The Carb Cycling Diet
Content
Medical Disclaimer The ideas in this book are for informative and entertainment purposes only. They are not rigid diet prescription. Any changes to your health and diet should be approved by a qualified doctor or health professional. This is not a zero carbohydrate diet. It is not intended for beginners. If you have a pre existing medial condition you need to consult your doctor before attempting any training or nutrition program.
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THE CARB CYCLING DIET
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Table of contents
1. Introduction to carb cycling
2. What is carb exactly
3. Why carb cycling works
4. When to do carb cycling
5. How to do carb cycling
6. How to adjust and track carb cycling results
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Chapter 1 introduction Carb cycling is not a new concept. It has been around for many years and been used very successfully by many people in its various forms. Although there is much confusion about the topic, and rightly so there are many different people in the world, different body types, metabolism, age, gender, goals, physical ability etc, etc, so it’s needless to say that not all exercise programs and dietary approaches work for everyone. Carb cycling is just another approach or technique plain and simple. It is not rigid prescription to live your life by, it is not a magical bullet, it is definitely not a quick fix, and it is definitely not for people who don’t exercise and don’t eat well. So if any of the above applies to you then save you the time and stop reading until you are committed and motivated and are eating correctly and exercising regularly. The following chapters aim to focus just on the carb cycling part of any diet and training program. If you’ve been involved in training and nutrition you will know there is allot of cross over with information and ultimately everything you do affects everything else. So with this book the aim is just to touch on that info as this is not an exercise manual or a complete guide to human physiology or nutrition, but a basic understanding will help you out along the way. The following chapters are broken into sections to give you a good understanding behind the system then the last couple of chapters go into the nitty gritty application, which will show you how to set up the carb cycle for yourself. How many calories you need how many grams of each protein carbs and fats you’ll need. I use tables and graphs to highlight points and make it easier to follow when figuring out your calories and how many grams you need for protein carbs and fat. And when it comes to the working out formulas and stuff it’s all they ready to go.
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Chapter 2 what is carb cycling exactly
Carb cycling is a term used by fitness professionals, mainly body builders and fitness models to describe the process of manipulating carbohydrate intake at various times, and various phases of a training program example a cutting phase in body building program, too become very, very lean and in the case of a body builder very ripped. Carb cycling is or was one of the best kept secrets of many professional body builders and fitness models for a long time. Average Joe gym rat has no clue how to get ripped abs despite how many crunches he does and how many protein shakes he drinks. What’s missing? Well as mentioned earlier there many ways to get the results you desire but most commonly you see the same poor results because of the following 1. No plan or set goals 2. No time frame to achieve them in 3. No tracking what food is actually being consumed 4. Not monitoring the training i.e. volume, intensity recovery 5. Over training is huge 6. Limited variation in excise choices 7. No plan for dieting 8. No knowledge of what foods are needed Tick any of these boxes and you will struggle to get results regardless of whichever dietary approach you take. Carb cycling in more detail Ok so basically when we breakdown carb cycling, the energy that the body uses comes mainly from carbohydrates. They are easy to metabolise absorb and are used for running lifting, whatever. They are the preferred source of energy for the body. Secondly we have fat; body fat is nothing more than stored energy. Some have more than others and some have way more than others. Fat is a slow to metabolise fuel, meaning that if your to suddenly be stranded on a dessert island with no other food available your body would draw from your fat stores and keep you alive (as long as you had water). So when we want to use carb cycling we are looking to get lean, and not just lean we want to hold on to all our muscle mass (very very important), muscle mass is your metabolic Fire that chews up all your calories and turns your metabolism into over drive. It is very critical if you want carb cycling to work effectively. And in our case to get lean and ripped you need to be muscular. So if we wanted to dip into our fat stores and promote fat loss shouldn’t we just eat way less calories? No is the answer, simply if your calories got too low your metabolism slows and your body essential does nothing except try to survive. You can go to the average gym rat has no idea when it comes to this concept. Go and ask 10 people how to get lean and you’ll get 10 different answers. So we don’t starve ourselves on a carb cycling diet, we do exactly as the name suggests we cycle our carbs and calories in such a way that “tricks” our body into burning more fat without sacrificing too much precious muscle. The way we do this is to carefully measure and work out a few equations to give us a pretty solid numbers to work from.
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If you’re just in the habit of “a bit of this and that” when it come too eating you’re not going to have the success from cycling your carbs. Everything has to be spot on, so you can track measure and adjust to see if what you doing is moving you closer to your goal (we’ll talk more about tracking and adjusting your progress later on). Keeping track of everything you eat how much etc is the discipline it takes to look ripped like a body builder. If you want to look well defined around 8%- 14% body fat, depending on how much muscle you have, you don’t need to freak out and go hard out training like a body builder. Just follow the simple steps and lift weights regularly and cycle carbs when you want to become leaner. Simple as that. So just to recap carb cycling is a process of rotating various amounts of carbs and calories to trick our body to burn more fat and hold onto muscle with the side effects of long term calorie restriction. We do this by depleting glycogen stores and filling them back up or re feeding on the high days of the cycle. And we repeat this process to lose fat faster, and also limit the amount of muscle lost because calories are never low enough for extended periods of time. The next chapter goes into why carb cycling works.
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Chapter 3 why carb cycling works
Carb cycling is part art and science, it needs to be fined tuned by the individual and tracked and measured to see what you get as a result. The science is very sound and one study in particular shows the effect on calorie restriction like nothing else, and will never be attempted again. Starvation Response The Minnesota starvation study was conducted in world war two, to see what effects post war food shortages would have on survivors / refugees that were affected by the food shortages in Europe. The way it was conducted a group of men were selected to voluntary starve themselves i.e. restrict their calorie intake to see what effects the rations/ leftover food supplies would have on people. So over a period of a few months the men gradually restricted the calories until eventually they were allowed only half the daily caloric needs. Think of your caloric needs, then halve it and see how you go sticking to it, not very likely. So needless to say the men were nothing but skin and bones by the end of it, they looked like they had just escaped a concentration camp. No one died but one guy cut his thumb off with an axe due to his judgement being impaired but the lack of food. So what’s the lesson here? Well starvation response is a very really thing, it slows your metabolism so you can survive, it shreds muscle like you wouldn’t believe and your general health is going to suffer massively. So don’t do it. So how long for the beginnings of starvation kick in, most experts agree that it’s only 3 days.
