Introduction
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my diet and training. I’ve been dieting for 7 weeks, trying to lose fat and preserve as much muscle as possible. This is an explanation of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. You can follow my continued progress on my log on the forums here (and thank me for the motivation).
Approaches
- Carb backloading (check out our audio interview with John Kiefer, the creator of CBL, and our Propane Protocol).
- Carb cycling.
- Fasted cardio (there’s an excellent article by Yusef on fasted cardio).
- HIIT.
Training and Diet Outline
I backload all of my carbs, and I adjust my carb intake according to the muscles I want to prioritise and the difficulty of the training session. This is carb cycling. Each training day is either high (200g-400g), moderate (150g-200g), or low carbs (up to 100g) initially. Rest days are very low carbs (less than 50g). Now I’ve added in a very high carb day, which is essentially a refeed day, also setting me up for HIIT the next morning.
Week 1 (Start)
Monday - Chest. (High)
Tuesday - Arms. (Low)
Wednesday - Legs. (Moderate)
Thursday - Back. (Moderate)
Friday - Rest. (Very Low)
Saturday - Shoulders. (Moderate)
Sunday - Rest. (Very Low)
Week 7 (Now)
Monday - Chest. (High/Very High)
Tuesday - Arms. (Very Low)
Wednesday - Legs. (Moderate)
Thursday - Back. (Moderate)
Friday - Rest. (Very Low)
Saturday - Shoulders. (Low)
Sunday - Rest. (Very Low)
Cardio
I started with 20mins of fasted walking three times a week. I added 10mins every week or couple of weeks; I’m now doing 50mins of fasted cardio on the elliptical. I switched to using the elliptical, because it was difficult to find a good route to walk for 50mins, and I wanted to monitor my heart rate – I aim for 60-70% of my maximum heart rate. I fast for three hours before eating my first meal, and I make sure I drink lots of water (at least a litre during cardio), with green tea and coffee before cardio to increase fat burning.
HIIT is done semi-fasted, with 10g of whey and 2 tablespoons of MCT oil with coffee before training. I only do HIIT on the morning following moderate or high carb days; and I’m doing this twice a week now, after chest and after back.
Food
Before Training
Pork, steak, beef mince, chicken thighs, eggs, butter, double cream, whey isolate, green vegetables.
Typical Meal - Pork shoulder steaks, seasoned with Morrocan spices, fried in lard and served with broccoli and butter.
Pork shoulder steaks seasoned with Moroccan spices, served with cauliflower and broccoli.
Pork loin with Moroccan spices and butter, served with broccoli. Coffee is essential.
During Training
Whey isolate and MCTs.
After Training
Potatoes, rice, oats, rice cakes, chicken breast, white fish, tuna in brine, cottage cheese.
Typical Meal - Oats with dark chocolate and honey.
Oats with dark chocolate and honey.
Protein ice cream with peanut butter and mixed berries.
Coconut flour pancakes with dark chocolate and honey.
Supplements
Creatine Monohydrate
MyProtein bulk Creatine Monohydrate is what I use. I started by loading at 20g a day for a week, and continued with 10g a day after that.
Multivitamin
I take three BulkPowders Super Vits tablets a day.
Vitamin D3
Initially I took 10000ius of MyProtein Vitamin D3 a day for one week, and after that I maintained at 2500iu a day.
Whey Isolate
I use chocolate flavour Maxiraw Intensity.
MCTs
Around training I use Ironscience MCTs, but otherwise I use coconut oil.
Progress
Summary
The key to fat loss is logical progression: decreasing calories, increasing cardio, fasting, and using fat burners. Don’t throw everything in at once, only make changes when your progress slows. Otherwise, if you begin your diet with drastic calorie restriction, excessive use of stimulants and fat burners, hours of cardio, and no carbs, you have nothing left when you stall. You could lower calories even more, do even more cardio, but that will probably run you into the ground. You need to maintain (or even gain) strength for as long as possible, increase your metabolism, and intelligently structure your training to maximise fat loss while preserving muscle. The Propane Protocol is a powerful template for you to use straight away, all you need to do is start!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Can u share “High/Very High, Moderate, Low/Very Low) in grams?
Yes, I’ve updated the article to include the amounts of carbs in grams now.
Thanks Ben!
Ben, some very general questions
Is this the leanest you’ve ever been?
Are you happy with the results or would you like to be even leaner?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomm87/
It’s the biggest I’ve been while being this lean, but not the leanest yet. I’ve got maybe 4 weeks left of dieting before I think I’ll be happy with things. We’ll see!
How will you get lean without one gram of fish oil per percentage of body fat??!!
It’ll be a miracle. I’m hoping that if I can just reach 0% bodyfat that will allow me to forgo fish oil supplementation entirely.
Hi Ben! Did you do the 10-day “prep” phase to prepare for carb backloading? For someone who’s new to the process, do you feel like backloading is effective even without going ultra low carb for so long? This is coming from 8% body fat marathoner who is now running less and looking to gain some muscle.
I didn’t do the 10-day prep phase, and I think it would be optional at your level of bodyfat, however I would recommend doing it anyway if you’ve never done low-carb or keto diets before.
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