A cyclical carbohydrate intake for fat loss

There comes a time for almost every exerciser when they want to get defined.

If you already train regularly with weights, then changing your training program probably won't result in a dramatic reduction in body fat. How you train will have the biggest impact on your performance, but how you eat is what will really determine who you look like in the mirror.

In other words, you need to focus on nutrition if you want to get lean and a cyclical carbohydrate intake is one of the most effective approaches you will find.

Cycling your carbohydrate intake means that you vary the amount of carbohydrates and/or calories you consume in a given day.

Bodybuilders have long known that carbohydrates appear to have the most significant impact on body composition of the three macronutrients. As a result, there are hundreds of different approaches to cyclical carbohydrate intake, each of which varies this popular fat loss strategy slightly.

Even though I'm more of a "sets & reps" oriented writer, I have my own variation of cyclical carbohydrate intake. It's a strategy I've used successfully with many athletes including myself. Last year, I reduced my weight from 105 to 85 kilos for a competition using the plan I'm going to present here.

Like my training programs, this plan is not easy but it is simple and straightforward and it works - if you have the discipline to follow it.

The plan consists of the following four phases:

1 - Super Strict

As the name suggests, this is a very strict diet phase. It should be used at the beginning of a diet as a kick start or at the end of the diet as an effective way to lose that last bit of fat. This is a tough, brutal diet and, as I will explain, should only be followed for a short period of time.

During this phase, carbohydrates are the most restricted: You are allowed 50 grams of carbs per day and the significant majority of those carbs must be consumed in the form of vegetables. No traditional starches or sugars are allowed during this phase.

2 - Normal

This is the main phase of this plan. It is low in carbohydrates and high in natural protein and fat. You are allowed to eat 100 grams of carbohydrates per day, most of which are consumed in the form of vegetables, with a small amount of fruit and starch allowed, but no junk food.

One of the reasons I call this phase "Normal" is because I want to change people's mindset. Many people believe that high-carb days are normal and that we should eat 500 to 600 grams of carbohydrates a day. Carbohydrates are not evil, but you still have to earn them through activity. Most people are quite physically inactive and so their carbohydrate intake should be limited.

In the new nutritional mindset, a low-carb diet should be "normal" and higher carbohydrate intake should be seen as a wasteful binge.

3 - High carbohydrate

Low carbohydrate intake is good for fat loss but often not ideal for performance. Most readers will be training hard and heavy, so an occasional carbohydrate boost is necessary and this is where the high-carb day comes in.

On the high carbohydrate days you should consume a large amount of carbohydrates in the range of 400 to 800 grams per day. The purpose of this is to replenish the body's glycogen stores, stimulate an anabolic response through an insulin release and give your mind a break from the moderately restrictive phase of the diet.

The basic idea is to eat a lot of vegetables and add to this an unlimited amount of fruit and natural unprocessed carbohydrates, as well as a small amount of processed carbohydrates if necessary. Carbohydrates from dairy products are also allowed.

4 - Holidays

You can let your imagination run wild on these days. I generally believe in moderation for most things - including moderation of the moderation itself - which is why you can feel free to feast during your vacation. The shock to your system from the intake of nutrients can actually be a good thing if it happens on an occasional basis. You decide on your own vacations (I've listed mine below), but in general it should be less than 21 days per year.

The diet plan phase by phase

(The numbers indicate the number of servings per day for the given food).

Foods	Super Strict	Normal	High carbohydrate	Vacation
Vegetable	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Fruit	0	0-2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Eggs	1-4	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Natural protein	2-4	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Natural fat	2-4	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Cheese	0-1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Milk	0	0-2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Protein Shake	0	0-2	0-4	Unlimited
Nuts	0-1	0-2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Natural starch	0	0-1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Tea or coffee with sugar	0	0-2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Yogurt	0	0	Unlimited	Unlimited
Processed carbohydrates	0	0	0-4	Unlimited
Desserts	0	0	0-1	Unlimited
Processed meat	0	0	0-1	0-4
Sugary drinks	0	0	0	Unlimited
Wine	0	0	0-2	Unlimited
Other alcohol	0	0	0	Unlimited

Foods are listed in order of preference by category:

• Natural Protein: fish (any, but wild caught fish should be preferred), chicken, beef, turkey, lamb. Pork, seafood
• Natural fats: olive oil, organic butter, poultry skin
• Natural starches: sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, oatmeal
• Processed carbohydrates: wraps, pita chips, all types of bread (the more fiber, the better), pasta, popcorn, crackers, granola bars, fruit bars
• Desserts: ice cream, cake, brownies, cookies, candy bars
• Processed meats: breakfast meats, homemade hamburgers, pepperoni sausage, hot dogs, bacon, sausage

Weight loss system

• For rapid weight loss: Follow the super strict phase for 3 to 14 days to promote significant weight loss and then move to the normal weight loss or maintenance phase.
• For normal weight loss: Combine 5 to 6 days of the normal phase with 1 to 2 days of the high-carb phase. If you are losing weight too quickly, add half a day to one more high-carb day. If you are not losing weight fast enough, reduce the high-carb phase by half a day.
• To maintain weight: Combine 4 to 5 days of the normal phase with 2 to 3 days of the high-carb phase.
• To gain weight: Combine 3 to 4 days of the normal phase with 3 to 4 days of the high-carb phase.

