Key Points
- Carb Cycling is a great tool for losing weight
- Save High carb days for workout days/life days
- If you want to lose weight faster reduce the amount of high days
Back in my impressionable youth someone suggested I do a bodybuilding show.
“You look great.”
“You’re a natural.”
I’m a sucker for a compliment, so I bit. I was doing a bodybuilding show. Looking back at it, I think he had alternative motives which I’ll discuss later with a therapist. I wasn’t that good and definitely wasn’t a natural.
After I signed up, I now had to figure out how to prep for a show. I had little to no idea how to take my ass from where I was to stage ready without doing miles upon miles of running. So I did what anyone would do.
I Googled it.
I came across an article that mentioned carb cycling for fat loss, something I had heard of in bodybuilding forums, and I dove in with a reckless abandon.
I had abs for the first time since doing a Tough Mudder two years prior. Thankfully this time was about ¼ of the work and in 1/5 of the time.
I never made it to the show because my back herniated 2 days before but that’s a story for another day. The point of this story is carb cycling works. Here are my carb cycling results.
The only problem is everything I read at the time was half-assed at best and I had to piece a lot of information together from various sites. Not wanting you to fall waste as much time scouring the internet like I did, I decided to take everything I learned and distill it into one humbly titled article.
WHAT IS CARB CYCLING
One of the benefits of the bodybuilding world is that they are very literal with naming convention. Carb cycling is cycling between high and low (sometimes medium or no carb) days.
The exact protocol varies on who types up the article. This of course is my version of the story.
This cycling of carbs, and in turn calories, helps you slim down, despite what you read on the internet that it’s black magic.
Rather than eating low carb/low calorie for weeks on end and eventually hating life to go on a week-long junk food bender, you alternate between maintenance calories and low calorie with the occasional higher carb/calorie day. This high carb day is like Christmas every week.
WHY IT WORKS
I wish I could say I came up with this plan but carb cycling has been around for decades – I was probably still in Huggies when it came out.
While not the be-all-end-all in diets, in my opinion it’s close. Take my opinion for what it’s worth, there is a very good chance I’m not wearing pants while typing this.
The low carb days are your normal diet calorie deficit days where your body makes up the calories you aren’t eating with body fat.
The high carb days are known as “re-feed days” to help your mentals as well as your body. This helps to refeed your muscles with glycogen (the fuel used for your workouts) and most importantly your sanity operating at high levels.
MACROS FOR CARB CYCLING
Depending on who you talk to, carb cycling has a few different, but similar, methods of attack. It all comes down to how much you can tolerate. If you are a beginner or just starting a dieting cycle I’d go with my approach, not because it’s mine but because there is less of a swing in calories and carb intake (read: less time being hangry).
Let’s break out the calculators – it’s time for some math. The first thing we are going to account for is protein aka the backbone of the program (I’ll explain that more later on).
To ensure you don’t lose gainz and actually put on muscle – protein should be at least 1 gram (g) per pound of bodyweight. I usually go higher than that, like 1.2 g per pound just because I like meat. For me, that would look like 195 (bodyweight) x 1.2 g=234 g of protein.
Seems like a lot doesn’t it? Take into consideration that I eat five to six meals a day. So if you divide that over the course of the day, you’re looking at about 40 g per meal. That’s six ounces of chicken or two scoops of protein per meal – not a huge amount.
After we get the protein down, let’s figure out the fats. Fats should be about 0.3-0.4g per pound of bodyweight to keep your hormones functioning as they should. Again for me, this would be about 78 g.
On to the star of the show, carbs. This involves some complex math so be ready to work some brain cells. The high carb day will use the same calculation as protein, 1 g per pound of bodyweight. Medium carb day will be 75% of high carb day and low carb day will be 50% of high carb day. It would look like so:
High carb: 1 g x 195 (bodyweight) = 195 g = 200 g for simplicity
Medium carb: 200 g x 0.75 = 150 g
Low carb: 200 g x 0.5 = 100 g
The calorie difference between high and low carb (for me, ~400 calories) gives you just enough for your body to start using fat for energy. Too much of a calorie deficit can lead to you quitting too early or completely going off the rails by eating everything in sight.