week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4
week 5
week 6
week 7
week 8
week 9
week 10 week 11 week 12
daily calories
RMR around here
3000 2900 2800 2700 2600 2500 2400 2300 2200 2100 2000 1900 1800 1700 1600 1500
Eating every thing in site leads to major calorie excess this is the "ive had enough of this " point
maintainence level
new mainetnance level after 2 weeks
new maintenance level after 4 weeks well and truly in starvation mode
The above graph shows what happen when to restrict calories for too long. First we start out with 2500 calories maintenance level; this is the amount of calories needed to stay the same weight. Next pink line shows the first cut in calories down to 2200, not a bad amount to drop for slow steady fat loss. Week 4 rolls around and its getting a bit harder to lose weight so our dieter cuts calories lower again down to 1900 calories pretty much right on the door of starvation. Meanwhile the metabolism is already starting to slow, each
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drop in calories slow the metabolism so the body can survive on less calories. This dieter loses some more weight then plateaus again. Finally the final cut trying to stay on 1700 calories per day last about a week. Needless to say this progressive starving plan has fully kicked in the starvation response. At this stage people fold quicker than superman on laundry day and decide that “stuff this I’m going back to what used to eat”. And they do. (See the blue line) But what happens, the body is so keen to fill its fat stores because it was just in a famine. It tells you to eat everything insight, so what happens, well the big black arrow indicates the amount of excess that the body has just received. Keep in mind the body has slowed down to operate on 1700 calories now it’s got almost 3000 calories just shovelled in, so the body sees this as excess and here we go straight to fat storage. This is the life of the yo yo dieter. They wake up one day decide eating is not for them so they cut way back on their food, to their surprise they jump on the scales and loos 2-3 kgs or pounds, they feel great . however day after a few weeks they don’t feel to crash hot, no energy, sluggish tired run down, oh wait lets go hit the gym more stress more damage, lose a bit more weight but the hard they try the more stubborn the body becomes to letting go of fat. week 4 rolls around (if they make it this far) and they can’t take it anymore, so feeling ravenously hungry they chow down everything in sight, all of a sudden the body is freaking out because there is now excess calories, and off to fat storage it goes. Jump back on the scales and viola the weight is back on and the cycle repeats it’s self. Starving your self will only make you fatter, repeating this cycle is why so many people are obese. And what’s worse they truly don’t know why? Understanding muscle glycogen So where does carb cycling fit in, well the whole reason carb cycling is so effective is because when you reduce calories mainly carbs we are dipping into the starvation response but only very briefly.
Carb Cycle Days High Med
High
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
High
Glycogen Levels High
3000 Calories
2000 Calories Glycogen Levels Low
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When you dip into the edge of the starvation response if your still training weights your body still needs its muscle so it’s less likely to want to lose it. So the body draws from fat to replenish the glycogen stores. The above table shows the black line which represents glycogen usage/depletion during a typical carb cycle, having a high day and then 3 low days followed by a high day again. The reason for the high days is simply to refill our glycogen supply so we can deplete it again. This up and down cycling gives us all the benefits of cutting calories without losing muscle because the body doesn’t have a chance to fully experience the starvation response. However stay in the red too long and starvation response will happen guaranteed. Not ideal. When we dip into starvation mode we are forced to burn more fat as fuel. When muscle glycogen is depleted, This is the main source of ATP aka energy the muscle use to perform work. The main way we replenish glycogen is to consume carbohydrates as this is the quickest way for the body to rebuild its glycogen stores. Glycogen is stored in two places, the skeletal muscle near the surface of the skin and the liver, the liver has the most storage of glycogen. The body is constantly going through processes to replenish glycogen storage. In the absence of carbohydrate the body looks to fat storage, if the body is in starvation mode the first thing it looks to eat, aka catabolise (catabolism) is muscle. Why?, because muscle has stored glycogen with in it, and it is very expensive in terms of calorie usage to maintain muscle mass, and remember starvation = lowered metabolism, lowered metabolism = muscle loss so it breaks down the muscle to get the Glycogen along with the water that goes with it and the result is you drop body weight faster than is normal. If this happens your calories are to low or they are low for too long. We always need at least 20% carbs the reason is that carbs have what’s called a protein sparing effect which means that muscle won’t be break down as much when there are still carbs available. No carbs = good bye hard earned muscle mass. The more muscle you have and the more you can retain the better carb cycling will work. The reason is the higher the lean mass the faster the metabolism, and as we have just discussed when we restrict calories we are slowing the metabolism, slow metabolism too far and starvation response kicks in and makes it hard to lose fat. Also eating more smaller meals frequently will help to keep the metabolism high through the thermic effect of feeding, which basically means when you eat you produce heat, when you produce heat you burn calories.(most people don’t know that a calorie is a measure heat).
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Chapter 4 when to use carb cycling The only time carb cycling will work to get you lean, is when you are already training doing resistance training. If you’re not lifting weights your body has no reason, other than the minimum needed to survive and function. to keep its muscle. If your muscle mass goes then your metabolism will slow, not ideal for losing fat. So what the solution? You need to maintain your training program. Forget about bulking up, it won’t happen as your trying to chase to separate goals. So focusing on getting lean and maintaining lean mass is the goal of your carb cycling phase. However you can expect to have lean mass loses over a period of time and that’s why carb cycling is only a short term approach usually 12 week up to 16 weeks, the same amount of time body builders use to get into completion shape. Other times to use it will be coming off a bulking phase to cut back on fat while maintaining muscle mass. The next chapter goes into the actual process of getting the plan into action.
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Chapter 5 How to Do Carb Cycling
Ok so far we’ve covered Introduction to carb cycling What is carb exactly Why carb cycling works and now were going to cover is how put a carb cycling diet plan into action. So to start with as I mentioned earlier on that this diet is not rigid prescription, it is basically used for short periods to get as lean as possible in the shortest possible time without losing tons of muscle mass, similar to what you would be used to prepare for a body building comp. So not everyone is going to be the next Mr. Olyipmia, but we can use it to get ready for a holiday, for summer or just for the hell of it really. Ok so to get the best results you already need to be training. You need to be muscular some definition around 14%-19% body fat somewhere in that region. If you know your lean mass which you can calculate doing a skin fold test, or other body fat test it is the best way to figure out your calorie intake and macro nutrient intake i.e. carbs, protein and fat. And you’re all important metabolic rate often call your basal metabolic rate, RMR BMR etc. So having a healthy baseline diet not eating crap, to work from should have you around the 14% mark anyway or lower depending on your body type. Normally a carb cycling diet will last from 12-16 weeks max, this is because the closer you get to the end date the lower your overall calories and the lower your intake of carbs will be. This makes it very hard physically to stick to like most completion phase body building diets because your body’s main fuel source is being restricted. Other times carb cycling works great is when you’ve come off a bulking phase. Now with most bulking phases fat gain is going to happen it’s very hard not to get massive gains with eating like a horse. So you’ve built your muscle up now you want to get rid of the fat without getting rid of the muscle carb cycling will help burn fat whilst helping to maintain lean mass. There are no hard and fast rules as to how much fat to muscle you will lose but the general rule of thumb is if you lose weight really quick chances are a lot of muscle mass goes too. So the slower you lose the fat and the weight the better. So you might be asking what I do to put this all together. Well I’ll show you each step its easy once you know how So here we go Ok so here it is Step 1
Find out your current lean mass Go to
Use a skin fold calliper test
Jackson and Pollock sum of 7 is the one I use
Step 2
http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
To figure out your body fat %
step 3 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
Find out your lean mass multiply your Lean mass in pounds by .45 Do this equation Add 370 + 1710 This leaves you resting metabolic rate (RMR)
= 79.2 (example) 21.6x number on step 3 2080 2080 calories per day
Use Jackson and Pollock sum of 7 skin fold test If using kgs you don’t have to convert anything 21.6x79.2= 1710 (example)
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So resting metabolic rate is how many calories you would burn for the day if you woke up and just laid in be all day and did nothing. The higher the resting amount of calories the higher the muscle mass of a person, which is what were after. Ok once we know your resting metabolic rate we need to establish 3 levels of activity multipliers using the equation Sedentary - little or no exercise Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.2 Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.375 Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.55 Very Active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.725 Extra Active (very hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.9 Activity level Low day Med day High day Resting metabolic rate 2080x 2080x 2080x Activity multiplier 1.2 1.5 1.7 Calories per day 2496 3120 3536
So this now gives us the calories we need each day depending on our activity level. The way we proportion carbs proteins and fats Carbs 25-30% 40% 50% Proteins 45%-50% 40% 30% Fat 25%-30% 20% 20%
Low day Med day High day
So now we know how main calories it takes u to maintain our weight, and also how many calories we need for different activity levels. The next thing we need are targets for how many grams for carbs, proteins and fats we need for the % amount.
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1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Low 25% carb 375 500 625 750 875 1000
day 50% protein 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000
25% fats 375 500 625 750 875 1000
Calorie Break Down Med 40% 40% carb protein 1500 600 600 2000 800 800 2500 1000 1000 3000 1200 1200 3500 1400 1400 4000 1600 1600
day 20% fats 300 400 500 600 700 800
1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
high 50% carb 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000
day 30% protein 450 600 750 900 1050 1200
20% fats 300 400 500 600 700 800
1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Grams Grams Grams carb protein fats 93.75 187.5 41.7 125 250 55.6 156.25 312.5 69.4 187.5 375 83.3 218.75 437.5 97.2 250 500 111.1
Grams Per Calories Break Down Grams Grams Grams carb protein fats 1500 150 150 33.3 2000 200 200 44.4 2500 250 250 55.6 3000 300 300 66.7 3500 350 350 77.8 4000 400 400 88.9
1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Grams Grams Grams carb protein fats 187.5 112.5 33.3 250 150 44.4 312.5 187.5 55.6 375 225 66.7 437.5 262.5 77.8 500 300 88.9
The above table gives us a pretty accurate guide for the amount of calories for the particular day in the cycle, then a breakdown of how many calories come from carbs protein and fat, then finally the actual grams for the target ratio Let’s use the 3000 calories example, first we look at the top table and see 3000 look across that line and you can see that for the low day were getting 750 calories from carbs, 1500 calories from protein, and 750 calories from Fat. The table “grams per calorie breakdown” shows how many grams total you need so for low day 3000cals were looking at 187.5 grams carbs, 375 grams of protein, and 83.3grams of fat. Simple as that. All you need to know is how many grams a particular food gives you of carbs, proteins, and fats The table below shows how many grams per 100 are in a particular food so using 100 gram of chicken we can see that it has 164 calories, 30.8 grams of protein and 3.5 grams of fat.
Protein chicken breast
Grams 100
cals
carb
pro
fat
164
0
30.8
3.5
chicken breast
500 grams
820
0
154
17.5
The above table shows what a serve of 500 grams of chicken breaks down to, 0 carbs, and 154 grams protein, 17.5 grams fat at the end of this book is a table showing a whole heap of protein, carb and fat sources that should be able to get you started. www.fitday.com is a good resource to find out nutritional info. It’s an online food diary that allows you to track and see protein carbs and fats that you’re eating and it’s all free.
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The cycle days Monday High High High High Low Low Low Low High High High High Low Low Low Low Tuesday Medium Medium Medium Medium Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Wednesday Low Low Low Low Med Med Med Med Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Thursday High High High High High High High High Low Low Low Low High High High High Friday Medium Medium Medium Medium High High High High High High High High Low Low Low Low Saturday Low Low Low Low Med Med Med Med Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Sunday Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Med Med Med Med Med Med Med Med
Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The above table shows a typical cycle this is a rough guide to what yours will look like just remember, no more than 3 th days on low carbs then on the 4 day make sure you re feed with a high day. What you will notice is as the weeks go on there are more low days within a week progressing all the way to week 12 – 16 where 5 low days out of 7 very tough but this is what it takes to get in competition shape. If you’re training very intensely throw in a medium or high day here and there just to keep your glycogen levels up enough. Know when to re fed will take some time to tune into because everyone is different Another tip to consider is train your hardest days on the high carb days, this way you can still have enough energy on board to perform a strong work out. The lower the carbs and calories the harder it is to maintain the same effort.
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Chapter 6 How to Track and Adjust Your Progress
So now you’ve got all the basic tools to put the carb cycle together. The best way to track your progress is weekly skin fold testing. (Yes weekly). This way you can be certain that every week you are making progress towards your goals. I recommend a sheet like the example below Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat %
This way you can track your results and adjust your training and diet accordingly. As I mentioned earlier your goal is to try and not lose muscle while cycling carbs. The best way I have found to measure your strength is to pick 2 or 3 lifts that you consider your bench marks, mine is dead lift. So general rule here is if you are still able to do your one or three rep max for a given lift you still have sufficient muscle and strength on board to lift the load. Make sense? Any time your bench mark lifts drop to far is a sure sign you are becoming weaker so keep an eye out for drastic drops in your max lifts, however they will steadily drop across the board as you progress through a full cycle because you don’t have the same amount of calories on board and energy in the form of carbs to give 100% each time.
Training I’ll take some time now to go into the training side of things; before you picked this book up I hoped anyone who decided to read this book is already lifting weights. Ok so as I mentioned you need to be lifting weights. There’s no getting around it. Now depending on your body type you need to also be doing some form of cardio. Two methods I have found that work the best are low intensity long duration continuous training and high intensity interval training. I use both at different time for different reason. When you are always doing very intense weight training it is very hard to do very intense cardio as well. So when doing an intense strength phase you should consider doing 3-5 hours per week of walking, jogging or cycling at a low to moderate intensity to help burn up some fat while still giving your body time to recover from the weight sessions. On a lighter weight training week so maybe 50%-80% of your max for strength and hypertrophy you might consider doing hard cardio i.e. interval training. This way your body is getting a harder work out from the cardio and the weights become more of a maintenence phase for your muscle. Then all you do is cycle back and forth between the two types of cardio and listen to your body and you’ll know when to push and when to back off and rest. As for the different days of the carb cycle, for instance on a high carb day you should do your hardest training. On the low and medium days you should try and train as hard as possible but remember you will most like have a decrease in performance as you progress.
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FAQS “I’m not losing body fat” Your calories are in excess, or your calories are too low. If your calories are spot on your cycle of low days may be too long or too short try adjusting but do not go any longer than 3 days low. “I’m still not losing body fat” Do way more cardio, different body types need different amounts of cardio “I feel really flat and have no energy” If this happens try and make it to your next high day, or bump up to a medium day just to get you through. If need do two high days in a row that should bring glycogen right back up you’ll probably have to do back to back high days if you’re doing lots of heavy training. “I’ve lost way too much strength” Calories are to low and intensity is to high, use the bench mark strength test at least once per week to notice any changes. If you’ve over trained have 3-5 days of weights just do light cardio and maybe 50% loads whilst re feeding with high and medium days and get plenty of sleep. “I’m not losing fat fast enough” Set a realistic target to start with and experiment you won’t get it right the first time that’s why it’s important to log everything so you can look back and make a judgement and pin point whether its diet, training, lack of rest etc that causing the problem. Remember stick to the plan and don’t go changing something everyday give it 3 -4 weeks before you tweak the program. “What should I eat?” To be successful you need a 100% clean diet, you cannot get super lean by eating crap food, the last section of this book gives some example of foods and there calories per 100 grams. Assuming your already reasonably muscular food should be an issue. Conclusion So that about wraps up a simple how to guide on carb cycling. Key things to remember, 1. 2. Figure out your lean mass and body fat % Figure out your calories needed. You’re resting metabolic rate and then your activity multiplier for a low, med, and high day. 3. Next figure out using the table, the calorie break down and then the grams for carb, proteins and fats to give you our target amounts. 4. Next find out which foods and what quantities are going to add up to those target amounts. 5. Plan your low, medium and high days in your training program. Start with less low days then progress to adding more low days during the week. Also position your high carb days on days where you train the hardest. 6. Once you have your gram targets sorted, your calories etc. You've got your cycle laid out. You need to put it into action for 3-4 weeks the make adjustment after that. 7. Keep track of body fat by using the skin fold test each week. Do this as much as possible in the early stages to make sure that you are on track. 8. Once you find a good balance make a note of everything that you are doing so next time you come back to do it you’ll be able to launch straight into what works for you. 9. Remember as you get more muscular you need to adjust calories intake to feed the new muscle that you have built. Be patient and consistent. 10. Once you come to the end of a carb cycle (12-16 weeks), don’t launch straight back into a high maintenance level gradually build back up to so you don’t experience rebound weight gain.
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A quick word about nutrition The table below show a quick reference to some foods you might typically eat, when eating carbs you want to focus on the complex and fibourous carbs. These are the slowest to absorb and give sustained energy. The only time simple carbs should be used is before and after training to quickly replenish glycogen. But keep in mind the stricter the diet the more you would favour fibrous carbs. Protein should be a staple all the time and be eaten at every meal, usually about 5-6 times per day, eat them with carbs to give optimal absorption. Also remember to drink plenty of water while in taking higher levels of protein. You shouldn’t have to worry about fat intake too much because most protein sources have fat in them already so some flax seed or omega blend oil will do the trick. Pre and post work out shakes are fine to just make sure to account for them in your daily calorie expenditure. Keep in mind that for carb cycling to work well your baseline diet needs to be pretty spot on so if you don’t have the basics right carb cycling won’t work.
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Protein chicken breast beef lean turkey kangaroo tuna salmon lamb CARBS / COMPLEX potato white sweet potato corn oatmeal amaranth buckwheat pasta white rice brown rice Quinoa Carrots kidney beans Butter beans/Lima FIBOROUS CARBS Asparagus Cauliflower Celery Cucumber Green Peas Mushrooms Pumpkin Rocket Spinach Zucchini tomatoes SIMPLE CARBS / SUGARS apples banana’s coconut pears mango Paw paw papaya grapes
Grams 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
cals
carb
pro
fat
164 148 196 95 116 144 197
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
30.8 19.8 28.5 22 25.5 20.6 26.5
3.5 7 8.3 1.1 0.8 6.3 9.2
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
104 114 86 384 407 343 129 110 374 41 187 176
19.4 20 19 67 72.7 71.5 27.9 22.8 68.9 9.6 20.9 19.1
1.7 1.9 3.2 16 17 13.2 2.7 2.6 13.1 0.9 7.9 7.1
2.4 3.3 1.2 6.3 6.1 3.4 0.3 0.9 5.8 0.2 8.4 8.3
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 1
39 44 39 12 101 22 26 25 23 21 22
4 3.9 3.9 2.2 15.2 3.3 6.5 3.65 3.6 3.1 4.8
2.3 1.7 0.8 0.6 5.2 3.1 1 2.58 2.9 2.7 1.1
2.2 2.9 2.5 0.2 2.4 0.3 0.1 0.66 0.4 0.4 0.2
1 1 100 1 1 100 100 100
72 105 354 96 135 39 39 69
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19.1 27 15.2 25.7 35.2 9.8 9.8 18.1
0.4 1.3 3.3 0.6 1.1 0.6 0.6 0.7
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0.2 0.4 33.5 0.2 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.2
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peaches grape fruit orange FATS avocado flax seed Fish oil almonds walnuts olive oil peanut butter olives
1 1 1
38 82 62
9.3 20.7 15.4
0.9 1.6 1.2
0.2 0.3 0.2
100 100 1 100 100 1 100 100
160 534 123 578 654 119 635 117
8.5 28.9 0 19.7 13.7 0 18 5.4
2 18.3 0 21.3 15.2 0 28.4 0.9
14.7 42.2 13.6 50.6 65.2 13.5 50.9 11.3
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THE CARB CYCLING DIET
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Table of contents
1. Introduction to carb cycling
2. What is carb exactly
3. Why carb cycling works
4. When to do carb cycling
5. How to do carb cycling
6. How to adjust and track carb cycling results
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Chapter 1 introduction Carb cycling is not a new concept. It has been around for many years and been used very successfully by many people in its various forms. Although there is much confusion about the topic, and rightly so there are many different people in the world, different body types, metabolism, age, gender, goals, physical ability etc, etc, so it’s needless to say that not all exercise programs and dietary approaches work for everyone. Carb cycling is just another approach or technique plain and simple. It is not rigid prescription to live your life by, it is not a magical bullet, it is definitely not a quick fix, and it is definitely not for people who don’t exercise and don’t eat well. So if any of the above applies to you then save you the time and stop reading until you are committed and motivated and are eating correctly and exercising regularly. The following chapters aim to focus just on the carb cycling part of any diet and training program. If you’ve been involved in training and nutrition you will know there is allot of cross over with information and ultimately everything you do affects everything else. So with this book the aim is just to touch on that info as this is not an exercise manual or a complete guide to human physiology or nutrition, but a basic understanding will help you out along the way. The following chapters are broken into sections to give you a good understanding behind the system then the last couple of chapters go into the nitty gritty application, which will show you how to set up the carb cycle for yourself. How many calories you need how many grams of each protein carbs and fats you’ll need. I use tables and graphs to highlight points and make it easier to follow when figuring out your calories and how many grams you need for protein carbs and fat. And when it comes to the working out formulas and stuff it’s all they ready to go.
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Chapter 2 what is carb cycling exactly
Carb cycling is a term used by fitness professionals, mainly body builders and fitness models to describe the process of manipulating carbohydrate intake at various times, and various phases of a training program example a cutting phase in body building program, too become very, very lean and in the case of a body builder very ripped. Carb cycling is or was one of the best kept secrets of many professional body builders and fitness models for a long time. Average Joe gym rat has no clue how to get ripped abs despite how many crunches he does and how many protein shakes he drinks. What’s missing? Well as mentioned earlier there many ways to get the results you desire but most commonly you see the same poor results because of the following 1. No plan or set goals 2. No time frame to achieve them in 3. No tracking what food is actually being consumed 4. Not monitoring the training i.e. volume, intensity recovery 5. Over training is huge 6. Limited variation in excise choices 7. No plan for dieting 8. No knowledge of what foods are needed Tick any of these boxes and you will struggle to get results regardless of whichever dietary approach you take. Carb cycling in more detail Ok so basically when we breakdown carb cycling, the energy that the body uses comes mainly from carbohydrates. They are easy to metabolise absorb and are used for running lifting, whatever. They are the preferred source of energy for the body. Secondly we have fat; body fat is nothing more than stored energy. Some have more than others and some have way more than others. Fat is a slow to metabolise fuel, meaning that if your to suddenly be stranded on a dessert island with no other food available your body would draw from your fat stores and keep you alive (as long as you had water). So when we want to use carb cycling we are looking to get lean, and not just lean we want to hold on to all our muscle mass (very very important), muscle mass is your metabolic Fire that chews up all your calories and turns your metabolism into over drive. It is very critical if you want carb cycling to work effectively. And in our case to get lean and ripped you need to be muscular. So if we wanted to dip into our fat stores and promote fat loss shouldn’t we just eat way less calories? No is the answer, simply if your calories got too low your metabolism slows and your body essential does nothing except try to survive. You can go to the average gym rat has no idea when it comes to this concept. Go and ask 10 people how to get lean and you’ll get 10 different answers. So we don’t starve ourselves on a carb cycling diet, we do exactly as the name suggests we cycle our carbs and calories in such a way that “tricks” our body into burning more fat without sacrificing too much precious muscle. The way we do this is to carefully measure and work out a few equations to give us a pretty solid numbers to work from.
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If you’re just in the habit of “a bit of this and that” when it come too eating you’re not going to have the success from cycling your carbs. Everything has to be spot on, so you can track measure and adjust to see if what you doing is moving you closer to your goal (we’ll talk more about tracking and adjusting your progress later on). Keeping track of everything you eat how much etc is the discipline it takes to look ripped like a body builder. If you want to look well defined around 8%- 14% body fat, depending on how much muscle you have, you don’t need to freak out and go hard out training like a body builder. Just follow the simple steps and lift weights regularly and cycle carbs when you want to become leaner. Simple as that. So just to recap carb cycling is a process of rotating various amounts of carbs and calories to trick our body to burn more fat and hold onto muscle with the side effects of long term calorie restriction. We do this by depleting glycogen stores and filling them back up or re feeding on the high days of the cycle. And we repeat this process to lose fat faster, and also limit the amount of muscle lost because calories are never low enough for extended periods of time. The next chapter goes into why carb cycling works.
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Chapter 3 why carb cycling works
Carb cycling is part art and science, it needs to be fined tuned by the individual and tracked and measured to see what you get as a result. The science is very sound and one study in particular shows the effect on calorie restriction like nothing else, and will never be attempted again. Starvation Response The Minnesota starvation study was conducted in world war two, to see what effects post war food shortages would have on survivors / refugees that were affected by the food shortages in Europe. The way it was conducted a group of men were selected to voluntary starve themselves i.e. restrict their calorie intake to see what effects the rations/ leftover food supplies would have on people. So over a period of a few months the men gradually restricted the calories until eventually they were allowed only half the daily caloric needs. Think of your caloric needs, then halve it and see how you go sticking to it, not very likely. So needless to say the men were nothing but skin and bones by the end of it, they looked like they had just escaped a concentration camp. No one died but one guy cut his thumb off with an axe due to his judgement being impaired but the lack of food. So what’s the lesson here? Well starvation response is a very really thing, it slows your metabolism so you can survive, it shreds muscle like you wouldn’t believe and your general health is going to suffer massively. So don’t do it. So how long for the beginnings of starvation kick in, most experts agree that it’s only 3 days.
week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4
week 5
week 6
week 7
week 8
week 9
week 10 week 11 week 12
daily calories
RMR around here
3000 2900 2800 2700 2600 2500 2400 2300 2200 2100 2000 1900 1800 1700 1600 1500
Eating every thing in site leads to major calorie excess this is the "ive had enough of this " point
maintainence level
new mainetnance level after 2 weeks
new maintenance level after 4 weeks well and truly in starvation mode
The above graph shows what happen when to restrict calories for too long. First we start out with 2500 calories maintenance level; this is the amount of calories needed to stay the same weight. Next pink line shows the first cut in calories down to 2200, not a bad amount to drop for slow steady fat loss. Week 4 rolls around and its getting a bit harder to lose weight so our dieter cuts calories lower again down to 1900 calories pretty much right on the door of starvation. Meanwhile the metabolism is already starting to slow, each
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drop in calories slow the metabolism so the body can survive on less calories. This dieter loses some more weight then plateaus again. Finally the final cut trying to stay on 1700 calories per day last about a week. Needless to say this progressive starving plan has fully kicked in the starvation response. At this stage people fold quicker than superman on laundry day and decide that “stuff this I’m going back to what used to eat”. And they do. (See the blue line) But what happens, the body is so keen to fill its fat stores because it was just in a famine. It tells you to eat everything insight, so what happens, well the big black arrow indicates the amount of excess that the body has just received. Keep in mind the body has slowed down to operate on 1700 calories now it’s got almost 3000 calories just shovelled in, so the body sees this as excess and here we go straight to fat storage. This is the life of the yo yo dieter. They wake up one day decide eating is not for them so they cut way back on their food, to their surprise they jump on the scales and loos 2-3 kgs or pounds, they feel great . however day after a few weeks they don’t feel to crash hot, no energy, sluggish tired run down, oh wait lets go hit the gym more stress more damage, lose a bit more weight but the hard they try the more stubborn the body becomes to letting go of fat. week 4 rolls around (if they make it this far) and they can’t take it anymore, so feeling ravenously hungry they chow down everything in sight, all of a sudden the body is freaking out because there is now excess calories, and off to fat storage it goes. Jump back on the scales and viola the weight is back on and the cycle repeats it’s self. Starving your self will only make you fatter, repeating this cycle is why so many people are obese. And what’s worse they truly don’t know why? Understanding muscle glycogen So where does carb cycling fit in, well the whole reason carb cycling is so effective is because when you reduce calories mainly carbs we are dipping into the starvation response but only very briefly.
Carb Cycle Days High Med
High
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
High
Glycogen Levels High
3000 Calories
2000 Calories Glycogen Levels Low
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When you dip into the edge of the starvation response if your still training weights your body still needs its muscle so it’s less likely to want to lose it. So the body draws from fat to replenish the glycogen stores. The above table shows the black line which represents glycogen usage/depletion during a typical carb cycle, having a high day and then 3 low days followed by a high day again. The reason for the high days is simply to refill our glycogen supply so we can deplete it again. This up and down cycling gives us all the benefits of cutting calories without losing muscle because the body doesn’t have a chance to fully experience the starvation response. However stay in the red too long and starvation response will happen guaranteed. Not ideal. When we dip into starvation mode we are forced to burn more fat as fuel. When muscle glycogen is depleted, This is the main source of ATP aka energy the muscle use to perform work. The main way we replenish glycogen is to consume carbohydrates as this is the quickest way for the body to rebuild its glycogen stores. Glycogen is stored in two places, the skeletal muscle near the surface of the skin and the liver, the liver has the most storage of glycogen. The body is constantly going through processes to replenish glycogen storage. In the absence of carbohydrate the body looks to fat storage, if the body is in starvation mode the first thing it looks to eat, aka catabolise (catabolism) is muscle. Why?, because muscle has stored glycogen with in it, and it is very expensive in terms of calorie usage to maintain muscle mass, and remember starvation = lowered metabolism, lowered metabolism = muscle loss so it breaks down the muscle to get the Glycogen along with the water that goes with it and the result is you drop body weight faster than is normal. If this happens your calories are to low or they are low for too long. We always need at least 20% carbs the reason is that carbs have what’s called a protein sparing effect which means that muscle won’t be break down as much when there are still carbs available. No carbs = good bye hard earned muscle mass. The more muscle you have and the more you can retain the better carb cycling will work. The reason is the higher the lean mass the faster the metabolism, and as we have just discussed when we restrict calories we are slowing the metabolism, slow metabolism too far and starvation response kicks in and makes it hard to lose fat. Also eating more smaller meals frequently will help to keep the metabolism high through the thermic effect of feeding, which basically means when you eat you produce heat, when you produce heat you burn calories.(most people don’t know that a calorie is a measure heat).
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Chapter 4 when to use carb cycling The only time carb cycling will work to get you lean, is when you are already training doing resistance training. If you’re not lifting weights your body has no reason, other than the minimum needed to survive and function. to keep its muscle. If your muscle mass goes then your metabolism will slow, not ideal for losing fat. So what the solution? You need to maintain your training program. Forget about bulking up, it won’t happen as your trying to chase to separate goals. So focusing on getting lean and maintaining lean mass is the goal of your carb cycling phase. However you can expect to have lean mass loses over a period of time and that’s why carb cycling is only a short term approach usually 12 week up to 16 weeks, the same amount of time body builders use to get into completion shape. Other times to use it will be coming off a bulking phase to cut back on fat while maintaining muscle mass. The next chapter goes into the actual process of getting the plan into action.
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Chapter 5 How to Do Carb Cycling
Ok so far we’ve covered Introduction to carb cycling What is carb exactly Why carb cycling works and now were going to cover is how put a carb cycling diet plan into action. So to start with as I mentioned earlier on that this diet is not rigid prescription, it is basically used for short periods to get as lean as possible in the shortest possible time without losing tons of muscle mass, similar to what you would be used to prepare for a body building comp. So not everyone is going to be the next Mr. Olyipmia, but we can use it to get ready for a holiday, for summer or just for the hell of it really. Ok so to get the best results you already need to be training. You need to be muscular some definition around 14%-19% body fat somewhere in that region. If you know your lean mass which you can calculate doing a skin fold test, or other body fat test it is the best way to figure out your calorie intake and macro nutrient intake i.e. carbs, protein and fat. And you’re all important metabolic rate often call your basal metabolic rate, RMR BMR etc. So having a healthy baseline diet not eating crap, to work from should have you around the 14% mark anyway or lower depending on your body type. Normally a carb cycling diet will last from 12-16 weeks max, this is because the closer you get to the end date the lower your overall calories and the lower your intake of carbs will be. This makes it very hard physically to stick to like most completion phase body building diets because your body’s main fuel source is being restricted. Other times carb cycling works great is when you’ve come off a bulking phase. Now with most bulking phases fat gain is going to happen it’s very hard not to get massive gains with eating like a horse. So you’ve built your muscle up now you want to get rid of the fat without getting rid of the muscle carb cycling will help burn fat whilst helping to maintain lean mass. There are no hard and fast rules as to how much fat to muscle you will lose but the general rule of thumb is if you lose weight really quick chances are a lot of muscle mass goes too. So the slower you lose the fat and the weight the better. So you might be asking what I do to put this all together. Well I’ll show you each step its easy once you know how So here we go Ok so here it is Step 1
Find out your current lean mass Go to
Use a skin fold calliper test
Jackson and Pollock sum of 7 is the one I use
Step 2
http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
To figure out your body fat %
step 3 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
Find out your lean mass multiply your Lean mass in pounds by .45 Do this equation Add 370 + 1710 This leaves you resting metabolic rate (RMR)
= 79.2 (example) 21.6x number on step 3 2080 2080 calories per day
Use Jackson and Pollock sum of 7 skin fold test If using kgs you don’t have to convert anything 21.6x79.2= 1710 (example)
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So resting metabolic rate is how many calories you would burn for the day if you woke up and just laid in be all day and did nothing. The higher the resting amount of calories the higher the muscle mass of a person, which is what were after. Ok once we know your resting metabolic rate we need to establish 3 levels of activity multipliers using the equation Sedentary - little or no exercise Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.2 Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.375 Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.55 Very Active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.725 Extra Active (very hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training) Calorie-Calculation = BMR X 1.9 Activity level Low day Med day High day Resting metabolic rate 2080x 2080x 2080x Activity multiplier 1.2 1.5 1.7 Calories per day 2496 3120 3536
So this now gives us the calories we need each day depending on our activity level. The way we proportion carbs proteins and fats Carbs 25-30% 40% 50% Proteins 45%-50% 40% 30% Fat 25%-30% 20% 20%
Low day Med day High day
So now we know how main calories it takes u to maintain our weight, and also how many calories we need for different activity levels. The next thing we need are targets for how many grams for carbs, proteins and fats we need for the % amount.
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1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Low 25% carb 375 500 625 750 875 1000
day 50% protein 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000
25% fats 375 500 625 750 875 1000
Calorie Break Down Med 40% 40% carb protein 1500 600 600 2000 800 800 2500 1000 1000 3000 1200 1200 3500 1400 1400 4000 1600 1600
day 20% fats 300 400 500 600 700 800
1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
high 50% carb 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000
day 30% protein 450 600 750 900 1050 1200
20% fats 300 400 500 600 700 800
1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Grams Grams Grams carb protein fats 93.75 187.5 41.7 125 250 55.6 156.25 312.5 69.4 187.5 375 83.3 218.75 437.5 97.2 250 500 111.1
Grams Per Calories Break Down Grams Grams Grams carb protein fats 1500 150 150 33.3 2000 200 200 44.4 2500 250 250 55.6 3000 300 300 66.7 3500 350 350 77.8 4000 400 400 88.9
1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Grams Grams Grams carb protein fats 187.5 112.5 33.3 250 150 44.4 312.5 187.5 55.6 375 225 66.7 437.5 262.5 77.8 500 300 88.9
The above table gives us a pretty accurate guide for the amount of calories for the particular day in the cycle, then a breakdown of how many calories come from carbs protein and fat, then finally the actual grams for the target ratio Let’s use the 3000 calories example, first we look at the top table and see 3000 look across that line and you can see that for the low day were getting 750 calories from carbs, 1500 calories from protein, and 750 calories from Fat. The table “grams per calorie breakdown” shows how many grams total you need so for low day 3000cals were looking at 187.5 grams carbs, 375 grams of protein, and 83.3grams of fat. Simple as that. All you need to know is how many grams a particular food gives you of carbs, proteins, and fats The table below shows how many grams per 100 are in a particular food so using 100 gram of chicken we can see that it has 164 calories, 30.8 grams of protein and 3.5 grams of fat.
Protein chicken breast
Grams 100
cals
carb
pro
fat
164
0
30.8
3.5
chicken breast
500 grams
820
0
154
17.5
The above table shows what a serve of 500 grams of chicken breaks down to, 0 carbs, and 154 grams protein, 17.5 grams fat at the end of this book is a table showing a whole heap of protein, carb and fat sources that should be able to get you started. www.fitday.com is a good resource to find out nutritional info. It’s an online food diary that allows you to track and see protein carbs and fats that you’re eating and it’s all free.
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The cycle days Monday High High High High Low Low Low Low High High High High Low Low Low Low Tuesday Medium Medium Medium Medium Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Wednesday Low Low Low Low Med Med Med Med Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Thursday High High High High High High High High Low Low Low Low High High High High Friday Medium Medium Medium Medium High High High High High High High High Low Low Low Low Saturday Low Low Low Low Med Med Med Med Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Sunday Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Low Med Med Med Med Med Med Med Med
Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The above table shows a typical cycle this is a rough guide to what yours will look like just remember, no more than 3 th days on low carbs then on the 4 day make sure you re feed with a high day. What you will notice is as the weeks go on there are more low days within a week progressing all the way to week 12 – 16 where 5 low days out of 7 very tough but this is what it takes to get in competition shape. If you’re training very intensely throw in a medium or high day here and there just to keep your glycogen levels up enough. Know when to re fed will take some time to tune into because everyone is different Another tip to consider is train your hardest days on the high carb days, this way you can still have enough energy on board to perform a strong work out. The lower the carbs and calories the harder it is to maintain the same effort.
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Chapter 6 How to Track and Adjust Your Progress
So now you’ve got all the basic tools to put the carb cycle together. The best way to track your progress is weekly skin fold testing. (Yes weekly). This way you can be certain that every week you are making progress towards your goals. I recommend a sheet like the example below Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Lean mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Fat mass Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat % Body fat %
This way you can track your results and adjust your training and diet accordingly. As I mentioned earlier your goal is to try and not lose muscle while cycling carbs. The best way I have found to measure your strength is to pick 2 or 3 lifts that you consider your bench marks, mine is dead lift. So general rule here is if you are still able to do your one or three rep max for a given lift you still have sufficient muscle and strength on board to lift the load. Make sense? Any time your bench mark lifts drop to far is a sure sign you are becoming weaker so keep an eye out for drastic drops in your max lifts, however they will steadily drop across the board as you progress through a full cycle because you don’t have the same amount of calories on board and energy in the form of carbs to give 100% each time.
