Carb cycling and lifting. What am I doing wrong?

hill8570

I've been doing SL5x5 since last October. Was eating at a mild surplus, and had some pretty decent results (BF% down from 23% to 21%, good strength gains). Wanted to accelerate the fat loss a bit, so I started trying to carb cycle a couple of weeks ago (lift days 2000 cal target, relatively high carb, non-lift days 1600 cal target, relatively low carb, a bit above 1 g / lb LBM protein all days). This ain't working out -- I'm run down as crap and failing left and right on my lifts (I'd be OK with not gaining strength, but it feels like I'm actually losing strength). My BMR is about 1840, TDEE before exercise about 2200. Anyone familiar enough with carb cycling to let me know what I'm doing wrong? Should I eat a surplus on lift days? Increase cals on both lift and non-lift days? Ditch the carb cycling entirely?

SideSteel

Unless you're already quite lean you're not likely to benefit from much by cycling intake unless it gives you a performance or adherence advantage. And even if you ARE lean the benefit is somewhat debatable.

The first thing I'd be curious about would be the total change in calorie and macronutrient intake when you went from your "mild surplus" to your cyclical intake.

I'm making the assumption that you didn't just cycle intake, you made a change to total intake AND you made it cyclical?

Can you outline what you were doing before the move to a cyclical intake (daily calories and macronutrition) and what you are currently doing?

hill8570

SideSteel wrote: »

Unless you're already quite lean you're not likely to benefit from much by cycling intake unless it gives you a performance or adherence advantage. And even if you ARE lean the benefit is somewhat debatable.

The first thing I'd be curious about would be the total change in calorie and macronutrient intake when you went from your "mild surplus" to your cyclical intake.

I'm making the assumption that you didn't just cycle intake, you made a change to total intake AND you made it cyclical?

Can you outline what you were doing before the move to a cyclical intake (daily calories and macronutrition) and what you are currently doing?

October-December, I was targeting 2140 calories, with a protein target of 160 g, and about 35% each of fat and carbs. Since I don't weigh my food, I was probably eating a bit over that, and Mr. Scale indicated I was doing a mild bulk. Good strength gains (newb gains) during that period, but both weight and waist increased during that period (weight I was OK with, waist not so much).

In January, I cut back to a 1900 cal target, keeping the 160 g protein target and about 33% each of fat and carbs. Scale stopped moving up...maybe dropped a pound or two, but waist measurement didn't budge. Lifts continued to improve for the first couple of weeks, but a cold kind of made it hard to work at 100% for the last half of January, so I didn't try to up weights.

Starting a couple of weeks back, I dropped average target to 1800 cals, with non-lift days targeting 1600 net calories, 160 g of protein, < 100 g carbs and the remainder fat. Lift days targeted 2000 net cals, 160 g protein, 35% carbs (about 180 g), and remainder fat. Been feeling worse and worse each day...very tired and lifts are actually regressing.

All signs point to not eating enough, but I'm not sure how to cut my remaining pudge (from 21% to 15% for now...will reevaluate when I get there) without losing too much muscle.