Thread: TP's Carb Cycling

Hi Cindy. What kind of plateau have you hit? Just bodyfat loss stall or both that and a strength loss? When you say plateau, has it been a while since you lost a pound or two?
Describe your diet too. Also your physical stats would be helpful too.

Carb cycling is great. There are lots of ways to set it up. I've done the more instinctual form that Twin Peak wrote about and I loved it. If you don't like to micromanage your diet its a great way to go about things. Of course counting and planning stuff out is always going to give you more consistent results because you know exactly what is going in and how you can tweak it to keep progress going but the time/effort isn't worth it for everyone.

I'm not aware of any additions to the plan but I'm also not really hip to all the different BB'ing forums anymore, I only frequent like 2 and sometimes a 3rd here and there. Someone that is more of a forum whore would probably be able to help you more.

the best way for me to diet has been to do a PSMF into a UD2. I've helped several people do this and depending on your conditioning, I can help if you want. I did carb cycling for a long time. I thought it was the end all be all of dieting, but Lyle's ways have really made a massive difference in how I do my precontest and cut dieting.

Thanks for responding so quickly!

I'm 39 yr, 5'7", 160 lbs, 18% BF, not petite by any means, and not stuck on the scale number either.....tend to gain muscle easily. I'm wanting to lose that last bit of Goo left, the kind that thinks you won't survive without it!

I w/o 6 days a week.......3 lifting and 3 core/cardio type w/o's. Actually one of those so-called cardio days is Plyometrics....lots of jump traing so my legs are on fire the whole time from lifting my body weight. Abs are worked as well, and not the same way, lots of variety. I lift in the 8-10 range, as heavy as I can. I do Legs/Back, Shoulders/Arms, Chest/Back, Back/Biceps, Chest/Shoulders/Tris, Power Yoga, Kenpo Karate, Stretching. Anywhere I can add weights I do. I am no bodybuilder by any means but maybe someday. I have 4 kids to raise too.

My diet is very clean. Basically it wasn't difficult to start TP's carb cycling because everything on his lists were stuff I already ate. I'm not really counting cals right now, but was eating between 1600-1800 cals a day. It varied because of my recovery drink after weight days. Just not seeing inches, or more like pant sizes decreasing and it's been a few months now. Hence the start on carb cycling......a change.

WOW, you're my height but I'm 19% at 140 lbs - you're lean! And with that much lean mass - DAMN.

<jealous>

You must look great. At 18% I've got visible delt veins - I could die right now if I had visible delt veins and an extra twenty pounds of lean mass!

Where do you carry fat - all over, pear, apple? You can't have very much left on you by this point.

I'll mention this because nobody else has - the plyos, you might want to back off on those while you're cutting. Too many foot-strikes, you'll get injured.

Trust the old woman, believe me, I've done this myself.

OMG!! If your avatar is Really what you look like Miss Moderator, then my BF% is just a tad off. I have a modest 4-pack going on but nothing like your abs. I used an online calculator....punched in my waist(28"),height, weight, etc.......Dang. When I was at 17% BF, I still had quite a bit of junk in the trunk and thighs. That seems to be where I store fat, my upper body leans out and builds muscle easily.

I am 14% bodyfat in my avatar and my profile. I had this confirmed by DEXA.

You and I carry it the same way.

Given this, at 18% you should have bicep veins that are visible most of the time, and delt veins popping when you train.

I got fat as hell doing high volume training on my former lowfat "clean" diet. <shudders>

Can I impose upon you to read the link in my sig on "getting started" (even though you're not, just humour me) and get some macronutrient data posted up?

How heavy can you squat, deadlift and bench press for five reps? This will give me an idea as to your conditioning.

PS MONSTER props to you for doing all this AND taking care of the four babies you delivered. Most impressive.

Originally Posted by Built

PS MONSTER props to you for doing all this AND taking care of the four babies you delivered. Most impressive.

I second this. I think hearing your progression in the following weeks will be very interesting.

Okay guys.

I don't go to the gym, or I should say that my husband let me have the garage for my "gym", so that's where I go. I don't have a weight bench, yet, so that means no bench presses......no bar, so no dead lifts, but I squat with 40 lbs for 20-25 reps. I probably could up my weight and lower my reps, but I've been wanting leaner not bigger. I do have visible veins in my arms and have nice rounded shoulders.

Before carb cycling a typical days meals would be:
I never kept track of grams of anything before.
#1) 1 cup cooked old fashioned oatmeal (150 cals)
1 apple (80)
1 cup 1% cottage cheese (160)

#2) 1 cup non-fat yogurt (120)
1 cup blueberries (approx 90 cals)

#3) 6 oz chicken breast (200)
3 cups spinach (30)
1 cup mixed salad veggies (50)
3 oz. avocado (120)
2 tbs bals. vinegar (30)

#4) 1 tbs nat PB (100)
celery stix

#5) 6-8 oz chicken, pork loin, tuna, or egg whites
lots of veggies
- If I weight train then I usually follow up with a recovery drink that has a 3-1 carb to protein ratio.(220 cals) This is about a 50/30/20 percent diet.

