Carb cycling is a method used by a large number of bodybuilders and fitness athletes to prepare for contests and shows. Some athletes even use it as a maintenance diet or even a body re-composition diet. So what exactly is carb cycling ? In simple words it’s nothing more than varying your day-to-day carbohydrate intake.
Why should we cycle carbs and not just keep a low carb diet, you may ask. The key to successful fat burning is to keep your metabolism running. A low(er) carb diet may be a good solution for someone that has too much excess body fat and is initially starting to lose fat. But in time, a low carb diet will do just the opposite – it will slow down your metabolism.
Leptin, a hormone that is responsible for reporting your nutritional status to your brain, can drop up to 50% in just one week of low carb dieting. The drop of leptin slows down the metabolism and creates a hormonal environment responsible for fat gain. Carb cycling is the solution of the problem as it keeps your metabolism from slowing down and makes dieting mentally easier.
How does Carb Cycling work ?
Carbohydrate cycling is the practice of lowering carbohydrates for a period of time, (three days is often used) and then bringing your carbs back up for a day. This is done as opposed to just keeping your carbohydrate ratios the same day in, day out.
For the sake of simplicity we’ll assume that we need 3000 calories a day for maintenance at a weight of 200 lbs. If we want to lose fat, we obviously should create a calorie deficit. A deficit of 500 to 800 calories a day would be a good start.
For maintaining muscle mass it’s recommended to keep our protein intake high or 1.3 to 2 grams of protein per pound. This means that we should consume 260 to 400 grams of protein a day.
We will place our high and moderate carb days on workout days, “no carb” days on rest and cardio days.
– Using an upper/lower split the carb cyclyng method would look like this:
1.Monday – Upper body (moderate carb day)
2.Tuesday – rest/cardio (“no carb” day)
3.Wednesday – Lower body (moderate carb day)
4.Thursday – rest/cardio (“no carb” day)
5.Friday – Upper body (high carb day – refeed)
6.Saturday – rest/cardio (moderate carb day)
7.Sunday – rest (“no carb” day)
Low carb day:
Protein 270 g (1080 calories)
Carbs 50 g (200 calories)
Fat 80 g (630 calories)
total: 2000 calories
Moderate carb day
Protein 270 g (1080 calories)
Carbs 200 g (800 calories)
Fat 70 g (630 calories)
total: 2510 calories
High carb day – refeed day
Protein 270 g (1080 calories)
Carbs 450 g (1800 calories)
Fat 70 g (630 calories)
total: 3510 calories
I am having a bit of trouble understanding this. What carbohydrates are to be cut out? All of them? Even ones like fruits and greens? Help, anyone?
Yes, because that’s the day you deplete your carbs and make the body burn fat for energy. That’s why you have carb loading days.
Ah, got it. This will help tremendously with putting together a meal plan. Thank you very much for your reply. I really appreciate it.
Can somebody suggest what type of meals that we can take at this low carb day,iwe just eat rich protein and fat healthy food?
Add some more veggies to your meals and you have a low carb meals. Also you can eat your regular meals just cut the carbs. If you usually eat 200g of pasta/rice/potatoes per meal, cut that to 30-50g and increase meat instead.
Hay! I’m interesting in that diet of “carb cycling” but i don’t know which food i must to choose. Could u help me, please?
Pretty simple
Protein sources : Beef,Chicken,Eggs,Plain Yogurt,fish,nuts
Carb sources : Brown bread, oats, brown rice, potatoes, vegetables and fruits
That inhsigt would have saved us a lot of effort early on.
Do you have any meal plans already set up I couldfollow for this carb cycling diet?
No, but we’ll do that soon….
Can you give example of the macro for women ???
There is no difference between male and female athletes. You need to calculate the calorie and carb needs for your weight. The plan was just an example
Any cardio recommended ??
Yes, you can do some cardio (25-30 min) after your weight workouts
I’ve read a lot of carb cycling articles but none of them ever explained if you have to be at a calorie deficit everyday or should you include 1 surplus day. This is what I would like to ask you guys.
I noticed that in this article you mentioned to have a high carb day with calorie surplus. So we have to adjust our daily calorie so our weekly calorie is 3500 deficit which will make you loose 0.5lbs every week right?
Exactly. You can even be in a higher deficit during the carb depleting process (more than 3500calories a week). But you need to have a high carb day during which you’ll be in surplus and refill your carbs. This is useful in order to keep leptin levels stable.
Don’t cut your carbs entirely, just reduce them drastically. You can still eat about 50-60-70 grams of carbs a day, after your workout.
Hello! This is a very good way to shreed but i cant understand smth . For ex if i am on low carb diet i should stay all day to 50 gr carbs or after workout i am allowed to have again 50 gr carbs again ?
When it’s your low carb day you should stay on 50g (or whatever you calculate) your whole day. This is why you pick your low carb days to be cardio days or days when you don’t do intense weightlifting
WHEN WE SAY 50 GR, WE MEAN NOT COOKED, RIGHT?
Yes
Hello,
Big thanks to the article. I am pretty low in carbs in general. What are your thoughts about
Sunday-Thursday( no carb day)
Friday(Moderade carb day)
Saturday(High carb day)
Days of the week do not mater really. It all depends when you work out.