How / why is it possible that someone can still lose fat while taking in a fairly large amount of carbs?
The best example I will use is the Carb Cycling Codex by CT.
90% of the time when I see an article on fat loss it talks about low carbs, but this article suggest relatively high carbs even when usuing it to cut.
Someone please explain why the Carb Cycling works even with relativly high carbs. I am very interested in trying the approach but I would like to better understand it.
Thank you!
Carbs do not = fat gain. If you’re expending more energy than you’re intaking (burning more calories than you’re eating) your going to lose fat. Your body will need energy to move around all day, digest food, and to do all it physiological processes. If you’re eating carbs, they will be burnt off as fuel for your body and/or stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen.
By cycling your carbs you’re creating a larger defict of calories on certain days, which puts you in an advantage to burn more fat. The higher calorie days help keep your metabolism as high as possible, so your body doesn’t adapt to the lower calorie days.
The lower calorie/carb days also help deplete your muscle glycogen slightly, so when you have a higher day, a lot of the carbs will be stored as glycogen in the muscle and the rest will be burnt as fuel. Hope that helps a little.
That does help. Than you for the reply.
What would be benefit as opposed to just cycling total calories?
Why is it best to specifically manipluate carbs? I am assuming that it has to deal with the muscle building benefits of proper carb intake? or is there more to it?
Well, to cycle calories you would have to adjust one of the three macro-nutrients (protein, carbs, and fat). Protein should always remain somewhat high if your weight training.
Fats are usually kept constant throughout the week or even inversely proportioned to your carb intake (this is because carbs are your body’s main fuel source, with fats as a second favorite. Your body wouldn’t need a ton of fuel from both carbs and fat in the same day, this is why they are opposite in relation.
For example, if carbs are high, fat is low and vice versa. Often you see fats kept low through out the week so calories will be really low on low carb days). The reason why carbs are cycled is because the digestion of carbs leads to insulin, which is anabolic (especially on high days). Carbs are also the easiest to manipulate with its storage.
If your glycogen is depleted, most, if not all of your carbs (with in reason) will be stored in the muscles. When carbs are high (at 4cals a gram, so are calories and vice versa). Carbs just become the naturalist, simplest way to cycle calories with out much effort. That was long winded and a little off track sorry.
Hey there you two,
Elusive, you mentioned if carbs are high fat is low. Is this more of a daily thing or a meal thing?
Because it mentions taking a high amount of carbs and fat in the same day. But I am guessing it’s at different meals?
Yes. Morning meals / your PWO meal will be Protein + Carbs (P+C) and your other meals will be Protein + Fat (P+F). If you read down further in Coach Thib’s Carb Cycling program, he shows three examples, each tailored to a different lifting time.