SPORTS How to get out of a low-carb diet and dry out more effectively for summer

Six months at LCHF

At the end of September last year, I decided on an unusual experiment with my diet, sharply reducing my carbohydrate intake to a minimum and increasing the amount of fat. I wrote a separate article about this, which I recommend reading:

• Let's talk about low carb nutrition

Naturally, all this was not done in a vacuum. The relevant topic was studied and the book by Andreas Enfeldt “The Food Revolution: A Diet Without Hunger” was read. A month later, when a positive result was already visible on me and no negative consequences were noticed, my wife tested this system, calmly and without stress, losing more than 3 kg in a month. Judging by the reviews in the comments and letters from readers, many people also liked this approach to nutrition.

In addition, the editor-in-chief of iPhones.ru Artur Malosiev , drawing attention to the changes in my appearance during a joint trip to Tbilisi, also decided to try this method and ultimately lost 6 kg of excess weight, after which he maintains the achieved shape without any problems. He also spoke about his own experience and intermediate results:

• Impressions from a low-carb diet

What can I say as a result? It is quite possible to maintain muscle mass and even improve your shape little by little on LCHF. Increasing is problematic. Still need carbohydrates. By the way, my athletic results got off the ground when, after two months of strict regime, I added a couple of days of binge eating on the weekends. Well, like a “gobble eater” - the basic nutrition was still the same, but I could allow myself sweets after meals or a couple of meals when I ate whatever I wanted. Including your favorite jelly candies.

The advantages of this mode:

• cheerfulness during the day (no drowsiness after lunch);
• complete absence of headaches (previously the skull sometimes reacted to sudden changes in weather);
• very good health of the gastrointestinal tract (no bloating or other everyday incidents);
• lack of hunger when eating only 3-4 times a day;
• good relief without much strain.

Minuses:

• In the first week of a strict diet, I felt as if I had a cold. Actually, I thought so, but one of the readers wrote that she got a similar effect. Plus the gastrointestinal tract rebelled a little. But from the second week I was like a cucumber. And at first I worked actively and trained without any problems.
• Strength endurance (10–15%) and training intensity dropped slightly.
• I ate little churchkhela and khachapuri during my trip to Tbilisi (but there was a lot of shish kebab).

They promised me all sorts of bad things in the end, up to the destruction of my body after a couple of months of this regime. But contrary to the predictions of ill-wishers, after six months of LCHF I was still alive, healthy, cheerful and ready for new experiments. Still, the topic is huge and it’s not worth staying still.

Basic Rules

With the help of drying, you cannot lose weight in any specific part of the body (for example, remove only the stomach). Fat burning occurs evenly throughout the body. Therefore, you do not need to independently look for special sets of exercises for losing weight only in your arms or only in your legs.

The main ways to achieve the goal are low-carb nutrition and high-intensity training. Due to a catastrophic lack of energy, the body will look for additional sources. It has been scientifically proven that first of all in such a situation it begins to break down muscle fibers. But here he will not be able to do this, because they will be protected by increased protein intake and regular exercise. He will have no choice but to use adipose tissue as fuel.

To achieve good results and use cutting specifically for weight loss, it is first recommended to build muscle mass and gain weight. Therefore, within 2 months you need to seriously engage in strength training (complexes for men and women) and make high-calorie foods the basis of your diet.

Professional athletes can afford to immediately switch to a completely carbohydrate-free diet. Such sudden and drastic changes in diet are not suitable for an ordinary person: performance will decrease, lethargy will appear, and there will be no strength for any training. Therefore, the amount of carbohydrates in the menu needs to be reduced gradually. The exit should be just as smooth.

Water consumption in the first stages of drying should be 2.5-3 liters per day

In the first stages, you need to drink a lot of water to remove waste from the body and speed up metabolism. But 1-1.5 weeks before the end of the weight loss program, its amount should be gradually reduced. To compensate for its deficiency, excess fluid accumulated in the muscles and joints will be consumed. This drying of the body will make the muscle relief even more defined.

In training, it is important to correctly combine strength and cardio exercises (we have already told you how to do this). Duration - minimum 1 month plus or minus 1 week (depending on individual indicators) and maximum 3 months

“Drying” the body is allowed no more than once a year

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Duration - minimum 1 month plus or minus 1 week (depending on individual indicators) and 3 months maximum. “Drying” the body is allowed no more than once a year.

How I carefully exited LCHF

It was getting closer to summer, so there was a good incentive to dry out to the level of, so to speak, a fitness model. This means that 7 percent of body fat remains. Planned and done. Or rather, the matter has been launched and now the experiment is in progress, but everything turned out to be not so simple.

