Post Workout Nutrition for Leaning Out

Summer is here!! Kind of......

In the past there have been several talks about cycling carbs towards post workout and how this can fuel performance and taste buds, but I have also lightly touched on the post workout meal being used for leaning out and balancing that bugger "insulin sensitivity."

In a recent post by Robb Wolf he discusses his way of leaning out after a mass gain experiment and how he used post workout nutrition to help burn the fat off.

"If you recall, I did a mass gain experiment about 9 months ago. Moved from 163-185. Strength was up, but I was pretty damn chubby. I have been following either CrossFit Football or Rutman’s ME-Black Box for training. For about 6 months I was still messing with some post WO carbs, typically about 50-70g depending upon the size of the WOD. Not surprisingly, my leaning out has been glacially slow. I thought back to when I just did cyclic low carb, what Poliquin had to say about leaning out (earn your carbs, be lean…) and I dropped to less than 50g of carbs per day with an occasional (once per week) larger carb meal that I just dropped in whenever. Result? Stunningly rapid fat loss. I’m about 178lbs but below 10% BF at this point. In general I’ve had 4 meals per day, large whacks of protein, just a little added fat and then loads of veggies. I have been using a post WO whey protein with coconut milk (40g protein, 20-30g fat) and I really like this.....I generally recommend against liquid food for fat-loss scenarios but as with all things, there are exceptions. Keep in mind, a low carb approach will NOT turn you into a CrossFit Super Star. It is however a nice approach to leaning out, getting healthy and not being a fat-ass for summer."

Heather and I are going through a similar process based off a different kind of carb cycling. I have already done it but she will be roughing her way through it starting today. It involves very low carbs to generate a shift in metabolism from sugar burning to fat burning. After which you cycle between high carb and low carb meals. The benefits and points that I like are that I can have massive carbs meals with variety and those meals help instead of hurt AND the only thing I really have to count is carbs rather than try to figure out ratios between carbs/pro/fat. It gives me a lot more freedom when the freedom is given. Tough part is only the beginning but really if you have been playing around with paleo or zone then its not that hard to tighten the belt. If you are a typical American on a typical American diet this could seem like coming off heroin...because...its extremely similar. So maybe for the next week or so be careful on how you approach Heather.....she may bite.... also if you see me with bruises are scars.....I fell down some stairs and I love my girlfriend very much =) *coughpleasehelpmesneeze*