The One-Week Carb-Loading Program for Extreme Size and Definition!

Carb-loading is a quick fix for getting into top shape, commonly used by athletes for various endeavors, particularly long distance endurance events. The practice dates back to the late 1960, when a Swedish physiologist Gunvar Ahlborg discovered the phenomenon of glycogen super-compensation.

In short, this method requires large short-term changes in your consumption of carbs, sodium and water, and is usually implemented by depleting carbs for several days and then reloading your muscles with glycogen, which creates miraculous changes in muscle conditioning. The end results are an increased aerobic capacity caused by feeding your muscles with the maximum amount of glycogen possible, and enhanced aesthetics, which is very important for competitive bodybuilders. Regardless of your goals, carb-loading is guaranteed to provide you with the perfect mix of size and conditioning in the shortest period of time possible.

If you think this sounds too good to be true, try this one-week program and get a taste of the biggest and leanest version of yourself!

Prepare for cutting: increase intake of sodium and water

A day or two before starting the carb-cutting part of the program, start increasing your sodium consumption by simply sprinkling some extra salt on all of your meals and eating more sodium-rich foods such as beets, celery and meat. This will increase water retention in your body. Follow the high-sodium diet until one day before starting the carb-loading, which should happen on the 6th day of the program. Pair the increased sodium consumption with drinking 50% more water than usual, which is very important for achieving the best definition possible at the end of the program.

Part I: Deplete carbs (Days 1-5)

• Cut your carb consumption in half – In the first three days, reduce your intake of carbs by 50% and stick to slow-digesting carbs in your pre- and post-workout nutrition.
• Increase protein consumption – As your carbs intake drops, your protein consumption should mildly increase for the sake of preventing muscle breakdown. However, this needs to be done slowly, by adding about 50 grams each day during the first five days of the program. If you increase your protein intake too much or too fast, your body will burn the excess protein as fuel instead of depleting its glycogen stores.
• Train with higher reps – During the five days of carb-depletion, use lighter weights than usual and double the number of sets you would normally perform, with 12-18 reps per each set. This kind of training is most effective at maximally emptying your carb reserves. Don’t forget – the more carbs you lose now, the more you can store during the second part of the program, resulting with bigger and meaner muscles.
• Give carbs the final blow – Between the third and fifth day, reduce your carb intake even further, lowering it by an additional 25-30%. Consume no more than 0.7 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight daily and make sure to take them early in the morning.

Part II: Reload (Days 5-7)

• Pause from training – During the carb-loading phase, it wise to avoid training and physical activity as much as you can so that you don’t lose any of the newly arriving carbohydrates and keep your muscles as full as possible.
• Cut down on sodium and water – The time to drop the extra salt you’ve been consuming in the last 5-6 days has come. This will spur changes in aldosterone levels, causing your body to excrete more water, especially from beneath the skin, resulting with greater definition. Also, eliminate those 50% of extra water you’ve consumed in the previous phase. The restricted water intake will push your muscles to use up the last drops of subcutaneous water, resulting with an optimally shredded physique.
• Carb up – By this point, your muscles should be extremely low in fuel, thanks to the last five days of low carb consumption and high-volume training, so now you’re ready to replenish them. Consume 3-5 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight on a daily basis and all of this carb goodness will go directly to your muscles. Again, opt for complex-carb sources like potatoes and whole grain products and avoid fast-digesting sugars as much as you can.
• Reduce protein – Cut down the extra protein you’ve added to your diet – as your carb intake increases, you won’t need that much protein anymore, so drop down to one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily during the last two days of the program.
• Pump up! – On the 7th, final day of the process, pump up your muscles using relatively light weights and focus on completing a full range of motion, while keeping the reps in the lower range. Your muscles will be full and maximally ripped, giving you a much larger and tighter appearance. Don’t forget to photographically document your amazing condition and use it to track your bodybuilding progress.

7 Carbohydrate Tips to Help You Gain Muscle Instead of Fat

With the recent hype surrounding the high-protein diets, which are being hailed as the new wondrous weight reducing method, one might begin having an impression that carbs are good only for producing fat. In fact, many people believe that this is true, that eating carbs can seriously undermine their waist line.

