Carb Cycling

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Leslierussell4134
Leslierussell4134 Posts: 376 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm going to start carb cycling this week. I've talked to the director at my gym and they've recommended a 3-1 plan. Anyone had success carb cycling currently or in the past.
Current starts 5"1 174lbs and working out 5 to 6 days a week for average of 70 minutes per sessions, cardio, HIIT training, and moderate weight for endurance reps...not seeing the pounds melt like they have in the past. I feel great, good energy, eating about 1200 to 1400 calories per day.
What portions of carbs and how often have you eating on carb days?

Replies

  • mohamedahmed07
    mohamedahmed07 Posts: 161 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Carb cycling is one of the absolute best ways to cut/build lean muscle

    on low carb days you go just as if you are on a keto diet, below 50carbs
    moderate carb days you go 100-150 around that
    high carb days 200-300 but make sure it's a good carbs not piece of junk

    because good carbs have less net carbs, net carbs are ( carbs - fibers ) so whole nutritionally dense food with carbs usually have fibers that ends up with less net carbs.

    a classic cycling would be low carb day, moderate carb, high carb then repeat

    I myself do 2 low carbs then 1 moderate then 1 high carb then repeat.

    At the end of the day, do whatever the fvck you wanna do
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    I carb cycle but no where near keto levels (and personally think without supervision that could be dangerous)

    mine came from the RD I work with but basically high medium low - with about 100g carbs difference between high and low (336g and 236g)
  • tyetuia
    tyetuia Posts: 1 Member
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    For me I switch up the amount of complex carbs I eat. One day I don't eat any complex carbs, the next I have only one, the next I have two and I just repeat. It works really well for me.
  • Forest311
    Forest311 Posts: 6 Member
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    I am starting this today. I am doing a low/high/low/high/reward [Friday night pizza night!]/ low/ high. The macros I looked up advised 1g of protein per lb of body weight daily, 50% of cal from carbs on high day, 25% on low day, balance of calories from healthy fats. I got this from the Heidi Powell website "classic carb cycling". Not sure if the macros are where they need to be but I will keep looking online (trying to get my info for free so I am having to look multiple places and then weigh the advice).
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    There is not added benefit from carb cycling (except personal adherence). I was doing it for awhile but dropped it because I was always starving on my low carb days. I did 1g/lb of protein with 2g/bw carbs on high carb days and .8g/bw on low carb days (ended up at 320g on high carb and 130g on low days).

    Now I do calorie cycling but I do high and medium carb days.
  • watts6151
    watts6151 Posts: 905 Member
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    I only carb cycle when under 10%
    Otherwise I see no benefit to it at all

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