Sport Carb Cycling Really Works!

Sport Fitness
R

realworksuks

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A post from my journal:


ATTENTION

I have been doing carb cycling for the past 9 days. I eat carbs at breakfast, before my workout, immediately after my workout, and then 2 hours after my workout. After this I don't eat any carbs for the rest of the day.

So my first 4 meals of the day have carbs in them for when I actually use them for weight training and etc. and the rest of the meals are like a keto type diet, no carbs.

So, a few posts back I said that I had only gained .25 pounds in the past week remember? Well I measured my waist last night and it was down an inch.. and I measured my arm and it was up .25 inches. I also noticed my face was getting leaner.


Anyway, I decided to schedule a bodyfat test today because I was afraid that I was only gaining fat (because I wasn't gaining any weight), plus I wanted to see if just eating 500 calories above maintance is a good idea.



Well, the results came back excellently! I dropped a % of fat(12.2 to 11.3), meaning I lost 1.5 pounds of fat, and gained 1.5 pounds of muscle! My weight remained unchanged from 9 days ago, only I lost fat and gained muscle by doing carb cycling.

This is like discovering a goldmine for me. I guess Thibadaue wasn't lying when he said carb cycling is the ideal way to "gain muscle and lose fat optimally!"

I always questioned why it would be impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, and I am glad to disprove that.
 
Your eating carbs at 4 of your daily meals, doesn't sound like keto to me.
what do your carb focused meals look like?
 
Phate89 said:
Your eating carbs at 4 of your daily meals, doesn't sound like keto to me.
what do your carb focused meals look like?
Click to expand...

I didn't say it was keto at all. After my 4 carb meals my diet is like a keto diet though for the rest of the day.

Get it?

breakfast:
oatmeal
flax seed
4 eggs (1 whole)

pre workout:
NO Shotgun
Protein bar

Post workout:
3 cups skim milk
1 scoop whey
3 servings dextrose
1 banana
creatine, bcaa's, multivitamin

post post workout:
varies... but an example is:
steak
baked potato
steak sauce
 
on the days you don't train, you don't have any carb meals?

And 4 carb meals a day on the days you train is pretty carb dominant.

This is something similar to what I plan to do if my low carb diet doesn't give good enough results.
 
Karky said:
on the days you don't train, you don't have any carb meals?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I still have oatmeal at breakfast and then I have another 1 or 2 carb meals. My carbs still don't get much higher than 200g on those days. I train 5 days per week though.

Karky said:
And 4 carb meals a day on the days you train is pretty carb dominant.

This is something similar to what I plan to do if my low carb diet doesn't give good enough results.
Click to expand...

it seems to have worked great for me to eat 4 carb meals like this, eating them around my workouts and breakfast only.... worked like a charm. So whether you think it's carb dominant or not... it's worked.

I get about 225 to 350g on training days.
 
I can understand the carbs during breakfast, pre-workout, and post-workout. But what are the benefits of the carb meal 2 hours after workout?
 
Phate89 said:
I can understand the carbs during breakfast, pre-workout, and post-workout. But what are the benefits of the carb meal 2 hours after workout?
Click to expand...

I still consider that around the workout. I have carbs at that meal for muscle building reasons.

My muscles are still recovering from the workout and this is another good time to feed on carbs and protein.

I always have a really anabolic meal 2 hours after the workout.... A good amount of carbs with some type of red meat (saturated fat and protein).
 
It's great to hear this works, as I plan on getting of the anabolic diet soon and was planning on starting a carb cycling program. I still have a little more fat to lose, but I want to put on some muscle before the summer. I actually made a post about carb cycling today, some coincidence. Keep us updated on how this is working. The only thing that seems weird is that you really do have so many carbs that it doesnt seem like it is carb cycling. I thought you pick 2 or 3 days where you go pretty heavy on the carbs and then 2 medium carb and 2 or 3 low carb days throughout the week. Where did you read about your carb cycling program? Or did you just make it yourself?
 
"Carb Cycling: The Basic Structure

Carb cycling is based on having three different carbohydrate intake levels during the week: high(er) carbs, moderate carbs, and low(er) carbs. Ideally these days are split according to your training schedule.

If you train 4 times per week:

• Select your two "priority workouts." These are the workouts where you're training the muscle groups you need to improve the most. On these days, you have a high(er) carbohydrate day.

• On the two other workout days, you consume a moderate amount of carbs.

• On the three "off days" you have a low(er) carb intake.

