Carb-Cycling

Big Red Dawg, assuming you want to cut, I’d recommend something like the following. The bolded days would be your workout days.

Mon - High
Tue. - No
Wed - Low
Thu. - No
Fri - High
Sat. - No
Sun - Low

Mon. - Low
Tue - High
Wed. - No
Thu - Low
Fri. - No
Sat - High
Sun. - Low

Kyle, FNF, Big Red Dawg, just a reminder. If you decide to implement a CC approach, be sure to get back with me at about week 2 or 3 if you are losing weight too quickly or too slowly. Slight adjustments to the patterns I’ve given would need to be made.

Thanks TT for the help. I’ll be sure to post my results in a couple weeks.

T-T, Thanks for the offer - I wont put my numbers up as theres no need to duplicate what you said above. Thanks again for all the info. It is very similar, to the approach I’m trying only I have less HC days but I will begin to increase their frequency as the bodyfat level [hopefully] falls.

Keep us posted on how you get on with it.

W-O-I

TT

other then fish oils…what suplements do you like the most?

and what brands??

TT Great work as usual, you got one heck of a response on this one. It will be interesting to see all the results.

Good Luck all and keep us all posted.

Sag. While I am not TT I will try and give you a couple of supps. that I can think of off the top of my head that could be of a great help with this and any diet regimine.

#1 a good multi vitamin. Go for what you can afford, but try and find one that is to be taken multiple times a day.

#2 R-ala. This supp. in my opinion should be an everyday part your supps.

#3 Vit. C (500 mg per meal), a good calcium supp. (citrate perferably, divided doses throughout the day), and Vit. E.

Those are tops on my list as gotta haves. While I take many others at differing times these are all an everyday part of my supps. year round, as well as green tea.

Hope this helps until TT can chime in.:slight_smile:

Phill

Sag…

I forgot one more that is a constant and in my opinion should never be over looked.

That is Surge. Proper post w/o nutriton should never be overlooked and can mean the difference in little to moderate gains, and great gains.

The other supps. I listed were more general health type items, they wont specifically translate directly to the gym as Surge will.

Also a recent additon (last week), and one I see as becoming a constant is Power Drive. I cant beleive the effect it has to your w/o. All I can say is if you haven’t tried it, give it a go. I feel this is a very underrated supplement.

Just a couple more cc while I am sitting here sleepless,

Phill

Terry, I know this is alot to ask, but do you think you could help me create a C-C plan?

I’m currently at (TBW) 138 lbs, with a BF % of 14. (Measured with tapes…)

I’d love to drop it to around 10, and this might be the answer…
I’ve currently finished one OVT phase, and will be training according to the Ripped Rugged and dense article for two weeks, and then follow it with one more phase of OVT.
I really would apreciate an answer, and thank you…
Take care!

tampa terry

i have a couple of questions. how would you structure the days for bulking? would you only have one vnc day per week? could you use whole wheat pasta for lc and hc days? i know you are not a big fan of milk, but can it be included in this diet? thanks for your time. this diet plan sounds interesting.

climbon

Climbon, you cannot use whole wheat pasta on the LC days. You can use whole wheat pasta for one of the four P+C meals on a HC day. But let me explain one of the basic premises/concepts of this diet and why you might not want to.

The basic premise of the diet is “Listen to your body and stop eating when you’re full/happy.” I know that’s scary for those of us who like hard and fast numbers.

So what’s the problem? Brownies and yams are both carbs. The former is not an approved carb source. The latter is an approved carb source. Which one do you think you’ll eat more of before your body/stomach tells you you’re full? I’m betting it would be the brownies.

You’re allowed to eat between 2 and 4 times your TBW in carb grams on HC days. But which do you think you’re going to eat more of, yams, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, Kellogg’s All Bran, oatmeal OR whole wheat pasta with a yummy spaghetti sauce? (grin) Once again, because of how tasty it is, I’m betting you’ll eat more (calories and carbs) than your body needs if the food is particularly tasty.

I would suggest you try the diet (dull and boring and unexciting as the food choices are) as recommended for one month. Play by the rules 100%. Evaluate it and see how effective it is. Which means you’re going to have to track, weigh, measure and record everything; i.e., what you’re eating, as well as your weight and BF%. Once you know exactly what the diet will do for you and it’s been tweaked and adjusted and works, THEN go ahead and play around with taste and flavor options.

