How long?

[SouthernBell]

How long should you stay on a low carb diet? I normally eat like this year round, I stay clear from anything that I know is gonna spike my sugar levels. No white bread, rice, white potato's, pasta, etc..... It is now more habit than anything. But I feel I am starting to do myself a disgrace. The most I will do to break my diet is a crispy chicken salad. And sometimes a alacholic beverage or two at most. Then usuall follow with a couple hundred mg af ala or R-ala. I usuall stick to around 1600 calories, working out 5-6 days a week. Heavy weight (well as heavy as I can go) training followed by either running biking or stair climbing. But when I want to diet down I don't know exactly where to start since I don't have much carbs or bad fats to begin with.

I usually eat lots of chicken, tuna, raw veggies, lean steak, natty peanut butter, lots of greens, flax seed oil, oatmeal, ezikiel bread, and protein shakes usuall RTD40 after workouts.

So am I really overdoing my diet staying like this year round? Should I endulge more? I don't know how to cycle my carbs etc... so I figured staying consistant was the way to go, Am I wrong?



lovemymuscle

 

[BrickGirl]

It really depends on your goals, take me, I just came off of a contest schedule of leaning,bulking,leaning of about 10 months and now am just coasting along at my normal base diet, not trying to lose fat, not trying to gain massive amounts of muscle, just being real consistent right now, I havn't decided on what I am gonna do next, but whenever I do decide, that will determine where my diet goes next, but for now, I'm just letting my body recover and coasting along but still working my ass off. If I were to do another fitness show, I would put on about 10lbs, then start leaning down, if I am going to do a powerlifting meet, then I will see what my weight class goes up to and max out on it without going over, so really, it just depends on what you want to do You don't want to be stagnent forever

 

[SouthernBell]

Well, let me see, I just like feeling great and also being in great shape. I have no specific goals in mind. I Don't have the gymnastic background for fitness, the strenght for PL, or OL, or the excelent muscle definition for BB. But I love weight training in general. So I would say I do it for the love of the training. I love seeing results just like everyone ealse but lately I haven't seen any.



I am really consistant on the diet thing. I am a repition person, I don't mind eating the same thing everyday. If it works ha! It works. I am not much of a calorie counter each and every meal.
I know what I can and cant have and what I can get by eating every once and a while. I guess it takes time to find the perfect medium. I am not pre comp but I am not trying to gain too much muscle either. (not cutting not bulking) I guess time will tell.

thank you

lovemymuscle

 

[SteelWeaver]

I don't mind eating the same thing every day either, but it's not really a good idea in the long term. For a contest diet or whatever, fine, but your body needs variety (IMO). Sorry, I don't have science to back this up, (although I'm sure there's plenty out there) but there's a wide variety of nutrients/vitamins/minerals etc. that you'fe probably missing out on by sticking to the same food items day in and day out. I think it's difficult enough as it is to get all the necessary nutrients from veggies/animals grown the way they are nowadays, without making things worse by narrowing down the choices.

Just my 2 cents.

You might consider just playing with various aspects of your diet to see what happens, just for interest's sake ... If you DO decide to gain muscle, you'll probably have to increase carb intake a bit.

 

[SouthernBell]

I am playing with that Idea. I have been eating like this for so long that It is hard to break that habit. I feel like I am disobeying myself If I eat rice pasta etc..... I know that I need to so yesterday I started My day of trying out new things. Can you believe I have never had a Calizone . I was gonna opt for the same old Spinich salad with grilled chicken. Then I said hell with it I didn't know what I was missing before. I don't want to make a habit of this maybe that is why I am scared to take that jump.

I respect everyon here on elite so if I have a question you gals are the first ones I turn to, and I always get a good answer, Thank Ya'll sooo much. I will start experimenting too see what I come up with.

lovemymuscle

 

[fitmedic]

love my muscle... i HEAR YA SISTER. gosh im so frustrated i could scream . i just came of the NHE plan after 8 weeks with nothing really to show except losing muscle and getting too lean. dang it. i ate so clean too. better than i ever have. jj's a good one to talk to about the long term eating thing. let me know what you find out. im still lookin' too...