Carb Cycling Diet – sister of low carb diet

Carb cycling diet is a modified variant of a usual low carb diet. Why did it get this name, then? – It’s simple: the key of this diet is constant manipulation with the quantity of consumed carbs. The first, second and third cycle days are low-carb ones: protein consumption amounts 2-3 gr per pound of body weight while carb consumption amounts only 0.5 gr per pound of body weight. The 4^th or 5^th day is a high carb one: carb consumption can amount 2-3 gr per pound of body weight (what comes to proteins – only 0.5 gr is enough). The cycle goes on repeatedly. The result is supposed to be the following: body weight reduces at the expense of fat deposits; muscle tissue percent remains the same.

Approximate scheme:

1-4 days: no carb or  low carb diet (3-5rg of proteins and 0- 0.5 gr. of carbs per pound  of body weight);

5 day: carbs intake (3 gr of carbs and 0,5-1 gr.  of proteins per pound  of body weight).

Why does it work like this? It’s also quite simple. For the first two days the organism works as if in conditions of a usual no carb diet: it switches to self-provision and starts using the most convenient fuel – glycogen. Having used glycogen supplies in the liver and muscles it starts decomposing fats and by the end of the second day this process gains the maximum speed. But it’s no use to go on along the same lines because in this case metabolism rate (and, consequently, fat burning rate) will slow down in a couple of days. It happens because our organism recognizes the situation of carb shortage as life threatening one and tries to preserve ‘precious’ fat deposits sacrificing ‘less valuable’ muscle cells. That is the reason of rapid weight loss in the beginning of a ‘lean’ diet and cessation of its reduction afterwards for quite a long time. But if you ‘urge’ your metabolism on the 4^th or 5^th day by intake of additional carbohydrates your organism will go on using present fat as an energy source and consumed carbohydrates will be spent on replenishment of glycogen supplies.

4(5)-day’s Carb cycling diet doesn’t appear to be the ultimate rule. Some people change this scheme and achieve even greater success: for example, 5 days in a row (from Monday till Friday) they eat no carbs and load the body with carbs on week-ends. You should choose the best the variant that will be the most appropriate for you by means of experiments with diets. No carbs diet together with cycling principle proved to be the most effective means among those that I had tried. It does work!

Strong points of Carb cycling diet

1. You stimulate your metabolism: on the one hand, it doesn’t ‘freeze’ like when sticking to ordinary diets due to regular change of proteins-carbohydrates ratio; on the other hand, muscles are not burned and it means that the necessary substratum to burn fat during trainings remains.
2. Good physical shape: this kind of diet doesn’t prevent you from doing fitness (the best time for gym trainings is the 3^rd-4^th day (ideally – the morning of the 4^th day).
3. Good psychological state: you feel neither sluggish nor sleepy. In addition, the variety of your ration allows you not to feel yourself deprived of all tasty things: on a high-carb day you can pleasure  yourself  with something sweet.

Written by: Dennis Borisoff
© April  2010 www.gymper.com. All rights reserved. Reprint article with link only.