The downside to the CC diet is that the carb choices are BORING, but the upside the diet is that it gets results.

As it relates to dairy, if you know for an absolute fact that you do WELL on dairy (I don’t; it inhibits weight loss), then go ahead and use cottage cheese as a protein source. But I’ve broken many a plateau for people by cutting out dairy.

Tears & Sagomed, I’ll be online this afternoon with your answers.

Tears, I’d be glad to help. That’s what T-Mag is all about! (grin)

TT,

Thanks again for all of your great info and I’ll start my CC plan next week. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Okay, sagomed, in answer to your question, I probably have 3 “can’t live without” supps. A good multi, fish oil, Surge. And the last two are really more food than they are supps.

A good multi is one that is taken in divided doses; 2 or 3 times a day. I use Life Extension Foundation’s multi.

I try to get 1/3 of my fat as polyunsaturated fat, 1/3 as monunsaturated fat and 1/3 as saturated. I use fish oil with measurable amounts of EPA/DHA to meet my polyunsaturated fat requirements. I don’t even take flaxseed oil anymore. I use Health from the Sun, Ultra Omega 3. iHerb has good prices.

I take a bunch of other supps, but my general view is that most supps should be taken based on a particular need, health issue or genetic predisposition that you wish to avoid, rather than popping a bunch of pills because they sound good.

I like Power Drive for my workout. I use M because of the calcium d-glucarate in it (good for men AND women). I alternate between an ECA stack and Hot-Rox. I take some homcysteine-lowering supps, a mixed tocopherol/tocotrienol Vitamin E, coQ10, pregnenolone (for cognitive enhancement and mental energy), calcium, magnesium (most athletes are deficient) and DHEA (most men and women have low levels above the age of 40).

I actually take r-ALA, but not to increase insulin sensitivity because my understanding is that r-ALA is not selective when it comes to making muscle and fat cells, BOTH, more insulin sensitive. I take it rather for its antioxident and nerve protection/regeneration benefits.

High-Carb Check List

  • Eat protein every meal.
  • Daily protein requirements equal 1g to 1.5g x TBW. Anywhere within that range is fine. “Ideal” protein intake is 1.5g x LBM.
  • Divide daily protein requirements between 6 meals. If your protein requirements are high (more than 50g per meal), have a 7th meal (a middle of the night shake) to reduce the amount of protein per meal.
  • Daily fat requirements are .4g x LBM. Make sure you get one tablespoon of fish oil per day and one tablespoon of olive oil per day.
  • Eat 4 P+C meals. Carb choices for these meals are oatmeal, Kellogg’s All Bran, yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice, along with any additional green veggies you might want.
  • Eat 2 (or 3) P+F meals.
  • Eat 1 cup of green veggies off of the approved list of green veggies at 3 meals.
  • Eat a serving of fruit with each of the 4 P+C meals. A serving of fruit equals 50-100 kCal.
  • If you do resistance training, one of the 4 P+C meals should be Surge. If you do not do resistance training, do not take Surge.
  • Make sure carb intake on High-Carb days is at least 2g x TBW. Anywhere between 2g to 4g x TBW is an acceptable range.

Low-Carb Check List

  • Eat protein every meal.
  • Daily protein requirements equal 1g to 1.5g x TBW. Anywhere within that range is fine. “Ideal” protein intake is 1.5g x LBM.
  • Divide daily protein requirements between 6 meals. If your protein requirements are high (more than 50g per meal), have a 7th meal (a middle of the night shake) to reduce the amount of protein per meal.
  • Daily fat requirements are .4g x LBM. Make sure you get one tablespoon of fish oil per day and one tablespoon of olive oil per day.
  • Eat 3 P+C meals. Carb choices for these meals are oatmeal, Kellogg’s All Bran, yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice, along with any additional green veggies you might want.
  • Carb requirements on Low-Carb days is TBW x 1g. That number should be divided between the 3 P+C meals.
  • Eat 3 (or 4) P+F meals.
  • Eat 1 cup of green veggies off of the approved list of green veggies at 3 meals.
  • Eat a serving of fruit with each of the 3 P+C meals. A serving of fruit equals 50-100 kCal.
  • If you do resistance training, one of the 3 P+C meals should be Surge. If you do not do resistance training, do not take Surge.

