Bill Phillips' carb cycling, refeeds, leptin and Leptigen

[SteelWeaver]

Time to diet again.

Damn! I was SO enjoying bulking. Pity I enjoyed it a bit too much. Oh well.

I'm going to experiment with Bill Phillips' carb cycling plan, but I was wondering what you guys and gals think of the 4th day - the high carb day, re: leptin.

Day 1 - moderate carbs 1.5g/lb bw
moderate protein 1g/lb bw
low fat 1/4g/lb bw

Day 2 - low carbs .5g/lb bw
high protein 1.5g/lb bw
low fat 1/4g/lb bw

Day 3 - identical to Day 2

Day 4 - high carbs 2g/lb bw
moderate protein 1g/lb bw
low fat 1/4g/lb bw

I worked out all the numbers, and interestingly, the average cals over 4 days comes to almost exactly 12 x bodyweight in pounds. The numbers make a lot of sense, except when you throw leptin and refeeds into the equation. The 4th day here could be regarded as a refeed, except that the numbers come out to maintenance cals, where a refeed is 20-50% over maintenance.

At this point, I'm probably too fat for proper refeeds anyway, and certainly not every 4 days - more like every week or so. (I don't know bf right now - maybe 16%, it could be more ...)

So, what I'd like input on is: assuming I don't need refeeds for a few weeks, til my bf comes down a bit, will day 4 as above help to keep leptin up for a while? Is there any point in having a high carb day like this if it doesn't go above maintenance?

How would you suggest modifying things once I DO start having weekly refeeds in a few weeks? 2 low, 2 mod, 2 low, 1 high?? 2 mod, 2 low, 1 mod, 1 low, 1 high? BTW, I DETEST low carbs and will do almost anything to avoid them, but am willing to bear them for very short periods at a time if I know it'll help.

How would throwing LeptiGen into the equation change things? Par, I notice refeeds don't get thrown out the window when Leptigen is used, just scaled down. Correct? Could you give a few more details on that?

Gracias!

 

[Par Deus]

The high carb day would raise leptin pretty close to baseline (before the diet) for most of that day and probably most of the next since it is moderate carbs, so "yes" it would be somewhat helpful, especially early on. You will need more intense refeeds as you progress.

Once you get leaner, you could stick to the same basic plan, just have more carbs on day 4 -- perhaps increase it by 50-75 grams each week.

Your understanding on LeptiGen is right on -- even with full dosing, you would quite likely still want to have a modest refeed/carb-up regularly, in order to keep muscle glycogen somewhat full as well as to satisfy cravings and have some periods of increased anabolic activity, if either of those are of interest.

 

[SteelWeaver]

in order to keep muscle glycogen somewhat full as well as to satisfy cravings and have some periods of increased anabolic activity, if either of those are of interest.

OH, yes, those are of great interest, lol.

Thanks for the reply. Great, so, mmm, assuming one is using LeptiGen, would the extra 50-75g carbs, or a certain percentage of the carbs on day 4 need to be high GI? Or does LeptiGen negate the need for that?

 

[Par Deus]

would the extra 50-75g carbs, or a certain percentage of the carbs on day 4 need to be high GI? Or does LeptiGen negate the need for that?

Particularly early in the diet, it would be a good idea for them to be high GI. As total carb intake increases, the need for high GI carbs in order to get adequate insulin release diminished.

LeptiGen would not make much of a difference in this regard.

 

[spangler12]

Awesome post! I have actually done this type of dieting before and it was great! I was able to cut 14lbs. in the first 11 days and a total of 29lbs. in a month. But just like when lifting, you have to switch it up. After the first month I hit a major plateau. I was told it was because the receptors had gotten use to what I was doing. So my advice from my experience is cheat once a week but be smart about it and cheat with little things like a day of eating fruit to confuse your body and not depriving it of the fructose.