Carb cycling low carb day help

[jimm]

Please forgive my stupidity,

I am new to carb cycling infact in the past 2 years iv really eaten anywhere near enough carbs on a daily basis.

Things have changed.

This year I'm on the ball I'm getting a easy 400-500g of carb every day clean carbs aswell! I'm just not 100% on how carb cycling works best? like I said I've never eaten enough carbs therefor I am unaware of how to minipulate them..

So yeah I'm now eating 400-500g o cabs and will see how I get on at this level obviously if i start gaining fat il drop and vice versa.


My problem is how many days a week should I have a low carb day and how low should I go? is 1 day every 4 days enough today I'm not training and I'm not going to go above 100g of carbs?

Problem is alot of my calories were coming from carbs so how can I make up for that? With more fats? Won't having loads of healthy fats on my low
Carb day be bad for me right now I'm on a rest day it's after noon my macros for the day are 2300cals 64g healthy fats, I'm at 150g o carbs because I sneaked a Potatoe in lol and protein is at 233g.. Il get my protein to 300g by the end of the day il have water with my shake instead PWO... Hmm confusing I'm usually hitting near 4000 cal a day now iv upped my carbs? Is it best to have low carb days on rest days?

 

[Powermaster]

Ben talks about it here:

 

[LAM]

do some Internet searches on Lyle McDonald and carb cycling

 

[jimm]

very interesting especislly the link between high protein low carb and depression... iv felt much better sinse getting lots of carbs in i had a low carb day on my last rest day n felt like shit!

 

[sassy69]

Low carb days most likely your body is just starting to notice there isn't its regularly expected amount of carbs, but you haven't switched over to ketosis. Of course you're going to be moody & lethargic. Especially the first couple times. You mostly just need to get used to it. Plan the low carb days for when you aren't training heavy, but give consideration to your 'obligations' - like your work day. There's also a bit of learning to manage your behavior on a low carb day when you're feeling moody or snippy. Just be aware of it and relax.

RE: calorie management during carb cycling.

There are many ways to carb cycle, but the approach I've used for a number of my competitions where I mostly kept my total calories consistent and not at a starvation level - roughly around 1750 cals. Definitely lower than where you are but just saying my carb cycles weren't about starving. Generally I would just exchange cals of carbs removed for the given day, for the same amount of cals in fats.

I'd take whatever is your usual total carbs when you're not doing a carb cycle - take that as your high day. Say if you want to do a 3 day rotation - Hi / Med / Low / Hi / med / low - divide your max total carbs by 3. Hi day = max amount of carbs / Med day = reduce by 1/3 carbs, replace those cals w/ same cals in fat / Low day = reduce by another 1/3, replace those cals w/ same cals in fat / repeat

If you want to go more aggressive, you can add a 4th day where you go w/ zero complex carbs (but keep the fibrous), replace those cals w/ fats.

 

[jimm]

Low carb days most likely your body is just starting to notice there isn't its regularly expected amount of carbs, but you haven't switched over to ketosis. Of course you're going to be moody & lethargic. Especially the first couple times. You mostly just need to get used to it. Plan the low carb days for when you aren't training heavy, but give consideration to your 'obligations' - like your work day. There's also a bit of learning to manage your behavior on a low carb day when you're feeling moody or snippy. Just be aware of it and relax.

RE: calorie management during carb cycling.

There are many ways to carb cycle, but the approach I've used for a number of my competitions where I mostly kept my total calories consistent and not at a starvation level - roughly around 1750 cals. Definitely lower than where you are but just saying my carb cycles weren't about starving. Generally I would just exchange cals of carbs removed for the given day, for the same amount of cals in fats.

I'd take whatever is your usual total carbs when you're not doing a carb cycle - take that as your high day. Say if you want to do a 3 day rotation - Hi / Med / Low / Hi / med / low - divide your max total carbs by 3. Hi day = max amount of carbs / Med day = reduce by 1/3 carbs, replace those cals w/ same cals in fat / Low day = reduce by another 1/3, replace those cals w/ same cals in fat / repeat

If you want to go more aggressive, you can add a 4th day where you go w/ zero complex carbs (but keep the fibrous), replace those cals w/ fats.

thanks i gona try this! do you think i should try it now im bulking its oly febusry i plan on bulking up untill may so think i should start this approach april sort of time? what can i expect from this way of catb cycling drop in bf% i really have never tried a cut before but id love to get down to single figures to see whats there!

cheers for the input sassy!

 

[sassy69]

thanks i gona try this! do you think i should try it now im bulking its oly febusry i plan on bulking up untill may so think i should start this approach april sort of time? what can i expect from this way of catb cycling drop in bf% i really have never tried a cut before but id love to get down to single figures to see whats there!

cheers for the input sassy!

Couldn't tell you anything about your bodyfat or whatever as I only gave an outline of how to do a carb rotation. That's going to be driven by your total cals, macros and training / cardio. You can use it for cutting or for a clean bulk if you match your higher carb days to your heavier lifting days, low carb days to off-training days, etc. If you're cutting obviously you'd probably want to look at how many carbs you actually need and work from that to determine the carb cycle splits.

 

[jimm]

This shit really isn't easy!

Im clean bulking

Macros: 4000-5000 cals a day

Protein : 300g protein

Fats: fat consumption really baffles me


I was under the impression when carb cycling weather cutting it bulking you minimise fat gain (considering a clean diet) ?n

So confusing

 

[jimm]

Sorry forgot to put my macros for carbs : 400-500g