IIFYM VS. Nutrient Timed Carb Cycling A 7 Week Case Study

IIFYM gets all the rage these days. And in all honesty it should get a lot of attention. It is a good basis to get people to understand the bulk of the "calorie equation" when it comes to weight loss, weight gain, and calorie maintenance. IIFYM is based on the premise that weight control comes down to a simple calorie equation. Food sources don't really matter when total daily calories are met for the set goal. Like an accountant this style of diet uses essentially a calorie "ledger" simply meeting a calorie goal. Now if you take it even further studies do show that if protein is accounted for (consuming sufficient protein) then it does not matter whether the rest of the calories are made up of either carbohydrate or fat calories WHEN IT COMES TO WEIGHT LOSS. But what about in training populations where the main goal is physique improvements or improvement of overall body composition where weight isn't the primary goal but "THE LOOK" is???

My client here had just finished a 12 week cut with an online "personal trainer". I use this term with quotations because what my man got was highway robbed. This trainer used a pre-made training program he got out of a training app and used a nutrition meal plan service that he was subscribed to to write my client a generic meal plan. Upon completing the meal plan for a few weeks the trainer recommended that my client "just hit his macros" every day and then he'd be good. On top of that the process of his "nutrition coaching" came out to be touching base with my client once a month to "adjust the diet". Why was this a bad thing???

When my client ended his 12 weeks with his previous trainer he was experiencing NEARLY ALL OF THE NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS OF A PRE-CONTEST BODY BUILDER ABOUT 2-4 WEEKS OUT FROM A SHOW.

1. Sleep was suffering

2. No libido. He did not even want to touch his girlfriend.

3. Cravings that were on the border of being out of control

4. He had not had a pump in the gym in weeks.

5. Lethargy, brain fog, extreme overall day to day fatigue.

I had been talking with him throughout his diet process with his previous trainer and just watched from a distance having a pretty good idea as to what was taking place and where he was at with his fatigue levels. Upon completing his cut it became apparent that not only had this trainer train wrecked him, he also went ghost at the end of the diet, and it became extremely apparent that he had not taught my soon to be new client what would need to be done to transition into the next phase of his fitness journey. Upon talking with him I was able to figure out where he was at simply by stating "you're experiencing x, y, and z right now aren't you?" From there I damn near begged him to just LET ME HELP get him out of the hole. So once we started here was the immediate plan of action.

1. 3 consecutive "free days" off the diet.

2. 4 consecutive high carb days with a cheat meal as the last meal of the day on each day.

3. Requirement that we switched to simple 1 ingredient protein, carb, and fat sources.

4. Incorporate fruit twice daily into the diet.

What happened?

His snake was awake and ready for action again. His sleep improved. The brain fatigue and lethargy were gone. His pumps in the gym came back and were PHENOMENAL.

Easy fix right??? Just bump your calories and eat whatever you want and BOOM YOU'RE BACK TO NORMAL..... But what next?

1. I set him up on a simple carb cycling program based on the EXACT SAME WEEKLY CALORIES that he was at in his previous phase (judging by where his weight loss progression was headed based on his last 3 check ins).

2. This carb cycle was simple. 4 medium days/week (training days), 2 low days/week (off days from training), 1 high day/week (hardest training day = legs).

3. Low days were low carb (first 3 meals of the day 25 carbs w/ no added fats & last 2 meals w/ no carbs & a bit of added fat. This was essentially a cardio day since I had him specifically do cardio on these day since they were our main fat burning day.

4. Moderate days- carbs were placed in his breakfast meal, pre-workout meal, and post workout meal. These are the most important times of day when on a cut or in a prep because you WANT the energy for the training sessions. That is typically why we actually do this.... phenomenal workouts, the diet portion sucks but just simply must be done. The breakfast carbs were to replenish glycogen after his fasted cardio in the AM.

5. High Days consisted of 4 meals w/ relatively low protein, 100 grams carbs, and no added fats. The last meal of the day was a free meal option. This free meal stayed in the plan every week until we were 1 week out. In that case it simply became the same as the other 4 meals.

We ran this protocol with only slight deviations to cardio for 6 weeks. The final result??? Calories average/week actually ended up to be THE SAME as the diet that train wrecked him (if not slightly higher due to the free meals). He ended his cut achieving something that I don't think he ever thought he would achieve. His wedding tackle worked the entire time, sleep didn't suffer, workout PR's kept coming during the entire process, and his pumps remained optimal.

What'd we do?

We took into account the optimization of keeping carbohydrates around the workout window allowing for much more productive workouts. We set up his cardio schedule so it was manageable in bite sized chunks and was optimal for body composition changes. We mitigated metabolic slowdown the best we could by incorporating the high carb day w/ extra carbs as necessary & a free meal at the end of that day. This also helped to mitigate cravings that would have slowed down and derailed his progress if he just broke down and ate everything in sight.

His weight is only about 4lbs lighter from beginning to end but I think the photos speak for themselves!