Tip No Training No Carbs Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Diet & Fat LossEating Tip No Training No Carbs If your goal is to get shredded should you have carbs on off days Here' s what a lot of bodybuilders do by Christian Thibaudeau April 26, 2018August 23, 2022 Tags Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips This is a pretty common approach in physique sports. Matt Porter, for example, one of the smartest men in bodybuilding, uses this approach during contest preps. And it's been around. Thirty years ago the late Dr. Fred Hatfield, who squatted 1014 pounds at age 45, wrote, "Eat for what you're going to be doing and not for what you've done." If you aren't going to train hard, and your goal is fat loss, then you don't need "fast fuel" that day. Note that if your goal is to build maximum size, not get lean, I recommend having carbs on off days. But when trying to get lean this is a very simple approach. You don't even need to necessarily count calories, just don't eat any carbs. Should you increase fats to compensate? No. If it turns out that you eat a bit more fat because you have more steak that's fine. But don't add fat sources on purpose. You won't turn catabolic in one day! This will provide a nice caloric restriction when it will have the least negative impact on your training performance and muscle building. I do believe that carbs are very important when trying to build and preserve muscle mass. Carbs give you more fuel in the gym (better performance equals better gains), help you recover after your workouts, and increase IGF-1 and insulin levels, which are very important for muscle growth if increased at the right time. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Eating Tip The Truth About Muscle Gain & Metabolism Does building more muscle really boost your metabolism as much as you think it does? Here are the facts. Bodybuilding, Building Muscle, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips Christian Thibaudeau December 18 Eating Tip This Works as Well as Intermittent Fasting Which is best, regular calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, or time-restricted fasting? A meta-analysis reveals surprising answers. Losing Fat, Nutrition & Supplements TC Luoma March 16 Diet & Fat Loss Tip Drink More Green Tea You've heard about its mild fat-burning benefits. Here's how to really crank them up. Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips TC Luoma September 2 Diet & Fat Loss Covering Your Nutritional Acids and Bases While I do my best try to stay abreast of the latest nutrition and supplement research, once in a while I find myself totally ignorant to an important topic or sound body of literature. Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements John Berardi, PhD July 11