Well, although the newly emerged craze with high-protein diet is something that should receive a thumb up, the accompanying tarnishing and blemishing of carbs as the culprits of our increased weight is nothing but ignorant talk. In fact it can be very detrimental when creating a suitable diet for people who train hard.

Here, we’ll go beyond the hype, and second-guessing, and try to provide you with scientifically backed up analysis of how can carbs be used for building your muscle mass. Try our seven tips that restore the unfairly lost credit to carbs, and urge you to put this nutrient back on your dietary list.

1. CARBS HELP UTILIZATION OF PROTEIN FOR BUILDING MUSCLE MASS

If you want to build muscle mass your diet should be rich in both in protein and carbs. Lack of carbs in your system during the muscle building process causes degradation of protein. Since the carbs are not present to provide the necessary fuel for your body, it breaks down the protein using it for energy and not for building muscle.

In order to rip the anabolic benefits of protein, people trying to build mass should consume at least 2.5 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight. At the same time, the recommended daily is allowance of protein for mass builders is 1 to 2 grams per pound.

2. POST-WORKOUT CARBS AND SODIUM INTAKE HELP MUSCLE GROWTH

After the workout you need to restore your glycogen levels. This is best achieved by providing your body with substantial amount of carbs. We recommend upgrading this technique a little bit by adding sodium to the cocktail. Sodium draws greater amount of water in your muscles, while the carbs are restoring your energy.

This will greatly speed up your recovery and boost muscle growth. Next time you take your post-workout meal, make sure that it contains the right carbs, and add a quarter teaspoon of salt.

3. EXPAND YOUR ANABOLIC WINDOW TO 6 HOURS

According to the conventional wisdom it is most beneficial to consume meals high in carbs and some protein within the 90 minutes window following the training session. Consuming carbs during this period is known to stimulate the insulin production, which helps in stopping the breakdown of protein and improves the supply of carbs to your muscles.

However, you might not know that muscles could benefit from the increased carbs intake for up to six hours after training. So try utilizing this by expanding your 90 minute window to a 6 hours anabolic double door.  We recommend consuming a high carb meal within the 90 minutes period after training. Consume the second meal within the next four hours. The insulin stimulating process can especially benefit from consuming juice, white rice, honey, jam, bagels or some other refined sugar.

4. DON’T AVOID POTATOES

Many people are still convinced that dieting and potatoes should never mix. This conviction is founded on the belief that the starch in potatoes can be easily transformed into sugar, resulting in unwanted blood-sugar spikes. This in turn triggers cravings and uncontrollable hunger, that can greatly damage your dieting efforts.

Yet, we should point out that not all potatoes have the same nutritional properties. While some of them, like russet potatoes, are converted into sugar more quickly and should be avoided by the bodybuilders, others (red potatoes) take much longer to break down providing you with a prolonged feeling of satiety.

5. ADD VARIETY TO YOUR CARBS INTAKE

The first and primary reason for consuming carbs is to simulate insulin production in order to trigger muscle growth. At the same time you want to avoid creating blood-sugar spikes. The solution is mixing the fast digesting carbs that boost your insulin levels instantly, with “slow” carbs that offer prolonged insulin response.

You can get the former from food sources like raisins or juice, and should be consumed immediately after the workout. The slow burning carbs like oats and yams are best consumed within 6 hours after workout.

6. ALTERNATE YOUR CARB INTAKE

Depleting the carbs from your body and loading them back up can help your muscles look bigger and fuller. First, do a three day fast and try not to eat  (or eat very small amount) carbs, breaking the fast during the next two days. During the carb loading days, you should consume roughly 2  times more carbs than on a normal day.

So if you normally eat, say 500 grams of carbs on a normal day, after the 3 day carbohydrate fast you would load with 900-1000 grams of carbs per day.

7. OPTIMIZE CARB CONSUMPTION WITH HEALTHY FATS

When you are on a mass building diet, you should aim at consuming 20% of your total healthy fats. The consumption of these fats found in sources like flaxseed oil, olive oil and fish to name some, improves the ability of your body for storing carbs, thus increasing the glycogen reserves (healthy fats improve insulin sensitivity).

The increased glycogen reserves will improve your performances during workout, speed up your recovery and boost your muscle growth. This is a result of utilizing the energy from the fats instead of the carbs.