Atkins Diet -- Should I carbo-load? :-D

[Hork]

I've been on the Atkins diet since Feb and have lost about 25 lbs so far.

I have a big water polo tournament tomorrow.

Should I load up on carbs tonight and tomorrow morning? :-D

 

[SnapIT]

Originally posted by: Hork
I've been on the Atkins diet since Feb and have lost about 25 lbs so far.

I have a big water polo tournament tomorrow.

Should I load up on carbs tonight and tomorrow morning? :-D

Yes you should, slow carbs tonight and fast carbs tomorrow...

You will gain a lot of weight by doing so, but don't worry, it's water weight....

I think you will be surprised by the result the loading has on your muscles...

 

[StageLeft]

I would. I've lately been dieting (not atkins - just general low-cal) and the two chest workouts I've had after a cheat night (a few days dieting followed by a huge influx of food) have been absolutely phenomenal.

Crank in some pasta and bread and crap like that tonight and see how tomorrow goes.

 

[Hork]

Had spaghetti, lasagne, and ravioli last night with bread, and a few cupcakes for dessert.

It was like heaven!

Will eat some more carbs for breakfast this morning... and see if I kick butt during the tourney today.

I've figured out why you lose weight on the Atkins Diet. You get so sick of eating meat, cheese, and eggs, that you just don't want to eat anything any more at all! :-D

 

[tontod]

Originally posted by: Hork
Had spaghetti, lasagne, and ravioli last night with bread, and a few cupcakes for dessert.

It was like heaven!

Will eat some more carbs for breakfast this morning... and see if I kick butt during the tourney today.

I've figured out why you lose weight on the Atkins Diet. You get so sick of eating meat, cheese, and eggs, that you just don't want to eat anything any more at all! :-D

Not true at all. If you read his books or go to the atkinscenter.com website, you'll see that he encourages vegetables even early on in the diet. Once you're past the initial stage you can have even more vegetables, some fruits, nuts. He also encourages eating fish like tuna, salmon, etc.

 

[mboy]

U definately need to carb load on any atkins type diet (which is a very basic and crude form of a ketogenic diet, where fat is turned into ketones which can not be converted to fat and must be excreted by the body).
The reason is this, after soo many days of depleted carbs, your conversion of the inactive T4 thryoid hormone to the active t3 v ersion (the usable for for your body) is SEVERLY depressed, thus slowing your metablosim. You can actually check when you need to carb load by taking your temp same time every AM when on the diet. When you notice your Body temp is a dgeree or so lower for 2 mornings in a row, it is time to load up for 2 days. You will def gain weight during these 2 days, but it is from glycogen replenishment and water (every gram of carb will bring in 3 grams of water with it). You will get a nice pump to say the least.

Carb loading can be put off (never avoided), buy takin in t3 thyroid hormone (synthetic in pill form), but thats not for the avg crowd. It's one of my old competitive bodybuilding tricks.

 

[Looney]

I was on a low carb diet last year, and was doing 2-4 hrs of martial arts every day, 5 days a week, and almost 2 hours of workout everyday... and i notice that carb loading was actually not very good for the martial arts part. The day after a carb load, i had a harder time waking up, and generally felt less energy through-out the day. Carb loading did help the weightlifting though, it helped my muscles look more 'full'. I don't quite remember feeling stronger after a carb load on my workouts, so i'm assuming it didn't.