What Is Carb Cycling: How To Guide + Meal Planner

Introduction to Carb Cycling

What Is Carb Cycling: How to Do It + Meal Planner for body recomposition.

Carbohydrates, or carbs for short, are a divisive subject in nutrition.

Depending on who you read or what you choose to believe, you must avoid carbs at all costs, or they are the most essential of the food groups!

It’s no wonder so many people are carb confused!

The thing is, carbs are neither good nor bad.

They have their uses, benefits, and drawbacks.

Most people should avoid nutritional extremes like eating too much or too little carbohydrate, but that doesn’t mean you can’t manipulate your intake to achieve specific effects.

Manipulating your carb intake is called carb cycling.

This brief guide will lift the lid on carb cycling to determine if this approach will help you achieve your fitness or weight loss goals quicker or more efficiently.

What is Carb Cycling?

Most diets recommend precise amounts of carbs.

For the ketogenic diet, dieters must keep their intake to less than 50 grams of carbs per day.

For the standard American diet, carbs make up 60% of your daily calorie intake.

Other diets specify anywhere between 20-70%.

The main thing that all of these approaches have in common is that your carb intake remains stable and doesn’t change.

With carb cycling, your carb intake fluctuates from one day to the next.

You may even eat mostly low-carb meals and just one higher-carb meal per day.

Cycling your carb intake means you can harness this crucial food group while avoiding any potential drawbacks.

Beginner’s Guide to Carb Cycling for Fat Loss – Carb Cycling 101

Is Carb Cycling Good for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain?

The simple answer to this question is yes – it is.

Whatever your body composition goals are, carb cycling can help.

Your body uses carbs for energy.

When you eat carbohydrates, they break down into glucose and then:

Used for instant energy
Stored in your muscles for later (in the form of glycogen)
Converted to and stored as fat (another form of energy)

While instant energy and glycogen are “good” effects of eating carbs, most people want to avoid gaining fat.

By manipulating your carb intake, you can enjoy the energy-boosting effect of eating carbs while avoiding any potential fat gain issues.

For gaining muscle, this means eating more carbs on training days, when you need energy for workouts, and less carbohydrate on the days when you are resting, and when unused, carbs could end up converting into fat.

Carb cycling is also useful for fat loss.

High carb days ensure your glycogen stores are topped up so you have the energy you need to work out, while low carb days avoid the carb overload that could otherwise interfere with fat burning.

What Foods Can You Eat When Carb Cycling?

You can divide the food you eat into three nutrient groups, formally called the macronutrients, or macros for short.

The three macros are:

Fat
Protein
Carbohydrate

Most carb cycling approaches keep your protein and fat intake constant, so all you need to do is adjust your carb intake according to your chosen eating plan.

To do this, you need to know what foods count as carbohydrates.

Carbs are the most abundant food source in most diets, and there are lots of different carbohydrate-rich foods.

The most apparent sources you’ll need to consider (and manipulate) are:

Bread
Rice
Pasta
Potatoes and other starchy vegetables
Fruit, especially bananas
Oats
Breakfast cereals
Baked goods
Confectionary
Processed foods

On a high carb day, you can eat carbs in abundance, but on low carb days, these are foods you’ll need to cut back on.

You don’t need to eliminate carbs, but you will need to deemphasize them in the short term and eat more protein and healthy fats.

Not sure where to start?

No problem!

There is a sample one-week carb cycling meal plan at the end of this article.

Is Carb Cycling Safe?

Some diets are safer than others, and carb cycling can be as healthy as it is useful.

