Carb cycling

lindsey1979

carmenfalcon97 wrote: »

Everyone is completely off topic, I asked for recipes when you're carb cycling... What does your typical meals for the day consist of?? Can anyone answer this?

Yes, pretty easy. Hit your protein goals and then eat non-starchy veggies. Whether in a salad, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Feel free to use fatty sauces -- I personally love vodka sauce on some spaghetti squash with either chicken or chicken and sausage -- because you're just looking to keep carbs low. We're also a big fan of protein-heavy stir fries in my house on non-lifting days. Breakfast for dinner -- eggs, omelets, sausage, bacon, etc. with out the carby aspects (no toast, juice, waffles, etc.) with more non-starchy veggies.

tincanonastring

Do you understand macros and how to hit them, OP? If you don't, trying something like carb cycling is going to be very difficult.

I'm not trying to insult you, but you'll need a decent understanding in order to implement that way of eating.

amusedmonkey

lindsey1979 wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Genuine question. Last year I heard a lot about people, especially those who lift, carb cycling. What is the purpose of that? I mean I can understand keto, people want to be in ketosis. In carb cycling you never give yourself a chance to get into true ketosis, and that means you won't get to enjoy all the claimed benefits. If that's the case why not just eat normal carbs every day to one's preference? What does carb cycling offer that calorie restriction with less rules fails to deliver?

It depends on the goal -- whether they're cutting, recomping or bulking. The basic idea if that you more calories total and heavy on carbs and protein on lifting days to take advantage of the insulingenic response of carbs -- that helps shuttle nutrients into the cells after lifting so you maximize your recovery (that's where/when muscle is built the most). Then on days that you aren't lifting, you eat less -- both in calorie total and carb amount (usually much more carb restricted where you just eat non-starchy veggies primarily).

If you're cutting, you look to create your weekly deficit primarily on your non-lifting days and eat at maintenance or slightly above on lifting days (or if a big cut, at least a much smaller deficit on these days). If you're recomping, your total weekly deficit is nill -- you're eating at maintenance but each day you have a slight surplus on lifting days and make up for that surplus with a deficit on non-lifting days. If you're bulking, you're eating an overall weekly surplus where your surplus is made on lifting days and you're eating at maintenance on non-lifting days.

That's the basic gist with most carb cycle plans -- leangains is a good example. They have calculators out there to set up the cals, macros, etc. depending on your specific circumstances.

Part of the theory on why carb cycling can yield better results is that you aren't keeping a prolonged caloric deficit -- you have all these little mini refeeds on lifting days. The theory is that with these little mini refeeds, you don't get the negative hormonal impact that you might otherwise get with a prolonged caloric deficit (changes in leptin, grehlin, T3, etc.). I don't know if any studies have been done to show if this is actually accurate, but that's the theory.

Oh I get it. So cutting carbs is not the goal, cutting calories is, but taking those calories off from carbs would be preferred to reducing other nutrients due to their role in muscle building/maintenance. It makes sense now.

OP:
Depending on your goal you would cut out starchy vegetables, most grains, and sugar. Again, depending on your goals you may or may not be able to eat beans. To be on the safe side keep it to non-starchy vegetables and meat.

I don't do low carb on purpose, but some of the dishes I like happen to be low carb. Try salmon with dill sauce on a bed of garlic sauteed spinach. You prepare the salmon the way you like, and then make the sauce half sour cream half mayo, dill, lemon juice, a bit of horseradish and minced garlic. For spinach just cut garlic the way you like it (I like it thin on a mandoline), saute it, add spinach and you're done.