Underground Sessions:

I would like to start off by thanking all the guys who made it to our last "Underground Strength Session.”  We use these sessions to exchange ideas, test Metal gear and other equipment, to network, and to train. Over the past few weeks, Justin Harris, Mike Hickey, AJ Roberts, Jeremy Frey, Chris Carter, Matt Kroczaleski, Mike Szudarek, Jim Smith and The Diesel Crew, Magnús Ver Magnússon and several others have made the trip.

Here is video of some of the training:


Body Composition Recap and Update:

1.19.08

Body Weight: 276 pounds

Body Fat - 15.47%

Fat Weight - 42.69 pounds

Lean Body Mass - 233 pounds

2.2.08

Body Weight - 276 pounds

Body Fat - 13.71%

Fat Weight - 37.85 pounds

Lean Body Mass - 238.15 pounds

2.17.08

Body Weight - 274 pounds

Body Fat - 12.67%

Fat Weight - 34.70 pounds

Lean Body Mass - 239.30 pounds

3.1.08

Body Weight - 272 pounds

Body Fat - 10.83%

Fat Weight - 29.45 pounds

Lean Body Mass - 242.55

Diet Recap (Reviewing the Base Diet)

This is the base diet that all later modifications were based on. I am posting this to make the diet changes easier to understand. This is a carb rotation diet.

High Day

Meal 1 (50g Pro, 100g Carb)

Meal 2 (50g Pro, 100g Carb)

Meal 3 (50g Pro, 100g Carb)

Meal 4 (50g Pro, 100g Carb)

Meal 5 (50g Pro, 75g Carb)

Meal 6 (50g Pro, 75g Carb)

Meal 7 (50g Pro - unlimited vegetables)

Low Day

Meal 1 (60g Pro, 35 Carb,7g Fat)

Meal 2 (60g Pro, 35 Carb,7g Fat)

Meal 3 (60g Pro, 35 Carb,7g Fat)

Meal 4 (60g pro, 0 Carb, 14g Fat)

Meal 5 (60g pro, 0 Carb, 14g Fat)

Meal 6 (60g pro, 0 Carb, 14g Fat)

Moderate Day

Meal 1 (70g Pro, 75g Carbs)

Meal 2 (70g Pro, 75g Carbs)

Meal 3 (70g Pro, 75g Carbs)

Meal 4 (70g Pro, 7g Fat)

Meal 5 (70g Pro, 7g Fat)

Meal 6 (70g Pro, 7g Fat)

Training Meal

The Training Meal will replace one of the meals above. Count this all as one meal:

Pre-workout: 1 scoop whey isolate, 1 scoop anatrop, 1.5 scoops waxy maize

During workout: 1 scoop anatrop, 1 scoop waxy maize

Post-workout: 1.5 scoops whey isolate, 1 scoop anatrop, 3 scoops waxy maize.

Justin’s Notes

"The calorie amounts are set up so that you can change foods anytime you want. You only count the protein in the protein foods, the carbs in the carb foods, and the fat in the fat foods.

So, if you have steak as a meal, and you're supposed to add 7g of fat, you only count the protein in the steak, not the fat. The 7g of fat will come from the fat sources. And if you have oatmeal in a meal and it has 8g of protein, you don't count that towards your protein."

Food List

Protein List:

Lean Ground Beef

Chicken Breast

Turkey Breast

Egg Whites

Protein Drinks

Carb List:

brown rice

potatoes

oats

yams

Plain or lightly salted rice cakes

white rice

sugar free Quaker oat packets

lower sugar Quaker oat packets (on high day)

Ezekiel bread

"You can use the popcorn rice cakes too, as long as they're 7g of carbs per cake and no fat."

