High carbs, low carbs, moderate carbs – depending on
who you talk to, you will likely hear one of these
recommendations being touted as the optimal approach to
maximum fat loss. So what's the truth? The truth of the
matter is that there is really no one best way. Each of the
above methods has been used by countless people –
from bodybuilding and fitness competitors all the way to
your every day gym rat – and used successfully at
that. In actuality, how many carbs you are eating is not
the key determinant of your fat loss progress; calories
are. More on that later though. The key to successful fat
loss is paying attention to your body, following a plan
designed for your body and making the necessary adjustments
to your program as your body changes. With that said, a
nutritional strategy that includes both carbohydrate and
calorie cycling in a structured plan built around your
training program could be just what you're looking for.
Let's take a closer look at this carbohydrate issue first.
Truth be told, there are benefits to having a fair amount
of carbs in your diet and there are benefits to keeping
them low. So why not use both strategies? Said in a simpler
way, why not cycle your carb intake, and subsequently your
caloric intake? By cycling your carb intake you get the
best of both worlds. Assuming you keep your protein and fat
intakes relatively constant, and only manipulate your carb
intake, you are automatically cycling calories as well. The
first benefit to doing so is that it keeps your body from
adapting to what you are doing. Your body will always try
to adapt to what you’re doing and the further you
move away from your natural set point, the harder your body
is going to try to pull you right back. This is just in
part related to the regulatory hormone, leptin.
Leptin levels are related to things like insulin, your
caloric intake and your current level of body fat. Think of
it as one of the big “fat-loss decision
makers”. The leaner you are the lower your
circulating levels of leptin are going to be. On the flip
side, under normal conditions, leptin is plentiful.
However, while on sub-maintenance calories, and
particularly on low-carb diets where circulating insulin
levels are low, leptin levels drop and they can drop
quickly. Decreased leptin levels cause a cascade of other
regulatory changes, namely a decrease in thyroid output and
metabolic rate, as well as an increase in catabolic hormone
activity and appetite. In an attempt to become more
efficient, your body will try to adapt to make your newly
lowered caloric intake its new maintenance intake; that is,
it will make the necessary changes needed to do the same
amount of work on less energy. Unfortunately, this usually
means having to continuously lower calories to maintain
fat-loss progress, which inevitably makes it very hard to
hold onto all your hard-earned muscle. None of this sounds
too good does it? There has to be a better way, and there
is. Planned and structured days of high calories and high
carbohydrates may help with this.
As previously mentioned, there are benefits to both
low-carb intakes and to high-carb intakes. When carb intake
is drastically reduced you create a temporarily greater
caloric deficit. In addition, low-carb intakes result in
decreased levels of circulating insulin, increased levels
of the fat-burning catecholamines and therefore a much
heightened rate of fat oxidation. Quite simply, when
insulin levels are low, you create an environment in which
fat is more likely to be used for energy. Low muscle
glycogen, as a result of decreased carbohydrate intake,
obviously results in depleted muscles, but there are
benefits to this as well. Low muscle glycogen tends to
promote a higher rate of free fatty acid burning. Result?
More fat loss.
On the flip side however, most people do not enjoy eating
few carbs for very long. While there are clearly benefits
to doing so, there are other things that need to be
considered. Chronic low-carb intake can actually impair
insulin sensitivity and promote insulin resistance. As
already noted, low-carb intakes result in overly flat,
depleted muscles and gym performance typically suffers.
Throw in a day of high carbs and your muscles fill out, you
find yourself more vascular, your workouts are great, and
you look and feel much better. There is also research to
support the fact that these higher-carb/calorie days may
stimulate leptin production, which as we already noted is
an important player in the fat-loss game. Carbohydrates are
also very protein sparing – meaning they prevent
protein from being oxidized as fuel – which is an
important consideration when muscle retention is a primary
focus.
There are psychological factors to consider as well. How
you feel on a diet is arguably just as important to your
progress as any other variable. There are not too many
people that enjoy looking flat and depleted all the time.
And lets not forget one of the reasons most people can
appreciate – carbohydrates simply taste good.
So to summarize, we want some days where carbohydrate
intake and calories are higher and some days where
carbohydrate intake and calories are lower. The simplest
way to set this is to just cycle your carbohydrates and
calories according to your weekly training schedule. For
example, assuming four workouts per week, you might have
your high days on your two big workouts, medium days on
your two easier workouts, and low days on your off days.
PRACTICAL STEPS There is no one best way to cycle carbs or
calories. In fact, there are many, many different
permutations that can be used successfully. Here is just
one example that you could use as a template. Feel free to
tweak it to suit your needs if necessary.
First off is caloric intake. Determine all the
macronutrient totals (protein, carbs, fat, and calories)
for the medium day and then just let the carbohydrate
intake change the calories for the high and low days. So,
assume the medium day is a standard dieting day. As an
aside, but a valuable note to keep in mind, there are many
different calorie equations you can use – however be
aware that they all have the potential to be off by as much
as 20%. So for the sake of simplicity you could just assume
maintenance to be approximately 15x total bodyweight and
subtract 20-25% to create a healthy caloric deficit.
Remember, if you are not progressing based on your caloric
intake, simply adjust it up or down until progress resumes.
Next up is protein. I am sure we are all in agreement that
we need to eat sufficient amounts of protein when trying to
lose fat and maintain muscle, so set it anywhere from
1.0-1.5g/lb of bodyweight and split it up evenly throughout
the day. You are going to have three carbohydrate intakes
– one for high days, one for medium days, and one for
low days. Carbohydrate intake for the medium days is going
to be set at 1.0g/lb of bodyweight. So now we know our
calories, our protein and our carbs. All that remains is to
figure out how much fat we’re to eat. In this case,
fat simply serves as a caloric ballast. Simply make up the
rest of your calories from fat. Your protein and fat intake
from these days will stay constant throughout all three
days. Carb intake for your high days should be set at
2.0g/lb of bodyweight and finally for your low days it is
going to be minimal as you’re only eating fibrous
vegetables; no starch type carbs at all.
Remember the truth of the matter is that there is no one
best method for fat loss. Carbohydrate and calorie cycling
is just one logical and effective way of approaching it.
Many who opt for this kind of approach find it very easy to
follow as you get a few days a week where you get to eat
some fun carbs, and like I said, who doesn’t like
eating carbs?
----------------------------------------------------
Erik Ledin, B.Kin, CSCS, CISSN, is the President of Lean
Bodies Consulting Inc., an online consulting firm that
reaches globally and specializes in physique contest
preparation, fat loss, nutrition and overall physical
enhancement. He can be reached at
http://www.leanbodiesconsulting.com
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