New Member Looking for Advice after formally starting CNS

[Anton Dawson]

After doing a lot of research I decided to join this element of the site. There seems to be a lot of good information and help available.

I will try to keep this brief (that’s not going to well already) but with enough information if anyone has time for suggestions:

I fell kind of backwards into the CNS protocol. I have been eating fairly low carb for a while but I have a tremendous weakness for desserts. That said when I would fall of the wagon it seemed to be at night for some reason. This reminded me of CNS and I was loosely following the protocol for 10-12 weeks with something close to ULC all week and on Sundays I would have essentially a free meal with plenty of carbs mainly dessert but that might be the only meal for the day. Everything was going well and all told I lost 18 pounds or so. I decided to go 100% with the protocol but as I was nearing the start of the 10 reorientation phase I hit the desserts hard for a few days. I started the 10 days and lost all of the weight I gained from those few days and a few more. I had the first “new phase” carb night last Sunday with three good spikes over a 6 hour period. All of that said, as I near the end of the week the scale hasn’t moved down much even though I am back on ULC as directed.

I know it’s to early to be overly concerned but if there any reason I should skip Carb Nite this week or until the weight drops? I already plan to dial back the Carb Nite as I play with what works best. I clearly overshot. Any help is appreciated.

For more context:
Male, 38 years old
5’9, 186ish pounds, best guess on BF% is 15-17% (All held in the abdominal region, pretty lean with decent muscle mass otherwise)

I don’t count macros or cals outside of keeping an eye on carb intake which is primarily green veggies, nuts, coffee (Starbucks Iced expresso pre-work and the same with heavy whipping cream only once a week before a two hour walk).

Pre-Work Out (Usually lift at 6AM) Iced Expresso with dash of cinnamon
Breakfast is usually A low-carb (2-3 grams of carbs max) protein with a scoop or two of Organic Triple Fiber
Lunch: Is usually protein and green veggies. If the protein is leaner like chicken breast I will some avocado.
Dinner is the same as lunch but occasionally I will go with 4 eggs, additional egg whites and some bacon or salmon.

Workouts are heavy lifting (Compounds with a few assistance movements) with the occasional HIIT session right after carb nite. I lift as follows:
Sunday: Fairly light lower body to get any last glycogen out before Carb Nite
Monday: Heavy Upper body lifting 1.5 hours roughly
Tuesday: Heavy Lower Body Lifting 1.5 hours roughly
Wednesday: Medium or High Rep Upper Body lifting depending on energy level 1 hour
Thursday: Medium or High Rep Lower Body lifting depending on energy level 1.5
Friday: High Rep Lifting 45 minutes
Saturday: Two hour walk for about 5 miles various changes in levels along the route (I usually have the Iced Expresso in the morning with the heavy cream and usually won’t have a formal meal until 1-2PM.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Anton Dawson.

[Robert Haas]

With the amount of training you do and current body fat % you might try CBL. If I did that much training with only one carb night a week I’d be seriously depleted by the time the carb refeed comes along.

The eyes can't see what the mind doesn't understand.

[Anton Dawson]

Robert Haas wrote:

With the amount of training you do and current body fat % you might try CBL. If I did that much training with only one carb night a week I’d be seriously depleted by the time the carb refeed comes along.

Thanks shadow. Do you see any need to skip my scheduled Sunday Carb Nite if my weight isn’t at least back to the previous Sunday level?
I have definitely dialed back the overall intensity as I get later into the week the to account for the lower levels of immediate fuel in my system. For example I felt pretty gassed after my most recent Wednesday workout. I was hoping it was a sign the glycogen was gone. Yesterday (Thursday) I did one heavy set of back squats and called it a day with a short 20 minute treadmill walk.

Originally I thought my BF% was much to high for CBL. That and where the fat is held had me of the mind to to CNS for the remainder of the year with a possible switch to CBL in January 2016.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Anton Dawson.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Anton Dawson.

[Robert Haas]

A couple of things to be mindful of:
First the carb night isn’t just to refill glycogen stores, it’s to reset hormone levels. You need a leptin bump to keep metabolism from crashing. If this doesn’t happen you could possibly go into starvation mode and stop releasing fat stores. This is a common problem with extended low carb dieting. Lack of leptin triggers thyroid function to slow down & testosterone production also could drop off as well. It’s been said and I’m not sure how true it is that holding fat in the mid section is a sign of lower testosterone levels in men.

@15 to 17% BF levels you should be fine trying CBL & with the added carbs in the evenings post training you will be able to hit the training much harder without the gassing out. Training harder without overdoing it does have a positive effect on boosting testosterone, growth hormone, & IGF1 production.
Also at that level of BF% you will get better nutrient partitioning once macros are dialed in (more to muscle, less to fat stores).

Well worth a try IMO.

The eyes can't see what the mind doesn't understand.

[Anton Dawson]

Thanks so much for the feedback.

I’m going to keep tinkering with adjustments. Primarily:

Keeping carbs in the 300-400 gram range on Carb Nite
Eliminating the Sunday lift for additional walking.
A little more fat in meals.

While I’m doing this I can start researching CBL. I know the general concept but I’m not well versed to start the program.

[Anton Dawson]

I kept the CN (Sunday) in carbs in that 300-400 range and the water weight gain was decreased. Felt like a good start and Tuesday morning half of it was gone. Fast forward to this morning and the scale is going the wrong way.

Starting to get the feeling that 5 straight days of lifting even with decreasing the volume is still to much.

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