Hi there, I guess what I am looking for is encouragement.
I am going to be doing a lot of int'l travel in the next few months and do not want to do a CKD because I believe I won't be able to stick to the eating. Right now I weight lift regularly and intensely, with a few HIT cardio days per week. I can keep up my weight training and internal training for travel, I can stick to lc, but I can't see a CKD.

What I want to know is, do you BFLers lose fat while you eat more than atkins level carbs while doing BFL workouts, or it is mainly a muscle gain thing? I am just feeling worried because someone told me that if I eat small increments of carbs throughout the day, adding up to say.. 40-70 in total, I would not lose fat, and that I would have to keep the carbs at a minimal level except for immediately before and after the workouts.

How do you structure your carbs?
Do you lose fat with the extra carbs?

I guess I've slowly come to believe that you won't lose fat while building muscle, and you won't lose fat unless your carbs are very minimal.. and I want to hear otherwise.

Meg

Meg, losing fat while simultaneously gaining muscle is something that's been a huge debate for years. It's generally agreed that when you are new to resistance work you can make tremendous gains in both areas but as time progresses you have to pick one or the other as a goal. During my first few months doing BFL I lost fat and gained muscle consistently - whether I ate higher carbs (90g) or lower carbs (30g). That is no longer the case, nine months later.

Fat loss is easier with a LC WOE because of the tight reign that is kept on insulin and the predominance of glucagon in the body. The level of carb restriction will vary from person to person, though. Increased exercise will mean you can handle more carbs, as will an increased metabolism and an increased lean muscle mass. You have to find 'your zone'

It makes sense when you increase carbs to spread them out over the day, and not have them all in one or two meals, with the exception of the post lifting meal where you want some carbs. Spreading them out helps keep insulin stable, avoiding any spikes and keeping blood sugar level. That post workout meal is different - carbs are used to neutralize cortisol levels and to shuttle amino acids into depleted muscle cells. To give you an example, I can eat 30+g of pure sugar in the form of Skittles or sweet tarts after a workout and not get a sugar rush, but sweet local strawberries with cream after a meal makes me flushed and hot and gives me a headache.

Do you lose fat when you increase carbs? It depends on you (your metabolism), on how you raise them (low G.I. vs. high G.I., post workout), and how much you raise them (5g with 5 meals and 10g after your workout equals 35g more, 10g with 5 meals and 20g after your workout would be 70g more).

HTH
Nat