First Time Carb Cycling

Likes

I've been reading up on carb cycling and it seems there are many ways to do it. I just have a few specific questions on it:

> Do you always stay below maintenance calories whether it's high or low day, or do you go below maintenance calories on low days and above on high days? (500 calories either way)

> How is the best way to work out how many grams of each macronutrient is needed for each low and high days? (In order to gain weight I usually need 5,000 kcals so I imagine I'm still going to be consuming a large amount of calories even on low days.

Is the following plan suitable:

Mon - Low
Tue - Low
Wed - High
Thu - Low
Fri - Low
Sat - High
Sun - High

Cheers for any help

By Craig Goodchild
Personal Trainer

6 months ago

Replies

LIKES

Hi Craig,

Generally, you'd eat maintenance or above maintenance carb and calorie intake on your high-carb days (max 2-3 times per week). Then below maintenance on your medium-carb days (by 200-400 calories, 2-3 times per week) and then low carb days (2-3 times per week), you're probably aiming for 50-75 grams of carbs (400-1000 fewer calories).

The amount of calories, as well as the amount of carbs and the number of days you eat high, medium and low carb/calorie depend upon your metabolism, activity level, age, etc and must be adjusted often to ensure consistent fat loss.

Your low/high days will work fine if you adjust calories appropriately. Ideally, you have two high-carb meals i the eight hours before your big lifting sessions and on high-carb meal after training. So try to bias your carbs and calories so as to be higher at these times if possible.

Also, you should keep a healthy core diet all year round with meat, fish, whey protein, vegetables and fruit and then just adjust the carb levels to hit the calorie intake that will deliver the results your are aiming to achieve.

Mark Gilbert
Nutritionist and Supplement Specialist

5 months ago