Fat List:

borage oil

evening primrose oil

fish oil

cashews

almonds

natural peanut butter

almond butter

macadamia nut butter

olive oil

"7g is one tablespoon of the butters, or 1/2 tablespoon of the oils, or 0.5oz (1/8th cup) of the nuts. 14g is 2 tablespoons, 1 tablespoon of the oils, 1oz or 1/4 cup of the nuts"

The Changes & Rotations

These are the exact changes and rotations prescribed to me by Justin Harris after seeing pictures each week.

Weeks 1-4

Sunday - Mod Day

Monday - Low Day

Tuesday - Low Day

Wednesday - High Day

Thursday - High Day

Friday - Mod Day

Saturday - Mod Day

Week 5

Sunday - Low Day

Monday - Low Day

Tuesday - High Day (cheat meal last meal*)

Wednesday - Low Day

Thursday - Mod Day

Friday - Low Day

Saturday - Mod Day

On this week I also pulled 1/2 of the carbs out of moderate and low days and replaced with one cup of green beans.

My cheat meal was 1 large Pizza, 2 bags Oreo's, 1 box of Pop Tarts, Pepsi and Tootsie Rolls.

Week 6

Changes to diet on week 6

Sunday - Low Day

Monday - Low Day

Tuesday - High Day (cheat meal last meal)

Wednesday - Mod Day

Thursday - Mod Day

Friday - Low Day

Saturday - Mod Day

On this week the green beans are replaced with asparagus, lettuce (iceberg), spinach (any kind), cauliflower or broccoli.

Week 7

Sunday - Low Day

Monday - Low Day

Tuesday - Super High Day*

Wednesday - Mod - Low Day **

Thursday - Mod Day

Friday - Low Day

Saturday - Mod Day

* Super High Day - 30 grams protein per meal, 100 grams carbs - 8-10 meals. 50% of the carbs need to be clean, with the other 50% very low fat.

** Mod - Low Day - The first three meals are the same as a mod day. The last three are the same as a low day.

Here was my super high day:

This was a super high day. The first of this diet. The leaner I get the more you will see these days worked into the diet. In summary they are 100 grams of carbs and 30 grams of protein per meal. The fats are to be kept very low. One half of the carbs can be high-sugar low-fat sources.

This is my food diary for the day.

8:30am:

3 cups Fruity Pebbles

1.5 cups non-fat lactose-free milk

10:00am:

1.25 scoops whey

4 Ezekiel Bread

Sugar-free jelly

11:15:

6 cups Rice Krispies

2 cups non-fat lactose-free milk

12:30pm

Broiled Chicken Sandwich

Potato

1:30pm

pre-workout: 1 scoop whey isolate, 1 scoop Anatrop, 1.5 scoops waxy maize

during workout: 1 scoop Anatrop, 1 scoop waxy maize

post-workout: 1.5 scoops whey isolate, 1 scoop Anatrop, 3 scoops waxy maize.

4:30pm

3 Cutler Cookies

1.25 scoop whey

5:45pm

4 Slices Ezekiel Bread

1 Cup egg whites

Sugar-free syrup

* French toast

7:00pm

3 Cutler Cookies

1 Instone Intake GOHP Pudding 24/Box

8:30pm

3 cups Fruity Pebbles

1.5 cups non-fat lactose-free milk

10:00pm

3 Cutler Cookies

1.25 scoop whey

Bodyweight at end of day: 276

Week 8

Sunday - Low Day

Monday - Low Day

Tuesday - High Day with cheat meal

Wednesday - Low Day

Thursday - Mod Day

Friday - Low Day

Saturday - Mod - Low Day

This is Justin's exact email with regard to the changes for this week:

"On the low days, drop your carbs in half for all your carb meals (I know....might as well be zero carb then..lol) Just make sure you include green leafy vegetables as much as possible on this day.

Drop the carbs in 1/2, and replace 1/2 of THOSE calories with fat sources.

That might sound confusing....but to make it simple, just count the fat sources as 2x as many calories per gram (it's a bit more than that on average, but even that is misleading because different triglyceride chain length fats have different cals per gram).

