Carb Cycling - The Fat Loss Plateau Buster

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Ask someone you deem qualified what the best nutritional strategy to
maximum fat loss is and you will get one answer. Ask another seemingly
qualified individual the same question and chances are you will get a
completely different answer. There are a few general constants you can
expect to hear; for example, ensuring you are eating adequate amounts
of protein and omega-3 fats. There is little argument there. However,
the discrepancies arise when the subject of carbohydrate intake come
up. Some will say high carbs are best, others say low carbs, and still
others recommend something somewhere in the middle. The truth of the
matter is that there really is no one best way of approaching fat
loss. There are many different approaches that can, and have been,
used successfully. The most important elements to successful fat loss
are customizing a nutrition strategy to yourself, ensuring it's a plan
you will adhere to, and adjusting your program based on your progress.
Nutrition is not a cookie-cutter game and what works for one doesn't
always work for another. With that said, let's take a closer look at
this carbohydrate issue.
Truth be told, there are benefits to having a fair amount of carbs in
your diet and there are benefits to keeping them low. So why not use
both strategies? Rather than choosing one or the other, why not get
the benefits of both by cycling your carbohydrate and caloric intake
throughout the week? By cycling your carb intake you get the best of
both worlds. Assuming you keep your protein and fat intakes relatively
constant, and only manipulate your carb intake, you are automatically
cycling calories as well. The first benefit to doing so is that it
keeps your body from adapting to what you are doing. Your body will
always try to adapt to what you're doing and the leaner you get, and
the more you take your body away from its set point, the more your
body will try to adjust its regulatory processes to halt your
progress. This is just in part related to the regulatory hormone,
leptin.
Leptin levels are related to things like insulin, your caloric intake
and your current level of body fat. Think of it as one of the big "fat-
loss decision makers". The leaner you are the lower your circulating
levels of leptin are going to be. Under more normal circumstances,
higher body fat, maintenance caloric intake, etc., leptin levels are
higher. However, while on sub-maintenance calories, and particularly
on low-carb diets where circulating insulin levels are low, leptin
levels drop and they can drop quickly. Decreased leptin levels cause a
cascade of other regulatory changes, namely a decrease in thyroid
output and metabolic rate, as well as an increase in catabolic hormone
activity and appetite. In an attempt to become more efficient, your
body will try to adapt to make your newly lowered caloric intake its
new maintenance intake; that is, it will make the necessary changes
needed to do the same amount of work on less energy. Unfortunately,
this usually means having to continuously lower calories to maintain
fat-loss progress, which inevitably makes it very hard to hold onto
all your hard-earned muscle. None of this sounds too good does it?
There has to be a better way, and there is. Planned and structured
days of high calories and high carbohydrates may help with this.
As previously mentioned, there are benefits to both low-carb intakes
and to high-carb intakes. When carb intake is drastically reduced you
create a temporarily greater caloric deficit. In addition, low-carb
intakes result in decreased levels of circulating insulin, increased
levels of the fat-burning catecholamines and therefore a much
heightened rate of fat oxidation. Quite simply, when insulin levels
are low, you create an environment in which fat is more likely to be
used for energy. Low muscle glycogen, as a result of decreased
carbohydrate intake, obviously results in depleted muscles, but there
are benefits to this as well. Low muscle glycogen tends to promote a
higher rate of free fatty acid burning. Result? More fat loss.
On the flip side however, most people do not enjoy eating few carbs
for very long. While there are clearly benefits to doing so, there are
other things that need to be considered. Chronic low-carb intake can
actually impair insulin sensitivity and promote insulin resistance. As
already noted, low-carb intakes result in overly flat, depleted
muscles and gym performance typically suffers. Throw in a day of high
carbs and your muscles fill out, you find yourself more vascular, your
workouts are great, and you look and feel much better. There is also
research to support the fact that these higher-carb/calorie days may
stimulate leptin production, which as we already noted is an important
player in the fat-loss game. Carbohydrates are also very protein
sparing - meaning they prevent protein from being oxidized as fuel -
which is of paramount importance when retaining all your hard-earned
muscle is a priority.
In addition to the numerous physiological factors, there are
psychological variables that need to be taken into consideration as
well. How you feel on a diet is arguably just as important to your
progress as any other variable. There are not too many people that
enjoy looking flat and depleted all the time. And lets not forget one
of the reasons most people can appreciate - carbohydrates simply taste
good.
To recap, in order to take advantage of the benefits of both higher
and lower carb intakes, we want to fluctuate our carb intake from high
to low throughout the training week. The simplest way to set this is
to just cycle your carbohydrates and calories according to your weekly
training schedule. For example, assuming four workouts per week, you
might have your high days on your two big workouts, medium days on
your two easier workouts, and low days on your off days.
PRACTICAL STEPS There is no one best way to cycle carbs or calories.
In fact, there are many, many different permutations that can be used
successfully. Here is just one example that you could use as a
template. Feel free to tweak it to suit your needs if necessary.
First off is caloric intake. Once you know the caloric total you are
striving for, the simplest way to set up all the macros (protein,
carbs, fat) for your medium day and then simply adjust carb 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 total bodyweight and subtract 20-25% to create a
healthy caloric deficit. Remember, if you are not progressing based on
your 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. 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 to
1.0g/lb of bodyweight. 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 and fat intake
from these days will stay constant throughout all three days. On your
high carb days, set your carb intake at 2.0g/lb of bodyweight and
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?
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