EAT LIKE PIG. GET SHREDDED.

GET BIG, NOT FAT

FOOD IS A DRUG. UNDERSTANDING THE effects of a drug, especially one with such massive potential impact on your body, offers you the ability to manipulate your physique in ways conventional wisdom has long deemed impossible. Most pundits will tell you that you have two choices with any diet: fat loss or mass gain, but not both. Despite everything you’ve heard over the years about having to choose one or the other, it’s completely possible, and not even all that difficult, to exploit your diet to gain muscle while shedding excess body fat.

When it comes to dietary manipulation, carbs hold the keys to the kingdom. To change your body composition, you need to find ways to use these powerful macronutrients to take advantage of what’s happening in your body on a cellular level. Carbs set the rules — so when you adjust your carb intake and timing, you can tap into several different mass-building, fat-shredding processes you probably didn’t even know were taking place.

Carb back-loading is the solution to the eitheror problem that has perplexed the fitness industry for decades, and it will give you the results you want using a set of rather unconventional means. You’re going to eat at night. Not only that, you’ll be asked to commit what once was considered dieting’s cardinal sin and eat carbs after sundown. We’ll also show you why you should consume carbs after you train and not limit them to just your post-workout meals. You’ve obviously been told not to do this by every nutrition guru under the sun, but it’s not as evil a practice as you may think, and research bears this out. This will spark some controversy, but the diet is getting real results. “I hate the full-time strictness of dieting,” says David Hewett, a competitive NPC bodybuilder. “But when I tried carb back-loading, my strength went up within the first two weeks. I’m staying lean and contest-ready all year eating foods I used to avoid like the plague, and I’m comfortably benching 405 for reps.” To understand the diet, you’ve got to know the science behind it.

Carbohydrates increase your metabolic efficiency by giving you more energy from your food. They also make your body anabolic by increasing tissue growth. However, this second “advantage” has a dark side. When we refer to something as anabolic, we’re saying it stimulates growth, but we need to be very specific about what’s growing.

It’s true that carbs stimulate muscle growth, but research has shown they also stimulate fat mass by increasing both the number of fat cells in your body and your body’s ability to store them. Obviously, you want to use carbs and insulin (a powerful hormone that transports glucose and amino acids into cells) to stimulate skeletal muscle growth and not fat-cell growth and proliferation. But if you take in your carbs at the wrong time, that’s what happens.

Research has shown consuming most of your carbs early in the morning is the way to go, since muscle tissue is at peak insulin sensitivity then, and that’s what promotes growth. The problem, however, is that your fat tissue is thinking along these same lines. It, too, is at peak insulin sensitivity in the morning, so this is the best time for your fat tissue to grow as well. If morning carb consumption is the method you’re using to time your nutrition for maximum muscle gains, you’re also causing maximum fat gains along with whatever mass you’re building.

Blood glucose has a huge effect on your strength levels. Being either hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic — having too little or too much — will compromise your performance by causing psychomotor inefficiencies that will keep your nervous system from operating at peak levels. Research published in the American Journal of Physiology has shown that when insulin hits a cell, GLUT4 carriers — an insulin-regulated glucose transporter — move to the surface of the cell membrane. In a process called translocation, these carriers make it possible for glucose to diffuse through the membrane into the cell. When you’re insulin sensitive, the GLUT4 carriers respond quickly and in large numbers. When you’re insulin insensitive, the opposite occurs.

In weight training, three things happen. GLUT4 translocation occurs within your muscle tissue. Next, GLUT4 concentration increases within your muscle tissue. Finally, fat cells are rendered far less able to store fat after you’ve trained. There are two significant ways you can take advantage of this chain of events.

First, train in the evening, when your insulin sensitivity is at a low for the day. Resistance training makes it possible for your muscles to absorb sugar and replenish glycogen stores, because insulin won’t mess with your GLUT4 translocation during and after your workouts. Fat cells, however, won’t be able to absorb glucose as effectively for storage as fat Next, drink caffeine before and after your workouts, and ingest carbs afterward. Caffeine increases insulin sensitivity in cells. This will further impede the storage of glucose as fat, while still allowing your resistance-trained muscles to soak up post-workout carbs.

