruits, veggies, dairy, eggs and much, but not all of my meat.  Also, I can add in more fat into my diet.  So Chris and I have been having fresh fruit (usually berries) in organic cream for a post lunch desert each day.  Yummy!

Results so far have been good.  Tomorrow is my weight in day but I did cheat and take my measurements and I'm losing inches!  Got into my skinny jeans finally too!  I'll be back to update the weight tomorrow and make periodic postings on how these dietary changes are working.

Nancy

Update - I lost 1lb this week.  That's not bad for me at this point in my transformation.  Also I've been eating whatever, whenever I want so I'm pretty pleased.

Hi Nancy,

I can't seem to find your post regarding the original diet plan you were on before switching to your more primal diet. Was it deleted? It had so much useful information on it that I liked but now I wish I had printed it. Do you still have this information?

Hi Nancy,

On this more "primal diet" do you still try to stick to the 40/40/30 rule? Specifically, I'm trying to figure out how much fat I can have per day on my clean days if I'm not eating any grains in my diet or added sugar.

Thanks!

Hi Kim,

I've been meaning to post back on this so thanks for prompting me.

I've been going back and forth between the 'primal' plan and allowing a few grains in the diet.  When I'm eating primal, I've allowed myself 30/35/35 carb/protein/fat.  When I go back to having a serving of grains each day, I'm eating 40/40/20.  I commit for a week or two at a time to one or the other.  It won't work well if you try to mix it up at a daily level.

The reason why I went back to 40/40/20 as my primary diet is that I've been doing more doubles action (working out 2x per day) and find I feel a little better with the 1 grain serving.  I've been using either 2 peices of the Sara Lee Low Cal/Low Carb bread in a lean sandwich (5 grams of fiber)  or eating a Thomas brand Lite English Muffin with 8 grams of fiber in it.

Nancy

Nancy,

I've read that when doing cardio, particularly high intensity interval training, that you burn 300% more calories working out in a fasted state, i.e. in the morning before breakfast. Also, I read that not eating--including protein shakes--for 30 minutes after the workout will help burn even more fat. What is your opinion on this? Do you eat or drink a protein shake immediately after your cardio workouts like plyo or insanity? If not, how long do you wait to eat?

Thanks!

Nancy,

Also, I'm having some difficulty getting to 100grams of carbs without going over my calories. I weigh 120 lbs and am 5'5". Using the rule-of-thumb formula you describe I am calculating 10 calories per lb of body weight and am eating 1200 calories/day. I'm doing OK with getting about 100-120 grams of protein everyday and keeping my fat low, but I'm struggling to get past 70 grams of carbs. Most days, I will only get about 60-75 grams. Is it really important I get more? What are the disadvantages--besides not feeling as energetic--of getting less than the carbs I should be eating according to the 40/40/20 rule?

Also, do you have any tips on getting more carbs while keeping calories low?

Thanks!

Sorry, I misquoted the data in my previous post. I read that when doing HIIT in a fasted state the body will burn fat faster--up to 300% faster--than when doing the same exercise in the afternoon after several meals. In addition, I read that refraining from eating for one hour after the HIIT workout, the body will burn more calories than it would otherwise.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks.

This is a commonly held belief but the truth is that there isn't any real research that I've found backing it.  What I would say is that you'll burn more fat if you abstain from eating a lot of carb before working out but actually ingesting some low carb protein (I'll use a shake) is a good way to preserve your muscle mass and burn fat.  In fact, I recently read a study that showed that in highly trained athletes, the rate of fat burn was just as high even when they ingested a mostly carb drink before performing a HIIT workout.  I should have saved that study - if I can find it again I'll post up a link to it.

I tend to take either a protein shake if I have a good hour before exercising (particularly if I'm going to do a strength workout) with SuperPump250 right before working out (this is a Nitric Oxide product) or a serving of Xtend which is an amino acid supplement before HIIT to preserve lean muscle gains without dampening fat burning.

Matt & Batman,  anything to add here?

