Hey everyone! I wanted to take a while experiencing and playing around with Carb Cycling. In short, carb cycling is the process where on hard workout days, such as heavy lifting, you increase your carbs and decrease your fat intake. Then, on rest days or easier workout days, such as a 45 minute walk, you decrease your carbs and increase the fat! The protein intake should be around the same on both days, but I like to increase my protein on low carb days to sustain my fullness throughout the day. The ultimate purpose of this cycling is to build muscle AND lose fat at the same time. As most lifters know, the process of adding muscle mass and shedding away fat oppose each other entirely. Adding muscle requires an increase in calories and enough carbs to refuel our glycogen. While, losing body fat requires a decrease in calorie intake. Ive been carb cycling for about 2 weeks now and honestly, I've seen improvement in my lifting performance and I think I am finally leaning out! The only difficult thing for me is the fat intake. I want to consume nut butter on heavy days, but the fat can be stored as excess body fat because the body is searching to store glycogen and insulin levels as much as possible, and carbohydrates and protein are the top macros the body wants for body building. However, on low carb days, you can increase the fat intake, but consuming nuts is still not the best option. Nuts have a decent amount of carbs in one serving. If you are aiming to go 0 carbs on low carb days, nuts aren't the best answer.
Personally, on High carb days, I consume sweet potato, brown rice, lots of protein (as usual), onions, and veggies as usual.
On Low carb days, I consume more green veggies because they do not have enough carbs per serving, salmon, lots of protein, etc. I like to go to Chipotle :)
For me, the fat intake isn't as significant to me as the carb differences each day. I prioritize the carb increase and deficit. On low carb days, your body will be tricked and will burn fat rather than calories on high carb days. Each day, you will be building muscle by eating a sufficient amount of protein!
Now, I can squat 5x5 180 lbs ( NEW PR!) deadlifts 1x5 130 lbs! (ALSO ANOTHER PR!)
On low carb days, you might feel tired because of the lack of carbs, but make sure to remember your reason of starting to carb cycle!
