Carb cycling

[r2473]

Has anyone ever done a carb cycling diet?

I just finished a bulking phase. I gained 15 pounds of muscle but 20 pounds of fat. I am going to try carb cycling to try to lose the fat as quickly as possible (so I can do another bulking phase). Of course, trying not to lose any muscle.

My nutrition plan:

Monday, Friday: (high carbs): 40% carbs; 40% protein; 20% fat

caloric deficit: 0% - 20% from maintenance

Tuesday, Saturday: (no carbs): as much protein as possible, little fat, no carbs.

caloric deficit: 40% - 50% from maintenance

Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: (low carbs); 20% carbs; 50% protein, 30% fat.

caloric deficit: 20% - 30% from maintenance

Exercise plan:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday; weights and HIIT. Weights will be either heavy or lighter with more reps. I'll probably alternate.

Tuesday: off

Thursday: HIIT (or off)

Saturday, Sunday: HIIT or tennis

I am around 26% bodyfat. I hope to cut 20-30 pounds.

Has anyone else ever done a carb cycling diet? If so, can you comment on mine please.

 

[10ACE]

Check out the book Game Over, and Cut Diet for Lean Mass- both are great.

I believe they're still free, at least they used to be..

http://www.scivationbooks.com/

 

[charliefedererer]

Has anyone ever done a carb cycling diet?

I just finished a bulking phase. I gained 15 pounds of muscle but 20 pounds of fat. I am going to try carb cycling to try to lose the fat as quickly as possible (so I can do another bulking phase). Of course, trying not to lose any muscle.

My nutrition plan:

Monday, Friday: (high carbs): 40% carbs; 40% protein; 20% fat

caloric deficit: 0% - 20% from maintenance

Tuesday, Saturday: (no carbs): as much protein as possible, little fat, no carbs.

caloric deficit: 40% - 50% from maintenance

Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: (low carbs); 20% carbs; 50% protein, 30% fat.

caloric deficit: 20% - 30% from maintenance

Exercise plan:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday; weights and HIIT. Weights will be either heavy or lighter with more reps. I'll probably alternate.

Tuesday: off

Thursday: HIIT (or off)

Saturday, Sunday: HIIT or tennis

I am around 26% bodyfat. I hope to cut 20-30 pounds.

Has anyone else ever done a carb cycling diet? If so, can you comment on mine please.

I think you are trying to be too clever, although your basic premise to lose weight is a good one.
Why get on a yo-yo diet?
The basic way to lose weight is to eat less.
For HIIT, lifting and tennis your energy needs will come from either carbohydrates or protein stores. (Long distance aerobic running would burn more fat, but obviously that is not what you want to do for your workouts.) Since you plan on starving your muscles from carbohydrates, they will canabolize themselves, and burn protein, unless you are ingesting large quantities of protein.
Why not just cut back on your overall intake, eliminate all junk food (fats and simple sugary carbohydrates), and have reasonable amounts of complex carbohydrates and proteins on a daily basis, increasing your intake somewhat after heavy exercise?
Don't you want to get on a sustainable eating plan that will be palatable for the rest of your life?

 

[masterxfob]

20lbs of fat? that sounds like a ridiculously high amount, are you sure?

 

[r2473]

Check out the book Game Over, and Cut Diet for Lean Mass- both are great.

I believe they're still free, at least they used to be..

http://www.scivationbooks.com/

Thanks.

I am basically following this:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par30.htm

Along with the later chapters in Alwyn Cosgrove's "Afterburn".

 

[r2473]

I think you are trying to be too clever, although your basic premise to lose weight is a good one.
Why get on a yo-yo diet?
The basic way to lose weight is to eat less.
For HIIT, lifting and tennis your energy needs will come from either carbohydrates or protein stores. (Long distance aerobic running would burn more fat, but obviously that is not what you want to do for your workouts.) Since you plan on starving your muscles from carbohydrates, they will canabolize themselves, and burn protein, unless you are ingesting large quantities of protein.
Why not just cut back on your overall intake, eliminate all junk food (fats and simple sugary carbohydrates), and have reasonable amounts of complex carbohydrates and proteins on a daily basis, increasing your intake somewhat after heavy exercise?
Don't you want to get on a sustainable eating plan that will be palatable for the rest of your life?

This is very sensible advice.

Carb cycling has been around for a while and has proven effective. Basically, starving your body of carbs works. Problem is:

1) Your body will go into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow down.

2) You risk having your body starting to use muscle for energy.

That is where the yo-yoing and high protein come into play. You have to eat enough protein to prevent (2) from occurring. Basically, 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. At the same time you starve your body from carbs, but not for too long. Then you load up. Different people have different ideas on what this exactly means (how long do you starve your body? How much do you load up? How many no-carb days? How low on low carb days? etc).

The idea is to achieve weight loss more quickly without losing muscle. Bodybuilders use this technique often for competition. It is not meant to be sustainable for the long term. I won't do this for more than 6 weeks myself.

 

[40fifteen]

Has anyone ever done a carb cycling diet?

I just finished a bulking phase. I gained 15 pounds of muscle but 20 pounds of fat. I am going to try carb cycling to try to lose the fat as quickly as possible (so I can do another bulking phase). Of course, trying not to lose any muscle.