I needed to completely change my diet in terms of the ratio of macronutrients : reduce the amount of fat in the diet and add carbohydrates.

You can switch to LCHF abruptly, but back again - you should be careful here, since a sharp increase in the amount of carbohydrates in the diet on an ongoing basis can cause carbohydrate edema. That is, both water and fat will begin to actively accumulate. Even if we are talking about slow carbohydrates. In the past, even on a regular diet, I managed to eat too much when I sharply increased the amount of carbohydrates through pasta made from durum wheat and rice. What can we say about the body’s reaction after a low-carbohydrate meal.

Reduce only fat in the diet, without adding carbohydrates - then the calorie content will decrease even below the critical level for me of 2400-2500 kcal, which are needed to maintain basic metabolism. This is also not an option, because then the modes of saving energy and preserving reserves in the body will work, and there will be no talk of any drying. After all, on LCHF the amount of fat reached 250–300 g per day, but according to the new regimen I needed to squeeze into the 100–110 g range.

What I've done? I added carbohydrates and reduced the amount of fat very smoothly. The process was extended over three weeks. I added +100–150 g of buckwheat (boiled, that is, in dry form it is about 30–50 g) to the diet in the first week, a little grapefruit and apples. The amount of carbohydrates increased from 80–100 g to 150 g per day. In the second week, the same amount of buckwheat for the second meal. The third one has a little more sauces and apples.

As a result, I reached the current level of carbohydrates of 150–200 g per day, not only without gaining excess weight, but also losing 4 kg of fat (and, apparently, water too, although it was already not enough). But, of course, it’s not just about carbohydrates, but also about training, the diet in general, and additional supplements. I'll tell you about all this below.

Thus, if you decide to switch from LCHF to a more classic diet using slow carbohydrates (I do not recommend sticking to simple carbohydrates and pure sugar), then follow a simple scheme: + 50 g of carbohydrates per week while simultaneously reducing the amount of fat in the diet to Do not go beyond your caloric intake, which is what keeps you at a comfortable weight.

Who needs body drying?

Drying can be useful not only for professionals, but also for overweight people. Only dietary restrictions and physical activity will help reduce subcutaneous fat. In this case, the right approach will help, which is slightly different from a professional one; it can be more related to weight loss. After all, the goal of this method is long-term results, and not achieving the form of one day.

What is the difference between drying the body and losing weight?

When drying, all fats are eliminated from the diet, carbohydrates are reduced to a minimum or eliminated altogether, and salt is removed. You can’t do this for a long time, you can only harm the body and regain twice as much excess weight, since the metabolism of a starving body slows down. Unlike weight loss, which can occur gradually, without great restrictions in the variety of foods and microelements, drying is short-term. When losing weight, fats and carbohydrates are allowed, including fruits.

How to dry your legs, arms, stomach: is local fat burning possible?

If your goal is to burn excess fat only in the abdomen or sides, then know that locally, that is, only in a separate part of the body, this cannot be achieved. With physical activity and diet, fat disappears evenly. Therefore, while the extra centimeters disappear from the stomach, both arms and legs will lose weight. Therefore, you cannot work on just one thing, the approach must be comprehensive, and the training program must include all muscle groups.

New experiment - careful drying

Professional athletes often dry out using extreme methods with a sharp change in diet, fierce training, huge amounts of cardio and other harsh activities. All this is acceptable for them, since people work for results to win competitions and use all available means, including pharmacological support. But this is not very interesting for me personally (not applicable for family and relatives, and I’m not preparing for competitions) and 90% of citizens who just want to get rid of excess weight and look good. We need something more accessible.

In this field, such a person, not very well known in wide circles, but respected in narrow circles as Yaroslav Brin, . He staged exciting events several times where he brought himself to the second stage of obesity, and then returned to fitness model shape in four months. At the same time, he also helped many people get into shape, get rid of excess fat, and at the same time change their lives in order to then maintain the results.

Yes, yes - if you want to look beautiful all the time, you will have to constantly monitor your diet and be physically active. When such a rhythm becomes a habit, this is called changing your lifestyle.

Information about his method is available on the Internet and if you are interested in the topic, start with Brin’s book “Transforming fat for willpower.” It is distributed free of charge and is not difficult to find.

So, I took his method as a basis, in which there are actually no miracles, but it is scientifically sound and, most importantly, tested and works. Yes, you need to exert yourself and control your diet, train with weights and do cardio. Who said it would be easy?

