Thread: When is it okay to eat carbs on a cut?

Your carb choices and timing could be better.

Not sure what type of cereal you are eating but oatmeal would be your best choice.

Pasta is not a great source, a sweet potatoe or brown rice would be a better substitute.

Cereal before bed (depending on type) is generally not a good idea, you don't want to have carbs alone, if you had a protein source and oatmeal, that would be ok.

You want to have the majority of your carbs around your workout. Before and after. Oats pre workout is fine (at least an hour before), the maltodextrin is fine post workout as it is a high glycemic carb. If you are doing intense CV, then you would do the same shakes.

Really what it comes down to is eating the right amount of calories. You want to take in slightly less than your maintenance.

thanks naturalguy, you always post good feed

at lunch its a choice between, pasta (comes with a beef or chicken tomato/spicey sauce)... a tuna salad sandwich... or a jacket potato... and then theres a ton of junk food like cheeseburgers/nuggets/fries etc but i doubt i want that. When i'm not at college I can have a salad or something, but at college i'm a bit limited for choice, and i like the pasta coz it tastes nice and fills me up the best. What you recommend?

I have a weetbix before bed with flax and a whey shake

I'll start having an oats/whey shake pre workout from now on (before weights and H.I.I.T.) and the whey/maltodextrins shake after

Also (this is gonna sound stupid) but I use the original 'quaker oats', are these okay? (all this oatmeal/old fashioned/scotch oats confuses me, i want to make sure i'm having the right stuff).... shall i just mix oats with my shakes, or should i follow packet instructions and cook them in milk or water? (at breakfast i'd probably prefer to cook them, might be a bit tastier and warm me up in the winter months)

Dude, your eating carbs all day long, and kids cereal???

If thats cutting I wont ask what the normal diet is like

For me cutting means 100g carbs or less total, brown rice/oatmeal and nothing else, no bread, no pasta, NO MILK or Cocoa Puffs!

quaker oats ain't cocoa puffs man!

they are 100% oats, I just wanted to make sure thats what i want coz this oatmeal jargon is throwing me off a bit

my normal diet is similar but carbs with all 7 meals, not just 4 of them

suppose I could just cut out the cereal before bed, and figure a way of cutting out the pasta at lunch

then i'll just be having carbs first thing in the morning, carbs before training and a few with my dinner

trust me i'm really starting to cut them down! this is the first time i've done this sort of thing and its best i do it gradually anyway (to preserve as much muscle as poss.)

thanks for the comments anyway

Personally I would not have any high carbs meal after 6 or 7pm. I'm currently on a cut and it is working for me. Of course everyone is different. Just my 2 cents.

Originally posted by young d
quaker oats ain't cocoa puffs man!

Are you calling oatmeal cereal? I just call it, oatmeal

Originally posted by Mudge
Are you calling oatmeal cereal? I just call it, oatmeal

True dat!

whenever you want, as long as it stays within the guidelines you set out for yourself.

Mudge go's kookoo for cocoa puffs!

Originally posted by young d
thanks naturalguy, you always post good feed

at lunch its a choice between, pasta (comes with a beef or chicken tomato/spicey sauce)... a tuna salad sandwich... or a jacket potato... and then theres a ton of junk food like cheeseburgers/nuggets/fries etc but i doubt i want that. When i'm not at college I can have a salad or something, but at college i'm a bit limited for choice, and i like the pasta coz it tastes nice and fills me up the best. What you recommend?

I have a weetbix before bed with flax and a whey shake

I'll start having an oats/whey shake pre workout from now on (before weights and H.I.I.T.) and the whey/maltodextrins shake after

Also (this is gonna sound stupid) but I use the original 'quaker oats', are these okay? (all this oatmeal/old fashioned/scotch oats confuses me, i want to make sure i'm having the right stuff).... shall i just mix oats with my shakes, or should i follow packet instructions and cook them in milk or water? (at breakfast i'd probably prefer to cook them, might be a bit tastier and warm me up in the winter months)

I use original quaker oats too, not the quick oats. I prefer to cook mine, 1 minute in the microwave and I use 1 packet of equal for taste.

If pasta is your only choice at lunch (much better than cheeseburgers and fries) just try and eat a small amount, no more than a fist full (that will be about a cup).

What time of day do you workout? That will determine if you should eat carbs at night, if you train at night than you certainly need carbs after you train, it won't matter if it is at night because post training your body does not treat carbs in the same manner. The carbs go to glycogen repleneshment and not fat storage. Trust me there is no timer in your body that says "ding, it's past 8 pm, lets store fat now" Your body is in a constant state of repair if you are training hard. Sedentary people should avoid carbs at night because they are not active. Also remember that not all carbs are equal. If you ate a big bowl of broccoli late at night I doubt you would store any as fat and broccoli is carbs.

well i do my weights workouts 3 times a week late-afternoon/early-evening (after college)

and i do my C.V. workouts 3 times a week after breakfast in the morning (i'm told C.V. for fat-loss is best in the morning, and i have a tues and sat morning off so it kinda fits in ok)

so i'll try and limit my carbs at dinner when i'm not on a weights day

like i said, i'll cut the bed-time carbs and reduce the carbs at lunch, the only decent servings of carbs i'll have will be in the morning and pre/post workouts, rest of the day i'll stick to meats/whey/salads and efa's

thanks NG