Some help.

Hey guys.

Okay so I've been on a low carb diet for about 12 weeks, which worked pretty well. Got my body fat down to 8% and maintained most of the muscle I built.

The thing is, I'm sick of dieting and I want to go on another bulk, but a very very very lean bulk. If that takes more time so be it.

So my question is, how do I approach eating carbs again without picking up fat seeing as I was on a low carb diet?

Firstly you start introducing the carbs in slowly over the weeks. You should be having low GI carbs such as brown rice, potatoes and oats, and you should be limiting your carbs after 5pm since eating carbs after 5pm increases the chance of it being converted to fat which u wanna avoid. If ur doin the Atkins diet and you've been limiting carbs to max 20g a day then you want to slowly introduce carbs available in fruits for the first few weeks, approximately 5-10g per day for one or two weeks, and then introduce the low GI carbs.
Hope that helps

beesting is right by working your carbs up,when i do diets for people,i usually do maintaince level for 3-4 weeks so their body can adjust to the new carb intake,then there on it i start adding in more calories...the slower the better,the more drastic the change the more u suddently increase the body fat...if u want a proper drawn up diet u may email me....

You want to introduce the carbs slowly which djeasye also mentioned to let ur body adjust its metabolic pathways as you have only been metabolising mostly protein and not much carb. If you increase the carbs drastically, you literally shock the body and you end up storing the carbs as fat since ur body hasn't managed to adjust to metabolising carbs yet.

Cool thanks guys.

Its not like I wasn't eating carbs at all. I was getting them from fruit and veg which I ate with every meal and on workout days I was eating complex carbs after workouts. So on workout days I'd say I was eating about 100-120grams a day with about +- 250 grams protein and 100-120grams fats per day.

But I'll start introducing them slowly like you guys said.

Dj I know you charge for diets, if you don't mind me asking how much do you charge?

Thanks guys.

mail me bro. EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED

Wat you could also do is something called carb cycling.

You have very little carb on day one, cut it out if possible, a medium amount of carb on day two and a high amount of carb on day three. So try workout on the high carb days and u start the cycle again. That way you never actually go into ketosis but the cycle will allow you to eat carbs without picking up fat.

The alternative cycle is three days high carb, three days off carb but I think that this cycle will make you very moody so I recommend the first one

works well for getting lean, usually do 3 days low/moderate,1 day high,3days low/moderate etc...keeps u going...

Beesting's advice about adding carbs gradually and to stick to low GI is good advice. Just do your own homework and get a GI list. Potatoes are definately not low Gi, in fact they are extremely high GI.
As a rule you should eat high GI carbs right after training (up to 80g for 200lb bodybuilder)during the "window of opportunity" when you are insulin sensitive. The rest of the day you should eat small amounts of low GI carbs.
That way you stay anabolic, yet, at the same time you will burn fat. You need the insulin spike after training. Insulin is the most anabolic hormone.

High GI: Potatoes, rice, bread.
Low GI: Sweet Potato, Basmati Rice, Durum Wheat Pasta, Oats

I don't think there's much of a difference between the GI of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are slightly lower because they're higher in fibre and therefore better in terms of GI but the difference is minute

If you consider the difference between 55 and 80 minute, then you are right!

Alfred I dunno wat ur attitude problem is but please take it elsewhere. Clearly ur looking at a different source as to my knowledge and this isn't the place to cause cocky arguments, its a place where ppl give their advice to the best of their knowledge

Beesting calm down girl, did you have a kak day? I am sure Alfred was not trying to stir you up, you guys obviously have different opinions on potatoes..lol

nope didn't hav a bad day. I just dont like his sarcasm but its cool. Anyways Alfred, no hard feelings:)

bro i think potatoes can be had during the day and u can still keep lean, according to the gi foundation Sweet potato, baked / cooked is lower than 20. Potato, roasted without fat <20. its says high gi where as sweet potato is low gi... at the end of the day i recon its calories in vs calories out... u need to burn up more calories than u are taking in... rather get that right before going to far into the nitty gritty of gi etc, and if u wanna lower the gi of something all u do is add in a high fiber food such as green fibrous veggies or even brown rice. i dont like eating brown rice so i usually take 1 potato,bake it and then mash it and then add in the cooked brown rice to this,it makes it easier to consume but also makes the digestion process longer... people need to get the basics right of counting calories before honestly going into gi index's etc. i still think potato is a good carb source as long as u are getting in good clean calories u will be good to go... once u have mastered that then worry about the gi index's of foods...

Those values are the GL values, which are the GI multiplied by carb content divided by 100.
Potatoes/sweet potatoes are quite low GL, whereas rice is high GL.

Causing an argument is the last thing I wanted to do. I don't have to get involved in arguments about anything. I'm way beyond that stage. All I tried to achieve was to help to the best of my knowledge.

Like I said, no hard feelings, its cool, really its cool

important to still train with the same weights, wanna keep your muscle bulk

Alfred I dunno wat ur attitude problem is but please take it elsewhere. Clearly ur looking at a different source as to my knowledge and this isn't the place to cause cocky arguments, its a place where ppl give their advice to the best of their knowledge
Please note: Although no board code and smiley buttons are shown, they are still usable.

Ohmi
I get enough of that at home, it seems I've lost my last sacred safe haven, now not even the forums are safe anymore...

:rotfl

Cool Man

Alfred wrote:

Causing an argument is the last thing I wanted to do. I don't have to get involved in arguments about anything. I'm way beyond that stage. All I tried to achieve was to help to the best of my knowledge.

thanks for clearing up the GL vs GI.... but there is no argument being caused maybe just confusion....i know what u are saying champ but people are in need of getting the basics correct before worrying to much about that sort've thing...

What you say is true DJ. The basics is more important. However, nutrition is extremely important in bodybuilding and it's always good to know the finer detail.
Anyway good luck for the road ahead. Keep us updated so we can share the progress with you!