"I'm having lobster bisque, but it's not for me." - Tony Horton
I felt it was about time to update you on what I am doing nutritionally for these final phases. To see why I got here, we need to look back. I tried to maintain the Fat Shredder percentages for as long as I could. I even ended up bumping my calories to around 1900 a day at 50p:30c:20f. This worked for about a week (around 40 days in), but my body was calling for more carbs. As your body-fat percentage drops, you have smaller stores of energy to draw upon. You may have heard the phrase "bonking during a workout." This happens when you either have not consumed enough carbs or don't have any in reserve to draw upon. We want to avoid bonking because obviously you can't give your all during the workout. You may be temped to do too many cheat reps, sacrifice form, or just give up before failure. You would never be able to maximize your results. Secondly, you body will start using the muscle you have worked so hard to gain as its energy source. No one wants that! I was bonking and getting really hunger so I moved to 40p:40c:20f and roughly a 2200 calorie daily target. Still a slight deficit but more of a weight maintaining target. It has been delightful!
Outside of doing my best to hit my macros (240 g Pro and Carb, 49 g Fat), I also looked closely into my carb timing. My first meal of every day is always my post workout shake. The Results and Recovery drink for P90X is great. It has a lot of fast digesting carbs (39g) and some protein (10 g ). I ran out, and at $50 a tub... I will do my own concoctions for a while. I am taking 40 g of whey and roughly 40 g of fast carbs, usually from a banana. I have also started trying straight table sugar. Both the banana and the sugar cause a spike in insulin which is aid in glycogen (stored carbs) synthesis and protein synthesis. Timing is everything, your muscles are like sponges for up to an hour post workout. Without proper nutrition post strenuous exercise, you could experience proteolysis (protein breakdown). I also include some low GI (glycemic index - slow digesting) carbs to extend my body's carb usage. This is accomplish through some Ezekiel bread (sprouted grains). I usually include some fats (Natural PB) to make this a complete shake/whole food meal.
During the rest of the day, I taper my carbs as I approach the afternoon. I attempt to only eat fibrous carbs (no grains) after my afternoon snack (3 pm). No carbs whatsoever after dinner! These changes have made a big difference. I am feeling strong and have lots of energy to push through my workouts and then my day. I am getting up at 3:45 to work out, eat by 5:00, get ready for work and pack food, devos by 5:30, leave around 6:15... from there I get to school around 6:45 and teach all day. After school I am helping out with the MS track team. I head home around 3:45 (30-40 minute commute). Then I take care of my son while my wife is coaching tennis. The evenings are filled with normal life things and a little work here and there. I hit the sack around 9:30 to 10:00... to start it all over again! With that schedule everyday, I can positively say I have more energy than I have ever had. I give all the credit to P90X and my changes in nutrition. I am doing more and still wake up ready to Bring It everyday!
I am still tracking everything, although I am eating so many similar things that I don't have to watch my day as closely. I can hit my macros fairly easily without tracking until the evening. I must also thank my wife for turning me on to myfitnesspal.com. It does not have the awesome pie chart for your macros, but it has a huge user made data base of food items. I have not had to punch in a custom food yet! It even has all of my regional store's items (Meijer). It has a much faster loading site to boot.
I hope this gives to a insight into what I am doing. Please feel free to email at davidcjeffries@gmail.com with any questions or find me on Facebook (David Jeffries). Keep pushing play and God bless!
David
Complete Sample Days to follow shortly!
This was a 40p/40c/20f day at roughly 2200 calories:
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