anyone doing this?
Buddy of mine has been strict Paleo for a few years, but always looking to get bigger, started doing this, says he has gained 14 lbs in the last few months, and feels good. I assumed he might have gains but would feel and be bloated, but he swears these have been lean gains and feels as good as when on strict paleo.
Seems gimmicky as hell, goes against much of what I have to come to believe (complex carbs only, eat clean, etc.), but my buddy that eats even cleaner than I do swears he feels great, like his body absorbs all of the simple carbs he gorges on each night he lifts, so maybe its worth a try.
I've been following for the past 6 months. I haven't been super strict but I've been doing the idea for the most part. I gained 30 pounds. 15 pounds of lean mass and 15 of fat. The only reason I think I gained fat is because I was going way over board. I ate until I almost threw up, pretty much every night. 
I'm doing it now its been about a month or so. I like. I have a sweet tooth so it allows me to eat some sweets every couple of nights. I look leaner and haven't lost any strength in my lifts. You need to be careful with your backloads though and play with the type of carbs and how often you backload for better results.
Thanks for posting guys. Im going to try to keep it clean on the backload (bunch of white rice at dinner, sweet potato with butter, brown sugar, and honey for dessert.
Limiting carbs earlier in the day to 30g, and fructose avoidance will be hardest for me.
Hoping to feel better recovered / fueled if I "do it right " we shall see
Some night having just like a scoop of two or ice cream wouldn't be bad.
^I take ZMA at night, calcium conflicts with that, but plan to have some on hand for when the timing works out, allow myself to enjoy this a little bit.
I eat like a robot already, so sticking to it should be fine as long as I have no trouble with getting huge portions down. If anything, I'll be forced to learn to cook a little better, more creatively do just do meats and veg, no pasta, no quinoa, plan to stew alot, to be delicious on a bed of rice.
Well lets us know how it goes for you.
Hope it works for you. CBL didn't really work well for me. I ended up just gaining fat and I also felt like shit eating all those shitty carbs a night.
I already have trouble getting to sleep being wired after BJJ or NoGi, and so far, the time it takes to consume the additional carbs plus (and most detrimental) the bloat I usually feel after eating such a quantity in such a little span of time, and right before bed, negatively affects my sleep, which seems to negate any positive there may be to CBL over my former complex carbs with dinner after workout.
As far as energy for workouts, I have felt fine, and I feel I have recovered well in between. Aesthetically? No change, after a month, but I am not lifting heavy, mostly BJJ & BW/weighted BW workouts (pullups, dips, pushups, etc.)
I strained an intercostal (rib area) muscle while rolling, but I don't think this has anything to do with diet, felt great rolling that night til that moment, been off the mat since, and had to scale back strength w/o temporarily, now easing back in.
Bottom line, CBL (as I knew going in) is designed for people doing bodybuilding workouts and more time to stretch their "carb backloading" over the course of the evening and get in bed early enough for the all important adequate sleep part of the regimen to do its job.
For the evening BJJer, daytime wage slave looking to gain a few lbs and recover better (my goal)...doing CBL makes it even harder than usual to get adequate sleep. which is my whole problem (besides "too much cardio" from grappling, shoulder injury limiting heavy lifting and just being lanky by nature).
Genocide Junkie, did you try going about it clean? Like doing white rice, sweet potatoes, and bananas as your simple carb source? This is the way I've been doing it, while keeping some empty calories on hand if in a pinch (Fruity Pebbles atm)
I have felt awful the few times I had to resort to multiple bowls of Fruity Pebbles after dinner lol, but have also enjoyed it on nonBJJ nights when I am not eating everything within an hour and right before bed.
I did CBL for 2 months then switched to Carb Nite to shed so bodyfat and both of them worked well for me. there is a big difference if you use cleaner carbs as compared to the ice cream and stuff. If I base my backloads and Carb Nites on the dirtier carbs the diet doesn't work as well for me. But if I limit the dirty carbs and use mostly white rice/sweet potatoes it works quite well (for me at least)
Thanks surf2live.
After Bjj, not enough time to space out 2 feedings, so having a pwo shake with 2 servings if carbs, a huge dinner an hour later with 2-3 servings of carbs and then dessert (frozen blended bananas usually) to make up the difference.
During an extended break from Bjj, this might work for me, but not feasible IME doing Bjj most evenings (too much time to consume and get over bloat )
surf2live - I did CBL for 2 months then switched to Carb Nite to shed so bodyfat and both of them worked well for me. there is a big difference if you use cleaner carbs as compared to the ice cream and stuff. If I base my backloads and Carb Nites on the dirtier carbs the diet doesn't work as well for me. But if I limit the dirty carbs and use mostly white rice/sweet potatoes it works quite well (for me at least)
Which diet is harder to follow? CBL or Carb Nite?
Were you able to maitain strength and energy while doing the Carb Nite diet?
Neither were difficult for me to stick too. As long as im not hungry i'm good, so I just made sure that I ate enough to be satisfied (making sure I leave out the carbs) CBL is easier on the craving since you can eat carbs/sweets a couple times a week. I've heard that the diet works for some eating super dirty carbs every backload or Carb Nite but just not for me.
On CBL I had no noticeable strength loss. During cardio though, anything that lasted more than 10 minutes I would start to feel a little "off" but not bad. Intervals seemed to work well. Carb Nite there is a definite loss in strength the further away from your Carb Nite you get (at least for me) The first 2 days after a Carb Nite I was fine but the further out I got I started to get a little weaker. What I did was instead of waiting the full 7 days I would have a Carb Nite at day 5 or 6 depending on what type of lifting/training I was doing.
I started at 193 then was down to 187 after the first week orientation period where you take carbs out completely. Since then i've gotten leaner and i'm down to 177 as of this morning and its been 4 weeks on CArb Nite.
