Yo what's going on, guys?
Troy here with Muscle Tactics, chillin' up here in Hollywood hills.
We got the symbolic Hollywood sign behind me.
And you know what's crazy?
Every time I look at it, I'm like, That's it.
It's like people have this image in their head that it's this gigantic sign and then
you get up here and it's just a tiny, little sign.
Still pretty cool, still an amazing view.
We got up here downtown Los Angeles.
You could even see all the way if I can get my camera guy to rotate all the way over - you
could even see Santa Monica beach and the ocean in the background, so pretty much at
the top of L.A. up here.
I actually just got back from the Mr. Olympia Convention in Las Vegas.
I met so many people that I just learned a ton from, some of the top fitness models - had
a great chance to talk with Greg Plitt, someone I've always looked up to in the fitness industry.
I talked to Rob Riches, talked to Jim Stoppani - the doctor from bodybuilding.com.
I actually was in the gym at six in the morning and saw Kai Greene, the dude who took second
at the Mr. Olympia contest.
So brushed shoulders, talked to people at the very top of the fitness industry, and
I learned some incredible knowledge on a lot of great diet tricks on how to really get
big, how to manipulate those hormones.
Two things that I learned that are really powerful for lean muscle gains is the concept
of carbohydrate backloading and intermittent fasting.
I think that if you combine them both, it's going to give you guys incredible results
- really powerful, anabolic overload on your body.
I don't want to dive into too much scientific facts regarding intermittent fasting.
I know the HodgeTwins have a channel & I believe it's just called FastingTwins.
It's all about intermittent fasting and all the science around it.
But I think the combination of carb backloading and intermittent fasting is really the best
of both worlds.
Intermittent fasting is when you go & you have just an eating window.
A really easy way to do it is you have, say, an 8-hour window where you consume all your
food, then you go 16 hours without eating.
This has really great hormonal benefits and it increases your testosterone, increases
your HGH, helps you stay lean and actually going to help you build muscle.
I'm not going to dive into the science and all that; that'll definitely be in another
video, but I want to combine that with carbohydrate backloading.
Carbohydrate backloading, I think, is one of the best things that you can do as a naturally
skinny guy to maximize your lean muscle gains.
I've been doing this recently, and I'm really trying to get lean here over the next couple
of months, and I think carbohydrate backloading is one of the best strategies for achieving
that, especially in conjunction with intermittent fasting.
How I do carbohydrate backloading is, first off, I'll stop eating at around 6, 7 somewhere
between 6 and 8 pm the night before, and then I'll wake up and I will work out actually
on an empty stomach.
So when you combine this with intermittent fasting, it's really easy to pull off.
So obviously if I stop eating at 6 o'clock the next night and I wake up at 8am, get my
workout in, and all of a sudden it's 10pm - I've essentially gone 16 hours without eating
anything if you go from 6pm to 10am the next day.
So it's really easy to incorporate the concepts of intermittent fasting along with your carbohydrate
backloading.
So how I do carbohydrate backloading - well obviously, stop eating between 6 and 8pm the
night before.
I'll get up, I'll work out on an empty stomach and then I will consume all my day's carbohydrates
after I work out.
That's the whole backloading part.
You're consuming all of your carbs post-workout.
And I noticed somewhat - you'd think your energy levels will be really low.
Well my energy levels are sky high when I do this.
When I was - I couldn't believe one time, I actually worked out in the gym where I hadn't
eaten anything in 18 hours, my energy levels were sky high.
So you kind of reach that point where you're hungry from hours, maybe 4 through 6 or 4
through 8, and then all of a sudden you get to that point where you feel good because
- keep in mind that it takes energy to digest a lot of food, and I notice when I eat really
big meals and I try to go to the gym, in an hour or two hours after that I just feel a
little lethargic, a little slow.
So I'll wake up, I'll drink a ton of water - sometimes I'll have green tea or coffee.
And that's another thing.
If you guys take pre-workout, or you do coffee or green tea, and you do it on an empty stomach,
it is very, very powerful.
You're going to feel the effects of that caffeine, feel the effects of that pre-workout a lot
more.
So that is something that I highly recommend that you guys do.
Back to the carbohydrate backloading.
I get in that great workout, and then post-workout - instantly, I hit that post-workout insulin
spike, so the first thing that goes in my body is my fast-digesting whey shake with
my fast-digesting dextrose or Maltodextrin power.
I have 50-60 grams of fast-digesting carbs - that'll be my first meal.
Then about an hour later, I will have more fast-digesting carbs.
I'll have some white rice or jasmine rice - basmati rice, another personal favorite.
Some kind of rapid-digesting carb, maybe some white potato, but some other form of a simple
digesting carb, and then maybe about an hour and a half to two hours later, I'll slowly
transition from those rapid-digesting carbohydrates to the slower complex carbs.
Now I'll start working in things like sweet potatoes, oatmeal, black beans, quinoa, so
it's a transition from hitting those really rapid-digesting carbs as I get that insulin
spike, then you go for those slow-digesting complex carbohydrates.
So I will consume all my carbohydrates for my day, post-workout.
This has the most anabolic effect.
Keep in mind that post-workout insulin is very anabolic, so you want to be consuming
all of your body - all of your carbohydrates for the day post-workout, ideally, if you
want to maximize your insulin levels for lean muscle building.
Insulin is actually - I read in the book Nutrient Timing - the most anabolic hormone in your
body.
That's why pro bodybuilders are obviously kind of guinea pigs where they're injecting
testosterone and HGH and all those crap in their body, and obviously that's super dangerous.
But one of the things they actually inject is insulin just because it's so anabolic.
So you guys can kind of do it the healthy way and just carb backload, consume all of
your daily carbohydrates post-workout.
That's a really easy way to do carb backloading; obviously it's easy to mix in intermittent
fasting along with carb backloading if you just cut off your meals, 5, 6, 7pm the day
before.
So I highly recommend to you guys, try carb backloading.
It's always good to throw new things into your diet to kind of shock it up, so if you
guys are having trouble with your lean muscle gains, maybe trying carb backloading will
really hit that heavy insulin spike post-workout.
You guys will burst through that plateau and see some incredible lean muscle gains.