Carb cycling diets... Thoughs?

**Rictor33** · 11-06-2006, 01:09 PM

I have heard alot of good things about carb cycling diets and their ability to burn fat as well as keep lean mass and how they can be tweaked to either cut or bulk. I am currently doing a carb cycling diet which involves 3 days of low carb (100 carbs/day) for every one day of high carb (250-300 carbs/day) which seems to be very easy to follow. On low carb days my carb intake is in the morning and pre/post workout. Most of the meals involve fish/chicken/lean beef and fibrous veggies. I get around 300g protein on those days (I weigh 213-217 with out around 13% atm). The high carb day means I have a big cheat meal (usually eating out somewhere) and I eat good carbs for the rest of the day in accordance with my protein intake. It's easier to eat more protein on low-carb days than it is on high carb days due to the fact that high carbs kill your hunger. Has anyone else tried a diet such as this? How were your results? Swolecat's opinion on this type of diet? Any critiques out there?

Thanks in advance,
Rictor

**audis4** · 11-06-2006, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by Rictor33

I have heard alot of good things about carb cycling diets and their ability to burn fat as well as keep lean mass and how they can be tweaked to either cut or bulk. I am currently doing a carb cycling diet which involves 3 days of low carb (100 carbs/day) for every one day of high carb (250-300 carbs/day) which seems to be very easy to follow. On low carb days my carb intake is in the morning and pre/post workout. Most of the meals involve fish/chicken/lean beef and fibrous veggies. I get around 300g protein on those days (I weigh 213-217 with out around 13% atm). The high carb day means I have a big cheat meal (usually eating out somewhere) and I eat good carbs for the rest of the day in accordance with my protein intake. It's easier to eat more protein on low-carb days than it is on high carb days due to the fact that high carbs kill your hunger. Has anyone else tried a diet such as this? How were your results? Swolecat's opinion on this type of diet? Any critiques out there?

Thanks in advance,
Rictor

I'm currently carb cycling and it's working very well. I workout mon/tue/thur/fri and my off days are wed/sat/sun. I don't have a 'set' day where I do high carb vs. low carb days....but on the whole, I try and reserve the high carb day for my workout days.
For ex. this week I'm having 2 high carb days, 4 low carb days, a ketosis day, and a carb load day. I go ketosis once about ever 1.5-2 weeks and have a carb up day about every 7-8 days.
I seem to be keeping my LBM and dropping fat.
p.s. you know swolecat isn't a member of AR, right?
btw, my avatar is the day before I started carb cycling (10.16.06) I don't look so pudgy/soft now.

**Rictor33** · 11-06-2006, 01:52 PM

I am thinking about tweaking the workouts on high carb days from week to week. The reason? To attempt to achieve personal bests on those high carb days... eg. Last weeks high carb day workout was legs and this weeks will be chest/tris and next week it will be back/tris. Not to say that I am going to half-ass it on lower-carb days, however. Just that I will be dead set to increase my poundages on high carb days. What do you guys think of this idea?

**audis4** · 11-06-2006, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by Rictor33

I am thinking about tweaking the workouts on high carb days from week to week. The reason? To attempt to achieve personal bests on those high carb days... eg. Last weeks high carb day workout was legs and this weeks will be chest/tris and next week it will be back/tris. Not to say that I am going to half-ass it on lower-carb days, however. Just that I will be dead set to increase my poundages on high carb days. What do you guys think of this idea?

By high carb day do you mean carb up day?

**Prada** · 11-06-2006, 04:58 PM

I did the CKD diet and liked it. I didnt lose to much muscle mass and got leaner. I personally "carb refilled" for around 24 hours. I didnt do any cardio, nor supplements. For me diet makes a hugh difference. If youre eating slightly less protein on "carb up days" then other thats ok. Even somewhat normal