WOW, most people have trouble keeping carbs low.  I'd eat more fruit.  Specifically apples, berries, grapefruit and/or peaches - all of these have modest glycemic impacts.  Depending on how hard you are working out, not getting enough carb will really diminish your energy levels.  I had to go back to 1 serving of grains a day to get my carbs in line with what I need from an energy consumption level.  I do eat only low calorie, high fiber grain products, however.

Nancy,

As always, thank you for your great tips!

So just to clarify, you take the protein shake an hour before the workout or immediately prior? Sorry, I am reading your sentence as going either way.

I think I will have to take a serving of grain like you said because I noticed today that I was hitting a wall halfway during shoulders/arms workout from P90X.

Thanks again for all your great advice!

Kim,

Bottom line:  It DOESN'T matter when you take in a meal in reference to burning more or less during a HIIT.

When it comes to burning fat it always comes down to being in a CALORIE DEFICIT, which simply means that you are eating less calories per day than what your body needs and burns.  So, as long as you are in a caloric deficit, it doesn't matter if you eat before HIIT or not;  it doesn't matter if you wait an hour finishing an HIIT session or eat immediately after.

The problem with most that claim this is that they are paying attention only to the IMMEDIATE and ACUTE response of the body in relation to nutrient timing.  You shouldn't really care about what your body does in the half hour before or after something.....it's much more of an impact your body does over the course of the following 24, 36, or 72 hours........heck over the course of the week!

Great example;  HIIT itself vs slow-motion / "steady state" cardio.  Yes, slow mo cardio will burn more fat PERCENTAGE wise for energy DURING the workout than HIIT will.  HIIT uses a higher percentage of glucose (carbs . sugar) for energy.  However, HIIT burns overall way more calories than slow mo cardio.  For example, let's say you burn 90% fat for energy during slow mo, and 50% fat during an HIIT session.  However, you may only burn 100 calories during the slow mo ("big whoop"), but burn 400 calories during HIIT.  The more calories you burn overall the more fat you'll lose period.

Also, slow mo cardio does practically nothing for speeding up the metabolism over the long term, meanwhile HIIT can raise your metabolic for a good day or two even after having done it.

Hi Hyun, (I just noticed I've been calling you by your last name - sorry!)

Sorry for the confusion on the  protein shake.  If I'm doing a resistance workout I take a small to modest protein shake that has some carb in it (about 10 - 15 grams each of protein and carb) about an hour before working out so my muscles are primed to work hard. I take SuperPump right before the weight workout which is a nitric oxide/energy product.  The nitric oxide further helps prime my muscles to workout hard.  Then I have another protein shake (around 25 grams of protein) about 20 minutes after working out.

If I'm doing a HIIT (which for me tends to be either a sprint/slow run workout, kettlebell workout or Insanity Pure Cardio) or one of my ab blast workouts with Chris, I drink some Xtend right before the workout.  The Xtend is an amino acid supplement which has no calories but will help keep my body from canabalizing lean muscle mass for fuel during the workout.

I do 3 resistance training workouts per week (follow along with P90X).  I do 2 ab blast workouts a week (P90X ab ripper plus other ab workout for about a 40 minutes of ab work) and typically do about 3 or 4 HIIT workouts.  The HIIT workouts are done in the late afternoon or early evening while my resistance training and ab workouts I do in the morning.

Nancy

Here's a study that shows ingesting some whey protein before working out with weights will increase subsequent energy expenditure AND fat burning.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997003

Nancy

Thank you guys for responding so promptly.

I'm at a fitness level where I am trying to lose about 10-12 lbs, lose fat, and tone up my muscles overall. It's tougher for people like me, I think, because the last 10 lbs are usually the toughest to get off. I guess I get so bogged down by concerns whether I'm doing things properly because of course I want to see maximum results for all my efforts.

Thanks again for all the great advice and helping to clarify that sometimes I just have to remember that if I follow the basics such as eating right and working out regularly, then I will reach my goals eventually vs. getting all mired in the muck of trying to figure out all the details of proteins/carbs/fat etc.

Thanks!