Are you confusing this with him saying that low carb is overrated? Because that’s not it all – it’s that the extreme low carb (ketogenic levels) just might not be as advantageous as was once believed.

My take on it is that while low carb is a good plan/way of life, you don’t NECESSARILY need to push it to the ketogenic level (which is an extremely low carbohydrate/high protein plan) because payback isn’t automatically greater in terms of metabolic functioning than your more traditional low carb plan (although I do believe for some ketogenic is more advantageous).

I know that low carb (non-ketogenic – I don’t have the discipline for that lifestyle) works the best for me on many levels – my hunger signals, my energy leves, etc. But based on this research and well-thought out analysis by Lyle, any thoughts I had of pushing my diet to the ketogenic level have been put to rest. I’ll stick to low carbohydrate/higher protein.

1) With low carb diets you maintain more than 20% of your calories from fats (it’s harder to hit this mark on higher carb diets as when carbs go up, fats must go down) and not suppress my testosterone levels
2) Low carbs prevent insulin rises (it’s easier to control hunger without them)
3) It’s more satiating to eat fats over carbs
4) I just like LCD’s more

Moreover, “emotional effects”? Pardon?

There’s a matter of personal variance. Starting bodyfat % of the twins, training volume (500g post workout would require a fair amount of volume), insulin sensitivity (note that it can vary between siblings).

My take on your hypothetical situation is that Twin A gains more LBM than Twin B. Twin B loses more fat than Twin A. Whether these variances are significant, I’m not sure.

My rational is that Twin A is consuming sufficient carbs to keep insulin levels stable/elevated throughout the week (good for LBM, less good for fat loss). And, as long as training volume is not super high, there will likely be enough carbs post workout to complement the training effect.

Twin B is in a much bigger calorie deficit on non-training days, and is probably not reaping as much benefit from round-the-clock higher insulin levels (for LBM gain – but the situation is better for fat loss). The twice weekly refeeds surely complement the training effect acutely, but protein synthesis continues to the next day (peaking at around 24 hours), at which point the twin is back in a suboptimal feeding regime for LBM gains.

Maybe increasing training frequency (split routines, more full body routines, whatever) for Twin B would result in more LBM gain because he’ll be refeeding multiple times per week. Even if carbs during the refeed are lower (because they are spread across more training sessions), as long as the training volume is not really high, he’ll still be eating enough to complement the training effect. Would this slow down fat loss? Possibly.

The above is all hypothetical and maybe nonsensical, but, meh.

This is one of my interesting interpretations of carbohydrate manipulation. You could take 2 twins, have them both recomp for a year. Over the year they both eat the same macros and have the same activity (2 resistance training workouts a week).

Twin A eats a reduced calorie diet: say high-protein, moderate carbs, and low-fat. On a weekly basis, he eats 100-200 g carbs per day, but averages 157.
Twin B eats a high-protein low-carb diet with 3 weekly refeeds. On a weekly basis, say he eats 20g carbs per 5 days, and 500g carbs on his 2-workout days.

Imagine their daily consumption of protein and fat is equal.

Based on my interpretation of what I’ve read we would expect twin B to have better body recomposition. Would the difference be significant? Would it be noticable in the mirror? Or would the majority of Twin B’s benefits from hormone up-regulation be in diet adherence?

Matt

This question may come off as silly, so I apologize in advance if it turns out that way. Would there be any potential advantages or benefits to locking in protein and total calorie intake and flip flopping fat and carb intake from time to time for periods of 7-14 days?

e.g. If you typically consume a moderate-to-high protein diet of roughly X kcals with a low or very low carb intake and a high(er) fat intake, then switching to a diet where the carb intake is higher for 1-2 weeks and the fat intake is lower, mostly from EFA’s and the fat in the protein foods you eat (total kcals that had been from carbs become kcal target for fat intake and vice versa)

Or, alternatively switching to a higher fat intake and lower carb intake if carbs had been on the higher side and fat intake much lower?