To carb or not to carb? Cutting, fasting and dieting.

[AvidFisherman]

After numerous posts and helpful responses I have discerned that my main problem is my diet, so I decided to do more research on proper dieting and the best ways to cut. Some places say one should keep carbohydrate intake normal, other places say you should cut your carbs to around 100 grams for someone 200-250lbs. I am 290lbs so I assume I should have a few more carbs.

Another philosophy is caloric restriction on non-lifting days; to increase cardio and decrease calories (this part makes sense to me) but the article goes on to mentioned fasting for 36-48 hour periods periodically.

What do you all think?

[Scrumhalf]

I think extreme carb restrictions are important when you are trying to get down below 15% bodyfat. In your case, keep your carbs at 40% of your total calories. A 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat macro split would be a good place to aim for. 100g carb is painful. Can it be done? Sure. I have even done it on a vegetarian diet, which is painful in the extreme. Is is necessary? I think you'll do fine just running a deficit and keeping carbs at 40% of your daily calorie intake.

Let me go on a bit of a rant. All that carb cycling and intermittent fasting and all that stuff is legitimate and important but not for most people. When you are trying to get into contest shape or really cutting down to low double digit or single digits, yes, these things are key. For the average guy, this stuff overcomplicates what is basically a very simple formula. It is for selling magazines. 90% of people would be better off with a 40/40/20 split, running a deficit and actually moving their ass around every day.

[Bouncer]

On top of what scrum said.

Experiment bro. Eat one way for a month and evaluate. For example, eat low carb for a month and after a month take a honest look at yourself. If you dont like the results try a month of high protein, high carb, low fat. This is how I found what my body responds best to. I spent years experimenting with different diets. For me high protein, high carb, very low fat is what works best. Our bodies respond differently to different things so you just gotta go through the trial and error phase. It's important to be brutally honest with yourself though. If something isn't working dont bullshit yourself.

also keep it simple. remember that no matter what your ratio of carbs or fats or proteins are it all boils down to calories. if you are taking in more cals then you burn you will get fat. if your burning more cals then your taking in you will cut. people tend to make things complicated. keep it simple and keep it real.