However, to make it as safe as possible, here are a few guidelines to follow:

Don’t binge on carbs on your high carb days – overeating carbohydrates could cause digestive upsets.
Focus on quality carbs – oats, brown rice, veggies, and potatoes are excellent choices, candy, soda, and processed foods are not.
Drink plenty of water – when your body converts carbs into glycogen for storage, it also stores water. Make sure you drink plenty of hydrating fluids to avoid things like headaches and cramps.
Start slowly – start by making small adjustments to your carb intake to see how your body responds. If carb cycling makes you feel unwell, it may not be the right approach for you.
Take it easy on your low carb days – being overly active on your low carb days will use your carbs up before they can be converted to and stored as glycogen.
It could also mean you don’t have as much energy as you need. Take it easy on your lower carb days to get the most of carb cycling.

Guru Mann – How To Carb Cycle for Fat Loss

How to Calculate Your Carb Cycling Macros

If carb cycling has one drawback, it is this; it can involve lots of weighing, measuring, and calculating.

For some people, this is a real drawback!

The good news is you can use cheap or free food tracking apps to do all the math for you, and you can even carb cycle without doing any weighing or measuring.

In terms of macro ratios, most people should stick to these numbers:

High carbs days:

Carbs: 2-3 grams per pound of body weight
Protein: 1 gram per pound of body weight
Fat: 0.25 grams per pound of body weight

Low carb days:

Carbs: 0.25 grams per pound of body weight
Protein 1-1.25 grams per pound of body weight
Fat: 0.5 grams per pound of body weight

Alternatively, you can consume about 50-60% of your calories from carbs on high-carb days, and then cut it down to 15-20% of carbs on your low carb days.

While both of these approaches can work, they are quite labor-intensive, which is why many people just eat “regular” amounts of carbs on high carb days and purposely reduce their carb intake on their lower carb days.

That’s the approach you will find in the sample meal plan below.

How to Do Carb Cycling

To cycle your carbs successfully, you should align your diet to your activity levels.

Ideally, your high carb days should fall on the days you do high-intensity exercise, and your low carb days should fall on the days you rest or only do light training sessions, such as easy cardio, yoga, or go for a walk.

How many high or low carb days should you have?

That depends!

If you are training hard and want to build muscle while losing a little fat, you’ll probably do best with more high-carb days than low-carb days.

For example:

Monday – high carb (train)
Tuesday – high carb (train)
Wednesday – low carb (rest day)
Thursday – high carb (train)
Friday – high carb (train)
Saturday – low carb (rest day)
Sunday – high carb (train)

But, if you are mostly sedentary, or want to lose weight more than you want to build muscle, you may find that more low carb than high carb days works best.

For example:

Monday – low carb
Tuesday – low carb
Wednesday – high carb
Thursday – low carb
Friday – low carb
Saturday – high carb
Sunday – low carb

Choose the approach that you think will work best for you and then modify it based on your results.

If you aren’t gaining muscle, consider adding more carbs to each day or even having an extra high-carb day per week.

Alternatively, if you aren’t losing body fat fast enough, reduce your daily carb intake or have fewer high carb days per week.

Body Recomposition – How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time

Sample One Week Carb Cycling Meal Plan

So, what can you expect to eat on a carb cycling diet plan?

Here’s an overview of a typical week.

Adjust the quantities to match your macronutrient and calorie needs, and also feel free to make food substitutions as necessary.

For example, if you don’t like pasta, you can use rice instead.

Monday – high carb

Breakfast: Oatmeal, chopped banana, orange juice, protein shake

Snack: Rice cakes, tuna pouch, mayonnaise

Lunch: Turkey salad sandwich

Snack: Pita and hummus

Dinner: Baked potato, steak, green beans

Tuesday – high carb

Breakfast: Pancakes, grilled bacon or smoked salmon, maple syrup, pomegranate juice

Snack: Cereal bar

Lunch: Chicken and vegetable stir fry with brown rice

Snack: Trail mix

Dinner: Chicken, turkey or veggie burger, baked sweet potato wedges, side salad

Wednesday – low carb

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, grilled mushrooms, tea or coffee

