Well.. I heard about this while listening to a talk radio show. I did a little research and it seems effective. I wanted to try this out because if you research it, pretty much all your carbs are consumed at night after your workout. And these are high glycemic carbs (white rice, donuts, pasta, etc). I actually bought the book from John Kiefer's (guy who came up with the diet) website, which happens to be on sale at the moment. I tend to cheat on my diet at night when I'm exhausted so it thought this plan would be a good fit for me..i know I'm probably going to not get a lot of support for a "another diet" , but I wanted to lean out for a special occasion in about 5 months..

http://www.carbbackloading.com

 

I don't know anything about the diet, but it sounds like a fad to sell a book. You can eat your carbs before you go to bed, when you get up, after you workout etc etc and it still is going to come down to calories eaten versus calories burned. There might be times when the body deals with them more efficiently, but I am skeptical it will be a huge difference. The digestive process take about a full day so your body will still be taking in nutrients many hours after you eat.

If you are trying to drop weight for an event I can say I have done P90x a few times and Insanity once and they both burned weight for me. It takes a couple weeks before you see it start to go but then it goes pretty fast. I would recommend them. You opbviously have to put in the time and effort, but they are not snake oil, they do what they claim. I also did NOT follow the diet on either one. I tried to eat more veggies and less carbs, but except for a slight change, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted and it still worked great for me. It was pretty much just changing from my workout schedule to an intense hour everyday that had cardio elements kicks your metabolism up a notch and if you stay with it, pounds start to just fall off and I was eating like a pig.

Good luck though if you try it out. I hope it does what you want.

 

Sounds like a fad diet and a spin off of the intermittent fasting trend that is going. As vader said, doesn't matter when you consume the carbs as long as you get them for the day and your calories are where they need to be.

I'm not dissing IF by any means because it is proven to work but it has gained a lot of popularity lately with many authors putting out books with a slight spin on it. There is benefit to consuming the bulk of your caloric intake for the day post workout but again, it seems to be the current fad.

In truth, it's all about calories and macros!

Read up on calorie counting and macros. It will seem like a lot of work at first to log everything you eat but after a few weeks you get the hang of how many calories are in what you eat and can quickly gauge a portion size by eyeballing it. Doing this will automatically make you more aware of what you are eating and you will start to avoid things because you have had too much of a macro for the day and will substitute something another macro instead.
It sounds complicated but it's really not. It becomes second nature. Once you get to that point, it doesn't matter what you eat and there is no such thing as cheating because as long as you are hitting your macros and exercising regularly you are golden.

Ex. You are hungry for a late night snack, today you need carbs (cut vegetables, rice, bread, donuts, cake). Tomorrow you need some fat (dairy, cheese, bacon, full fat yogurt, boiled eggs). The next day you need protein (protein shake, bacon, boiled eggs, ham, greek yogurt, cottage cheese). I tried to show you a broad range from what most consider healthy ie, veggies, etc. to what most would consider not, dairy & bacon to show that it doesn't really matter. Initially, you want to make sure you are hitting your total caloric intake and not going way over but it's really about the macro numbers.

 

I've tried IF and the carb back loading you're talking about but nothing works as good as managing your portions and marcos. For me personally I can't sit and eat 1000 calories at a time, unless it is a binge with some very unhealthy stuff and if you go that route it is very hard to control your eating and cravings.

I've tried doing the 5 meals a day but sometimes you're busy and it is hard to find the time to eat everything on time. Now I make a huge shake with veggies, fruits, oatmeal, and protein that is probably around 800-900 calories. I drink half in the morning and half post workout and I eat 3 meals that are about 400 calories each. That comes out to about 2000 calories a day and I lift 4 days a week and 1 day of sprints. Been losing 1.5 lbs a week consistently while maintaining muscle because I am still lifting heavy.

 

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions everyone..

after a lot of research on the topic, ive decided to give it a try start Monday. its going to be a tough 10 first days on the diet but should be a bit easier after that. ill keep you all updated to track my progress.

as for what I am going to do if/when I hit my goal in 5 months, honestly, if I am able to hit my goal ill probably go back to my normal way of dieting (watching calories/macros).. I just don't hope I start Yo-Yoing like I did once in the past. gotta be careful with that..

 

It is a life style change really. Just don't take it too extreme where you will burn out in a few months. As you lose weight you also must adjust your diet. If you lose 10 lbs you will need to reduce your calories to maintain a steady weight loss or else you'll stall.

 

that's what I like about Carb back loading.. you can pretty much cheat (on high GI carbs) after your workout at 4-5pm.. that's when I usually tend to slip from my diet.. I mean, Im not going to be eating cake and donuts everyday but it allows for me to slip every now and then around that time.. so this diet is not extreme at all.. first 10 days is probably toughest (no more than 30g's of carbs a day).. im on day 2 (and training too)and already feel somewhat sluggish. its going to get worse days 3-6 (probably toughest part of prep phase and all of the diet)..

 

I eat cake and ice cream every day seriously and still cut down on weight

I just make sure its within that whole macros stuff i dont know how to explain

Just use this. http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

 

well im on day 8 of the prep phase.. it wasnt too bad but i would say days 3-6 were the toughest.. felt like crap most of those days.. as of today, ive lost about 7 lbs (i read that when your in the prep phase, about 60% of it is water weight and the rest fat). but all of the water weight returns when i re-introduce carbs into my diet on thursday.

feeling much better now on day 8 and looking to start the carb backloading on thursday.. man, im dying for sugar..

 

All you are doing is depleting your Glycogen levels, which incidentally is why you feel like crap. Since Glycogen holds 3x it's weight in water glycogen depletion is a great way to give the illusion of weight loss. Sure, you may have lost a lb or two from eating cleaner and as a result of eliminating carbohydrates (I.e. that sugar you so crave), but most of it will come back relatively fast once you start back on the carbs.

The bad thing about this plan is that if you are an active person, one activities become more difficult because of fatigue, two you keep at it too long and your immune levels drop, and three glycogen starved your body may also go into over compensation mode once you start eating carbs.

I raced bikes competitively for a good bit and glycogen was all I thought about. I would put myself through mini cycles of similar depletion to force over compensation thus increasing my glycogen storage. I would go out and ride for 5-6hrs a day on minimal fuel until I felt like crawling into a ditch, recover with the proper mix of carbs and protein, then repeat. This would happen in the winter/early spring when strength was not a real factor. I would always get sick at some point and I was an awful person to live with. As I approached my key events I finally would start eating and training "to go fast", which meant more carbs and shorter less depleting workouts. During this period my weight could swing 8lbs a day depending on glycogen storage.

Stupid sports strategies aside, my best diet plans have always been eating for a purpose. Typically for me that means more carbs early in the day to provide energy, with carbs decreasing throughout the day, hitting a low point during dinner, which typically consists of protein, good fats, and lots of green stuff. Of course there is always the occasional 10-12 beers .