It really is a matter of personal experimentation/preference though. If you can lift under those circumstances or can live with cutting back intensity as a result, then great. The vast majority will see a dropoff though.

i totally agree with you. there is no way you can lift weight without a proper workout nutrition.

Nick, you said “Besides, you will get a greater fat burning boost if you put on a few extra pounds of muscle mass.”

Have you read Lyle’s articles on the average increase in RMR with each pound increase in LBM?

Dude, I’m not trying to flame you or start a fight but I’m on my fourth cup of coffee today and i just can’t help myself. I hate, HATE ad copies like yours so bad. They rely on Kevin Trudeau style hyperbole and “secrets” and other nonsense. This is an evidence based field and while I’m sure you can give your trainees good real world advice, you’re not constructively adding to the discourse either. I know you’re just trying to make a living and I’m sure you really are helping people with their fitness goals but I can’t help but think that you are one of those people who loves Muscle Milk.

I’m wondering if this is feasible. A cursory look seems like it should be since you would have someone who has created a caloric deficit via diet and a majority of that deficit would be from carbohydrate that their aerobic intensity may be impaired in which case supplemental carbs will improve performance and energy expenditure. How much of an improvement are we talking here and what amount of carbohydrate keeping in mind the thermodynamics of fat loss?

I remember Michael Colgan pimping a 6-8% carb solution (TwinLab Ultra Fuel) for endurance athletes citing specifically that the carbs would be preferable to fatty acids for fuel and this was the reason for the performance enhancement in aerobic exercise. There was also some fructose in there to prevent liver glycogen depletion but that wasn’t the main factor at play. But these were endurance athletes, not overweight people who need to grind out 45 minutes of cardio usually at an effort that is way, way below their VO2 max and probably would not only NOT benefit form extra carbs, but will have just added extra calories to their diet. Most females would be doing VERY well to burn off 10 calories per minute on cardio so 45minutes would be 450 calories. Would adding an extra 20 grams (80 calories) actually increase their intensity OR duration enough to get these calories “back”?

Again that’s assuming that your average overweight trainee is even doing cardio at a level that can be improved with supplemental carbs in the first place. Most will begrudgingly plop on the treadmill and crank out 2 miles at 4 mpg to the tune of a whopping 200 calories or so. Personally I was amazed at how much fewer calories I burned (according to the Bodybugg) vs. the machine’s estimate; and this was at high intensities!
I guess all I’m saying is I’m envisioning overweight people who are going to read this and misinterpret what you said and will go do their 30 mins of shit-all cardio while downing their 32 ounce blue-ice Gatorade.

Here you have a situation where he presumably created an physiological environment conducive to glycogen depletion (very low carb/calorie diet, high rep training) and he was introducing carbs to maintain training intensity….to deplete glycogen. it appeared to be nonsensical
in an a priori manner, but then I thought about it. Assuming a 6% carb solution would maintain anaerobic work capacity (most research I’m sure has been done in aerobic exercise) would introducing small amounts of carbs allow someone to train harder and ultimately use more glycogen for fuel? Does glucose in the bloodstream automatically “pinch hit” for glycogen in fueling less ATP-dominant muscle contraction? I’m assuming that part of the perceived fatigue in doing depletion work is the low blood glucose from the low carb component of the diet. If this fatigue could be partially improved with a glucose solution thus allowing the person to do more reps and thus, burn more glycogen, wouldn’t this be an advantageous situation? I do realize that substrate utilization is key in this specific circumstance and that the introduction of exogenous glucose may interfere with this process but I’m not knowledgeable enough to theorize how much.

I am dieting down right now and I find i get extremely worn out after a few weeks and end up having to take a week off every now and then to catch up, so I’m very curious on what you have to say about training while dieting.