And now, briefly, what needs to be done:

1. Weigh yourself in the morning on an empty stomach, measure your waist, hip, buttocks and any other parts of the body as desired.
2. Calculate how many calories were used to consume the weight (and belly) that you now maintain. Everything here is simple and not simple at the same time. You will have to write down everything you eat during the week, count the calories at the end of the day, and at the end of the week, collect all these calories and divide by seven to get the average. Remembering it is the starting point. In my case it was about 3200 kcal.
3. Bring your macronutrient diet back to normal over the next week or two, at the same time giving up simple carbohydrates (sweets, pure sugar, baked goods) and alcohol (it has a bad effect on the hormonal system and generally destroys the female hormonal system). If you really want sweets, you can use sweeteners or eat candy or a piece of dark chocolate, but after a heavy meal. The BJU norm is as follows : 1.5–2 g of protein per kg of body weight for women, 2–2.5 g of protein per kg of body weight for men; 1 g of fat per kg of body weight (within reasonable limits - if you weigh 150 kg, then you can get by with 100 g of fat); the rest comes from complex carbohydrates. You can eat in the same quantities as before, but without simple carbohydrates. Already at this stage, it turns out that you are undernourished, since you cannot cram as much meat with buckwheat and salad into yourself as you can fit in cakes, cookies and hamburgers.
4. In parallel with all this, they begin training in the gym (3 times a week) and cardio (20–30 minutes after training or 60 minutes on a non-training day). Weight training is carried out according to the “FullBody” principle, that is, for the whole body, starting with large muscles and ending with small ones: legs, back, chest, shoulders, arms, abs, calves. Four working approaches, 12 times with increasing load in each workout (even by 1–2 kg, but the load should increase) Try to use multi-joint basic exercises:
   legs (2 exercises) - squats and leg presses, leg extensions for men, leg curls or deadlifts for women;
5. back (2 exercises) - pull-ups or block rows to the chest, block/barbell rows to the stomach, T-bar rows;
6. pectoral (1 exercise) - bench press, dips;
7. shoulders (1 exercise) - military barbell press, barbell row to the chin;
8. arms (one exercise each for biceps and triceps) - close-grip bench press, French press, barbell/dumbbell curls;
9. press (1 exercise) – crunches, reverse crunches, “book”;
10. calves (1 exercise) - raising your toes on one leg with a weight in your hand (with dumbbells or a kettlebell, for example).
11. Cardio can be light jogging, walking at a pace, cycling, orbitrek, treadmill. The most important thing is to work in a calm rhythm, without getting out of breath, but also without relaxing, barely moving your legs. It is important to increase the distance covered per hour each time. We ran for 5 minutes for the first time, and 55 passed - approx. Next time, run for 6 minutes and instead of 6 km in an hour you will cover 6.3 km, and then 6.5 km, and then 7 km, etc.
12. Carry out control measurements every week - weight falls or “fat” volumes decrease (volumes are a priority), which means we are not changing anything. If they stand still, we remove 200 kcal (or 10%) from carbohydrates . Protein and fat remain at the same level of 1.5-2/2-2.5 g per kg body weight (F/W) and 1 g per kg body weight respectively - this is important. Both macronutrients are plastic materials and are used in the body’s vital functions for tissue restoration, the functioning of hormonal and other systems. So all manipulations are carried out only on carbohydrates.
13. Increase household activity - we walk more, forget about the elevator, move as much as possible when possible. The main consumption of calories occurs through household activities.

Even in the first stages there should be positive changes due to a balanced diet, the inability to eat as much normal food as you ate harmful (but tasty), plus increased energy expenditure due to weight training, cardio and more household activity.

Activity has increased, the amount of food has decreased, the energy balance has shifted slightly into the negative (we spend more than we consume), which means that the body will get rid of excess by using fat for its energy needs. We spent 300–400 kcal more than we consumed; these calories will be taken by the body from its own reserves.

The main thing is not to overdo it. With any sudden changes, as some citizens like to do, when they enthusiastically rush into a healthy lifestyle and furiously lose weight, the body goes into energy saving mode: the state of health worsens, muscles are burned to cover the body’s needs for plastic material, its energy needs and at the same time to save energy ( less muscle, less energy expended), while fat is retained and even accumulates even faster.

Typically, the result of mono-diets (only juices, buckwheat and kefir, etc.) is a slight drop in weight and a greatly deteriorated appearance, since there are fewer muscles and more fat.

