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High-Carb, No Cardio Dieting

I know what you are thinking; the title for this article is going to be a lie. Somewhere in the words that follow you will be able to find a lie in all of this. There is no way that you can diet with a high amount of carbs as well as no cardio and get lean. It just can't be done, or can it? I am here to tell you that it is possible. In the next 12 weeks I will show you how you can transform your body while eating plenty (I have eaten around 300 carbs a day on this diet) of carbs a day with absolutely ZERO cardio. I am going to break down the 12 week process and show you how you can both transform your body while eating the carbs you love and not doing the cardio you hate. 

First I would like to talk a little about how I came across this amazing diet. To be honest I kind of stumbled across the idea when I was speaking with a co-worker of mine who too is a natural bodybuilder. We were just discussing how each other diets for shows and both of us agreed we would like to be able to eat more carbs. Below is basically our conversation:

The keys to dieting are simple, maintain current muscle mass (I always believe if you diet correctly you may not be able to increase size but improve the quality of the muscle with your training) and lose body fat. To maintain your muscle you need to take in enough protein and to lose body fat your overall calories need to be less than amount you burn during the course of your day. Those are just some basics.

We understand that protein is a key factor to maintaining muscle so let's keep that in the equation.

Fats And Carbs

Regarding fats, I am only going to discuss healthy fats, either dieting or not saturated and trans fats shouldn't ever find there way into your diet.

Healthy fat is a long term energy source for your body. That is why I do include them in this diet in the form of fish oil pills but nothing more than is needed. Fats don't help you work out. They also are dense in calories, unlike protein and carbs which per gram have 4 calories fats have 9 calories per gram, which means you eat less than half the food when ingesting fats as you would eating carbs or protein.

Now lets look at carbs. Carbs have been cast as the bad guy when dieting. We have been told that if we have too many carbs we will get fat. That is true, but if you have too much of anything you will get fat. Eating five chicken breasts in each meal will get you fat just as easy as eating the same amount in carbs. Remember calories eaten against calories expended.

Let's take a minute and look at the benefits of eating carbs. Eating carbs results in a spike in insulin, which has been shown to be more anabolic(muscle building) than testosterone itself. Insulin counteracts any kind of catabolic(muscle wasting) hormones. Also Insulin increases you metabolism to burn more overall calories. Carbs when digested into your system turn into glycogen which is basically energy for your muscles.

Let's sit back and forget all the things you have been told and look at the facts. We have a substance which helps increase hormones that are better than testosterone, stops hormones that waste away muscle, increases your metabolism and gives energy to muscles to work harder in the gym. Why again do we restrict this amazing macronutrient?

Most people say that if your insulin is spiked all the time your body will not be able to ever tap into it fat storage. My response to this statement is; if you are expending more calories during the day from your intense training then you are taking in then at some point you need to be tapping into something! If you have enough protein in your diet to maintain your muscle than it only leads fat as the source of energy you body will reach for.

This was the conclusion that I came across with my co-worker from our conversation. I decided then and there to get rid of the fat and increase the carbs.

There is going to be stages to the diet and the training, every 4 weeks you will see that the diet will get more strict and the training more intense.

First things first to be successful on this diet you will need to know how to distinguish between the different macro nutrients (protein, carbs and fat) and what kind of foods associate with each. Instead of listing them off in this article I am going to direct you to one of my favorite basic but essential nutrition articles.

Calculating Your Calories

Let's get down to the dieting aspect of things for the first 4 weeks.

I am going to use my personal number as I went through this diet:

• Take your Bodyweight (I was around 230) and multiple it by 12 and round down, this will be your amount of calories you will be eating every day.
• 230 x 12 = 2760 I will be rounding down to 2,700. I always round down because at this point we are dieting and I would rather leave room for a little less to make up for any extra stuff that might be added from time to time.

Regarding Protein and Carbs we will be multiplying your bodyweight by 1.25

• 230 x 1.25 = 287.5 for both protein and carbs

Regarding fat I don't count it into the equation I just make sure to pick all lean cuts of meat and don't include any additional fat sources. The diet below will include around 50 grams of fat from the protein. The ratio with this diet is 42.5% Protein 42.5% Carbs and 15% Fat. In the coming months you will see the protein amounts decrease as which will result in a decrease in fat, leaving more of the diet in the form of carbs.

Click Here For A Calorie Calculator

Diet

Below is the diet for a 230 lb bodybuilder in the first 4 weeks of the diet:

Dietary And Supplement Guidelines

This diet is bases on bodyweight numbers so as you lose weight you will need to re-adjust your overall calories and your protein and carb numbers. Change these numbers each time you lose 5 pounds.

This is how you will diet each day that you are training; on days that you don't train you will just subtract one of these meals. Eat upon waking each day and on training days eat every 3 hours and on non training days eat every 3.5-4 hours.

Supplements

Here are the supplements that I recommend:

• Protein powder
• B-Nox Androrush: I take 1-1.5 scoops before each weight training session
• Multivitamin: I take 1 serving with Meals 1 and 3

The reason I created this diet was I hated the fact that when I looked my best I felt the worst in the gym. As I started to lean out my performance got worse and worse and I couldn't wait to get back to bulking. That has all changed with the diet that we listed above you will now have the energy you need to bring the intensity to the weight room and make improvement while dieting away the fat. The key for all of this to work is intensity. For the next 12 weeks you will need to bring your utmost intensity to the gym and I promise you will love the results you see.

Training

Here is the training program I have set out for you for the First 4 Weeks

Training Split

• Day 1: Legs
• Day 2: Shoulders/Abs
• Day 3: Back/Abs
• Day 4: Rest
• Day 5: Chest/Calves/Abs
• Day 6: Arms/Abs
• Day 7: Rest

Day 7: Rest

Training Notes

For all exercises try and keep your rest periods between sets at around 60-75 seconds. If you feel you can perform your set at full strength before that time do so.

Well there you have it both your diet and training laid out for you, plenty of the carbs that you love and none of the cardio that you hate. Use the energy that you are given in this diet to focus on working as hard as you can in the gym. If you put your best efforts into your training and stick to the diet I am confident that you will be well on your way to an improved leaner physique. The next 4 weeks are going to tough but I know you can do it and once you are there you will be chomping at the bit to get on to Part 2 of this Plan. Good luck.

As always if you have any questions about the above article or fitness in general please don't hesitate to send me an email with your questions; AlexBigStew@gmail.com

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