Carb Backloading - Lifting, Grappling, Eating

Monday and Tuesday weren't good, I was out of town on a business trip to head office.

Monday was OK, had two shakes, a caesar salad and an omelette for dinner in between driving and meetings, but Tueday was bad. I didn't sleep properly in the hotel Monday night and woke up feeling drained and needing energy, so Tuesday morning I had a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, a bowl of muesli, some smoked meat and cheese and some small pastries. Shake during the day and a small piece of roast chicken, then after a 9 hour drive I got home and ate half of the Papa John's pizza my housemate had ordered. So yeah, that was a fuck up. Back to 100% complicance yesterday but I've put some water weight back on for sure. Haven't trained since Sunday either.
 
Training was a wash last week, just felt tired, run down and depressed, but diet compliance was 100%. Yesterday's refeed:

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Steak burgers, rice, beans, greek salad. Had some choc chip cookies and white chocolate after.

Weight is static today at 94.5kg, 3kg loss in two weeks. Training again this week. Lifting strength has dropped noticeably. If I can hit 92kg by the end of the 28 days I'll be very satisfied.
 
Had an epic cheat meal on Thursday. At work we all brought food in for the World Cup, so I had like 2 slices of pizza, 3 slices of gateaux, 2 doughnuts, some Greek salad, half a pitta bread and hummus. Two shakes.

Haven't done BJJ all week, went on Friday night but my motivation is at an all time low. I lifted as per usual though, and the DOMS was hellacious. I'm also noticing I'm pretty depressed and have a short temper. Whether this is diet or just life I don't know. If it is diet it's pretty pathetic to know that the only thing that keeps me happy is calories - might explain why I'm a fat POS!
 
It seems like you have a crazy unhealthy relationship to food. Instead of going on weird diets that leave you depressed, brain-foggy and with low motivation, then work on getting a healthy relationship to food.

It seemed you were doing good when eating healthy foods and cutting out junk and sugar. Losing weight, better sleep, better energi and more motivation to train.

Junk and sugar are highly addicting. Some people are able to eat it in moderation and that's where the "nothing is unhealthy it's about context" comes from. And they're right. A slice of pizza isn't unhealthy or a little ice cream friday evening. But you clearly aren't able to control it.
Read this if you want to. It's about sugars effect on the brain and sugar addiction: http://authoritynutrition.com/viciouseating.pdf

About depression. It can be from diet. But there's a lot more that can cause depression.
Here you can read about how Pornography fucks with your brain chemistry: http://yourbrainonporn.com/
or this YT video that is short and to the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU
Look up Mindfullness meditation: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-practical-guide-finding-frantic/dp/074995308X
This book is awesome. Straight to the point. Lays out the science behind how it helps and helps you avoid commom pitfalls. It's basically brain training. As the brain is plastic you can rewire it for more love, happiness, acceptance etc.

Working out is also very good to battle depression

Take the advice or not.
Good luck reaching your goals :)
 
Thanks for the advice, I didn't really lose any weight when I did the 100 days of clean eating or have any athletic success i.e lifts going up so I don't want it to come across like it was life changing and had massive benefits.

As for motivation to train it's not the training, more that it takes me 1.5 hours to get to BJJ and 2 hours to get home after, and I just didn't have the energy to sit on a bus for that time the last few weeks. Also I'm just generally unhappy about how my life has turned out, it's a broad malaise that I've been working to fix for the past five years, rather than a spike of depression. I haven't been happy for as long as I remember, this isn't a temporary thing brought about by the diet.

Regardless I had minor surgery last Tuesday, took three days off then recorded guitars for a friends band all weekend while I healed so am back to normal now. Got protein powder left so will continue this diet and "man up" by just grinding out training sessions as I have a competition in 3 weeks at under 95kg. I was 93kg last Wednesday so should make it easy. Plan is to compete every month between now and christmas.
 