There’s an important caveat to all this. With both of these steps, the carb levels in your diet need to be extremely low before you train — as low as possible. This means you’ll be consuming a diet of mostly protein and fat before your workouts, at a protein-to-fat ratio between 50-50 and 70-30 — even for breakfast. When you don’t take in carbs before your workouts, the body reaches homeostasis, which enables your nervous system to function at peak efficiency. This is an ideal environment Rebuilding strength, and you’ll likely find your strength levels increasing within the first week of this plan.

“I’m extremely cautious when it comes to any diet tweaking that can hurt my strength,” says Brian Carroll, a world-class powerlifter who has squatted 1,145 pounds — and totaled 2,700 pounds (bench, squat, and deadlift combined) — in competition. “Within seven weeks of starting carb back-loading, my body fat dropped by 7%, and I was the strongest I’ve ever been.”

After working out, consume high-glycemic carbs like maltodextrin and dextrose (while avoiding fructose-based recovery drinks). These carbs will create a beneficial spike in your insulin levels, which will increase amino acid uptake into your muscles. When you train, there’s an appreciable degradation, or breaking down, of protein in your muscles. The higher your insulin spike, the less degradation. Insulin also reduces formation of reactive oxygen species (chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen; these are a normal product of cellular metabolism), which can increase during times of stress and cause cellular damage. In other words, your insulin spike will act as an anti-inflammatory after you train.

For your meals, you’ll be taking in high-glycemic carbs throughout the night after training, along with adequate amounts of protein. Your carb sources should be white breads, pastries, white potatoes, white rice, and superripe bananas. For maximum muscle growth, ingest at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. Research has shown that more than 1.3 grams per pound of body weight is a waste of money, and the 30-gram protein maximum for individual meals is a myth.

WHEN YOU DON’T TAKE IN CARBS BEFORE YOUR WORKOUTS, THE BODY REACHES HOMEOSTASIS, WHICH ENABLES YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM TO FUNCTION AT PEAK EFFICIENCY.

▪ Meal plan configuration for a 175-pound male who wants to gain muscle without adding fat

8-12 oz coffee with 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream; 1 scoop low-carb protein powder; 5 g leucine or BCAA

Omelet: 2 eggs, 3 oz lean ham, 1 cup asparagus, 1 oz cheddar cheese

Wrap: 6-8 oz lean roast beef, 5 romaine lettuce leaves, 3 oz cheddar cheese; soy sauce (for dipping)

2 scoops whey or casein protein; 1-2 tbsp natural peanut butter

Half rotisserie chicken; mashed potatoes; corn; 1 slice pumpkin pie

30 g whey isolate; 1 cup ice cream

8-12 oz coffee with 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream; 1 scoop low-carb protein powder; 5 g leucine or BCAA

3 fried eggs; 4 slices bacon; 1 tomato

6-8 oz skinless chicken breast, broiled or grilled; bed of romaine lettuce leaves; 1 tbsp olive oil; vinegar to taste

1 cup cottage cheese; ¼ cup almonds

60 g whey isolate (or whey or casein hydrolysate); 25 g maltodextrin or dextrose (or 3 very ripe bananas); 5 g creatine; 5 g leucine

⅔ lb cheeseburger; french fries; 1 apple crisp

30 g whey isolate; 2 blueberry muffins; 8 oz milk

These four supplement suggestions will help speed up your “get big, not fat” process

▪ Caffeine: Increases insulin sensitivity in cells and helps prevent the storage of glucose as fat.

▪ Leucine: Take at least five grams of this essential amino acid after your workouts. Leucine increases and stimulates protein synthesis — slowing post-training protein degradation as a result — and it also increases insulin secretion when taken with carbs.

▪ Whey or Casein Hydrolysate: These proteins are “cleaved” into dipeptides and tripeptides and have shown the ability to increase insulin response. Both cause a rapid rise in your amino acid pool because of the quick absorption of dipeptides and tripeptides into cells.

▪ Creatine: Increases muscle growth and may block myostatin, a protein that limits muscle growth.

▪ You can eat fatty foods like bacon, as long as they’re not paired with high-carb foods.

▪ Carb back-loading limits your carb consumption to what you really need: post-workout replenishment.

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By JOHN KIEFER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MITCH FEINBERG

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