If you train 3 times per week:

• Select your two "priority workouts." On these days, you have a high(er) carbohydrate day.

• The other workout day has a moderate carbohydrate intake level.

• Among the four remaining days of the week, you have one more moderate carb day along with three low carb days.

If you train 5 times per week:

• Select your two "priority workouts" where you're training the muscle groups you want to improve the most. On these days, you have a higher(er) carbohydrate day.

• Select two "secondary workouts." On these days you have a moderate carb intake.

• On the remaining workout day and during your "off" days you consume a low(er) amount of carbohydrates.

Basically, one sentence could summarize the carb cycling philosophy: "Eat for what you did and have to do."
"
 
Phate89 said:
Basically, one sentence could summarize the carb cycling philosophy: "Eat for what you did and have to do."
"
Click to expand...

Exactly! This is exactly how I have been thinking about it. I train very intensely 5 days per week for at least 1.5 hours each time.

On my off days I only eat 2-3 meals with carbs in them that day.

Now that I know this works I will be stricter on my off days.

I will keep you guys posted on the results...

I am pretty confident though because I have had my bodyfat tested 21 times now and I have only lost fat and gained muscle ONCE before... and that was my second test when I was just starting out lifting again!
 
amp89 said:
Question: Do you also cycle calories, or are you eating over maintenance every day?
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Surprisingly I have been eating over maintance every day. I have been going 300-1000 over my maintance. I try to keep it at 500 above, but I have pretty much just been eating whenever I want... especially once the carbs are out of the picture.
 
amp89 said:
It's great to hear this works, as I plan on getting of the anabolic diet soon and was planning on starting a carb cycling program. I still have a little more fat to lose, but I want to put on some muscle before the summer. I actually made a post about carb cycling today, some coincidence. Keep us updated on how this is working. The only thing that seems weird is that you really do have so many carbs that it doesnt seem like it is carb cycling. I thought you pick 2 or 3 days where you go pretty heavy on the carbs and then 2 medium carb and 2 or 3 low carb days throughout the week. Where did you read about your carb cycling program? Or did you just make it yourself?
Click to expand...

The anabolic diet and carb cycling are two different things.. Guess you have a choice to make :p
 
well the anabolic diet really is a carb cycling diet actually... it's just that you go a lot longer before you get to cycle carbs into your diet. 5-6 days without carbs 1-2 days with.
 
Right, so like it said it should be a smooth transition. The one thing that is confusing me right now, and RWS I might ignore you right now because I'm not sure if your results are atypical (no offense) but:

In the carb cycling codex Thibaudeau says that carb cycling is a great way to add mass and lose fat. However later on in the article he says that once you find your daily caloric expenditure, he says to gain muscle mass increase it by 20% and to lose fat decrease it by 20%. This seems very contradictory, as he said you can do both at the same time. Can someone explain this to me. What would make sense to me is if you are in a surplus on days when you are training and taking in more carbs, and a deficit on days when you arent and consuming minimal carbs.
 
dd he say it exactly that you could gain muscle and loe fat at the same time? or did he just say it's a good way to gain muscle and lose fat? He could simply mean that carb cycling is good for both goals, but not necissarily simuntaniously.
 
amp89 said:
Right, so like it said it should be a smooth transition. The one thing that is confusing me right now, and RWS I might ignore you right now because I'm not sure if your results are atypical (no offense) but:

In the carb cycling codex Thibaudeau says that carb cycling is a great way to add mass and lose fat. However later on in the article he says that once you find your daily caloric expenditure, he says to gain muscle mass increase it by 20% and to lose fat decrease it by 20%. This seems very contradictory, as he said you can do both at the same time. Can someone explain this to me. What would make sense to me is if you are in a surplus on days when you are training and taking in more carbs, and a deficit on days when you arent and consuming minimal carbs.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have thought about this too... I don't understand how I could have lost this much fat and gained this much muscle over this time period.

I guess the only way I can think to explain it is that I burned off the fat overnight?

Or for some reason or another my body starts to burn fat in the portion of the day where I don't have carbs...I am not even doing any cardio though.

So, we'll see what happens next time.
 
Hmm I guess he doesn't say you can do both explicitly, so he may have meant it was good for both goals. However he does state: It'll allow you to include maximum fat burning days and maximum muscle accumulation days in each week.

I guess you could interpret that as only doing one at a time. But would it make sense to cycle calories as well to switch between deficit and surplus throughout the week or would that mess things up?
 
This isnt really carb cycling as much as it nutrient timing. Glad it worked regardless.
 
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