Training ·
Cycling of Carbohydrates for Body Fat Loss
When people hear the term low carbohydrate dieting they immediately cringe and think you’re crazy to follow such a diet. There are a few reasons for this adverse reaction.
Processed Carbs
First we live in a world full of cheap processed carbohydrates. They are ever so assessable and can be very addictive. Typically their macronutrient breakdown is not just high in carbohydrates but will also be high in fats, and or sugars. People automatically assume that if you eat lots of carbohydrates you will increase your body fat, when in fact it’s the high fat and sugary foods that increase body fat. If you want to test this theory, stop drinking regular soda for a few weeks and see how much weight you WILL drop. Excessive sugar intake into the body causes your body to store sugar which indeed will convert to fat.
Energy Source
Second carbohydrates are our bodies preferred source of energy so when they are dropped, our bodies initially will lose energy. You feel groggy and tired as your body goes through withdraws. This experience has often been compared to a person who has physical withdraws as they stop consuming illegal drugs, or nicotine. I always laugh and say my first week of low carbohydrate dieting is my bi polar week.
Why does it work?
So again why would you use this method to lose weight? The reason low carbohydrate dieting works so well is because instead of using carbohydrates for fuel, your body then begins to teach itself to burn body fat for fuel instead. Sure low fat higher carbohydrate diets work and you are able to lose body fat using this method, but with low carbohydrate dieting the fat loss is a much quicker route.
Implementation
Typically carbohydrates cycling will have low, medium, and high carb days. Another method is carbohydrate timing, meaning you would consume the majority of your carbohydrates before and after your workout because that is when your body will utilize them. Before a workout I would chose a fast digesting carbohydrate that my body can digest and utilize right away. A great example would be a banana. I might choose another source post workout such as pixie sticks or gummy bears which are also fast digesting.
For myself I will go a week on really low carb days and then once a week reboot their metabolism with a higher carbohydrate day, refilling my bodies muscle glycogen.
Carbohydrate sources that should be abundant in your diet are greens. They aren’t full of vitamins and help increase fat loss.
Calculators
How many carbohydrates should I eat? There are a ton of different free calculators out there to help you decide what your numbers should be when cycling carbs. I would recommend using Bodybuilding.com carb cycling calculator or you can google Carb Cycling calculator and there are a million more you can chose from.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is that if you chose to go this route, you do it slowly. When you give your body time to adjust you will retain more muscle mass through the process of losing body fat.
Processed Carbs
First we live in a world full of cheap processed carbohydrates. They are ever so assessable and can be very addictive. Typically their macronutrient breakdown is not just high in carbohydrates but will also be high in fats, and or sugars. People automatically assume that if you eat lots of carbohydrates you will increase your body fat, when in fact it’s the high fat and sugary foods that increase body fat. If you want to test this theory, stop drinking regular soda for a few weeks and see how much weight you WILL drop. Excessive sugar intake into the body causes your body to store sugar which indeed will convert to fat.
Energy Source
Second carbohydrates are our bodies preferred source of energy so when they are dropped, our bodies initially will lose energy. You feel groggy and tired as your body goes through withdraws. This experience has often been compared to a person who has physical withdraws as they stop consuming illegal drugs, or nicotine. I always laugh and say my first week of low carbohydrate dieting is my bi polar week.
Why does it work?
So again why would you use this method to lose weight? The reason low carbohydrate dieting works so well is because instead of using carbohydrates for fuel, your body then begins to teach itself to burn body fat for fuel instead. Sure low fat higher carbohydrate diets work and you are able to lose body fat using this method, but with low carbohydrate dieting the fat loss is a much quicker route.
Implementation
Typically carbohydrates cycling will have low, medium, and high carb days. Another method is carbohydrate timing, meaning you would consume the majority of your carbohydrates before and after your workout because that is when your body will utilize them. Before a workout I would chose a fast digesting carbohydrate that my body can digest and utilize right away. A great example would be a banana. I might choose another source post workout such as pixie sticks or gummy bears which are also fast digesting.
For myself I will go a week on really low carb days and then once a week reboot their metabolism with a higher carbohydrate day, refilling my bodies muscle glycogen.
Carbohydrate sources that should be abundant in your diet are greens. They aren’t full of vitamins and help increase fat loss.
Calculators
How many carbohydrates should I eat? There are a ton of different free calculators out there to help you decide what your numbers should be when cycling carbs. I would recommend using Bodybuilding.com carb cycling calculator or you can google Carb Cycling calculator and there are a million more you can chose from.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is that if you chose to go this route, you do it slowly. When you give your body time to adjust you will retain more muscle mass through the process of losing body fat.