My nutrition plan:

Monday, Friday: (high carbs): 40% carbs; 40% protein; 20% fat

caloric deficit: 0% - 20% from maintenance

Tuesday, Saturday: (no carbs): as much protein as possible, little fat, no carbs.

caloric deficit: 40% - 50% from maintenance

Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: (low carbs); 20% carbs; 50% protein, 30% fat.

caloric deficit: 20% - 30% from maintenance

Exercise plan:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday; weights and HIIT. Weights will be either heavy or lighter with more reps. I'll probably alternate.

Tuesday: off

Thursday: HIIT (or off)

Saturday, Sunday: HIIT or tennis

I am around 26% bodyfat. I hope to cut 20-30 pounds.

Has anyone else ever done a carb cycling diet? If so, can you comment on mine please.

how do you measure body fat percentage ?

 

[10ACE]

how do you measure body fat percentage ?

Calipers which u can get at most athletic stores or online. The best way, I feel if not the most accurate, is a hydro test, where you're tested in water.

http://www.getdunked.com/home/default.asp

 

[r2473]

how do you measure body fat percentage ?

I used the bod pod at the University.

 

[LuckyR]

Dude. You gained 35 pounds? Over what time period? Was that part of the diet?

 

[r2473]

Dude. You gained 35 pounds? Over what time period? Was that part of the diet?

I thought I did pretty well. About 1 1/3 pounds of fat gained for each pound of muscle. You really have to expect to gain at least 1/1. If not, the muscle gains will be VERY slow.

This was over an 11 month period.

My real problem was in in the 6 months previous to this. I gained 20 pounds of fat and 1.5 pounds of muscle. Thought I had gained 10 pounds of muscle as I was getting bigger and stronger. The bod pod told me otherwise. Was very unhappy to see the truth, but at least I was able to make big changes to my program.

I have already dropped 10 pounds in the first 10 days. I expect I can drop 25 - 30 total pounds (15 - 25 additional) in 6 - 8 total weeks.

 

[LuckyR]

I thought I did pretty well. About 1 1/3 pounds of fat gained for each pound of muscle. You really have to expect to gain at least 1/1. If not, the muscle gains will be VERY slow.

This was over an 11 month period.

My real problem was in in the 6 months previous to this. I gained 20 pounds of fat and 1.5 pounds of muscle. Thought I had gained 10 pounds of muscle as I was getting bigger and stronger. The bod pod told me otherwise. Was very unhappy to see the truth, but at least I was able to make big changes to my program.

I have already dropped 10 pounds in the first 10 days. I expect I can drop 25 - 30 total pounds (15 - 25 additional) in 6 - 8 total weeks.

So you actually gained 55 pounds? That is a ton of weight. Did you go from scrawny to big to cut? Or normal to fat to fit? Or chubby to obese to lineman?

 

[r2473]

So you actually gained 55 pounds? That is a ton of weight. Did you go from scrawny to big to cut? Or normal to fat to fit? Or chubby to obese to lineman?

To be honest, I gained 65 pounds in a little over 2 years. I got down to 180 and around 10% bodyfat. I gained back 10 pounds in about 9 months. Then I decided I needed to add some muscle. As I said, I did it all wrong. In 6 months I added 20 pounds of fat and 1.5 pounds of muscle. I just continued from there. In the last 11 months, I added 15 pounds of muscle and another 20 pounds of fat. I ended up at 27% bodyfat (as of the end of August).

So, I went from "fit" to "fat" to "fatter".

Now I need to lose some of the fat and reevaluate if I want to try to add more muscle or not.

By the way, adding muscle is a b*tch and take a long time. Cutting fat is relatively easy and takes much less time.

Also, people tend to not realize how much 15 pounds of muscle changes your body. For reference, go to the supermarket, strip naked and start pasting 15 lbs. of top round steak all over your body.

Do the same thing with 30 pounds. Now stop and think about the internet claims of "add 30 pounds of muscle in just 3 months". Seems a little silly doesn't it?

 

[LuckyR]

To be honest, I gained 65 pounds in a little over 2 years. I got down to 180 and around 10% bodyfat. I gained back 10 pounds in about 9 months. Then I decided I needed to add some muscle. As I said, I did it all wrong. In 6 months I added 20 pounds of fat and 1.5 pounds of muscle. I just continued from there. In the last 11 months, I added 15 pounds of muscle and another 20 pounds of fat. I ended up at 27% bodyfat (as of the end of August).

So, I went from "fit" to "fat" to "fatter".

Now I need to lose some of the fat and reevaluate if I want to try to add more muscle or not.

By the way, adding muscle is a b*tch and take a long time. Cutting fat is relatively easy and takes much less time.

Also, people tend to not realize how much 15 pounds of muscle changes your body. For reference, go to the supermarket, strip naked and start pasting 15 lbs. of top round steak all over your body.

Do the same thing with 30 pounds. Now stop and think about the internet claims of "add 30 pounds of muscle in just 3 months". Seems a little silly doesn't it?

I disagree. Your fitness probably gained a lot more from the extra muscle recently than you lost (fitness-wise) from the addition of the fat.