Thread: Carb cycling meal plan

Originally Posted by big_chris

What is your advice on this diet plan for a high carb day? I figured the high-carb day was best on the heavy day for chest and bicep. Is there any food that is missing or that should be taken out?

Basically any advice at all would help a lot. I'll put up my plan for my medium-carb day tomorrow, after I add up all the numbers. Let me know if I left any info out. Thanks.

I've tried both ways with Legs on high carb days and other time with Legs on Medium carb days. By doing large muscle groups the day after the High carb day I felt like I had my ummph due to glycogen stores.

Personally Im not a fan of the bread but no need to take it out if you are getting results. How much fat?

Originally Posted by Jodi

I've tried both ways with Legs on high carb days and other time with Legs on Medium carb days. By doing large muscle groups the day after the High carb day I felt like I had my ummph due to glycogen stores.

Personally Im not a fan of the bread but no need to take it out if you are getting results. How much fat?

When you did your cycle, what was the order? I started on Monday, and it's HI,MED,LO,HI,MED,LO and then when I get to Sunday should I go lo again, or medium? As for the results I'm not sure yet because I only started yesterday haha! If there is a problem, I think it might be too many calories. I made this whole plan myself, and I think I focused on getting close to the right number of carbs that maybe I forgot to cut back on the calories.. The fat I'm not sure actually, not too high though because I use skim, lean chicken, etc.

bump

Chris, you can do this more simply by just alternating between high and low days if you like. What are your maintenance calories, and what deficit are you running for your cut?

Hi,
I like your plan. thanks for posting.

Originally Posted by big_chris

When you did your cycle, what was the order? I started on Monday, and it's HI,MED,LO,HI,MED,LO and then when I get to Sunday should I go lo again, or medium? As for the results I'm not sure yet because I only started yesterday haha! If there is a problem, I think it might be too many calories. I made this whole plan myself, and I think I focused on getting close to the right number of carbs that maybe I forgot to cut back on the calories.. The fat I'm not sure actually, not too high though because I use skim, lean chicken, etc.

I actually did High carb, No carb, Low (under 100g) carb, No Carb. That was my cycle.

A carb cycle can be done however works best for your body. I used a plan that Twin Peak created and we modified it for what worked best for me. You can read his plan just remember it was written in 2003 and things are a bit different now such as not needing to eat 6+ times a day etc...

It could give you some ideas and help understanding a bit more.

Twin Peak's Carb Cycling

Originally Posted by Built

Chris, you can do this more simply by just alternating between high and low days if you like. What are your maintenance calories, and what deficit are you running for your cut?

I've tried to calculate this on a few sites and honestly, I've gotten number between 1950 to 3200 (5 or 6 sites) so I'm just trying to start out my meal plan and hopefully adjust it if someone reccomends something to me or if I see certain results. I'm 6'3, 210 lbs.

Originally Posted by jackanderson

Hi,
I like your plan. thanks for posting.

No problem. I'm posting my medium-card and low-card (almost no-card) days soon, let me know how they are.

Originally Posted by Jodi

I actually did High carb, No carb, Low (under 100g) carb, No Carb. That was my cycle.

A carb cycle can be done however works best for your body. I used a plan that Twin Peak created and we modified it for what worked best for me. You can read his plan just remember it was written in 2003 and things are a bit different now such as not needing to eat 6+ times a day etc...

It could give you some ideas and help understanding a bit more.

Thanks I will check it out.

Chris - maintenance isn't a formula - it varies too much from person to person. You need to track your intake and your weight to figure this one out. For most non-obese folks, it's about 15 times bodyweight - for you, this would be 3000 - 3200 calories a day, so why don't we call it 3200 for now and see if this works.

How much weight are you looking to drop, and over what time period?

Alright that makes more sense. For me, it's not really a set amount of weight but more of a drop in body fat. Maybe to be able to go into the 190's, but it all depends. As for a time period, I'm willing to fully dedicated the next 2 months to this and if by the end it still needs more work then I will take it from there.

By the way, I posted my medium and low-carb days in the diet & nutrition section if you're interested.