So, if you drop 25g of carbs in a meal, 1/2 of those calories in CARBS would be about 12g....so, since fat is 2x as dense, you'll add about 6-7g of fat for each 25g of carbs dropped.

Do that for each meal you have carbs on low day.  The fat will keep you full longer.  As long as you include a lot of vegetables, you should actually feel LESS hungry, despite eating less calories.

You will be eating less calories, so you'll get a bit more depleted (the extra fat will help that though). Because of this, we're doing the cheat meal on the high day.  I have no worries that you can restore much of your lost glycogen in that meal.

The cheat is a cessation of fat burning whether you have a small cheat or a massive cheat. As soon as those cookies reach the bloodstream, you're not burning fat....so there is no point in doing a "small cheat."

The goal of the cheat is to boost metabolism and restore glycogen. When you have a huge influx of nutrients, fats, sugars, and all sort of other "sweet, sweet junk food" in that meal, your body is sent signals that food is plentiful.  This will tell the body to reduce some of the hunger pangs. To get overly specific....the sugar will spike insulin, which will help free up more L-tryptophan as other amino acids are taken to the cell. The L-tryptophan will increase the production of Serotonin.  Serotonin has the ability to reduce the desire for carbohydrates.  It will also help you relax that night, and get some decent sleep (which is rare when dieting). The restored glycogen levels will allow for better transfer and conversion of the "adrenaline cascade" (made up term).

The resulting "me full of food" hormone signals in the body will increase parasympathetic tone (the rest and digest part of the nervous system).This can help restore adrenal fatigue (the reason energy products seem to turn to shit late in the diet..."this ephedrine must be fake!").

L-tyrosine will be converted to L-DOPA.  The increase in Dopamine reuptake inhibition (from a myriad of various signals your mega-meal sent to the body) will allow more of that to be converted to Nor-epinephrine and epinephrine.

The NE and EP will help appetite. They're the fight or flight hormones.....I like to call them the "get shit done" hormones, because when they're elevated, you can focus better, have more energy....and can get shit done.

They also cause vasoconstriction of the peripheries (drawing blood to the internal organs and driving up body temp...IE: thermogenesis), reduce saliva production (part of the reason you won't feel as hungry), and help prepare your body for the arduous hunt of large mammals (not really applicable in today's society, unless you're a chubby chaser). "

Cardio Schedule:

Weeks 1-4

20 minutes 3 times per week steady state. Always on low days and never on high days.

Week 5

30 minutes 4 times per week with one session being HIIT ( High Intensity Interval Training) on one low day. No cardio on high day.

Week 6

30 minutes on all moderate days - steady state. HIIT for 30 minutes on low Days

Week 7

Same as week 6

Week 8

45 minutes on all non high days with 20 minutes being HIIT training and the rest steady state.

For HIIT I do:

Prowler Intervals:

After Warm Up.

Treadmill at 3.5 on 5% grade for 2 minutes followed by Prowler Pushes with 180lbs for 20-25 second runs - then back on the treadmill, repeat

Grade Intervals

After Warm Ups

Treadmill at 3.5 with 0 grade. Step on for 10 seconds and then step onto the side rails for 25 seconds. Every time I step off I take the grade up .5. I keep going until I max out and then bring it back down .5 at a time.

Sled Dragging

After Warm Up

2 minutes on treadmill with 5% grade at 3.5 followed by 50 steps with the Sled and 190lbs, repeat

Training schedule:

This can be followed in my log, but the training split for week 1-7 has been:

Sunday - Chest and Biceps

Monday - Off

Tuesday or Wednesday - am: Back    pm: Hamstrings

Thursday - am: delts        pm: triceps

Friday - OFF

Saturday - Quads

For week 8, I changed to a 5-day-per-week program and will just go by feel for a week or two. Double split days will no longer be used, as they will be too hard to fit into my schedule.

