Carb Cycling: What is It and How Do You Do It?

Take a moment to think of your goals: what are they? Perhaps you’d like to see some rock solid abs, kick your ass into shape, or build some hard muscle. Whatever your goals; carb cycling can help you along the way. It might sound fancy and complicated, but trust us: once you’ve read this post, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t try it sooner!

First of all we’d like to put you in a situation, so you can imagine how you’d react to a certain scenario. You’ve gone out for a meal with your friends/family, you’ve been seated, and the waitress places a basket of bread rolls in the middle of the table. Most people will mindlessly reach for a couple of rolls, including you, right? What you should be asking yourself when it comes to carb cycling, is, ‘is today a high carb day, or a low carb day?’. How you answer this question will completely change what you order and eat.

By carefully choosing the times that you eat carbs, you can turn your body into a muscle-building, fat burning machine.

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is simply eating more carbohydrates on some days to help promote muscle growth, and eating less carbs on other days to help minimise fat gain and promote fat loss. Carb cycling focuses on carbs rather than protein or fats, as they seem to have the most effect on a person’s body composition.

High Carb Days Will:

• Help your muscles to grow.
• Replenish the glycogen stores that fuel your muscles.
• Make you feel energised.

Low Carb Days Will:

• Promote fat loss by tricking your body into burning fat for fuel.
• Keep your body receptive to insulin, improving your body’s muscle building response.

A Simple Carb Cycling Plan to Follow

• Eat starchy carbs with protein, vegetables, and healthy fats on the days you lift weights.
• On the days you’re not lifting weights, eat protein, vegetables, and healthy fats but no starchy carbs.

It’s that simple! You don’t need to measure the grams of carbs you consume or count your calories. The kinds of carbs you should be eating are as follows:

• Sweet or white potato.
• Quinoa.
• Fruit - berries are best!
• Wholegrain bread.
• Oatmeal.
• Whole Wheat pasta or tortillas.
• Rice.

And the kind of carbs you should be avoiding…

• Doughnuts.
• Pastries.
• Pizza.
• Cakes.
• Cookies.
• Muffins.
• Croissants.

Eating junky carbs defeats the object of carb cycling as you’ll no doubt pack on more fat! If you’re feeling a little hungry on your low carb days, simply give yourself more chicken or protein with your meal. You could even gulp down a diet protein shake to fill you up a bit more!

Many people think that getting the body of their dreams is a complicated affair, but by using this clever technique you can see results in no time. You don’t need to count your calories or measure your food - simply use our carb cycling rules in order to reach your goals. Lifting weights? It’s carb time! Having a day off, or doing some cardio? Pass on that bread basket!

Photo Author: Flickr