In the section on optimising calorie quality we saw how the various macronutrients should be apportioned according to one’s needs in terms of body composition, recovery and plastic needs. This breakdown, however, should be understood as a weekly average. This implies that, in the context of a single day, the percentage of each macronutrient to the total calorie-bearing nutrient may differ significantly from the average weekly value. Well, how much the percentages of each macronutrient deviate from the average weekly value (standard deviation) may also be relevant to the full success of the nutritional strategy. This is especially true with regard to carbohydrates.

The glucose storage strategy

  In dealing with the state of ketosis, we have seen that following a high-carbohydrate diet for only one or two days in a row will not alter the previously established metabolic balance. Concentrating the carbohydrates to be consumed weekly in the context of a few days, however, also has another important advantage: the reduction in insulin resistance resulting from the days of carbohydrate depletion will cause the glycogen stores to be saturated to a greater extent during recharging than they would if the carbohydrates had been spread equally over all the days of the week. Doing so, however, inevitably leads to an increase in the glycaemic load of meals on carbohydrate reload days. This effect, the other side of the coin, will not be such as to negatively compensate for the above-mentioned advantages if one observes the rule of accumulating the weekly carbohydrates in a few days only in the context of a low-carbohydrate diet. Again, it is difficult to give precise quantitative indications as to what the upper limit of weekly carbohydrate intake should be, either in percentages or in grams, beyond which the strategy is no longer profitably applicable. One can experiment, but, of course, here it is mainly a matter of common sense and intuition: few people would think of consuming kilos of carbohydrates on a single day and then remaining almost fasting all the rest of the week. Certainly the digestive system would suffer quite a bit.

Basic carbohydrate replenishment

  Just as seen in the section on the ketogenic diet, it is a good idea to concentrate carbohydrate consumption on two days per week. If the amount of carbohydrates to be consumed per week should be such that they cannot be introduced in such a concentrated manner, a third high-carbohydrate day can be included. If you are observing a ketogenic diet, it is particularly important that there are at least a couple of days of carbohydrate depletion between refills. For example, you can do carbohydrate reloading on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, while on the other days you can be on a carbohydrate dump. This will help maintain a metabolic state tending towards fat consumption rather than glucose consumption and avoid overuse of gluconeogenesis.