When a person leaves a bad diet, unable to withstand such mockery of himself, he gains excess weight even faster and more than he had before the diet. Everything is especially sad for women, for whom all these diets also affect the hormonal system (and for men, not everything is good in this regard either). There are fewer muscles (and they are the main fat utilizers in our body), the body is in shock from the diet and, in case of the next extreme, begins to actively store fat. It happens that the metabolism is disrupted. As a result, the woman lives on 1000 kcal (with the minimum norm for her, say, 1300 kcal), but does not lose weight, and may even gain weight.

In the case of the method described above, we will get a decrease in fat and a general improvement in shape. By the way, such a program for a person who has gained a lot of excess weight over the years of intestinal fornication will be enough for four months before anything needs to be changed. And all four months, if the described conditions are met, the result will improve.

Personal result for the first six weeks of the experiment

Currently my weight fluctuates around 100 kg. In principle, we can say that it has already dried normally, because the result is better than it was with LCHF:

From left to right: Roma on “mass” (beginning of September, 108 kg), on LCHF (it remained approximately at this level when he switched to alternating with relaxing carbohydrates on the weekends (103–104 kg)), almost six weeks of drying the method described above (100 kg)

But in reality there is still room for improvement. In my case, the process moves quite quickly, since I, in principle, started at a good level and looked normal, plus I constantly trained, monitored my nutrition and was ready, if not quite for everything, but for almost everything.

For example, I did not expect that I would be able to endure full-body workouts for a long time and that they would benefit me, since, in principle, I worked with decent weights and for a long time I used a 4-day split, when I worked large muscle groups in 4-5 exercises, and small ones - in 2–3. But everything turned out to be much more interesting.

The essence of the training is that when using basic heavy exercises, many muscle groups are involved at once . For example, I stopped using a belt during squats so that my abs, back muscles, and related stabilizers worked more. Yes, I had to control the movement more carefully, worry more, and lose weight at first, but it was worth it. I stopped using straps anywhere (such as to isolate the working muscle, so as not to think about “burning” forearms) for the same effect. I started increasing the weights, but very gradually, adding literally 1.5–2 kg from workout to workout. Including squats.

Somehow, in recent years, I have gotten into this kind of practice, working in virtually the same mode with the same weights. And the type of training was not particularly conducive to this, because a split was used with exercises repeated no more often than once every three weeks to a month. There were periods when the “pearl” was greater and the weight jumped by 10–20 kg, and sometimes it was the other way around.

Against the backdrop of low-water conditions, the working weights just fell. The same squats from 130 kg in working approaches returned to 110 kg. In general, I just kept in shape and didn’t worry about progress.

Be that as it may, 17 FullBody workouts have already been carried out, three per week, without breaks, weekends or walk-throughs. I increased the working weights on almost every one.

In the same squats, I started with 90 kg, now the working weight is 120 kg in three sets of 12 repetitions each, and this is without a weightlifting belt. There is comfort in the back, there is no pain in the lower back and there is no heavy load, but I feel especially good how the abs are tensed. Finally figured out the squat technique.

In leg extensions in the simulator I reached 107 kg, despite the fact that previously the limit was 85 kg. The last working weight in the bench press was 105 kg for 12, 10 and 9 reps (versus 90–100 kg for fewer repetitions before the experiment). And I did push-ups from the uneven bars with 30 kg on the belt 12, 10 and 10 times in three approaches, respectively (before that there was a warm-up approach without weight and another half-warm-up with 15 kg on the belt), while before, in principle, with additional weight a lot I haven't done push-ups in years. The last time it was 15 kg about 10 years ago, and then I managed to slightly damage my pecs, after which I returned to weights in this exercise only now.

For biceps, the working weight returned to 45 kg, while in recent years it did not cross the border of 35 kg. And in the past, I was more likely to “throw” these 45 kg on the chest, bending my whole body, rather than doing classic curls with a barbell. Now it’s pure work with 45 kg in three sets of 12 repetitions each.

To a certain extent, it is worth thanking the complex carbohydrates that have appeared in the diet; after all, it is more comfortable to train with them. Plus a gradual increase in load and a modified program with basic exercises repeated day after day with slight variations (they are described above). In addition, progress can be explained by a banal change in the training program. A new regime for the body - it adapts to it.

An interesting effect from such training is that I have no soreness at all. For the entire month and a half I never felt significant muscle pain after training on a rest day, while with the previous split I always had soreness.

The fact is that now all muscle groups are constantly in good shape and, roughly speaking, do not have time to “relax” or “untrain” while on vacation. While with a classic split, each muscle group trains once a week (and is loaded more intensely) and manages to tone down during rest.

