(@mikemahony) What are your thoughts on carb cycling to lose fat?

Hello Mike,

This is an interesting question because it depends how you define carbohydrate cycling. Strictly it would be high carb day, low carb day, no carb day. I personally don't like this and its not a practice I use, and in my dieting period I get my body fat very low.

Let me tell you what I do and why I do it. Lets assume I am following a 3 month program to get in the best shape I possibly can. I first of all calculate my current energy requirement (roughly). I then knock of about 500Kcal. This is my "beginning" weight loss calorie intake. I then calculate my protein, carbohydrate and fat intake in each of my meals for the day based on how many calories I am allowed.

I start the day with highish carbs, and I gradually reduce my intake through the day, so that by my last meal, and then my night time protein shake, I do not consume any carbohydrate.

I weigh myself each week, and then recalculate based on knocking off 500Kcal. I do this for as long as I am getting a steady fat loss both on the scales and visible (looking at my abs).

I ensure I have 1 reward meal (what ever meal a want and a desert) a week - and this is either a reward breakfast or a post-leg session reward meal. I do this as long as I am continuing to lose fat.

From about 6 weeks, I start to get more strict. I will drop the reward meal, and more significantly reduce my carbohydrates. I would typically at this stage be consuming less than 120g of carbohydrate a day and I would reduce this by about 20g per day each week. My target is to be at my best with 2 weeks to go, so theoretically I am ripped at 10 weeks.

With 2 weeks to go, and hopefully been in great condition, this is where I do the following:

1. Water loading and depleting
2. Salt loading and depleting
3. Make myself ketogenic for say 3 days, and on the 4th day have a high carbohydrate day

Obviously being ketogenic means I use fat for fuel just to get my body fat even lower to look even better, and the carbohydrate loading replenishes the glycogen in my muscle giving me a fuller appearance.

This is extreme, but I set myself challenges based on my appearance. We all need challenges, right! Mine is to one day get on the cover of Mens Health. The issue I have with carbohydrate cycling throughout is that lack of consistency in how I feel. The fact is, you feel great on a high carbohydrate day - of course you do. The only way is down then when you hot the low and no carb days. At least when you run consistently with reducing carbs, your psychology adapts more to it, and you just get on with things.

High carb days after low and none can also play havoc with your bowels. This is my personal experience based on those final 2 weeks of my dieting period.

I hope this is a useful piece of information for you to read.

Hello Mike,

That's a pretty good way to do it actually, and fairly in keeping with what I do particularly in the latter stages. The only thing I would do differently is perhaps consume more fats - the last thing you want is for your testosterone levels to plummet, so maybe add a few more full eggs, peanuts, almond butter etc.

The other thing of course is that you could afford to possibly drop your protein on the high carbohydrate day. This could stimulate a little more growth hormone release, again which is not a bad thing.

How are you getting on with this?

You certainly need to ensure you stock up on things like creatine, glutaimine, EAA's etc because this is fairly extreme and quite a stress to the body.

Hello Mike,

Fats wise
At least 100g a day, probably achieved by snacking on nuts and eating say 2 or 3 eggs for breakfast. Dietary cholesterol does not increase blood cholesterol levels, so don't panic. Its really important to remember that unless you take in cholesterol and fat, you can cause your testosterone levels to plummet - with a host of very negative side effects. On a personal note, it was the biggest mistake I made a few years ago not eating enough fat, and it hindered by dieting results. I don't now though.

Protein wise
My first point is that I don't train on my high carbohydrate days, and this is how I structure my eating.

Meal 1 - On waking I have my hydrowhey with EAA's
Meal 2 - 1 hour later and I have pancakes, 3 eggs, bacon and maple syrup
Meal 3 - 1 pancake with ice cream
Meal 4 - A nice meal, something like a thai green chicken curry with white rice
Meal 5 - Banana, apple and blueberries with a glass of grape juice
Meal 6 - Something like chicken pizza, and maybe apple pie and ice cream
Meal 7 - Casein shake alone before bed

This is extreme, but I am at the latter diet stages so its important to get the high GI carbs to balance the 5 days of ketosis. My only protein is therefore:

35g + 20g + 35g + 35g + 30g = 155g so about two thirds of my normal daily amount. Its very theoretical, as sometimes the drop in protein followed by a drop in carbohydrate and increase in protein can give you slightly more growth hormone release. It works for me. It might seem very unhealthy, but it serves to fill my muscles with glycogen, and psychologically reward myself.