How do I build muscle and lose fat at the same time?

Note: Search my youtube channel for some videos I’ve made on cbl. You can view my latest on here.

carb backloading video 4/4/2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVh01Wdlw1Y

If carb backloading is used sparingly, you can use it to lose weight and build muscle at the same time. After much testing, personal review with myself and clients, I’ve found that carb back loading has a place to broader audience than I had thought before. In my previous review of carb backloading, I said that it’s not ideal for people who are 30lbs overweight. I’ve changed my opinion on it because it really does work: lose fat and muscle gain at the same time.

I’ll explain in greater detail how this works, but let explain how diets for muscle gain are suppose to work.

What foods do you need to eat to gain muscle?
Here’s a brief food list.
Protein: Chicken, beef, pork, fish, milk, cheese, meal replacement shakes
Carbs: bread, rice, pasta, vegetables
Fats: Avacados, olive oil, coconut oil,
(it’s nothing special)

It’s obvious that protein is important for muscle gain. After all, it’s what your muscle are made of. It makes sense, eat muscle to gain muscle. What about carbs and fat, how do they fit into the picture? Traditionally, when you’re on a muscle gain diet, you will eat more calories than you burn to maintain a consistent caloric surplus.

The problem with most muscle gain diets is you end up putting on unwanted body fat. So you have to eat a high calorie muscle gain diet to build muscle, then do a fat loss program to shred the unwanted fat afterwards.

Why does this happen? When you’re trying to build a big house (your body) you need enough raw material (food). If you don’t have enough raw material to build it is impossible to build a bigger house.

To make sure you have enough raw material (depends on the size of the house), it’s best to buy (eat) more material than you need. Now think about what happens if you eat more raw material than you need for building – that’s what gets stored as fat, the extra stuff.

My advice to clients with big muscle gain goals (15  pounds of muscle gain or more), I recommend eating a ton of food. However, if you have the body type that tends to store body fat easily then it’s best to eat maintenance calories. The problem with not eating a high surplus is that you’re not creating the optimal environment for muscle gain.

The Optimal environment for muscle gain is also the optimal environment for fat gain.

Sounds like lose / lose right? If you want to put on lean mass you have to put on a lot of body fat while building muscle – that’s where carb backloading comes in.

You’re constantly manipulating calories (unconsciously) to optimize hormones. It’s a systematic way to cycle carbohydrates, especially the “bad stuff” like donuts and cake.

 

One of the hormones we have decent control over if you’re a non-diabetic, is insulin. By eating carbs we signal our body to increase insulin production, insulin tells your body to grow. Insulin basically tells your fat cells and muscle cells to grow. I’ll post a carb backloading meal plan below so and explain you the details.

Here’s an example Carb Back Loading meal plan and workout schedule:

6am: Wake up

8am: Coffee

10am: Breakfast
2 strips bacon
2 eggs

1pm: Lunch
1 Cup Cottage Cheese
6oz Chicken Breast
2 cups Spring Mix
1 serving Ranch Dressing

6pm: Workout
Heavy Strength Training
Time Muslce Matrix or Kiefer’s Shockwave Protocol

7pm: Post Workout Shake
30g of Protein, Meal Replacement
0g Carbs

9pm: Dinner (Carb Back Loading)
15g of Protein, Meal Replacement
3 Slices of Pizza
1 Donuts
1 ½ cups ice cream


The science behind the diet has to with eating low carb throughout the day up until after your workout. That’s where you can eat cheesecake and pizza to gain muscle without gaining fat. In the example meal plan above, you’re keep insulin levels low by eating low carb for breakfast and lunch. You even have a low carb shake.

[ad] It’s not until late at night dinner you ingest the carbs. By eating low carbs all day you make your body very sensitive to carbohydrates. When you ingest carbs after your workout, your cells are starving for sugar. When you do a carb backload, you essentially give your muscle what they want.

Now you might be thinking that your fat cells will be starving for sugar too and the insulin will encourage those fat cells to soak up the sugar and make you fatter. Because your muscles have just went through an intense workout, your muscles will soak up most of that sugar because of the environment you created by carb backloading.

There’s more to it, but that’s about 80% of plan. There are ways to optimize the plan based on your circumstance, but you will have to buy the carb back loading pdf. If you’re unhappy with it you can get a refund. (make sure you read the sales page)

Carb Backloading off day meal plan examples

For a majority of people who don’t want to stay lean, you’ll skip backloading on your off days. You’ll be skipping carbs for most of the day which will likely cause a caloric deficit. This is what will allow your body to burn fat and lose body fat on those days.

The off days from carb backloading will look similar to what carb nite solution, eating less than 30g of carbs for the entire day. In case you’re familiar with carb nite, you may want to read my tips on low carb dieting that help when on the plan.

Here’s a carb nite meal plan example, I also made a video of what a carb nite meal plans look like.

 

Carb Nite Diet & Carb Backloading Off day meal plan:

 

Breakfast: Bacon & Eggs

Lunch: 5oz Rib eye, 1 egg, cesar salad

Snack: 1 string cheese

Dinner: Chicken Salad w/ low carb dressing.

You may notice that I didn’t put times down. With carb back loading, the time of day you work out is improtant and there is a certain amount planning involed. It’s simple to follow but what you eat will depend on what time you workout. The ideal time to workout is between 4pm-7pm, but there are plans in the book to explain the modifications that need to made.

It’s very easy for me to gain body fat, so what has worked best for me is doing carb backloading 3 days a week. I still train 5 days, but I only do backloads on the days I train. If possible I set it up to 2 on 1 off. It allow for me to get a spike post workout after the backload, and benefit from the glycogen refill the next day.

[ad] I’m married with kids and my schedule can get a bit hectic depending on what family activities we have planned on the weekend. I have found that some weeks when I’m a bit off on my workout schedule and don’t get ample time to plan, I will do two carb back loads per week. On weeks where I’m on point and feel super strong I will do 3 back loads per week and sometimes 4.

Just a brief note on workouts for carb back loading

If you’d like to read other reviews I’ll post some of the ones I’ve read on an up coming post. If you have questions about the plan, post comments below and I’ll help you out the best I can.