Changing to a Carb Cycling Diet

[tallcall]

Here is my idea, I got the macros from fitday - I don't know about the vitamin content yet but I do use fish oils (3 per day) and multi-vitamins.

Breakfast:
3 Large Eggs ???
1 Cup Cottage Cheese ???
1 Banana ???
4 slices of Ham ???

Meal 2:
Apple Sauce ??? Mix in 1 scoop Protein powder
Protein Shake ???
7 Baby Carrots ???

Meal 3:
1 Medium Pita???
4 Slices of Turkey ???
1 Slice of Cheese ???
1 Cup of Yogurt ???

Meal 4:
1 Apple ???
1 Granola Bar ???

Meal 5:
1 Chicken Breast ???
½ bag of frozen veggies ???
Salad ???
Dressing ??? Light

Meal 6:
1 Cup Cottage Cheese ???
30 grams of chopped Walnuts ???

According to FitDay ???
Calories: 3079, Carbs: 323 grams (40% - reduced starchy carbs), Fat: 95 grams (29%), Protein: 235 grams (32%)


This pretty much mimics my normal diet (I was just told to remove the starchy carbs like Bread, Rice, and Cereal and replace it with meat, eggs, fruits, and veggies).

This is my first time doing this, so any help is appreciated.

I am 6 feet 10 inches tall, and weigh 283.5 pounds. My plan is 2 low carb (starchy carb) days, followed by 2 high carb days, 1 low carb (possibly no carb) day, then 2 more high carb days.

I probably got this all wrong, so I would appreciate it if someone would lend me a hand!

 

[Yanick]

Where is the cycling part? You have a one day meal plan there, and it looks like a med to high carb day depending on your metabolism. Where are you no and low carb days? I don't know if you have the concept of the carb cycling diet down really, have you read the articles by Twin Peak? If you google carb cycling by Twin Peak you'll find em.

I did a somewhat carb cycling diet a while ago when i had time to really diet and it worked great. Best part is that he tells you not to count calories/carbs and makes it pretty simple to follow.

 

[tallcall]

Where is the cycling part? You have a one day meal plan there, and it looks like a med to high carb day depending on your metabolism. Where are you no and low carb days? I don't know if you have the concept of the carb cycling diet down really, have you read the articles by Twin Peak? If you google carb cycling by Twin Peak you'll find em.

I did a somewhat carb cycling diet a while ago when i had time to really diet and it worked great. Best part is that he tells you not to count calories/carbs and makes it pretty simple to follow.

Trust me, this is a low carb day for me. My other days have 2 cups of cereal, 2 slices of whole wheat bread (can't find anything better within my budget), and brown rice. Another thing to consider is that I have to be awake most days for 18-20 hours so there is a very high demand for energy (damn crazy work schedule - I HATE the Holidays!).

Plus, my trainer is encouraging this to help transition into a stricter way of dieting. - I think.

I did read those articles, but had to make some of these changes to accommodate for my needs.

 

[tallcall]

This should give people an idea of my high and low carb days - there is no plan yet for a no carb day (I'm trying to ease into this).

FitDay Nov 4 (High Carb) and Nov 5 (Low Carb)

 

[tucker01]

Your carb choices are poor.

Meal 4 isn't a meal.

Each meal should contain protein. So if you are aiming for lets say 240 g of protein a day, and you are eating 6 meals a day then you should be getting 40 g of protein at each meal.

I would gear your carb meals around your workouts, and early in the day.

Fats should come from healthy fat sources.

 

[tallcall]

I don't think I entered things into FitDay right, I have 146 grams of carbs today (I looked all of it up off the food labels this time, I've done it before too and I know this is less than before - 323 grams of carbs was a little high), and 202 grams of protein (I forgot to get the fats information). I have to estimate (for now) that my carbs are about 200 grams lower than on my normal High carb days.

Iain, I think moving my yogurt down to meal 4 will help some. I could also move the meat from meal 1 to meal 4. That gives me approx 36-40 grams of protein per meal. I'm also not going to mix protein with apple sauce ever again (chocolate protein mix and apple sauce do not work well together ).

 

[tucker01]

HAve you read this article?

Carbohydrate Cycling by Twin Peak

 

[tallcall]

HAve you read this article?

Carbohydrate Cycling by Twin Peak

It is a very good article, I'm just starting to go crazy trying to understand all of it. I must require 46 grams of protein per meal (6 meals a day) to hit 280 grams (how the heck do I do that? I don't even do that now). Fats are probably ok, but the carbs need to be reduced even more (this is where I'm still having a hard time - I must have to eat a whole lot of meat with every meal to get the protein and keep the carbs low - is there a sale on Chicken anywhere ?).

I'm probably thinking about this way too hard, I'm going to see if anyone around here can give me a hand just to kind of walk me through some of it (it's not easy to do that kind of thing on line anyways).

Slowly going crazy.....

 

[tucker01]

You are making things too hard.

an 8 oz piece of Chicken, fish, or beef should be close to that amount of protein.

Carbs will vary on the days. No day, is obviously only fibrous veggies. Low day is equal to 1 g of Carb per lb of BW. High Day is eating Carbs till Satisfied. Remember the small piece of fruit with the identified meals, as that helps refill liver glycogen with fructose, and also provides a full feeling.

Fats should be from lean sources in your food, and then supp with the likes of fish oil or something other n3 source.

Once you get some meals figured out it becomes a piece of cake. Remember it is just a guideline. You can make adjustments to suit your needs, however I wouldn't do anything to drastic to the template until you have been using it for a while.

 

[tallcall]

You are making things too hard.

an 8 oz piece of Chicken, fish, or beef should be close to that amount of protein.

Carbs will vary on the days. No day, is obviously only fibrous veggies. Low day is equal to 1 g of Carb per lb of BW. High Day is eating Carbs till Satisfied. Remember the small piece of fruit with the identified meals, as that helps refill liver glycogen with fructose, and also provides a full feeling.

Fats should be from lean sources in your food, and then supp with the likes of fish oil or something other n3 source.

Once you get some meals figured out it becomes a piece of cake. Remember it is just a guideline. You can make adjustments to suit your needs, however I wouldn't do anything to drastic to the template until you have been using it for a while.

I think I understand what you're saying, eat some small piece of fruit with at least 4 or 5 meals (I know, over complicating again).

This is all going to take some time to hammer it all down and get used to it.

It looks like I'm going to go for a cycle of no carb, low carb, 2 high carbs, 1 no carb, 2 high carbs since my training days hit in pairs.