Blast From The Past:

Here is something I sent to John Berardi when he was helping me with my first diet as well as turning around some of the health issues I was dealing with (high blood pressure, liver enzymes, cholesterol, and about a hundred other things). I just ran across it again and thought is was pretty cool to revisit.

The Egg

I have always tried to use the lessons I’ve learned "Under the Bar" to teach many of the same lessons in life. Many of these lessons we miss and forget about. It is not that we do not know them -  we just get caught up in all the other stuff.

Last week after having my bodyweight stuck for more than 6 weeks (dropping Kcals by close to 1000 per day, plus adding in cardio) I relearned a very valuable lesson.

There was NO reason why my weight should not have dropped. Since day one my Kcals have dropped from 10,000 all the way to 3,500. My weight dropped during the first phases from 297 to 270 and then held on regardless of what we tried to do with my diet. I even changed my training program twice. The one thing I forgot to change was my internal belief systems.

You may think this is some crazy made up crap, but it is what it is.

My weight got stuck exactly where knew it would when the process started. My bodyfat also stopped right where I knew it would get tough.

My internal beliefs were set to stop at 270 and were never changed. This was because while I knew where I wanted to go (8%), I lost sight of what was going on right in front of me.

After six weeks of this BS I changed how I thought about the weight (I convinced myself that this was a mental game and changed the way I began thinking about it).

Today I weighed in at 264 (JB's note: down 6lbs in 6 days).

Now, I do not see this as a 6 pound drop over the past 6 days but a 6 pound drop over the past 6 weeks.

I just heard a great story about an egg.

If you look at a fertile egg and watch it over time you will not see anything happen. This goes on day in and day out. You expect to see something, anything, but nothing changes. Then one day the egg begins to shake and a chick pops out. While the egg sat idle things were changing under the surface.

We all spend too much time looking at the outside of the egg when we should stop and think about what is going on inside.

We all get frustrated with lack of progress, slow strength gains, injuries, and the 100 other things that never come as fast as we like.

Many times busting out of these slumps does not take external changes (special exercises, new diet parameters, supplements, programs, money) but how you are internally programmed.

What internal beliefs do you need to change?

One Last Thing:

DON'T OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS! I have been getting crazy questions that are nothing more than over-thinking things way too far. Questions like:

What if I can only get 45 grams of protein instead of 50?

Should I pack the protein down in the scooper to make sure I get every gram of protein?

How many bites should you get with each meal?

In some respects I can see where many of the questions come from, but when I am being asked them by guys who are over 280 and 30% bodyfat I wonder what the hell they are thinking. They go from 4 Big Macs and a large pizza a day to wanting to know if they should pack a scooper down! Just relax. If you are dropping fat, then you’re doing okay. Don't get consumed with the smallest things because this is when the bigger ones smack you in the head. In other words - keep your eye on the ball, not the nosebleed seats.

With all this in mind, I had to send Justin this question because I know he has to get a hundred times more "specialty" questions than I do.

Justin,

I have a HUGE issue. I realized today after drinking my post-workout shake that there was a bunch of left over debris on the inside of the shaker cup. This could be whey, waxy maize or anatrop and it is driving me NUTS because I am not sure what one it is. I want to make sure I am getting all the prescribed nutrients and want to replace in my body what got stuck in the shaker cup.

Do you have any idea what ingredient it is?

I have a micro scale so I will scrape it all out later and weight it so I can figure out exactly how much more to take.

I would just eat what I scrape out but it will be way past my post-training window and would increase my afternoon carbs too much (if it is waxy maize). Then again, it may be whey so I could just eat 1/4 bite less of chicken for dinner. BUT - it could be anatrop and I have NO idea how to factor that in.

I am soooo confused right now and really don't want to screw things up.

Oh, I almost forgot: I had 5 large pizzas last night with 15 gallons of Coke. I had to have some flavor.

This is Justin’s reply that had me cracking up for the next two hours.

About 3 minutes later I get this email back...

Dave.

Scrape out the goop and place it on a Pyrex glass plate.