Snack: Beef jerky

Lunch: Large tuna salad, a small serving of quinoa

Snack: Peanut butter, sliced apple

Dinner: Grilled chicken breast, oven-roasted vegetables

Thursday – high carb

Breakfast: Oatmeal, chopped dried apricots, orange juice, protein shake

Snack: Banana, natural yogurt, raw honey

Lunch: Deli meat or cheese sandwich

Snack: Bagel chips and salsa dip

Dinner: Grilled lamb chops, mashed potatoes, peas

Friday – low carb

Breakfast: Poached eggs, turkey bacon, grilled tomatoes, tea/coffee

Snack: Protein shake

Lunch: Lasagna made with sliced zucchini instead of pasta sheets

Snack: Guacamole and carrot sticks

Dinner: Grilled fish and roasted mixed vegetables

Saturday – low carb

Breakfast: Avocado stuffed with cheese and wrapped in turkey

Snack: Nuts and string cheese

Lunch: Large salad with roasted chicken and sundried tomatoes

Snack: Turkey jerky

Dinner: Stir-fried chicken and mixed vegetables wrapped in lettuce leaves

Sunday – high carb day

Breakfast: Eggs, bacon, hash browns, sprouted grain toast, jam, and orange juice

Snack: Two medium-sized bananas

Lunch: Baked potato, grilled tuna steaks, and a mixed raw salad

Snack: Natural yogurt, granola, raw honey

Dinner: Pasta carbonara, garlic bread, side salad

Remember, this is not a diet you have to follow.

It’s just an example meal plan of what you could eat on a carb cycling diet.

Make sure you create or follow a plan that matches your dietary needs, likes, and dislikes.

That’s the beauty of carb cycling – it’s so flexible!

Carb Cycling for Vegetarians and Vegans

Can vegetarians and vegans do carb cycling?

You bet!

But you’ll need to make some adjustments to your diet to make it work.

Adjusting your carb intake presents no additional issues as most high-carb foods are also plant-based.

However, getting enough protein without adding to your carbohydrate load is a little trickier because many staple plant-based proteins are also high in carbs.

That’s not an issue on high carb days but makes things a little trickier on low carb days.

If you prefer to follow a plant-based diet, replace the animal proteins in the meal plan with any of these low-carb plant-based protein foods:

Tofu
Tempeh
Seiten
Peanuts
Peanut butter
Almonds
Almond butter
Hemp seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Edamame
Plant-based milk, e.g., unsweetened almond milk
Vegan dairy products, e.g., cashew nut cheese and almond milk yogurt
Beyond Meat plant-based meat substitutes
Plant-based protein powders and bars

Nimai Delgado – What A Vegan Pro Bodybuilder Eats In a Day

What Is Carb Cycling – Final Thoughts

Whether you want to lose weight, burn fat, or build muscle mass, alternating between high carb and low carb days can help.

By adjusting the number of carbs you eat to reflect your body composition and exercise goals, you can enjoy the benefits of eating carbs while avoiding most of the drawbacks.

Very low-carb diets can work, but a lot of people end up craving carbs. Cravings often lead to binges and weight gain.

With carb cycling, you don’t have to give up your favorite foods, and that means you should find this eating plan more comfortable to live by in the long run.

The key to successful weight loss and muscle gain is long-term compliance.

The carb cycling method does require discipline and organization but also means you don’t have to quit carbs forever, which makes it an excellent diet for longer periods of time.

What’s Next

Now that you know what carb cycling is and how to do it, you still need to have additional tools for weight loss and body transformation.

Everyone is different, so while carb cycling might work for some, it might not work for you.

Ultimately, you are the scientist for your body, and that requires experimentation to find what eating plan best fits your lifestyle.

Another excellent option is to ‘crowd out’, meaning to focus on a system using real food and strength training, aka the Hashi Mashi plan.

Use these two free guides:

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What Is Carb Cycling: How To Guide + Meal Planner

Introduction to Carb Cycling

Is Carb Cycling Good for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain?