Dieting 101: Carb Cycling
Carb Cycling: What is it?
Carb cycling is a pretty basic concept that can be applied to your nutrition regimen to help reach your goal. The great thing is, it can be used for virtually any goal: bulking, cutting, maintaining, and everything in between (whatever that may be! )!
Simply put, it's the manipulation of the carbohydrate macronutrient within your weekly diet plan. You should know up front that there are MANY ways to set up a carb cycle; there's no right or wrong, but I will give you examples (later) of what I think is optimal, what I've personally used and have had success with. Typically, a well-thought out carb cycle will follow some sort of pattern on a daily basis... e.g. Monday - high carbs, Tuesday - low carbs, Wednesday - no carbs, etc. I say "well-thought out" because we shouldn't just arbitrarily change carb intake from day to day; there has to be a reason behind it, a goal. Let's start with 'bulking'.
Carb Cycling For Bulking
First, if you've read my posts or Lean Bulking sticky (found here:
http://forums.steroid.com/nutrition-...%2A%2A%2A.html ), you know I'm not personally a fan of 'bulking' per se; I am a fan of adding as much lean mass as possible, with as little fat gain as possible. This, IMO, is where cycling carbs can REALLY help.
I believe in taking in energy (i.e. carbs) when your body needs it most. A weight training session, high intensity cardio, a hike, playing sports, etc. - all good times to have energy stores ready to go. On the other hand, not as much energy is required during downtime; off days, etc. For example, if you're eating 3500 calories on workout days, and that's 500 calories above maintenance, I see no need to consume 3500 calories on off days (which could be looked at as additional caloric overage beyond 500). Since I always keep protein and fats moderate no matter what, I can reduce carbs which will, by default, reduce overall calories. Some disagree with this logic, but you will have to decide for yourself what makes sense, and more important, what works for you. Let's look at an example:
5'11 male, 200lbs, 12% bodyfat. TDEE is roughly 2600 calories. He's lean bulking, and wants to keep his bodyfat as close to 12% (or lower) as possible. He's decided that on workout days, 3100 calories is what he needs to add lean muscle tissue. He's going with a 40/45/15 (Protein/Carbs/Fats) macro split which puts him at 310g protein, 350g carbs, and 50g fat. He'll be working out on a 3 day split, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He'll be doing cardio on Tuesday's, Thursday's, and Saturday's, with a complete rest day on Sunday. Here's the way I'd set up his carb cycle for optimal muscle gain with minimal fat:
Mon/Wed/Fri - High carb days (350g carbs)
Tue/Thur/Sat - Moderate carb days (175g carbs, total calories are now roughly 2400)
Sunday - Low Carb day ( mostly fibrous veggies, <50g starchy carbs, total calories are at roughly 2000, not counting veggies, which, if you eat enough [and you should], can actually add up )
On workout days, he's fueling his workouts, with plenty of spare carbs left over for recovery.
On his cardio only days, he's taking half the amount of carbs (lesser activity), but still enough to aid with continued recovery and growth.
On his rest day, he's taking in very few starchy carbs, and eating mostly fibrous veggies instead. He's been eating plenty of carbs all week, glycogen stores are close to full if not 100% full, and although this is a total rest (i.e. recovery) day, there's no need for a large amount of additional carbs.
Some people might look at total calories and think they are too low for a 'bulk'. Remember that a) this isn't a traditional bulk. It's a lean bulk - we don't want to add a bunch of weight (fat) just to have to spend months later cutting to get it all off and (hopefully) yield a few lbs of LBM. Further, in my experience, most people think they need a lot more calories than they actually do. This is especially true with beginner dieters, and so called hard gainers (who just haven't learned to eat and/or train optimally yet).
Again, this can be set up other ways, this is only one example. Not everybody works out only 3 days a week, but the underlying objective still applies: more energy taken when needed. If you workout 5 days a week and follow a typical single bodypart split, you may want to consider moderate carb days for shoulders and arms, and save the high carb days for bigger workouts like legs, chest and back. You have endless combinations and numbers to play with; experiment, stick with it for a bit, and see what works best for you.
Carb Cycling For Cutting
So how about those of us who want to shed bodyfat? This, IMO, is where carb cycling really can shine. The carb cycle that has worked extremely well for me in the past (I also happen to be running it as of the time of this write up) is similar in many ways to Lyle McDonald's UD2.0 plan - if you're not familiar with it, google it. It's tougher than anything I'm presenting here, but a very good read.
The sole purpose of cycling carbs with regard to cutting is depleting (and later, replenishing) glycogen stores. Glycogen is a molecule made up of glucose and water, stored in muscle and the liver. Without going too much into it, our bodies use glycogen as a primary energy source. When glycogen gets depleted (via training, exercise, activity, etc.), our bodies begin to mobilize fatty acids, which can then be burned as fuel in place of/in addition to glycogen and glucose. As such, carb cycling for cutting should be set up very differently from that of bulking. Let's take the same example from earlier:
5'11 male, 200lbs, 12% bodyfat - wants to reduce his bodyfat to < 10%. His TDEE is still around 2600, and he's decided to go with a modest deficit of 2200 calories to start with. Now we have a number to start working out a carb cycle. He's training Monday through Friday, doing cardio Monday through Saturday, and taking Sunday off to rest completely. That's actually my current schedule; here's how my carb cycle is set up:
Mon/Tues/Wed - Moderate Carbs
Thurs/Fri/Sat - Low Carbs
Sunday - High Carb/Refeed
Using 2200 calories as my 'baseline', I'd apply that to my moderate carb days and set macros up as follows:
Moderate
275g protein (roughly 1.5g/lb of LBM)
55g fat
150g carbs
So for Monday through Wednesday, we're following this calorie/macro scheme. I'd also be focusing my more intense training sessions (e.g. legs, back, etc.) during this period. I'd then start a 3 day carb depletion phase on Thursday:
Low
275g protein
55g fat
0g carbs* (no starchy carbs. Fibrous veggies only!)
That's roughly 1600 calories. The absence of (starchy) carbs furthers the caloric deficit by default. Too low? Not really. For one, we're only talking about 3 days, and secondly, this will be followed by a high carb refeed day.
Note the asterisk next to '0g carbs'. You won't really be consuming 0g. For one, there will likely be trace amounts of carbs in the foods you eat on a daily basis (e.g. cottage cheese, protein powders, condiments, etc.). Secondly, you will ideally be consuming lots of fibrous veggies. While they are relatively light in terms of carbs, they do add up. You'll probably wind up eating somewhere between 50-100g carbs on these days, but again, mainly via fibrous veggies.
Workouts during the depletion phase (Thursday through Saturday in this example) should change to fit the goal (glycogen depletion). Higher reps/lighter weight, more sets, total body exercises, bodyweight/depletive type workouts, etc. Remember that you will be doing cardio as well (moderate and low days).
This 3 day window is your fat burning sweet spot. Glycogen should be close to depleted after about 1.5 days, BGL will be low, and insulin will be suppressed. You'll mainly be running on fatty acids. By the end of day 3, you may be at the onset of ketosis - but don't bother buying keto sticks. The goal here isn't to enter ketosis.
Sunday: After 3 days of depletion, you're ready to replenish glycogen stores with a carb refeed. With any luck, you may also have a small window of growth as you will be overfeeding and in a very anabolic state, albeit for a brief period. As such, this high carb/refeed day should take place on a complete rest day. No training, no cardio. Just relax, recover, and try to enjoy yourself a bit. You're not only recovering, but preparing your body for the cycle to start over again the following day.