Well if what you're doing doesn't make you happy and you're not moving some grand goal or scheme why don't you limit your current hobbies to maintenance practice and try something new that excites you? Find your fire man.
 
Don't get me wrong, I love training BJJ and I love lifting but I'm under no illusions that I'll never be really good at them. Started too late in life. I've got a bad attitude in that unless I can be great/the best at something then I always ask what the point is. There's nothing else I like doing outside of those things, when I don't train I just waste time watching Youtube videos or eating junk food or reading strength training books. So my main challenge is to keep grinding away and training even when I don't feel like it.

Also it's work that gets me down, the fact I spend 40 hours a week literally not training or doing things that contribute to a better life is what gets me down. There are all these guys out there trainig full time and meanwhile I'm sat in an office sending emails and only getting 12 hours a week of BJJ.

I also haven't set PR's on my lifts for around 6 months and I feel like I'm getting weaker so that gets rid of my motivation to lift. Again, I'm too weak minded to simply gain enjoyment from the process, I need results to be motivated.

Missed my train to training last night so ended up just going home and editing some guitar tracks I recorded over the weekend. Diet was good though, no training for 8 days. Going to nogi tonight, plan is to lift beforehand but if I miss the train again I'll have to catch a couple of different buses and just do the BJJ for an hour.
 
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Quick update - I came off the PSMF as planned, weight hit a low of 92.5kg. I competed yesterday at 95.5kg before a dump, and eating a couple of cupcakes at the cinema the night before. I'm two weeks into doing intermittent fasting again - fast until 4pm, eat, train, eat again. Works out to a 17/7 schedule.

Today I broke my fast with a pork loin steak, 100g of quinoa with some black beans, a handful of salad leaves and some balsamic vinegar. I after training tonight I'll have a venison burger, some brown rice, and a bowl of oatmeal. Diet is pretty consistent, except I end up eating too much crap on Sunday nights IMO(boredom) even if it is within the feed window.

Weight wise, scale is fairly static, but I'm slowly looking leaner. I'm 30 in November so the plan is to keep this up until then. It doesn't "feel" like a diet, and if I want some yoghurt covered raisins or peanut butter after training I can have it. I also feel good during training with lots of energy and I feel strong in the gym.
 
Took silver, won two and lost one. Should have won the final but I couldn't get my foot out of the guys grip on a straight ankle lock (my hips were escaped already but he was a beast with squeeze).

I was more technical and was up by a point until then, just got lazy with my feet. Competing at NAGA UK next month, and aiming for one comp per month until Xmas. Might even try and do the European championships in January, but I'd prefer to do the no-gi variation which is in April - it'll be an expensive weekend with flights and accommodation so can't do both. Or can I....
 
Getting bodyfat measured tomorrow, hoping for 15% but I'm not holding out much hope as I had to take 10 days off training due to a low back tweak. Weight is 210lbs, I would like to lose 10lbs of fat. This is not difficult objectively, but I cannot fathom how I can ever get that lean. I've been constantly trying to lose fat for so long that it seems impossible.

One thing I have noticed is that higher carb, lower fat is to me much more satiating. This is the opposite to most people I know - they eat bacon and eggs cooked in butter and they're full, whereas I can eat again an hour later. Probably why I had such epic fails on low carb diets except when I was really overweight and not training at 19.
 
Wow. Did you cut weight at all for the grappling?
 
I am in same boat about low carb. I didn't notice much satiety at all. What helps is blended spinach with mango - around 200 calories, but fills you up.
And just nuking sweet potatoes for 10 minutes in microwave. So good and filling.
 
Obscure Terror said:
Getting bodyfat measured tomorrow, hoping for 15% but I'm not holding out much hope as I had to take 10 days off training due to a low back tweak. Weight is 210lbs, I would like to lose 10lbs of fat. This is not difficult objectively, but I cannot fathom how I can ever get that lean. I've been constantly trying to lose fat for so long that it seems impossible.
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If you're above 15%, there is still a LONG way to go before you have to give up hope. In fact, there's no reason to ever give it up. An average guy can generally get down to 8-10% body fat (completely visible abs) and hold it indefinitely without any adverse effects.