This does not mean that the muscles do not hurt at all - I fully feel the fact that they have worked well in the form of fatigue after training and “muscle load” on the rest day. But there is no noticeable pain, which is good.

I don’t bother too much with cardio , since I still have results without it. I have increased my daily activity, I try to walk more, and from time to time after training I pedal an exercise bike for 20–30 minutes. But not always, because I only manage to complete all 10 exercises in the program in 3-4 working approaches in 2 hours and then somehow don’t have time for cardio.

I don’t always have time to exercise small muscles, like biceps or triceps, but I don’t worry about it. They are also involved in exercises for large muscle groups. Triceps - in the bench press and dips, biceps - in most deadlifts.

As for nutrition , the current diet includes 2.5–3 g of protein per kg of body weight, 100–120 g of fat (sometimes 150, but rarely) and 150–200 g of carbohydrates. I try to keep my caloric intake within 3000 kcal, regardless of the day (whether I’m training or not). Previously, on a training day I ate more, now the body takes the uneaten calories from fat.

I gradually reduced the amount of fat in my diet: I gave up hard cheese, switched to breast instead of chicken thighs, veal instead of pork, gave up peanuts, switched from full-fat homemade cottage cheese to low-fat cottage cheese (0.6%), from full-fat sour cream and cream to Bifilife "(2.5%). I haven’t given up dark chocolate yet (78–90% cocoa, 20–30 g per day), but I’ll have to.

The coolest low-fat cottage cheese I found in Chernigov. No “chemistry” in the composition.

For sports supplements and “pharmacy” I use the following:

• Whey protein (SUN, ON, Syntraxx - 30 g in cottage cheese in the morning, sometimes an hour before training or if I don’t have time to eat, BCAA reserves run out, I’ll take 50 g of protein after training);
• Multivitamins OptiMen (3 tablets per day);
• Glutamine (5–7 g in the morning, 10 g after training, 5–7 g before bed);
• BCAA (10 g during training, 10 g post-workout along with glutamine);
• Arginine (5 g 40 minutes before training);
• NOW OMEGA-3 (7-8 capsules per day, 300 mg EPA/DHA each);
• CoQ10 (100 mg per day; helps the heart, cellular energy, improves the body's regenerative abilities);
• Riboxin + Potassium Orotate (12 + 6 tablets per day, respectively, already completed the course);
• Mildronate (started a course today instead of Riboxin; the workouts are difficult, the heart and the body as a whole need support for faster recovery after exercise);
• L-carnitine (on a non-training day 1500 mg in the morning and 1500 mg in the evening, on a training day - 1500 mg in the morning and 2000 mg 40 minutes before training; started taking on May 6; transport for fatty acids, works with a fairly low percentage of body fat ( less than 15% for men and 20% for women) and intense training);
• Fat burner Cloma Pharma Red Wasp (1 capsule in the morning after meals; started taking on May 8, course 2 weeks, a week of rest, then repeat; gave up coffee while taking the fat burner; fat comes off from the sides and lower abdomen very hard and last of all, the fat burner will help a little, plus a good energy drink).

Simple diet for cutting

One of the main myths of cutting is the need to consume large amounts of sports isolate. However, research suggests that the more protein the body receives, the worse it uses it. It is wiser to consume protein at the lower limit (about 2-3 g of protein per kg of dry body weight).

Preference should be given to eggs and poultry meat, as it is less fatty - especially chicken breast. In addition, fish will be a good source of protein for drying. It, in turn, contains important omega-3s that help fight micro-inflammation after strength training.

// Daily nutritional requirements for drying:

Drying nutrition program

When creating a diet for cutting, do not forget that limiting carbohydrates in the diet can lead to a lack of vitamins

Pay attention to the consumption of fresh vegetables, as well as the overall diversity of your diet - if you eat the same protein foods for a month, this will negatively affect your health

Let us remember that the key minerals for athletes are zinc and magnesium (responsible for the synthesis of testosterone and regulating energy processes in the body), as well as iodine (associated with the functioning of the thyroid gland and the production of fat-burning hormones).

The norms of their daily consumption increase significantly both during physical training and when following any diet for weight loss or cutting. Natural sources of zinc and magnesium include various seeds and nuts.

***

A diet for drying muscles involves limiting fast carbohydrates and animal fats, as well as monitoring the total calorie intake. On training days, caloric intake should be normal, and on rest days it should be reduced by 15-20%. Drying diets should not be maintained for longer than 4-6 weeks.

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