3401: [Part 2] Lose 15 Pounds Of Fat Without Giving Up Carbs JC Deen of JCDFitness on Fat Loss Without Restriction

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily. Lose 15 pounds of fat without giving up carbs. Part 2 by JC Deen of jcdfitness.com. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik, your very own personal narrator. Hey there and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I simply read to you from the best health and fitness blogs for free. I cover fitness, nutrition, stress management, weight management, and lots more. This is kind of like an audiobook, but with articles from a bunch of different authors.

[00:01:30] And always with permission from the sites, and always with a bit of my commentary at the end. Now, today's post is part 2 from yesterday. So, if you're new here or are skipping around, I'd recommend listening to yesterday's episode first. But, if you're all caught up, let's hear part 2 and continue optimizing your life.

[00:01:53] Lose 15 pounds of fat without giving up carbs. Part 2 by JC Dean of jcdfitness.com. Have your cake and eat it too. For the diet, we took an approach that is fairly well known in the bodybuilding community. But not so much with lay exercise enthusiasts. For many of my clients, but not all, I tend to cycle calories throughout the week. And give a pretty hefty carb refeed on Sundays.

[00:02:20] Which is a full day off of diet and training. I first learned about this approach through Amir Siddiqui. And then, after reading more of Scott Abel's work, particularly his book, The Cycle Diet. So, while I cannot take credit for the creation of such a protocol, I use it because it's effective and offers a good deal of stress relief that dieting and training can create over time. During the week, I'd have him alternate high and low days.

[00:02:46] Which was typically a calorie flux around 200 to 300 calories per day. And then typically increasing his intake on Sundays. That's when I asked him to take the entire day off. No training. No calorie restriction. A complete mental break from the woes of dieting and training. He even had some travel plans in which he had to go off his macro counting occasionally. And rely on just eyeballing his intake to stay within his calorie limits.

[00:03:14] Since the macro tracking and monitoring of his diet was on point, he had no issue with this one out. He also enjoyed some food with company while harboring no negative feelings or worrying about fat gain. The diet strategy is to create the fat loss environment during the week via diet and training. And then give the body and mind a big break from training and restrictive eating altogether. Cheat meals, cheat days, refeeds, targeted calorie bombs, spikes, whatever you want to call them,

[00:03:45] all have their place within a diet program. However, some people believe in and utilize them while others do not. And for those who never take a break from their diet, I feel they're missing out on the psychological benefits as well as some physiological ones too. One day of liberal eating, especially if your training is intense and coupled with a solid dietary deficit during the week, is not going to ruin your fat loss progress. In fact, it might help you stay the course and consequently reach your goals.

[00:04:14] To give you an idea of Salim's intake, he'd consume around 400 to 600 calories below maintenance during the week and then refeed on Sundays with about 2700 calories or more and no scheduled activity. This was very calculated and based on his activity levels as well as his body weight. There were times when tracking wasn't possible and the liberal eating probably exceeded the totals. What was the end result? Body weight, 16 pounds lost.

[00:04:45] Circumference measure at 2 inches above the navel, 3.5 inches lost. Circumference measurement at the navel, 3.5 inches lost. Circumference measurement 2 inches below the navel, 3.5 inches lost. For some strength statistics, Salim accomplished the following in this time span. His sumo deadlift went from 130 kilograms for 6 repetitions to 145 kilograms for 6 repetitions.

[00:05:13] He maintained his pressing strength for bench press and dumbbell variations. He also maintained his squat strength. Managing expectations by focusing on the process In my personal coaching program, I stress that one should focus on the process over the desired outcome or over anything else. When we expect a certain outcome, it can produce a lot of unnecessary stress. And that stress does very little for helping you reach your goals of a leaner, more muscular physique.

[00:05:42] In fact, it can be rather detrimental because stress tears down the body. And if you're chronically stressing about an arbitrary deadline to reach a goal, you might be doing yourself a disservice. With Salim, the focus was simple. Put in the work on a daily basis. Hit the training and diet with the most precision possible and let the results happen. Of course, we modified the plan and macros over time, but that's just how it goes.

[00:06:08] Finally, you should know he wasn't in search of a quick fix to be beach ready. And that's very important when you're considering making and maintaining long-term changes. Here's what Salim had to say about working through this process together. Quote,

[00:07:22] most important thing being that with all those carbs, I had enough energy to perform in the gym week after week. A whole new thing for me since I was dieting and thought I would feel sore and like frat week after week. All my questions were answered quickly. And in the end, I learned that focusing on details such as meal timing or being too rigid with protocols such as intermittent fasting were useless. All that matters is the total caloric intake, a high carbohydrate intake to sustain the training volume,

[00:07:52] enough protein for tissue repair, and enough fat to keep hormonal dysfunctions at bay. I now have everything I need to pursue my goals, which are to stay lean and eating enough to sustain my activities like boxing and lifting weights. I'm really glad I found JC's blog and hired him for advice on diet and training. I definitely recommend his services to anyone who wants to free themselves from nonsense and meaningless details. End quote.

[00:08:19] If you want to make this year a success with your body composition goals, let's get serious. You just listened to part two of the post titled, Lose 15 pounds of fat without giving up carbs, by JC Dean of jcdfitness.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. If you've ever blasted synth beats from your boombox or burn CDs for your besties, this one's for you.

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[00:09:47] JC said, first, we need to give the body and mind a break from training and restrictive eating. To do that, we need to have a day where we're allowed to go off of our restrictive eating plan. Why? Well, for two reasons. One, it will reduce the likelihood of mental and physical burnout. You get to relax your mind and body for a day. Also, if you're on track with your nutrition and training goals the rest of the week, one day of rest and refueling isn't going to ruin your progress.

[00:10:16] You'll still continue to lose body fat. It's kind of like that 80-20 rule you may have heard about. If you're on track 80% of the time and 20% of the time you're not, you're probably still going to move in the right direction. Now, the second moral of the story, you do not have to avoid carbohydrates to lose body fat. That means you don't need to give up pasta or bread or rice or cereal to lose body fat. And isn't that so refreshing to hear? All right, that'll do it for today.

[00:10:45] Thank you so much for being here and listening every day. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.