Carb Cycling for Idiots
by Mike Roussell
Building Mass while keeping your abs. That's
the holy grail of bodybuilding, isn't it? Everyone wants to get huge
but stay lean, but getting lean is damn hard work for most people. For
natural physique enthusiasts the old paradigm of bulking over the
winter and leaning out for the summer can be a recipe for disaster as
too much fat is laid down during the winter, often causing your
muscular definition to suffer so you end up looking like a "fat guy
with big forearms." Let me save you from that fate.
Summer's long gone, but that's no reason to lose the beach body. Adopting
a cyclic approach to your nutritional plan is a surefire way to keep
you lean but get you big. When using a cyclic approach to dieting, the
two most common variables that are manipulated are time of the cycle
and nutrients being cycled. In regards to carb cycling, the
cycles are usually a couple of days long and carbohydrates and calories
are cycled. When cycling your carbs/calories you usually intersperse
higher carb days into your week based on when you train. These higher
carb days are also higher calorie days. I believe this
cycling of carbohydrates in relation to your training is a good idea
and should be structured into most of your nutritional plans. (I'll
outline specific plans later.)

When To Cycle? If you need to lose a lot of weight, then carb cycling isn't for you. If you need to put on a large amount of muscle (>15-20 pounds), then carb cycling isn't for you. Carb
cycling is for someone who's lean already and who wants to pack on more
muscle at a slow and steady pace. If you have a lot of weight to lose,
then you're better off dieting down first. If you have a lot of muscle
to pack on your frame, then focus on taking in lots of calories. Focus
solely on one as you'll get faster results than if you try to carb
cycle your way to a massive (or lean) physique. Carb cycling should be
thought of as fine-tuning.

Carb Cycling for Mathematicians Now
that we've laid out the basic structure and pin pointed the people
that'll benefit the most, let's get into the details. This would
normally be the part of the article in which I give you very specific
gram/pound body weight recommendations for carbohydrates on the various
low/moderate/high carb days...but I'm not going to. This is Carb Cycling for Idiots, remember? Not Carb Cycling for Mathematicians.
I deal with a lot of real world people: business professionals, college
students, people with families, etc. These people don't have the time
to figure out that on Monday they need to eat 0.5g of carbs per pound
and on Tuesday they need to eat 0.75g of carbs per pound, etc. They
don't have that kind of time. Practicality trumps everything
for these people. People need to be focused on results, not how much
time they can spend making a meal plan to get those results. It's
important to remember that counting calories and being very specific
about which nutrients cross your lips doesn't make you advanced.
Results are what matters. The best way to elicit a desired
nutritional result without having to worry about counting calories is
to focus on food selections. In this case, I'm talking about starchy
carbohydrates — rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, whole grain pasta, etc,
etc. These foods are high in carbohydrates and calorically dense
compared to their vegetable counterparts. We're
going to exploit this difference to allow you to keep your six-pack
while you pile on so much beef onto your frame you'll need to turn
sideways to walk though a doorway. Here's the plan (and it is
so simple you can start tomorrow). You're going to consume protein and
fruits/vegetables every meal. Your fat intake is going to be inversely
proportional to your starch intake, meaning if you eat lots of starches
at a meal then your fat intake should lower. If you don't eat any
starches then your fat intake is higher. As I mentioned above,
ability to cycle carbohydrate intake is going to be purely dependent on
your starch intake. There are 4 types of days in this model No Starch
— This is obvious, you just don't eat any starches. Your carbohydrate
intake will be entirely made up of fruits and vegetables. Low Starch — You'll have starches during your workouts and in the first meal following your workout. Moderate Starch — You'll have workout starches and starches at your first two meals following your workout. High Starch — Breakfast starches, workout starches, and starches at your first two meal post workout. Now
if you use the "starch cycling" approach, your weekly nutrition plan
will look like the following, depending on whether you're doing full
body training or some kind of upper/lower split training:
Full Body Training Sunday: Off — No Starches Monday: Full Body — High Starch Tuesday: Off — No Starches Wednesday: Full Body — High Starch Thursday: Off — No Starches Friday: Full Body — High Starch Upper/Lower Split Training* Sunday: Off — No Starch Monday: Upper Body — Moderate Starch Tuesday: Lower Body — High Starch Wednesday: Off — No Starch Thursday: Upper Body — Moderate Starch Friday: Lower Body — High Starch Saturday: Off — No Starch *The
upper days are allocated moderate carbs, but if you want to focus on
improving the muscles of your upper body then allocate the high carb
days to your upper body workout days and moderate carb days to your
lower body workout days.
If you're using
body part splits, then use the Low Starch days for smaller muscle
groups (e.g. arms). A shoulder day would warrant moderate starch while
chest, back, or legs need to be on high starch.

Wrap Up As
you can see the starch cycling plan that I've outlined is extremely
simple in that you don't need a calculator, you don't need to count
calories, and you can start tomorrow. It's so simple even a caveman
could do it.

About the Author
Mike Roussell
is sports nutritionist currently a nutrition doctoral student at
Pennsylvania State University. For more information about Mike and to
get the free Top Secret Fat Loss Strategies Special Report visit http://www.NakedNutritionGuide.com.



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