Training I’ll take some time now to go into the training side of things; before you picked this book up I hoped anyone who decided to read this book is already lifting weights. Ok so as I mentioned you need to be lifting weights. There’s no getting around it. Now depending on your body type you need to also be doing some form of cardio. Two methods I have found that work the best are low intensity long duration continuous training and high intensity interval training. I use both at different time for different reason. When you are always doing very intense weight training it is very hard to do very intense cardio as well. So when doing an intense strength phase you should consider doing 3-5 hours per week of walking, jogging or cycling at a low to moderate intensity to help burn up some fat while still giving your body time to recover from the weight sessions. On a lighter weight training week so maybe 50%-80% of your max for strength and hypertrophy you might consider doing hard cardio i.e. interval training. This way your body is getting a harder work out from the cardio and the weights become more of a maintenence phase for your muscle. Then all you do is cycle back and forth between the two types of cardio and listen to your body and you’ll know when to push and when to back off and rest. As for the different days of the carb cycle, for instance on a high carb day you should do your hardest training. On the low and medium days you should try and train as hard as possible but remember you will most like have a decrease in performance as you progress.
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FAQS “I’m not losing body fat” Your calories are in excess, or your calories are too low. If your calories are spot on your cycle of low days may be too long or too short try adjusting but do not go any longer than 3 days low. “I’m still not losing body fat” Do way more cardio, different body types need different amounts of cardio “I feel really flat and have no energy” If this happens try and make it to your next high day, or bump up to a medium day just to get you through. If need do two high days in a row that should bring glycogen right back up you’ll probably have to do back to back high days if you’re doing lots of heavy training. “I’ve lost way too much strength” Calories are to low and intensity is to high, use the bench mark strength test at least once per week to notice any changes. If you’ve over trained have 3-5 days of weights just do light cardio and maybe 50% loads whilst re feeding with high and medium days and get plenty of sleep. “I’m not losing fat fast enough” Set a realistic target to start with and experiment you won’t get it right the first time that’s why it’s important to log everything so you can look back and make a judgement and pin point whether its diet, training, lack of rest etc that causing the problem. Remember stick to the plan and don’t go changing something everyday give it 3 -4 weeks before you tweak the program. “What should I eat?” To be successful you need a 100% clean diet, you cannot get super lean by eating crap food, the last section of this book gives some example of foods and there calories per 100 grams. Assuming your already reasonably muscular food should be an issue. Conclusion So that about wraps up a simple how to guide on carb cycling. Key things to remember, 1. 2. Figure out your lean mass and body fat % Figure out your calories needed. You’re resting metabolic rate and then your activity multiplier for a low, med, and high day. 3. Next figure out using the table, the calorie break down and then the grams for carb, proteins and fats to give you our target amounts. 4. Next find out which foods and what quantities are going to add up to those target amounts. 5. Plan your low, medium and high days in your training program. Start with less low days then progress to adding more low days during the week. Also position your high carb days on days where you train the hardest. 6. Once you have your gram targets sorted, your calories etc. You've got your cycle laid out. You need to put it into action for 3-4 weeks the make adjustment after that. 7. Keep track of body fat by using the skin fold test each week. Do this as much as possible in the early stages to make sure that you are on track. 8. Once you find a good balance make a note of everything that you are doing so next time you come back to do it you’ll be able to launch straight into what works for you. 9. Remember as you get more muscular you need to adjust calories intake to feed the new muscle that you have built. Be patient and consistent. 10. Once you come to the end of a carb cycle (12-16 weeks), don’t launch straight back into a high maintenance level gradually build back up to so you don’t experience rebound weight gain.
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A quick word about nutrition The table below show a quick reference to some foods you might typically eat, when eating carbs you want to focus on the complex and fibourous carbs. These are the slowest to absorb and give sustained energy. The only time simple carbs should be used is before and after training to quickly replenish glycogen. But keep in mind the stricter the diet the more you would favour fibrous carbs. Protein should be a staple all the time and be eaten at every meal, usually about 5-6 times per day, eat them with carbs to give optimal absorption. Also remember to drink plenty of water while in taking higher levels of protein. You shouldn’t have to worry about fat intake too much because most protein sources have fat in them already so some flax seed or omega blend oil will do the trick. Pre and post work out shakes are fine to just make sure to account for them in your daily calorie expenditure. Keep in mind that for carb cycling to work well your baseline diet needs to be pretty spot on so if you don’t have the basics right carb cycling won’t work.
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Protein chicken breast beef lean turkey kangaroo tuna salmon lamb CARBS / COMPLEX potato white sweet potato corn oatmeal amaranth buckwheat pasta white rice brown rice Quinoa Carrots kidney beans Butter beans/Lima FIBOROUS CARBS Asparagus Cauliflower Celery Cucumber Green Peas Mushrooms Pumpkin Rocket Spinach Zucchini tomatoes SIMPLE CARBS / SUGARS apples banana’s coconut pears mango Paw paw papaya grapes
Grams 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
cals
carb
pro
fat
164 148 196 95 116 144 197
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
30.8 19.8 28.5 22 25.5 20.6 26.5
3.5 7 8.3 1.1 0.8 6.3 9.2
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
104 114 86 384 407 343 129 110 374 41 187 176
19.4 20 19 67 72.7 71.5 27.9 22.8 68.9 9.6 20.9 19.1
1.7 1.9 3.2 16 17 13.2 2.7 2.6 13.1 0.9 7.9 7.1
2.4 3.3 1.2 6.3 6.1 3.4 0.3 0.9 5.8 0.2 8.4 8.3
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 1
39 44 39 12 101 22 26 25 23 21 22
4 3.9 3.9 2.2 15.2 3.3 6.5 3.65 3.6 3.1 4.8
2.3 1.7 0.8 0.6 5.2 3.1 1 2.58 2.9 2.7 1.1
2.2 2.9 2.5 0.2 2.4 0.3 0.1 0.66 0.4 0.4 0.2
1 1 100 1 1 100 100 100
72 105 354 96 135 39 39 69
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19.1 27 15.2 25.7 35.2 9.8 9.8 18.1
0.4 1.3 3.3 0.6 1.1 0.6 0.6 0.7
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0.2 0.4 33.5 0.2 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.2
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peaches grape fruit orange FATS avocado flax seed Fish oil almonds walnuts olive oil peanut butter olives
1 1 1
38 82 62
9.3 20.7 15.4
0.9 1.6 1.2
0.2 0.3 0.2
100 100 1 100 100 1 100 100
160 534 123 578 654 119 635 117
8.5 28.9 0 19.7 13.7 0 18 5.4
2 18.3 0 21.3 15.2 0 28.4 0.9
14.7 42.2 13.6 50.6 65.2 13.5 50.9 11.3
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