Virtually-No-Carb Check List

  • Eat protein every meal.
  • Daily protein requirements equal 1g to 1.5g x TBW. Anywhere within that range is fine. “Ideal” protein intake is 1.5g x LBM.
  • Divide daily protein requirements between 6 meals. If your protein requirements are high (more than 50g per meal), have a 7th meal (a middle of the night shake) to reduce the amount of protein per meal.
  • Daily fat requirements are .4g x LBM. Make sure you get one tablespoon of fish oil per day and one tablespoon of olive oil per day.
  • All meals should be P+F meals.
  • Eat 1 cup of green veggies off of the approved list of green veggies at 3 meals.
  • Do not do resistance training on a Virtually-No-Carb day.

Tears, carefully review the whole thread. Copy those parts of the thread that explain what to do, approved carbs, proteins and fat, and how to calculate the numbers. Review and copy to your computer the Check List for the 3 types of days. After that, if you have any questions, I’d be glad to help.

What days do you work out? I’d be glad to recommend eating patterns.

WOW Terry, this thread is tremendous! This is one of the best and most informative threads I have read here. Everyone continually benefits from your information. You’ve been an amazing help to a lot of people on this board. Keep up the great work!!!

This is awesome. How you find time to write this stuff is beyond me. Thank you Tampa Terry!

Terry,

You mentioned that you cycle between an ECA stack and Hot-Rox. Can you explain your rationale for this and give me an idea on how I might incorporate a similar approach?

I grealty appreciate your ongoing support!

Thank you Terry!
Well during the upcoming two weeks I will workout on M-W-F, Ripped Rugged and dense, but after that I’m back to a four weeks phase of OVT, training days will be (most likely) something like, Sat.-Mon.-Wed.-Fr. :slight_smile:
Thanks alot!

Tears, the following eating patterns will work for both programs.

Sun - Low
Mon - High
Tue - No
Wed - Low
Thu - No
Fri - High
Sat - Low

Please let me know if you have any questions, Tears.

An open offer to anyone who’s getting ready to implement the CC diet. I would be glad to review the food you’re eating on the 3 different days; a HC day, a LC day and a VNC day.

And please, everyone, use this thread to ask me all your questions. I want you to be successful.

Hey TT,

I am interested in possibly trying a carb cycling diet as I feel that I have reached a plateau. However, I have a few concerns that I would like your input on.

First, my stats:

Age 23
Height 6 feet
Weight 185 down from about 205
BF 16% down from about 22%
Goal is as close to 10% as possible in the next couple of months.

I have been dieting T-dawg 2.0 style since about January and have seen some decent changes in body comp. However, I feel like I have plateaued and a change in diet may be necessary. I have been lifting for a few years (currently ABBH style), but have just dialed in my diet within the last year.

Here are my concerns with CC from what I have learned from your threads.

  1. Total caloric intake. Should this be ignored on a CC diet? As I said I have been on a T-dawg diet, eating 1800-1900 daily calories(200-250g protein). Calculating my micronutrient breakdown under your guidelines and converting it to calories I get a range of calories of 1600 VNC to 2250 LC to 3000 HC based on the minimum amounts recommended.

Example: Recommended Min HC Day
P 1.5LBM(155) = 2334Cal = 930 kcal
F .4155 = 629cal = 560
C 2TBM(185) = 3704 cal = 1480
Total Cal = 2970

My concern here is that I have been eating low calories (1800)for so long that my body will be overloaded and want to store many of the extra calories as fat.

  1. In adjusting to a CC diet, should I jump right into it, or should I gradually increase my calories and carbs over a couple of week period to allow my body to adjust?

On my current diet I have only been eating about 80-90g carbs on workout days (the majority as PWO drink, the rest from veggies throughout the day). On non-workout days only about 50g (oatmeal in the morning and veggies)
Once again I am worried about how my body will react to the large amount of increase in carbs.

Please advise, any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks.