Carb Cycling

[physelite]

Originally Posted by jgriffith

I wouldnt want to have a high carb day and just sit around and rest.

The theory behind this is that you load up your glycogen stores as well as take advantage of the short term spike in insulin and other hormones and then perform cardio, etc on the following days to get yourself back into fat burning mode.

[jgriffith]

I dont want to take advantage of a spike in insulin and other hormones by doing CARDIO, I'd rather be lifting, screw cardio, I just need to do it. Thanks cursor

[physelite]

Originally Posted by jgriffith

I dont want to take advantage of a spike in insulin and other hormones by doing CARDIO, I'd rather be lifting, screw cardio, I just need to do it.

The cardio is done after a carb-up to get you back into fat burning mode more quickly if fat loss is your goal. The carb-ups are used to increase insulin levels to rapdily re-fill your muscles with glycogen, amino acids, etc.

[jgriffith]

So are you saying that I'd want to do cardio at the end of the day? or the day after my high carb day? I really dont get it. All i'm saying is I dont want to store these carbs as fat if there is no way I can expend them.

[kungfu74]

Bump..... had a chance to look through the article curser? I'm quite interested to see what your opinion is here as well?

[dsade]

Let me see if I can get Twin Peak (the author) over here to answer some of your basic questions.

He does a lot of explaining over at ironmagazine.com, but I'll try and get him to pop his head in over here.

[Twin Peak]

Since Matt is a friend of mine:

Originally Posted by jgriffith

This is something I found on another forum on carb cycling. Basically its a high carb, low carb and no carb cycle. Protein is kept the same everyday and is kept fairly high. I am going to be trying this when I return from Jamaica and once I get things in order I will be posting it in a journal.

Here is the link:

Carb Cycling for Cutting pt 1

My question is how should I set up my training to corresponde with the different days? Cursor, you may be able to shed some light on this. This is what I was thinking:

Day 1: Chest/Triceps: High Carb
Day 2: Back/Bicep: Low carb
Day 3: Cardio: No carb
Day 4: Legs: High Carb
Day 5: Shoulders/Traps: Low carb
Day 6: Cardio: No carb

If anyone could shed some insight on this thatd be great.

Actually, this set-up is excellent, so stop worrying.

If you want to tweak it some, take your own advice on page two of this thread, and drop the cardio. Its truly not necessary. And if this set-up isn't dropping fat as fast as you like (a few find it too anabolic) then there are diet alterations that I prefer before adding cardio.

Also, the discussion herein about glycogen depletion, and loading is interesting, albeit a tad off.

P.S. I love Jamaica-mon.

P.P.S. There are a ton of folks, across many boards, who are now experienced Carb Cyclers. Though apparently none here. So give it a whirl, and let me know your thoughts.

I can be emailed at twinpeak@avantlabs.com, if you like, or maybe I'll stick around for a while (if Matt will let me).

[jgriffith]

Thanks a ton Twin, really appreciate it. Just got back and yes, jamaica is "no problem mon". I'll give it a shot without the cardio for a bit and see how it goes. I noticed that no one here has done carb cycling, so I guess I'll be the guinea pig for the rest of the gang. I'll let you know how I feel about it and show you some progress pictures down the road.

[cursor]

I really didn't mean to ignore this thread, I've just been too busy with other personal matters (haven't spent a lot of time on DiscussFitness.com lately). I'm pumped to see that the two-part article's author (Twin Peak) has decided to hook up with us and offer additional perspective.

I'll read through the article today and then provide my perspective on carbohydrate selection, dosage, and cycling with both 1) activity level and 2) companion macronutrients.

[cursor]

Interesting read (Part 1, Part 2, and the Q&A). There are a number of effective ways to "carb cycle". This certainly looks like an interesting rotation: high-carb, low-carb, and no-carb. It'll be interesting to watch your progress jgriffith.

[Edward]

very old thread i know, but was it effective at all jgriffith? im quite interested in this as well.......

[sweetdream]

hmm read through this thread and would like to know the answer too!