Carb Cycling Question

Hey everyone!

I read Christian Thibaudeau’s “Carb Cycling Codex” article (as I’m intending to cut) and I also read most of the questions and answers posted on this forum regarding this article. However, I’m still a little insecure about starting this plan in order to CUT. I’ll explain why:

In order to mantain my current weight, which is 140 pounds, I have to consume 2700 calories (65% as carb, 20% as prot and 15% as fat). So, if I follow CT’s plan, I’d have to reduce calorie intake by 10% (going to 2430kcal) and consume 1.25g of carb per pound of bodyweight on the “moderate days” (therefore 175g of carbs = 700 kcal) and the same amount of protein (175g = 700kcal).

So far it’s 1400 calories and there’s 1030 left of fat, which results in 114 grams! Isn’t that way too much?? That’s almost the amount of protein that the 220-pound bodybuilder should consume when trying to gain weight (according to the article example). Even if I reduce my calorie intake by 20% (calories from carbs and proteins remain the same, 700kcal each), the fat intake would be then 84g.

I’m really freaked out with that, is that correct (i’m pretty sure I did the math right)? Or does this plan only work for big guys? I don’t want to increase the protein amount and I’m really afraid of eating that amount of fat for someone who is used to eating 40 grams of fat per day (around 8 grams per meal).

Thanks!

You lost me at 140lbs.

Why IN THE HELL would you want to cut?!?!?!?

Because most of it is fat and I’d like to get rid of them (at least some) before putting on lean weight…

Unless you are five feet tall you probably wouldn’t want to cut…the anorexic look is so 2005.

Aside from that, I am doing TB’s Carb Cycling and your protein intake and fat intake is supposed to remain the same and the only thing that changes is your carbs (Hence the name Carb Cycling).

65% carbs??? Why on earth is it so high? Here’s a helpful split that baby Hercules uses, 30/40/30. Give it a whirl. 30% protein, 40 carbs, 30 fats. I mean I dont know what you’re trying to get by with that much carbs. Using that in itself will pull out lots of those carbs you’re getting.

Maybe this is a plan that works for you but I’ve never heard of anything quite like that.

Why is 114g of fat a day too much? What makes it too much? This is carb cycling remember? On low carb days you gotta get your calories from somewhere.

Look bro, I don’t know much about you but judging from your post I’d say you’re relatively new to training. Also, you’re 140lbs. In order for this to be a bad physical state to be in you’d have to be well…a midget. It’s mostly fat? So what! Gain some muscle bro and your bodyfat percentage will go down. If you cut, you’ll have no muscle to show off. Trust me, it won’t look good. It will look annorexic like the previous poster stated.

See, the REAL sacrifice in this iron game isn’t the getting off you ass and to the gym every day. That’s the fun part. It isn’t the diet that this game requires either. You actually begin to enjoy eating heatlhy food after a while. The REAL sacrifice is that of gasp not seeing your abs for a little while in order to gain some damn muscle.

Last I checked it wasn’t beach season. Who’s gonna see it? It will be hard as hell and extremely slow if you obsess about staying lean while doing this. 2lbs a year ain’t good enough. 2lbs in one year is a year of wasted training.

Check out this thread. It’s a of a guy who got big and strong and THEN cut down.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=699538

I hope this at least made you think.

Sigh Where’s Prof X when you need him?

Lift eat and put some quality mass on you and the little bit of fat you have wont be noticed.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the answers. I’ve been working out for two years and I increased my weight in 8 pounds during this time. Not very good, isn’t it? During the first year, I didn’t care about nutrition, eating was not important for me then. Big mistake. When I realized that food was the fuel that was going to give me the muscles I wanted and still want, I searched the internet and found (about a year ago) the Australian Institute of Sport. I read many articles and they said that protein intake of 2.0g/kg (1g/pound) is enough and more is useless and that we should focus on carbs, around 8g/kg (around 3.6g/pound) if we wanted to bulk. That’s why I wind up with a 65/20/15 diet. I followed this for 6 months but I increased by 2% my fat percentage and I didn’t like it all, especially because lean mass didn’t follow this rate.

So now I decided to search for Carb Cycling articles and found this one, by Christian T, and another one on another site, by Twin Peak.

This one is a little different because there’s a NO carb at all day and I thought this would be harder to follow. At the end of the article there’s a q&a section. And a guy asks if taking in about 130g of fat is acceptable and the author tells him “no, 130 grams of fat is not acceptable. It is neither necessary nor desirable”. See why I freaked out about that amount of fat? Because I liked better CT’s Carb Cycling approach but I would have to take in 140g of fat, which was condemned by Twin Peak.

So, please guys, let me know what you think now. I’m from Brazil and I have no backgroung to tell if Twin Peak is or not “trustable”. Thanks again!

P.S.: Sorry about the duplicated post, I had a problem with Firefox and I thought it wasn’t posted for the first time.

I don’t think you need to cut either but I will also say I don’t think you calculated everything right. 2700 calories seems high for 140 lbs. Did you reduce it by 20% for cutting as JB mentioned in the article? And you macronutrient breakdown is not right either. No way is only 20% of your calories coming from protein. I’m not going to go through your calcs with a fine tooth comb but you’ve seemed to screw up in more than one area. Read the article line for line CAREFULLY. And then after you do that, apply the carb cycling codex to bulking instead of cutting.

I don’t know who “Twin Peak” is but I can’t imagine why 140g of fat in a day would be bad if you’re going low carb. The body needs something for fuel.

Now, if most of your fat intake was tans fat and saturated fat instead of good fats like olive oil/fish oil/avacados/etc. yes, that would be a bad thing.