Titrate evenly and slowly with 2 mol HCL until entirety of goop is coated. Allow to sit for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. The acid will extract the aminos from the carbohydrates. Filter through a coffee filter twice, but DO NOT discard the solid that remains.

Set aside the liquid that has filtered through and allow to dry over 120 degree heat until liquid is fully evaporated. Carefully weigh the crystals that remain. You won't be able to know which specific amino acids were left, but you will be able weigh the total gram amount lost.

Take the particles that didn't filter through the coffee filter and immerse in CH3OH. If you don't have this available, simple HEET gas line anti-freeze will work for this emergency situation.

Filter again, allow liquid to dry. That is the carbohydrate remaining.

Any extra material is a mixture of air particles, non-metabolizable solids, and nose hairs.

Good luck!

Justin.

Q and A with Dave and Justin

What are your views on mixing carb sources with fat sources? Many would argue that this would lead to fat gain if both were in the same meal. Is this bad, good, or a little of both? And what the reason for your answer?

This all comes down to action.

Remember this question asked "my views" on this. I have not studied this and have only read a few articles and know of many people I respect who also believe this to be true. So based on those I know who study this I am sure there is some validity to it.

Now for my view, based on my own experiences gaining weight and cutting fat.

Over the past few years I have been asked more diet questions than all the other years of my life combined. What I have found is that these questions come from two types of people.

1. Those who are skinny and want to gain weight - but CAN'T get fat.

2. Those who say they are 20% bodyfat but are really around 30%. They want to drop bodyfat but want to gain muscle and get stronger in the process.

The common factors are:

1. Both want to gain muscle
2. Both want to get stronger
3. Both want to lose fat (or not gain)
4. Both have no problem training
5. and......

BOTH OVERCOMPLICATE EVERYTHING!

Now let's think about this with regard to dropping bodyfat. Where do you start?

1. Carb Cycling
2. Keto Diet
3. How much cardio? AM or PM? Intervals or steady state?
4. How much protein? What type and when?
5. Meal timing?
6. Macro nutrient breakdown?
7. Supplements?
8. Food combinations?
9. Meal prep?

The list goes on and on. Meanwhile, the person is over 20% bodyfat and really only needs to do two things to drop body fat.

1. Stop eating crap foods
2. Exercise more

It is that simple. I am not sure where fat and carb combos fit in with this person. It has been my experience that people get fat from eating too much crap and not exercising enough.

All the details really come into play the closer you get to 10% bodyfat but for most this will never be the case.

Think about the fat that could be lost if one eats 3 crap meals per day and just makes one of them healthy. This is a 33% diet change and I am sure over one year it will add up to a major difference.

The fact is, this one change is ACTION while all the other research is just planning. People can spend years planning with zero action. We see it and hear it all the time. Regardless of education, ACTION will also beat no action every single time.

Action with education is much better but it’s a fact that this makes up a very small percentage of our population - usually the ones who people like to call successful.

Education is easy. We have countless resources today but action is what moves you ahead, while a lack therof keeps people planted.

Without action education is wasted and you stay the same. Without education action will be limited but you will be moving. Notice in these two statements only one moves ahead.

Let's now assume one wants to gain weight but not get fat. This person is usually skinny, under 200 pounds and around 8-12% bodyfat.
They also have to figure out...

1. Carb Cycling
2. Keto Diet
3. How much training? AM or PM? What program to use?
4. How much protein? What type and when?
5. Meal timing?
6. Macro nutrient breakdown?
7. Supplements?
8. Food combinations?
9. Meal prep?

Now all this group has to do is train, eat more and rest.

Building muscle is much harder than dropping bodyfat, so try increasing the foods you already eat and see what happens. If you are not gaining weight then eat more. If this still does not work then eat more. If this still has you stuck, guess what? Eat more! This is how you gain weight.

Once again I am not sure how carb and fat mixing comes into this when the person has 20-40 pounds they would like to gain.

