Carb Cycling Questions

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
1

Hey all, I just started Carb cycling. Im a powerlifter as most of you know, and Im trying to cut down to about 205 (trying to go in the 198 class), I weight 220 right now. My bodyfat isnt really high, but theres enough there to where I can cut that much weight out and then some.

I started a carb cycling diet along with cardio 3 times a week, and I have some questions:

Should I load my carbs up on a monday to like 1000 grams, and then maintain at about 300 every day after that, or start out with a monday high and then a thursday high?

On my low carb days I am taking in about 1.5-2 grams of protien (or at least trying) per pound of BW, and on high days, about .5-.75, how does that look.

Also where should alot of my carbs come from? I know this may seem like a stupid question, but if you see my regular diet, I didnt take in the cleanest of carbs, Im eating clean now, but it doesnt seem like I am taking in enough carbs. Can I get some suggestions.

Also, is there any nutrition books out there? I read the “carb cycling for dummies” article, but it may help if I get more in depth reading.

2

Shelby Starnes marcronutrient book on elitefts would be a good start. on sale for 20% off for the next day i think. only about 10 bucks and outlines everything.

3

I weight around 230 myself and recently dieted down from around 10% bdf to contest shape (<5%) for a bodybuilding contest. I carb cycle myself but do it a little different.

I don’t know how well you tolerate carbs, but your numbers appear very high to me. My high carb day is around 360g of carbs, INCLUDING peri-workout nutrition, which makes of for 100g to 130g.

I work out with weights 5 days a week and cycle like thah:

Monday: Low carbs - Workout
Tuesday: Moderate Carbs - Workout
Wednesday: Low Carbs - No Workout, cardio only
Thursday: High Carbs - Workout
Friday: Low Carbs - Workout
Saturday: Moderate Carbs - Workout
Sunday: Low protein day - Rest/NEPA

Low carb days: No carbs besides the peri-workout carbs (130g).
Moderate carb days: An additional 75 grams of carbs with my breakfast.
High carb days: An additional 50g of carbs with mid-morning snack, lunch and supper.

Sunday is my low PROTEIN day. I keep protein intake to a minimum then. Somewhere around 50-70g. If I am dieting I make it a low calorie day, keeping total calorie intake to around 1’000, coming from nuts, veggies, some beans and my morning protein shake.
If I’m trying to gain weight I still make Sundays low protein days, but eat a lot of carbs/fat. It’s my “free day” or “cheat day”, then. So I’d have high carbs, eating cake, pancakes with syrup, candy.

1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of bdw is fine. I try to keep my intake at 1.25-1.5 grams/pound bdw NOT INCLUDING peri-workout nutrition. Which is over 150g itself. So it would be in the range you mentioned including the peri-wo nutrition.

However, I don’t change protein intake on the other days besides the low protein day. I keep my protein intake the same on low, moderate and high carb days and find this to work best. Especially when dieting, this is helpful imho, because it leads to calorie cycling as well (keep fat/protein stable, vary carb intake = more or less calories).

Fat inkate is 80g per day, besides Sunday. It’s either lower then (when dieting and making it a low calorie day) or higher (when bulking and making it my free day).

In preparation for the contest I started with 3 cardio sessions a week. 2xHIIT for 20min and 1x steady state cardio for 45min.
I made sure I did as much NEPA (non-exercise physical activities) as possible, e.g. always took the stairs, not the elevator, etc.

Cheers,
Para