Is Carb Curve only for PWO?

[Rick]

I understand the concept of the carb curve (ISWF pg 244) and I figure I land somewhere a bit right of center. I am fit and do Crossfit 5 times a week but still have quite a bit of giggle around the middle that just won't budge. Based on the template, I'm adding < 25 g starchy veg to my PWO meal. What about the other meals? No starchy carbs? I've heard that if I don't have enough carbs it may work against my weight loss efforts overall. I'm a bit confused about how much to add - or not.

[Tom Denham]

The carb curve info was meant as a general guide to eating more carbs if you are very active and less if you are not. I ate carbs as part of my post-workout meals briefly, but soon stopped because it was easier logistically to manage lean protein by itself. I even went for long periods without eating starchy veggies at all because my performance and mood was fine while very low-carb. I restarted eating starchy veggies when I discovered that I slept better when I ate some potatoes, parsnips, or plantains every day. Basically I would say relax. Stressing about whether you are doing it right can be a factor in keeping you from losing fat.

 

There are a lot of factors besides the amount of starchy veggies you are eating that may be involved with your giggle around the middle. Factors like sleep quality and duration, recovery practices or lack thereof, overall nutrition, age, genetics, length of time you have been doing this... I took 15 months to get down to 7 percent body fat starting when I was 52 with body fat of something like 27 percent. By the way, I thought my reading of 7 percent body fat was too low to be real at the time because I thought I should have visible abs at 7 percent (and I don't), but I won over $300 in a fat loss competition at my gym with that reading, so didn't argue. 

[Rick]

Thanks Tom. True - I'm sure there are a lot of factors at work here. I've been doing Crossfit for close to 3 years now and the Paleo thing for the better part of 4 years, off and on, mostly on. I usually work out at 5:30am with nothing pre-work out but a cup of coffee. PWO meal usually eggs and meat or salmon and slaw. This is my first time through the Whole30 trying the pre-work out/PWO meal + M1 template. I'm only on day 3 but I'm hopeful it may change some things up for me.