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Carb cycling ?

kms142014
kms142014 Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
The recent “ask a nutritionist “ video did not answer the question. What exactly is carb cycling? A lot of endurance athletes DO use MyFitnessPal

Replies

  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    Carb cycling is basically varying your carb intake each day. For some people this can result in calorie cycling, others might increase other macros to balance it out and keep calories consistent.

    It is more of an advanced technique typically used by those with more experience who want an extra edge in terms of workout performance, adherence and in some cases hormone function (in particular hunger hormones).

    Also the MFP blog is not the greatest source of information, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist since it is not regulated.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,166 Member
    edited January 2020
    At the most basic level, from an endurance athlete point of view. It's eating higher carbs on days you're training and lower on rest days.

    When I am training for a long rowing race I can be out on the water 3-4 times per week for a couple of hours a time and then weight lifting a couple of times per week, this needs a lot more fuel than my non-training routine so rather than my usual moderate protein/fat/carb ratio I tend to increase carbs on training days and protein on rest days. Days running up to the race I'll "carb load" to avoid fatigue on the day.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    It's not eating 650g of carbs while cycling a 200k event is it?
    :smiley:

    Carb cycling is a currently trendy weight loss diet method but also as you allude to it has uses in endurance sports to promote better fat oxidation rates etc. etc..

    Agree with @sardelsa the MFP blogs on here are often really poor (maybe slightly above some of the "weird old trick" or "this food might be causing belly fat" type articles that infest the www) - not a reliable source of good information at all.

    You would do better looking for respected information sources within your own sport.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    I do carb cycling with 3 levels of carbs; fat is higher on lower carb days; protein is fixed at 135g

    It helps me with compliance; I also time at least one of my High carb days on rest days for glycogen recovery
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