The last time I dropped a bunch of weight and got into really good fighting shape, I carb counted. I ate proteins (probably a bit too much, or a lot too much) and virtually anything that came off a plant. Leafy greens, salads, and vegetables in unlimited quantity. I didn’t count those. Some fruits and carbs, but carbs were limited to 30 to 60 grams a day. One problem was that at times my body couldn’t quite take the intensity of the work outs - definitely had to target chest, back, and legs to different days, and recovery was slow. There were times when I was full of bruises without getting hit at all, just from the strain of over training. I’m almost certain the missing carbs were part of that. But I also went too far at times. I cracked a tooth clenching my teeth on some fairly massive lifts - was impacted already because I never got my wisdom teeth out. I tore a shoulder, mostly because of bad technique. The whole time I was dropping weight and never looked muscle bound. While that makes me wonder what certain folks in the gym are ingesting, it wasn’t the point. I just wanted to see how strong I could get while looking like a better version of myself. I was totally addicted for a while and didn’t focus as much as I needed on balanced overall health, at all. Ultimately I slid back into where I’m at when life and responsibilities took over. I will add that during that time I made a pretty much permanent change to my physique, or at least it feels like it. As a kid I was not blessed with great upper body strength. I had a lot of endurance for sports with high strain over moderately long periods of exertion. I swam and played soccer at a semi competitive level and had legs like tree trunks, but I was a relative upper body weakling even compared to less athletic kids. That changed significantly when I just forced myself to pick up the damned weights, for real.
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