My experience with eating as many carbs as I want with dinner (200-250 grams of carbs)
First things first, I am not a nutritionist and I do not recommend you eat this way. This is simply an article stating my experience with carb backloading. You should always consult experts when learning about nutrition and always do your own research. That being said, carb backloading is when you do not eat any carbs throughout the day and eat all of your carbohydrates with your last meal of the day. You are backloading your carbs to the end of the day. This is a completely backwards way of thinking than what we are taught, and definitely goes against the “grain” of standard ways of thinking (grain pun intended). However, it is not just a way of eating to try to get away with eating massive amounts of carbohydrates at one time but there is a little science to go along with this ideology.
The idea behind carb backloading
When you do not consume carbohydrates throughout the day your body has to rely on stored carbohydrates in muscle tissue and in the liver for energy, as well as fat stores. This teaches your body to use fat for energy, instead of relying on small carbohydrate snacks to get you to the end of the day. Your body does not want to use it’s stored carbohydrates unless you absolutely have to, for example being chased by a cougar. Your body considers stored carbs super precious. By reducing carbs throughout the day, your body becomes more efficient at burning fat for energy and learns to conserve the precious stored carbohydrates. If you think about it, why do we even need carbohydrates if we are relying solely on fat for energy? Well, in order to burn fat as an energy source, the body needs a little bit of carbohydrates to make that happen, as well as for high heart rate activities like, running from a cougar. So for people who do not eat any carbohydrates, their bodies have to make carbs from protein to be stored in the muscle tissue and liver. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, if it works for you then do it!
Once you have gone a full day of only eating protein, veggies and fats, it is dinner time! Throughout the day you have been relying solely on stored carbohydrates and now you need to replace what you have used, especially if you have exercised! Since your body is depleted of carbohydrates, and your muscle and liver reserves are low, your body is craving to replace what you have lost. So when you eat that carbohydrate rich meal, the body instantly refills the muscles and liver with carbohydrates and does not store the carbohydrates as fat.
When I read about carb backloading for the first time I was a bit skeptical but once I really thought about it, it made sense to me at a physiological level. So I thought, “what the heck, I’ll give this a try!”
My experience with carb backloading
First thing I have to say is, I tap out once I hit 250 grams of carbs and about 2,000 calories for one meal. I physically cannot eat anything else and feel like I am going to explode! That being said, after 3 weeks of eating pancakes for dinner about 4 times a week, I have not gained any fat and if anything my body composition is improving. However, you have to take in consideration that I am a fairly active individual who does a workout 6-7 days a week. I am also pleasantly surprised with how I feel throughout the day, with no crashes in energy and good sustained energy. I have tried keto before and I am unable to sustain it for long periods, due to becoming very fatigued after about 3 weeks. I do like the mental clarity I get on a keto diet but do not like the decreased intensity of my workouts. Since I have started doing carb backloading, my workouts are staying intense and actually even more intense than ever before. I am also noticing that my muscles are fuller and my mental clarity is just as good as on a keto diet. I almost feel that when I eat this way, none of the carbs are going to waste. I feel that my body is craving the carbs so much that once it gets carbs, my insulin just completely stuffs my muscles and does not store it as fat. My thought process on this is, which is not proven with science, possibly when we have a steady flow of carbs throughout the day, our bodies get lazy and do not utilize the carbs as efficiently. The body be like, “ya whatever, there are more carbs coming in later, just put it over there as fat.” Always being fed maybe part of the obesity crisis, and maybe this is one of the reasons a lot of people have found lots of success with intermittent fasting.
I can tell you right now, I feel the best I have in a long time! My energy levels are great, I am building more muscle, I am mentally sharper and the intensity of my workouts are going through the roof! I am definitely going to be approaching my nutrition this way for a long time and see what happens. The last thing I want to say is, this is the first style of eating that I feel is actually really sustainable for me. Eating pancakes for dinner is like a dream come true for me, I love pancakes! I am going to be continuing this style of eating for a while longer to see what happens and see if it starts to negatively impact my health. If my health starts to be impacted I will definitely go back to intuitive eating, which is great as well. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a message! Have a great day!