John Kiefer's Carb Backloading

This is something I have become very fascinated in as of late. In many ways it goes against what I believe in, yet it seems to really work for a lot of people.

First, a word on John Kiefer and who he is.

John Kiefer is an exercise scientist and nutrition expert with a background in physics. He has professionally trained top athletes, MMA fighters and Fortune 500 CEOs. The guy is the real deal, and if you have seen some of his pictures, you will notice the guy is incredibly ripped.

Kiefer, like myself, is a proponent of ketogenic diets, but the version he promotes comes with a twist, which leads me to carb backloading and what it is.

When a person does carb backloading, they're essentially following a low-carb/high-fat ketogenic diet 98% of the time. The only exception is that on one evening per week, preferably post-workout, the person consumes several hundred grams of carbs in about a 4-6 hour window. I am not talking about fibrous, unrefined carbs coming from green, leafy vegetables and fruits, but rather some of the the worst (from many people's perspective and my own), most high-glycemic possible sources of carbs imaginable: cakes, cookies, pizza, ice cream, french fries, etc.

The science behind this is that when a person keeps their insulin levels low for a prolonged period, they become especially insulin sensitive. A person with a normal sleep/wake schedule is at their lowest insulin levels in the evening (granted they have kept their carbs under 30 grams throughout the day), which would be the time for carb backloading for most people. When a person is at their most insulin sensitive, the resulting insulin spike caused by eating these fast-digesting carbs leads to almost all the glucose in the blood being drawn into the muscle tissue rather than fat cells. People have not only gained large amounts of muscle mass in relatively short periods of time doing this, but they have lost all their stubborn body fat as well. Some have described their rapid transformation in doing this akin to having all the fat sucked out from their fat stores and drawn into their muscles.

What is interesting is that working out is not even required to see results, primarily in the form of rapid fat loss.

While I am still in the process of researching this, and have no intention of trying it anytime soon, I must say I have become extremely fascinated by it, and it is making me reconsider some of the things I've learned.

 

I believe humans are pretty resilient, as most animals are, but only to a certain degree. I believe the important thing is to become more intuitive like animals, to eat what you need and know what you need at each particular time, based on the signs/symptoms displayed by your body...to be able to speak the language of your body.

Now, I believe your body may need different things at different times and it's important to be able to distinguish that fact, so as to not be ultra dogmatic and force your body into any one paradigm based on your beliefs...and yet, I believe our bodies can transform if we really allow it, for instance, tastebuds change radically based on what we eat, but that's just the very beginning of the digestive process.

So anyway, my point is, there are millions of different ways to eat, even within tiny subsects (paleo, raw, vegan, etc.) but I think it's important to not be dogmatic about it and when you have these very strict rules, it's very important to go slowly into it, or else you run the risk of becoming obsessed with perfection and develop an eating disorder and that's the danger in most diets...you go to extremes too fast and your body thinks you're sick and it really ruins the immune system, metabolism and various hormonal systems.

 

The other thing is the many different facets of "experts" who look great, have a ton of experience and can do amazing things with their bodies, minds, finances, etc. They can all be successful and all have different viewpoints on health. We could create a huge thread of these people and it would confuse us even more as to what is healthy/ideal, I'd bet...I think that's because it really is different for everyone, at different points in their lives.

 

Article about carbs at night and big breakfast.

http://gregnuckols.com/2013/09/02/carbs-at-night-make-you-lean-so-do-big-breakfasts/

 

A prevailing mantra is that carbs turn to body fat and are the cause of obesity.

An article about a bodybuilding study that compared a high-carb diet with regular-carb diet.

http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2012/03/if-you-go-high-carb-you-better-go.html

 

But they do turn to fat and are the cause of obesity in the overwhelming majority of the population who consumes most of their calories from carbs.

Overconsumption of refined carbs is not the same as carb backloading, just like an average, sedentary person is not the same as a bodybuilder or someone who regularly works out and therefore likely is able to handle carbs better,