My babies are 17, 15, 13, and 11 now! I'm not stuck at home changing diapers anymore! But On the day I delivered each one of them I weighed 220 lbs!! What a wake up call! I'm glad I was unaware of Bf% back in those times.....I shudder to think what mine would have been!

I lost 50 lbs doing a sudo Atkins style diet. But I'm afraid I lost alot of muscle in the process, because working out wasn't anything I was interested in. I tried to do it with diet alone. That was 7 or so years ago and I've read everything(well not really) I could get my hands on about metabolism (John Berardi's a fav) and how the body processes food. Nutrient Timing is another great read. It is a process!!

Originally Posted by Cindy Lewis

I don't go to the gym, or I should say that my husband let me have the garage for my "gym", so that's where I go. I don't have a weight bench, yet, so that means no bench presses......no bar, so no dead lifts, but I squat with 40 lbs for 20-25 reps. I probably could up my weight and lower my reps, but I've been wanting leaner not bigger.

Just an FYI, heavy lifting is what you want on a cut. It's the deficit from your diet that is going to make you drop fat - the heavy lifting lets your body know that "hey, I need this muscle to lift this heavy ass weight so I better not burn it off".

Indeed. One of the great myths out there is that heavy lifting makes you bigger.

It doesn't.

Eating makes you bigger. Heavy lifting makes you HARDER.

heavyass lifting with heavyass eating turns you into Built.

Upping my weight as we speak.

atta girl

According to TP's program, 1 gm. protein per lb of body weight, not LBM, correct? If I'm reading that correctly, I've been taking 160 and dividing it by 6 to come up with roughly 26 gm per meal. This number changes as BF goes down, doesn't it?

High carb days I don't count carbs, but only eat till I'm satisfied because I HATE to feel uncomfortable. A typical High day has 2200 cals.

Low carb days are 1 gm per lb of body weight also, but spread over 3 meals......so that works out to 53 gm per meal. I generally have starchy carb meals before and after a w/o. A typical Low day is around 2000 cals.

No carb days are just that, except for green veggies. Cals around 1000-1200.

I do a NO-High-Low rotation......over 7 days it leaves me with 2-Highs, 2-Lows and 3-No's. Weekly avg. of 12,000 cals , and daily avg. of 1714.

I think I have everything in order......have read the program enough to take a test! LOL

Chest/Back day- push-ups and pull-ups. Pull-ups are mostly assisted.....can only do 3 un-assisted, but when I started, got Zilch, so some progress. Push ups are to failure, 12 different ways......oh the burny burn!

Why to failure?

I guess I should rephrase the "to failure".........till my chest muscles are burning on the last 3 or so. Isn't it the "burn" you're looking for?

The first round is kinda-sorta a warm up because I stop before I hit my max's. The second time through is all out to failure. I guess I just thought you just did as many as you could.

Lots of people do that, I can see why you'd think it might be important.

What I personally think of as important is to have a clear idea of what it is that you want, and then take the SPECIFIC steps that will bring you toward that goal.

So, if your goal is to be able to do a hundred pushups, then by all means keep going.

If your goal is to tighten up your boobs, get a boob job - it can't be done through exercise.

If your goal is to lose weight, eat less food. Figure out a way to do this and not mind if starving isn't your thing.

If your goal is to harden up while you lose weight, lift stuff that's heavy enough that your body understands that you intend to keep the muscle, even though you're slowly "starving".

Training to failure or until you feel the burn won't do this.

that was well put.

Got the boob job covered!

Makes sense Built.....thanks. So is TP's cycling a load of crap or worth the exploration?

Getting back to being specific - what is your purpose for applying a carb-cycling strategy to your diet? I can tell you that for me, by far the greatest advantage is "comfort" - carbs are helpful for lifting, but they make me hungry. I eat more carbohydrate - and more calories - on my lifting days than on the rest days. Makes it easier to undereat - on average - and not mind.

If you'd like me to suggest something, tell me your lean mass, your approximate maintenance calories, the approximate mix of protein carb and fat you generally find comfortable at maintenance (grams plese, not percentages), the number of days a week you intend to lift and how much weight you feel you need to drop. I can make a suggestion to help you find your high and low days.

Originally Posted by Built

Getting back to being specific - what is your purpose for applying a carb-cycling strategy to your diet? I can tell you that for me, by far the greatest advantage is "comfort" - carbs are helpful for lifting, but they make me hungry. I eat more carbohydrate - and more calories - on my lifting days than on the rest days. Makes it easier to undereat - on average - and not mind.

If you'd like me to suggest something, tell me your lean mass, your approximate maintenance calories, the approximate mix of protein carb and fat you generally find comfortable at maintenance (grams plese, not percentages), the number of days a week you intend to lift and how much weight you feel you need to drop. I can make a suggestion to help you find your high and low days.

You really need to write a book.

If I spotted a book on the shelf at the local book store that had a picture of your avatar as the cover, I'd buy it just to have it sitting on my desk so when customers came in they would say "wow who is that and where can I get a copy".

Hmmm... noted.

nah...if you look on Builts blog, her butt shot really kicks your ass.