This comes down to the fear of getting fat and until the fear of being skinny becomes greater than the fear of being fat than you will stay the same as you are now.

Action is always the first step. Don't be so worried about making mistakes or what is supposedly right or wrong. You can figure this out later (as you are moving toward your goal). There is no one set path, and each path will be unique to each individual based on your own beliefs and preferences, but you won't figure this out if you stay in planning mode your whole life. It is through our mistakes that we move forward. Success is just the reward we get after we make so many mistakes that we run out of other options.

Dave, I just purchased a bunch of chains from you guys and would like to add them into my squat training. Any suggestions?

Try this one out.

Old School Westside with Chains

Application: Very good cycle for pre-meet training or pre-testing for the intermediate lifter.

Training Cycle:

Week 1 — 50% for 12 sets 2 reps
Week 2 — 52.5% for 12 sets 2 reps
Week 3 — 55% for 12 sets 2 reps
Week 4 — 57.5% for 10 sets 2 reps
Week 5 — 60% for 10 sets 2 reps

Suggested Chain:

Squat Max: 200-400 Pounds — 60 total pounds of chains
Squat Max: 400-500 Pounds — 80 total pounds of chains
Squat Max: 500-600 Pounds — 100 total pounds of chains
Squat Max: 600-800 Pounds — 120 total pounds of chains
Squat Max: 800-950 Pounds — 160 total pounds of chains

Notes:

• Chains should be set up so 2-4 chain links are on the ground at all time. The chain setup should be the same as sold by EliteFTS. There should be a feeder chain to adjust the chain length.

• If you feel good after your sets, work up to a heavy double. This shouldn't be done every week but should be completed at least twice through the cycle.

• Training percent is based on current one rep max with the free squat with equipment.

• These percents are used as guidelines. The more advanced the lifter, the lighter the percent needed. If you're a raw lifter or don't use powerlifting gear, then a minimum of 10% should be added to the listed percents.

• All sets should be performed with the use of a parallel box.

• You should rest no more than 45 to 60 seconds between sets.

Justin,

I'm trying to decide which DVD of yours to buy. Can you tell me what the differences are between your Seminar DVD and Project Superheavyweight DVD set? I'm leaning toward the PSH DVD set, as I am not a competitive bodybuilder. I do, however, train primarily for size. I'm really looking to learn how to set up a carb cycling diet for myself and my wife. Which of your products will help me best with this?

Project Superheavyweight is a Training DVD and a Nutrition DVD.
There is actually a separate Nutritional DVD included free of charge.

The training DVD follows me through all my training sessions for the week, utilizing a "DC" training protocol. It also shows me preparing my meals for the day. The nutritional DVD is a one-on-one seminar type format with me discussing nutrition issues.

The seminar DVD is longer, but only includes nutritional and training information. There is no actual training. The Seminar DVD goes more in-depth into advanced nutritional ideas and training techniques though.

Justin:

Hey, I love reading your posts and have used many of your methods with great success. I have two questions regarding supplements that I hope you can answer

1. I have finished reading a few research studies on β-alanine, and from the results I'm going to add it to my diet. The question is regarding the dose and time(s) of dose. The studies have conflicting information. So when and how much should I consume?

2. I have been taking 3 scoops waxy maize w/ 2 scoops of protein after training, but I have come across articles and posts stating that protein will interfere with the speed of absorption of waxy maize. Should I continue what I'm doing or take the waxy maize alone after training and 20-30 minutes later consume my protein.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for clear information and help in a very muddled industry.

1: With any supplement like that, you're going to get tons of conflicting information.

Here's some background for everyone on Beta-Alanine:
Beta-alanine is the rate-limiting amino acid for Carnosine. Carnosine is a di-peptide (two amino acids) protein that does "the work." It scavanges the "crap that makes you tired" from the muscle.