-Chris

Originally Posted by big_chris

For me, it's not really a set amount of weight but more of a drop in body fat. Maybe to be able to go into the 190's, but it all depends. As for a time period, I'm willing to fully dedicated the next 2 months to this and if by the end it still needs more work then I will take it from there.

Chris, you weigh 210 lbs and you neither wish to cut not bulk, but you want to be leaner and you want to drop to 190-something pounds. You really need to hammer down what your immediate goal is because until you do, I can only guarantee you one thing: failure to achieve any real results. Merely moving your diet around without changing caloric intake will not make enough of an impact to your physique to make it worth the bother. You will simply need to decide if you're bulking or cutting. From what you're saying, you are trying to lean out a bit, so why not do that first, then stabilize this weight for a few weeks, and then perhaps consider your next phase.

Now. If you wished to drop to 195 lbs, you're looking to drop 15 lbs of bodyfat. It is reasonable to drop about a pound of bodyfat a week, which if your maintenance calories are 3200 a day, you could achieve by dropping down to 2700 a day on average.

If you expected to see your goal in two months, you'd have to drop down to about 2200 a day on average, which is just too much of a deficit for you to run. You don't need to starve to see results.

How about this - we do a modest cut for two months on 2700 calories as an average intake, then re-assess at this time to see what you need to do next.

You should expect to drop about 8-10 lbs of fat, which is a nice goal and won't be so severe as to preclude the possibility that you may even gain a couple of pounds of muscle because you're young, male and pretty much a novice. Us older and more established athletes don't get this luxury anymore - we pretty much either bulk, or cut.

Anyway, how does this sound - reasonable given your current understanding and conditioning?

Ok, I definitely agree with everything you're saying. So instead of just cycling my carbs and letting the calories go, I'm just going to focus on TOTAL calories taken in per day? And yes I think that a slow and steady loss of fat is much more worthwhile than a large cut in calories which is harder to stick to and more prone to muscle loss.

If I can fully understand exactly what this diet would be like, I would be committed to it for the next 2 months.

Okay, I'm only really familiar with a high-carb/low-carb protocol, so I'm going to set something up for you to consider and you can use this to devise your own plan, or follow it as written if you think it suits you.

High carb days
300g protein
100g fat
200g carb

Low carb days
300g protein
100g fat
50g carb

Train four days a week, on the "high" days, and rest or just do steady state cardio such as walking or recreational activities on the low days. This will average you about 2700 calories a day and if our other assumptions are correct, you'll drop about a pound a week of bodyfat.

I'd train two high, one low, two high, two low.

Two upper body days, two lower body days. Train the lower body on the second carb day, so for example:

Monday: chest and back, high carb
Tuesday: quads and hams, high carb
Wednesday: no lifting, low carb
Thursday: shoulders and lats, high carb
Friday; deads and lighter quad work, high carb
Saturday, Sunday: no lifting, low carb

Does this help?

PS repped for asking good questions and giving intelligent thought to what you intend to do for the next two months. This type of behavior is surprisingly rare, especially amongst young men such as yourself.

Thank you; I figure if I'm going to dedicate my time and effort to something, I am going to make it as worthwhile as possible.

So if I understand this correctly, this is the schedule:

mon---high carb
tues---high carb
wed---low carb
thurs---high carb
fri---high carb
sat---low carb
sun---low carb

So I will put together a meal plan to meet the nutrient requirements, but as for the daily calorie intake, how should it be?

Other than that I understand the plan, and pretty pumped to try it out. I need to go to sleep now as i worked out today, but I will check back tomorrow so I can start making this plan. Thanks for all your help.

-Chris

The calories will work out to about 3000 on the high days and about 2400 on the low days - it's easier to control hunger on lower carbs, and this way you get extra calories on the training days, when you're likely to be hungrier - but still average out to about 2700 calories a day on average.

Keep in mind, these are targets, not iron-clad rules. Just aim to be close and you'll do just fine. For instance, you may want less protein and more carb or fat - this is fine, just stick to the calories.

Originally Posted by Built

PS repped for asking good questions and giving intelligent thought to what you intend to do for the next two months. This type of behavior is surprisingly rare, especially amongst young men such as yourself.

Agreed.

Ain't it refreshing?