I categorize vacations as the following:

• Meals after a competition
• All vacations (up to one week in length)
• The following holidays: Christmas, New Year, Easter, your birthday
• Optional: Your partner's birthday, anniversaries

A concrete example

Below is an example of the food intake for one day of each of the three main phases (I assume you don't need help planning your food intake during vacations / public holidays)

Super Strict	Normal	High in carbohydrates
		Banana and/or tea with sugar after waking up
2 hard-boiled eggs	3 hard-boiled eggs	4 scrambled eggs
1/2 portion of carrots 1/2 portion of peas 1/2 portion of cauliflower 1/2 portion of sliced peppers	1/2 portion of carrots 1/2 portion of peas 1/2 portion of cauliflower 1/2 portion of sliced peppers 1 portion of cheese cubes	1 baked potato with butter and sour cream 1 portion of peas 1 portion of cheese cubes
water	250 ml organic whole milk	1 yogurt smoothie
6 pieces of tuna sashimi - thick	200g chicken breast	1 bagel
1/2 cucumber	1 portion of peas 1 portion of sliced bell bell pepper ¼ portion of Greek pasta 3 cherry tomatoes	120g tuna
One slice of lemon	1 tablespoon olive oil	Tomato slices
water	water	2 slices of cheese
		1 low-fat fruit yogurt
1/2 grilled chicken with skin*	Turkey wrap: 1 thin wrap 120 grams of grilled turkey 2 portions of cheese Lettuce, tomato slices	Chipotle chicken burito with rice and vinaigrette sauce, toppings as desired
2 portions of broccoli	water	water
water
	2 portions of beef jerky	1 protein bar
	water	250 ml organic whole milk
	Tea - with sugar if needed	2 portions of roasted nuts

* As for the skin of the grilled chicken, you should pay attention to what it is coated with. I prefer a homemade version, which consists only of spices. You shouldn't use a spice mix with sugar.

On the high-carb days, you can use pre-workout, intra-workout and post-workout supplements that contain fast-digesting carbohydrates to boost your training performance and speed up your post-workout recovery.

On super strict and normal days, you should only use carbohydrate-free pre-workout, intra-workout and post-workout supplements such as BCAAs, leucine and fast-digesting protein such as whey protein or whey protein hydrolysate.

I assume that only organic eggs from free-range chickens are used and that all dairy products are organic, preferably from grass-fed cows. Most of the rest of the meals can be prepared at home in advance.

On the high-carb days, I try to include foods in my diet that are widely and readily available, although this may come at the expense of choosing the absolute ideal foods.

The good, the bad and the butt-ugly

All diet plans have their pros and cons. I'm not saying this is the only way to achieve fat loss, but I do believe it is a sensible and workable way.

For me, this system has the following pros and cons:

The advantages of the program:

• It's relatively easy to follow. You wake up, you know what day it is and you do your best to stick to the guidelines for that day.
• It works well in real life. If you're out with friends or attending a social event, you make that day a high-carb day. The system also allows you to feast during your vacation. If you're working your butt off day after day in the gym and in the kitchen, then you simply need to let go of the reins occasionally.
• Once you've internalized this system, you can modify it for a number of different goals by increasing or decreasing the number of high-carb days. If you want to gain weight but stay relatively lean, try this plan with 3 to 4 high-carb days. If you are not losing fat at the desired rate, then gradually reduce the number of high-carb days by half a day per week until you reach the desired fat loss rate.
• This program focuses on natural, unprocessed, whole foods, which should be the foundation of any successful diet plan. You can, of course, substitute foods with other foods of equal value - if you don't like poultry, replace it with salmon, etc.
• This program allows cravings and doesn't continually ban them, which can be a test of willpower and won't necessarily make you the most popular person.
• This program works. Enough said.

Cons of the program:

• It can be easy to turn your high-carb day into a full-blown cheat day. You see chips and think "oh, it's a high-carb day" and you eat them, followed by a candy bar, two plates of spaghetti, etc. You can eat a lot of carbs, but they need to be at least reasonably natural and healthy. If you want two baked potatoes with your steak, that's fine, but two portions of chips are not the same.
• Consuming carbs after a few low-carb days can sometimes increase carb cravings instead of reducing them. For me, I've found that the first breakfast after a high-carb day can be tough as I get used to a higher carb intake. The second and third days are easier because I'm not comparing the smaller meal to the big meals of the high-carb day.
• It can be hard to do an intense training session on the low-carb days. The solution to this is to plan your high-carb days so that they fall on the days of your hardest workouts - or at least the day before - so that you have enough glycogen for your workouts. I usually schedule my high-carb days on Mondays and Fridays, but you can plan yours to best fit your training program.
• Your body weight will fluctuate a little more than normal with this plan. It should drop relatively sharply from one low-carb day to the next, but may increase significantly after a high-carb day due to replenished glycogen stores and the accompanying water and salt. However, if you monitor your weight you will see a steady decrease in weight combined with a similar decrease in body fat.

Final words

For me, all the disadvantages are manageable and controllable and are more than outweighed by the benefits of this program. You train hard in the gym and now it's time to show the results of that hard work! If you're frustrated with the results of regular calorie restriction and want to try something new, then you should give this program a chance. You have nothing to lose - except body fat.

By Tim Henriques

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/carb-cycling-for-fat-loss