Now this type of eating works 80 - 90% of the time, however there are instances when your body starts to stagnate.  It’s a little like working out, if you end up doing the same workout routine over and over again, your body eventually gets so efficient at doing it, that it stops working.  Similarly if you’ve been eating the same foods with the same calorie intake for a prolonged period of time, your body’s metabolism will eventually slow down and your progress can come to a screeching halt.

This is why changing up your diet is a good thing.  For instance, increasing your calories one day per week by eating more carbs to stimulate your leptin hormone is one way to boost your metabolism and start burning fat again.  This method is most effective if you’ve been following a healthy low carb diet throughout the week.  But if you have a difficult time keeping your daily carb intake low for an entire week, I have another dietary trick which may help.

It’s called macronutrient partitioning.  I know it sounds technical, but the concept is actually really simple.  It’s about timing when you eat your carbs during the day.  The idea is to feed your body carbs, when your body requires it the most, this way you can eat carbs without worrying about it being stored as fat.

Here’s how it works.  When you’re least active (usually in the morning during work for most people) you want to minimize your carb intake the most.  This is pretty easy to do, since most people aren’t even that hungry in the morning.  A lot of people cut out carbs all together during this time.  On the other hand, fat is your friend during times of inactivity.  The reason is fat is completely inert to insulin, which makes it the macronutrient of choice during times of inactivity.

If you’re not one to eat in the morning, you may want try the “Bulletproof Coffee” by Dave Asprey.  It’s basically a cup of coffee with a tbsp of grass-fed butter and a 1/2 - 1 tbsp of MCT oil and some vanilla powder.  It sounds weird, but give it a go, it’s quite good and the fat in the coffee keeps you satisfied for hours without raising your insulin level.

If you’re like me and need to eat something in the morning, a combination of fat and protein is your best bet. Eggs and bacon is my go to breakfast.  And if you don’t have time to make breakfast, you can whip up a high protein shake.  Since you want to keep your carb intake very low, make sure to use quality protein supplement with low carb content.  I mix it with water and add 1 tbsp of MCT oil for my fat content.  The protein and fat combo keeps your insulin low and your energy level high throughout the day.

Keep in mind that the more you can restrict your carb intake during this time, the better you’ll be able to mobilize fat.  This is because, the low insulin levels help boost your catecholamine hormones, which are essentially your fat burning hormones.

The low carb phase in the morning and early afternoon will effectively have mobilized your fat.  Now it’s time to work out and burn the fat that’s been mobilized.

Working out during a low insulin, carb depleted state can take a little extra dose of motivation…but it’s well worth it.  I highly recommend doing short high intensity workouts, because it’s the shortest and most effective method to burn off fat.  It’s also a great way to use up your glycogen (stored glucose in your muscles) so that you can eat more carbs!

After your workout is over,  you get to good part.  Now you can chow down on carbs.  In fact, you can eat majority (if not all) of your carbohydrates for the day at this meal.  By this time your muscle glycogen levels are depleted, making it an ideal time to eat starchy carbs like sweet potatoes and rice since all the carbs gets stored as glycogen in your muscles and not as fat.  Now keep in mind that you’re still on a low carb diet, so I wouldn’t recommend exceeding beyond your normal carb quantity, which on average is between 100 - 200 g of carbohydrates a day.

Another tip…your post-workout meal should be low in fat.  Although a little fat is fine, too much fat interferes with both glycogen and protein uptake.  So it’s best to eat most of your fat during your low carb phase prior to your workout.

Your post workout meal should be comprised mostly of carbohydrates and protein.  This also makes your post workout meal the biggest in terms of volume and calories.  In many cases you may be eating 60 - 80% of your total daily calories in this one meal, so eat up!

Now depending on how late your post workout meal is, you may or may not have time to eat another small snack before you go to bed.  If you do, I recommend a high protein snack or shake.  Remember, it’s during the night that your body does most of the repairing and building of lean muscle tissue, so eating a high protein snack will provide your muscles with the necessary nutrients.

So there you have it.  Another way to change up your diet and re-stimulate your metabolism for progressive fat burning!