If you have my Seminar DVD, you know that rate-limiting amino acid means the amino acid in smallest amount THAT DICTATES HOW MUCH OF THE WHOLE PROTEIN CAN BE USED.

The other amino in Carnosine is L-histidine. But, the amount of Beta-Alanine decides how much Carnosine your muscles will have.

I recommend adding at least 4g of Beta-Alanine per day. You would preferentially add this in 2 doses of 2g.

We include Beta-Alanine (along with other products) in our LEVERAGE that will be coming out soon. We actually include a daily dose of 6g of Beta-Alanine, which will definitely make a noticeable difference in your tolerance to exercise.

2: When I was doing my initial research on Waxy Maize, there wasn't a lot of info. At that point, Vitargo was the only high molecular weight on the market.

When TrueProtein.com came out with Waxy Maize, I was one of the lucky people to be able to test the sample versions of the product.

There is a lot of confusion about WM. WM isn't a sugar. It is a VERY, VERY, complex carbohydrate. That is WHY IT WORKS. Because of its incredibly high molecular weight, it has an incredibly low osmolality. This means that it powers through your stomach into the small intestine where it is absorbed.

People have liked Dextrose because it causes a rapid rise in insulin....when it gets in the bloodstream. The beauty of WM is that it is already through the bloodstream and being taken up into the muscles before a sugar with a low molecular weight even gets into the bloodstream.

Amino acids (protein) have a lower molecular weight. My initial feeling was that a product with too much low molecular weight aminos added would raise the osmolality of the whole "mixture." This would negate SOME of the benefits of WM.

My feelings are this: As long as the protein is less in gram total than the Waxy Maize, you should be fine. I mix my protein with my waxy maize.

When I use waxy maize to load/bloat up in weight before a meet, or before a training session, I keep the protein lower, as I include this in-between whole food meals after weigh-ins.

In our product LOAD, we include HMW carbohydrates (introducing the NEXT GENERATION of HMW carbs) with specific amino acids. This would be a product you would use before training and after making weight to "load" up before the meet.

Our product Vast 3 contains HMW carbs, but also includes protein.

Long story short: you're fine


What is a super high day and what is the purpose of it?

The super high day is a re-fuel, re-feed, re-charge day.  It is a day of Hypercaloric intake (more calories than you burn) to raise your metabolism and restore glycogen levels for the rest of the week.

The huge influx of carbs helps restore the lost muscle and liver glycogen from the lower carbs the rest of the week. In someone your size, that may be 1,000g of carbs you can restore. That is a huge amount.  Even 1/2 that is around 2,000 Calories from carbs you can eat before any fat is stored.

The huge carb intake also raises insulin levels throughout the day. Insulin is a potent growth hormone, driving nutrients to the cell. Insulin also lowers SHBG (steroid hormone binding globulin), which makes all steroid type hormones (especially beneficial to natural competitors) much more effective. Insulin also lowers protein breakdown.  By driving amino acids to the cell of protein synthesis, the protein you eat is more likely to be converted to new muscle tissue.  The constant blood sugar levels and insulin production also fend off protein breakdown. When you're low on calories, your body likes to break down protein (muscle) to use for energy.  This is an "easier" mechanism for the
body than breaking down stored fat.

The huge calorie/carb intake also sends signals to your body that you don't need to be as hungry.  When you're on low carb/calorie diets, your body sends out signals that you need to eat.  As the diet goes along, these signals get more intense.  It is the body's way of telling you that you're starving to death.

The high carb day helps blunt these signals.

Insulin has many other benefits too. It is a mild diuretic, increasing GFR (kidney filtration).  It also increases sodium re-absorption in the kidneys.  This helps that "fullness" feeling (bloat), as sodium is a necessity for glycogen storage.

Insulin is also a CNS depressant.  One mechanism for this action is a freeing up of L-tryptophan, which is then converted to Serotonin. Serotonin is a rest and relax neurotransmitter in the brain.

Until next time, keep slamming the plates.