Cycle Your Carbs For A Leaner Body Inspired by Nick Cheadle, Fitness Consultant

CARB CYCLING. will help you lose fat and keep your energy higher than usual.

WHAT IS IT? Process of cycling carbohydrate intake throughout the week, in order to better suit your lifestyle & personal preferences. Typically used more so for cutting/ maintaining than bulking or gaining weight.

BENEFITS massive psychological & motivational boost through the addition of a controlled higher carb/ calorie day (without jeopardising your progress) & also makes socialising & eating out easier considering the larger carb/ calorie budget for the day.

Recent science suggests benefits are more psychological than physiological.

While carbs are muscle-sparing & can boost levels of metabolism-boosting hormones such as leptin & T3, increasing them in a cyclical nature may have this effect, but whether 1-2 days of higher carbs is enough to do this is still up for debate.

Likely irrelevant when in a surplus. Most people definitely have more energy when eating more carbs, so it’s likely you’ll be able to train harder & lift heavier on your high carb days - hence why it might be an idea to incorporate them on your hardest training days or when you train a muscle group you wish to improve.

Crucial to understand that despite the cyclical nature of your diet, you must be in a calorie deficit over the course of time to burn fat & a calorie surplus in order to build muscle.

The process of simply cycling your carbohydrate intake neither promotes fat loss nor muscle building in itself.


GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR HIGH CARB DAYS

✅ Reduce protein intake slightly.
✅ Increase carbs by roughly 50-100%.
✅ Consider lowering dietary fat in favour of more carbs whilst keeping in mind your weekly calorie intake.

Provided your weekly calories are in line with your goals (cutting/ bulking etc), it doesn't matter how you end up structuring your days. 

Work it into what you prefer.
If you consistently go out for a big meal on a Saturday night, allow additional calories for every Saturday by reducing your intake on other days.

Nick Cheadle Fitness is based in Australia and can be found online. Lots of great articles and coaching.