Does the carb backloading diet really work? We explore….Diets are generally thought of with a bit of hesitation or preparation for hard work, dedication and doing without foods that you might enjoy eating.

Counting calories or counting carbohydrates – no matter what simple diet plan you choose, to burn fat usually requires you to focus on specific types of food and eliminate others.  This is one of the main reasons that most diets fail.

Who wants to give up their favorite foods? 

Surely there’s another way. There is actually a way to bio-hack your body’s metabolism in a way that increases fat metabolism, keeps you healthy and allows you to lose more weight than a traditional “simple weight loss diet“.

Most diets focus on including the main food groups and eliminating the consumption of large amounts of carbohydrates, especially sugar, and starches.  Eating foods that are high in carbohydrates causes specific chemical reactions in the body. First, your blood sugar will spike.  This then triggers the release of insulin into the bloodstream that your body uses to decrease your blood sugar level.  Unless you’ve just finished a training cycle, the insulin will likely store the calories from the carbohydrates directly as fat stores.

This then triggers the release of insulin into the bloodstream that your body uses to decrease your blood sugar level.  Unless you’ve just finished a training cycle, the insulin will likely store the calories from the carbohydrates directly as fat stores.

Tricking Your Body

The secret is to “trick” your body’s metabolism by learning how to backload carbohydrates. 

Simply put, your body will react initially to any low-carb diet by first melting away water weight, but the fast weight loss will begin to slow down.  This is where most dieters lose their motivation and break the diet.

Your body has adjusted to the low amount of carbohydrates in a survival mode to sustain your weight assuming that this is now the normal amount of carbohydrates that you will be consuming. Even reprogramming your body like this can be even more efficient than a simple weight loss meal plan.

The most popular method of carb back loading involves starving your body from carb intake for approximately ten days and adding in a beginner workout routine.  You have to be dedicated and completely regimented during the first ten days in order to achieve maximum success.

The first ten days is a period during which you will prime your body so it begins to chew away at the fat stores in your body for energy rather than waiting for carbohydrates.

Because of the deprivation of what the body normally recognizes as fuel, it will reprogram itself – extend some props to the process of evolution!

For the first ten days, you must follow an extremely low carbohydrate diet – no more than 25-30 grams per day.  One piece of fruit can easily contain 30 grams of carbohydrate!  Your diet will be high in fat but low in carbohydrates – as much meat, cheese, eggs, and other high fat, low carb foods as you can – and lots of water – at least a gallon each day.  This is the most difficult part of the diet and will require you to be prepared and ready to make the sacrifice.

You won’t regret it. 

When you feel hungry, grill a steak in butter or whip up a quick egg salad.  Contrary to popular belief, the cholesterol in eggs won’t adversely affect you at all – it’s actually critical for testosterone production!

On the tenth day, plan for a complete reversal. Your body is probably famished at this point, but it is programming to eat fat stores instead of carbohydrates at this point because there haven’t been any!

This is your night to feast on anything that you want, as much as you want (although I would highly recommend eating the muscle building foods versus process food).  In fact, the more carbohydrates that you eat the better – your body will recognize it immediately and begin to refill the carbohydrate stores in your body to prepare for the next “fasting” period.

 Plan your Carb Night so you maximize the time with your favorite foods. 

This isn’t the time to go shopping – have it ready!  This is your time to “re-carb.”

Carb Backloading Diet Plan And Your Bodyweight

Consider your own bodyweight when planning how much protein you need on the low-carb days and how many carbs you want to replace on Carb Night.

The general premise is 1 g of protein for each pound of bodyweight each day.  Your body and mind will appreciate this break from the strictly disciplined period you just went through.  Enjoy it as fully as you want.

There is no limit.  And, studies show that your body is programmed in a way that will make it virtually impossible to go from skinny to muscular or put on weight on this one evening. Since you have reprogrammed your body to expect only foods that are high in fat, the body is a machine of magnificent capabilities.

Your body’s goal is to thrive in whatever environment is present out of necessity (our ancestors may have gone through months at a time during cold winters when there weren’t fruits or vegetables and all they had to live on was protein.)

Try to time your Carb Night on a day when you have a good gym workouts session as well to maximize the total effects of fat loss possible.  Some trainers recommend carb-loading on an afternoon after you’ve completed a heavy training session for maximum fat burning effects.

Beginning next day, restart your fat burning engine by going back on the 30-gram carb diet again.  But, from this point on, you only eat low carb for six and a half days.  On the seventh day each week, continue to enjoy a four to six-hour long hiatus from dieting by indulging in the foods that you love that are especially high in carbohydrates.

By manipulating your body’s metabolism and understanding how to provide fuel and energy sources from fat stores instead of carb stores, your fat loss will increase dramatically.

Carb Backloading Results

In no time, your body will look ripped and tone, you will feel healthy and energized and you won’t feel deprived at all.  And, once you reach the goal where you want to remain, add one more Carb Night each week in the middle of the week and you will learn this is even better than other “easy diets“.  This strategy will help maintain your weight while staying lean & tone, and using whatever stores are available for energy.

Guest Blogger

Kusha Karvandi