FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Well, I've lowered my volume to T2T and really pushed it. Im scheduled to finish week 6. Going to IC due to events,and vacation. But don't feel like I've over reached any.

Next blast I think I'll try and progress up the tiers. That way I can schedule the longer workouts the last two weeks and push it over the edge.

On a good note, this blast netted a 5lb gain. Its not all lean this time but still well worth it. So 10lbs in 2 blast.

Scott, how do you feel about keeping calories up but carbs low during IC? I feel I've lost some insulin sensitivity. Im using berberine with carb meals but figured that would help a bit.

10lb is awesome!

You may rebound on this intensive cruise even though you don't feel entirely shot. (It's all relative... )

Great question wrt the cruise. This is a time to fine-tune and prepare for the next blast.

If you're eating with fewer kcal on non-training days anyway, then having more of those during the cruise will mean lowered kcal de facto.

If you're really trying to make gains, you can keep eating big, for instance using a training day diet on your training day and the next day (followed by a non-training day if your'e training once is a span of three days). Another option would be to simply keep the same # of days / week eating your "training day" diet, even though you're not training that frequently.

If you don't think you'll be rebounding much, and feel you need a mini-diet (there is merit there), then you can drop the kcal.

If it's insulin sensitivity thats a main issue (perhaps you use a BG monitor), then I'd keep carbs low but not let kcal go too low. Remember, too that you've got the last ⅓ of the cruise to NOT train, so you could simply make that a very low carb period (3-4 days) and at least get a temporary restoration of insulins sensitivity.

(Note that diet and training will have acute effects on insulin sensitivity, whereas body comp will have a long term, persistent effect. I.e., staying leaner is in your favor overall.)

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There is a paper I just heard about examining the max "return on investment" wrt muscle gain when overfeed in natty weight trainers. I've not read it, but it's looking at the point at which excess kcal don't contribute to more muscle mass. This would tie into insulin sensitivity of course, as well as how fast you can gain and still expect it to muscle. I'll look for the paper / data and report back. I'm not sure if it's published info. yet.

-S