If you need some help setting a deficit and macros, I made a thread awhile ago that might be of use to you:

http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f15/how-design-diet-2409159/

There's honestly so much bullshit floating around on the internet when it comes to dieting techniques. People make all kinds of retarded gimmicks in order to make money; I have actually thought of doing something similar, but I'm too honest, and Lyle McDonald made a bullshit-free book about dieting called "A Guide to Flexible Dieting." If you search it on Google with "pdf" at the end, then you'll be able to find it in seconds. It has been the most helpful book I've read on dieting. In fact, the only reason why I made that thread is because I couldn't post Lyle's book outright. If you're an athlete (which you are), and you lift (which you do), gimmick diets without structured refeeds or a constant stream of carbs won't work.

PM me or post in my log if you feel stuck at any point. I have a similar training routine, and I post all of my shit in the S&C logs. I just recently revived my old log. I post all of my lifting + diet stuff. I eat like shit about 20% of the time, and the last two days have been no exception, but the other entries this week have been great! Don't get freaked out if you see my daily calories; I'm only 175 lbs :p
 
Pathogenic said:
If you're above 15%, there is still a LONG way to go before you have to give up hope. In fact, there's no reason to ever give it up. An average guy can generally get down to 8-10% body fat (completely visible abs) and hold it indefinitely without any adverse effects.

If you need some help setting a deficit and macros, I made a thread awhile ago that might be of use to you:

http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f15/how-design-diet-2409159/

There's honestly so much bullshit floating around on the internet when it comes to dieting techniques. People make all kinds of retarded gimmicks in order to make money; I have actually thought of doing something similar, but I'm too honest, and Lyle McDonald made a bullshit-free book about dieting called "A Guide to Flexible Dieting." If you search it on Google with "pdf" at the end, then you'll be able to find it in seconds. It has been the most helpful book I've read on dieting. In fact, the only reason why I made that thread is because I couldn't post Lyle's book outright. If you're an athlete (which you are), and you lift (which you do), gimmick diets without structured refeeds or a constant stream of carbs won't work.

PM me or post in my log if you feel stuck at any point. I have a similar training routine, and I post all of my shit in the S&C logs. I just recently revived my old log. I post all of my lifting + diet stuff. I eat like shit about 20% of the time, and the last two days have been no exception, but the other entries this week have been great! Don't get freaked out if you see my daily calories; I'm only 175 lbs :p
Click to expand...

Yeah man I've read that thread top to bottom and used it a lot to calculate macros. My problem with implementing IIFYM on myself is lack of discipline, I think I need to ban sweet stuff to once a week because my tendency to overeat is too great but it's just tough. Yesterday I ate a turkey breast with some wholewheat pasta and veggies, had a job interview, lifted, had a shake and a bowl of oatmeal with some agave nectar in it. All good. But then I was working all evening and ended up eating 4 giant choc chip cookies and another bowl of oatmeal, so my calories will be around maintenance but most of them will be carbs and fat.

With me, it is literally just discipline. If I cut the sweets out then fine, but I give myself too many "rewards" when I haven't really earned them. Guess I need to log daily again to keep accountable.
 
ironwolf said:
I never cut weight for grappling, I feel too weak, especially with same day weigh ins.
Click to expand...

All our fighters and Jj guys cut a lot of weight, with good results. Except me hah - showing up at 285 against 230 pounders was awesome.

I tried to cut 10 lbs just to see what's it's like. Man it's tough. I quit and woke up just 7 lbs lighter.
 
Body fat was 18%. Compared to last measurement I have lost 2kg of fat - LBM stayed identical and the change in measurements was purely off my waist, so that's something.
 
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