No Frills Fitness: Return to the Blogosphere & my Carb Nite Solution

So it's been a while since I've written, nearly 3 months actually. In that time I've continued with my heavy lifting in the gym, hitting new personal bests on all of the big lifts--the squat, deadlift and bench press. My weight has maintained, but I have shed 5 inches total off my body. And I've been experimenting with some different diet techniques, which is really why I wanted to get back to writing.

Yesterday was my first day on the Carb Nite Solution. I found out about this diet after doing some reading on a Web site called Dangerously Hardcore, which is maintained by a guy named John Kiefer, who usually just goes by Kiefer, a physicist and accomplished bodybuilder (labels that only scratch the surface of what this guy has done and continues to do).

About 2 weeks ago I start utilizing a way of eating Kiefer calls Carb Back-Loading, or CBL for short. In a nutshell, when you are on the CBL plan, you eat very low carbs during the day, 30 grams or less. Kiefer recommends working out in the late afternoon on this plan, generally after 3 or 4 p.m., but you can modify if you are an a.m. lifter, such as myself. After your late afternoon workout, or 6 p.m. for a.m. lifters, you start stuffing your face with carbs. And you can be as healthy or as junky with the carbs as you like. There's a method to the madness and I highly recommend checking Kiefer's site if you're interested.

What CBL is supposed to do is allow you to maintain your muscle mass while adding strength and size if that's your goal. You can also burn fat if that's your goal. Sounds like a ridiculously amazing plan, I know. Check out Julia Ladewski's blog post about it if you're having doubts. I enjoyed the 2 weeks of bountiful carbs at night, but I felt the time was right to buckle down and get ready for the summer. CBL is supposed to be a more gradual fat loss as opposed to the Carb Nite Solution.

On the Carb Nite Solution you stick to 30 grams of carbs or less per day for 9 days. Your diet basically consists of protein and fat, which a sprinkling of carbs and lots of fiber. On the 10th day you start off eating as you had the previous 9 days, but by late afternoon you begin a carb feast. Kiefer basically recommends eating anything and everything you can get your hands on during that 10th afternoon and evening (with the exception of fruit juice, which he gets into in the book). You return to ultra-low carb eating the next day and repeat a Carb Nite every week.

The science behind Carb Nite really interested me. It's not about counting calories or really about counting carbs, though yes, you do have to count carbs. Carb Nite is about creating hormonal changes in your body in order to burn fat rather than lose muscle, which Kiefer explains happens on most traditional diets. I've worked hard for the muscle I have and the preservation of said muscle is vital to me.

And Kiefer is pretty straight-forward in the book. He tells you flat-out that the Carb Nite Solution is strictly a diet, not a lifestyle, and that you shouldn't stay on the plan for more than 6 months at a time. Most "diets" nowadays claim to be lifestyle changes, but in reality who wants to go on forever not eating french fries? Kiefer also tells you when you go off of Carb Nite, you will most likely gain back a few pounds. Not to worry, you can continue to maintain with his transition plan.

So, I've laid out some of the basics, but the book provides so much more background on diets in general and the entire framework for the Carb Nite Solution. I'm going to give it at least a month and see what happens. There's been some stubborn baby weight hanging around my midsection and as hard as I work my legs, I can't seem to make any aesthetic progress (Is that vain of me?). I would like to wear shorts and a 2-piece bathing suit this summer.

And that leaves me with this... probably the most difficult thing about sharing a diet and fitness journey online with people: the before pictures. Go ahead and look. Hopefully they will be drastically different 2 weeks from now!