Carb Cycling Questions

sri87

Hi,

I am a vegetarian currently weighing 165 lbs with 17% body fat. I would like to bring my body fat down to 10% while building some muscle.

I am thinking about trying carb cycling to achieve this.

I had several questions:-

1. Is it even possible to gain muscle on a carb cycling diet ? Is carb-cycling mainly for fat loss rather than muscle gain ?

2. Does one lift weights on high carb days or low carb days ?

3. What is the recommended protein intake to achieve this ?

4. What kind of a carb cycle do I need to follow for this ?
1 day low carb followed by 1 day of high carb OR 2 days low carb followed by 1 day high carb ?

Any advice in this regard would be appreciated.

Thanks.

JustineMarie21

Search Chris Powell, he has a carb cycling program online.

RangerRN507

1: Yes, I have made some of my biggest gains during carb cycling and still use it to this day although I change my routines to keep myself interested and motivated carb cycling is one of my favorite techniques.

2: lift and run etc on high carb days, rest and low carb go hand in hand since you dont need the carbs that day, increase protein and healthy fat intake on rest days to better facilitate recovery.

3: heavily debated topic, the scientifically backed answers suggest people dont need a whole hell of a lot of protein but many athletes like to go with about 1g/lb a day and some people will go as high as 2g/lb a day but that really just boils down to trial and error and find what works best for you, personally I prefer the 1g/lb a day.

4: depends....me...I workout 6 or more times a week so I only have one or two low carb days a week but that may not work for everyone

good luck and feel free to message me if you wanna talk more

JoJo__Fit

If you do carb cycle, increase your carbs when you lift and focus them around your workouts like before & after.
Low carb days are your rest days.

Also 1 - 1.5g of protein for your body weight....165g of protein or increase it to 1.5 X 165

How many days are you working out a week?

so you can have 2-3 high carb, 1-2 moderate and 1-2 low days

Monday Moderate
Tuesday Low
Wednesday High
Thursday Low
Friday Moderate
Saturday High
Sunday Low

Adjust depending on your goals , If you are focusing more on back and legs then those can be your high days for example

Keeping your carbs a bit clean will help you from gaining too much fat, Well that's what works for me

Hope that helps

vanguardfitness

you should look into a cyclic ketogenic diet. I had positive results from that but it is an absolute pain logistically (and socially)