At the end of the day here is how the calories break down, keeping in mind that Protein and Carbs are 4 calories per gram and Fats are 9 calories per gram:
High: 2438 (C: 200 x 4, P: 234 x 4, F: 78 x 9)
Medium: 2238 (C:150 x 4, P: 234 x 4, F: 78 x 9)
Low: 2038 (C: 100 x 4, P: 234 x 4, F: 78 x 9)
This all equates to roughly 10-12 calories per pound of bodyweight which is right in the sweet spot for fat loss without having to eat lettuce and a glass of water for 3 meals a day.
YOUR CARB CYCLING PLAN
I’m going to hit this from a few different angles depending on where you start. Follow the one that comes as close to your situation and feel free to progress down the ladder based on your results.
15-20% Body fat or a Carb Cycling Beginner
Monday: High
Tuesday: Medium
Wednesday: Low
Thursday: High
Friday: Medium
Saturday: Low
Sunday: Low
10-15% Body fat
Monday: High
Tuesday: Low
Wednesday: Medium
Thursday: Low
Friday: Low
Saturday: Medium
Sunday: Low
<10% Body Fat
Monday: High
Tuesday: Low
Wednesday: Medium
Thursday: Low
Friday: High
Saturday: Medium
Sunday: Low
Once you hit sub 10% body fat your abs will be popping and it becomes harder to diet since you are pushing your body to places it doesn’t want to be. This is when you should be slowly bumping up calories.
CARB CYCLING TIPS
The first time you try it, like anything else, it’s going to feel awkward and time consuming. Here are some tips I picked up doing this a few times.
Schedule Manipulation – If the schedules above don’t jive with your work/workout/social life schedule then feel free to switch it up. The only pieces of advice I would give are to
- Don’t put 2 high carb days back-to-back
- Don’t put too many high carb days on rest days. Once in a while is fine.
At the end of the day carb cycling isn’t going to work if it doesn’t fit your life.
Water Weight – If you are eating low carb before you start be prepared to see the scale shoot up in the days following a high carb day. That is just water holding onto the increase in glycogen in your muscles. It will go away in a few days. I’ll admit it’s a little disheartening but the benefits the following week are well worth it. Stick it out.
High Carb Days – High carb days are not a license to eat everything in sight. Throw in some cookies, bread or whatever else you’re craving but don’t go crazy. Keep calories in check.
MY CARB CYCLING MEAL PLAN
As a point of reference, here was a week back when I was carb cycling.
High Carb Day
Breakfast
Banana
2 TBSP peanut butter
2 Piece of wheat toast
Post Workout
2 scoops of protein
1 cup oatmeal
Breakfast 2
4 oz. 93% ground beef
3 whole eggs
Lunch
Salad with wine vinegar dressing
8 oz. chicken
1 cup of brown rice
3pm
Chobani Greek Yogurt
3 Mozzarella string cheese sticks
Dinner
8 oz. of a lean meat (usually chicken or turkey)
1-2 cups of veggies
2 oz. of pistachios in front of the TV
Medium Carb Day
Breakfast
Banana
2 TBSP peanut butter
2 Piece of wheat toast
Post Workout
2 Scoops of protein
½ cup oatmeal
Breakfast 2
4 oz. 93% ground beef
3 whole eggs
Lunch
Salad with wine vinegar dressing
8 oz. chicken
3pm (aka the lactose intolerant hell)
Chobani Greek Yogurt
3 Mozzarella string cheese sticks
Dinner
8 oz. of a lean meat (usually chicken or turkey)
1-2 cups of veggies
2 oz. of pistachios in front of the TV
Low Carb Day
Breakfast
Banana
2 TBSP peanut butter
2 Piece of wheat toast
Post Workout
2 Scoops of protein
Breakfast 2
4 oz. 93% ground beef
3 whole eggs
Lunch
Salad with wine vinegar dressing
8 oz. chicken
3pm
Chobani Greek Yogurt
3 Mozzarella string cheese sticks
Dinner
8 oz. of a lean meat (usually chicken or turkey)
1-2 cups of veggies
2 oz. of pistachios in front of the TV
Simple, boring, but most importantly effective.
Notice that I like to keep shit simple. No drastic food changes depending on the day. Simply just reduce the amount of carbs. This is why setting up a meal plan that you can plug and play works so well.
