Carb Cycling: Practical Steps
First of all, let me say that carb cycling is not mandatory for great results. It’s just one tool in the dieter’s ‘toolbox’. Many people do just fine are far simpler approaches. With that out of the way, there is no one best way to cycle carbs or calories. In fact, there are many, many different permutations that can be used successfully. Both two and three-day rotations will work great provided the basics of good nutritional strategies are in place. Here is just one example that you could use as a template. Feel free to tweak it to suit your needs if necessary. On that note, one possible tweak that I have used for a long time is to just cycle between low and high carb days. On the low days, which by design would be days you are not lifting weights, you push the caloric deficit by going very low carbs and low calories and then on the high days, which are obviously your training days, you push the calories and the carbs. The low days will take care of the weekly deficit required for fat loss and the high days will help with recovery, fullness, workout performance, etc.
Ok, so how to set up a sample plan. First off is caloric intake. Once you know the caloric total you are striving for, the simplest way is to set up all the macros (protein, carbs, fat) for your medium day and then simply adjust carb (and secondarily fat intake) intake to determine your high and low days. So, assume the medium day is a standard dieting day. As an aside, but a valuable note to keep in mind, there are many different calorie equations you can use – however be aware that they all have the potential to be off by as much as 20%. So for the sake of simplicity you could just assume maintenance to be approximately 15x (generally 14-16x) total bodyweight and subtract 20-25% to create a healthy caloric deficit. This will put you around 11-12x total bodyweight. Remember, if you are not progressing on your current caloric intake, simply adjust it up or down until progress resumes.
Next up is protein. I am sure we are all in agreement that we need to eat sufficient amounts of protein when trying to lose fat and maintain muscle, so set it anywhere from 1.0-1.5g/lb of bodyweight and split it up evenly throughout the day. It’s always a good idea to try to get the majority of your protein intake from whole food sources in my opinion as well.
You are going to have three carbohydrate intakes – one for high days, one for medium days, and one for low days. For your medium days, set your carbohydrate intake between 0.8 and 1.0g/lb of bodyweight. I think due to the low carb craze, that many will see this as a high amount of carbs, but truth be told, it really isn’t. We’ve been brainwashed against carbs.
So now we know our calories, our protein and our carbs. All that remains is to figure out how much fat we’re to eat. In this case, fat simply serves as a caloric ballast. Simply make up the rest of your calories from fat. Your protein intake will stay constant throughout all three days. With your fat intake, you’ve got two options – keep it constant and just let the carbohydrate fluctuation take care of the calorie cycling, or adjust the fat intake as well in order to increase or decrease the desired deficit. For example, if you really want to push your low days hard and try for a bit more weekly fat loss, consider dropping your fat intake down as well. Again, protein stays constant. On your high carb days, set your carb intake to around 2.0g/lb of bodyweight. This is the ‘X factor’ day. By that I mean it’s the most variable day in the sense that some people will love the high days and some people will hate them. If you’re not used to higher days, consider gradually increasing your totals over time, rather than just right off the bat. Give your body time to adjust and adapt. Finally for your low days it is going to be minimal as you’re only eating fibrous vegetables; no starch-type carbs at all.
Remember the truth of the matter is that there is no one best method for fat loss. Carbohydrate and calorie cycling is just one logical and effective way of approaching it. Many who opt for this kind of approach find it very easy to follow as you get a few days a week where you get to eat some fun carbs, and like I said, who doesn’t like eating carbs? One note for the scale obsessed. Recognize that due to the fluctuating carbohydrate intake your bodyweight will fluctuate as well. This is normal and to be expected. Due to enhanced glycogen storage and intracellular water after high days, you’ll typically be up a few pounds. Again, to be expected. Even without that, there is always going to be day-to-day fluctuations in water balance. What you’re looking for is a downward trend over time. I have one client of mine who likes to refer to the scale as a ‘random number generator’. In the big picture it is just one piece of information. Without context and proper assessment of the information, it is of little use.
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