Carb Cycling

Dwalmz73

Hi,
Trying carb cycling for the first time and getting organized this weekend. Any tips? I am a bit confused about the g breakdown. When I set up my daily calorie goals for high and low carb days with the percentages the g turned out a lot more than what I have written down from the research I did.
Also anyone want to friend for this journey I'd love it!

NorthCascades

I love carbs and I love cycling, that's as much as I can say.

AnnPT77

What are you hoping to achieve: Weight loss? Athletic performance?

sijomial

NorthCascades wrote: »

I love carbs and I love cycling, that's as much as I can say.

Agreed.
645g of carbs and 128 miles.


In addition to the very wise Ann's question about the goal of calorie cycling - what research?
Needs more context and information about yourself.

sarabushby

Depending on your daily calorie goals I could share some meal plans & macro splits that someone did for me (2100 daily cal) but TBH I have tried it probably 3 times are rarely lasted more than 3wks, getting stinking headaches and having no energy for my workouts. I have far more success and an much happier just watching my calories daily and aiming for a good % of carbs and protein to fuel & repair from my workouts. But that said, I am training most days, so if you’re less active it may work better for you.

Dwalmz73

Thanks everyone
I am really looking to lose the last 40 lbs I have to lose. My cousin is a weight lifter and suggested this. I like the mix up. I think the restrictive carb days aren't going to be bad because it is already what I have been doing for a long while. Lots of veggies and protein and some healthy fats. Mixing up two high carb days during more intense training (leg days and more cardio/fat burn zone activity) I am hoping will stimulate my metabolism to burn more. I am increasing now from 4 work out days to 6. My rest day is Saturday. I like to generally do hiking and yoga class on the weekends. I watched a couple of great carb cycling videos on youtube. Conscious eating, clean eating and meal planning all important.

sijomial

Dwalmz73 wrote: »

Thanks everyone
I am really looking to lose the last 40 lbs I have to lose. My cousin is a weight lifter and suggested this. I like the mix up. I think the restrictive carb days aren't going to be bad because it is already what I have been doing for a long while. Lots of veggies and protein and some healthy fats. Mixing up two high carb days during more intense training (leg days and more cardio/fat burn zone activity) I am hoping will stimulate my metabolism to burn more. I am increasing now from 4 work out days to 6. My rest day is Saturday. I like to generally do hiking and yoga class on the weekends. I watched a couple of great carb cycling videos on youtube. Conscious eating, clean eating and meal planning all important.

Your hopes are misplaced as regards metabolism.
Fat burning zone for cardio doesn't achieve what you seem to think (and likely to be counter-productive as it will mean you burn less calories typically).
"Lots of veggies" = carbs.
Clean eating seems to have a 1001 meanings.

Don't lose sight of it's your calorie deficit that burns fat, not your exercise intensity, not clean eating.

Be cautious of what you find on YouTube - often it's more entertainment than science.

If carb cycling helps you with adherence to your long term calorie goal then great, don't expect any benefits beyond that apart from perhaps supporting your exercise better.

amusedmonkey

You won't get any magical weight loss results from carb cycling, but if you like the idea of it and think you would enjoy the process, here is what you can do:
1. Add an example day of what you would like to eat on a higher carb day, a best scenario day you expect you would enjoy. Just add the foods to an empty MFP day and see what a high carb enjoyable day would look like for you. If it also happens to be higher in calories than your usual budget, note by how much.
2. Now see by how many calories (if any) it was over your budget, multiply by 2 then divide that by 5.
3. Set your higher carb/calorie days to the amount of carbs/calories in your example day, and the calories for your low carb days to usual budget minus the number you got from step 2, you can set the carbs to your usual carbs (since you are already eating low carb).
4. Now you can delete the foods from that example day to log your actual food.

P.S: don't forget to take the extra activity you're planning to do into account when calculating calories to avoid undereating.