Poliquin's Carb Cycling

Hey guys,

I weigh around 140 and am about 4-6% body fat. I have been doing the anabolic diet for a bit now wich is 5 days low carb, then 36-48 hours high carb. I have found I run much better on low carb diets. My energy is great, strenght climbing, and on the carb ups I never get tired or crash.

I did a little reading on Poliquins methods and was wondering if anyone would reccomend his method of 4 days low carb, 5th day high carb for gaining mass over Dr. Di’s 5 low 2 high.

One thing I am also confused about is that on poliquins 5th day, is it carbs all day or just one meal. I know he says fatter and carb intolerant people should only do one, but what about vacuums like me? Any personal experience is recommended, and please don’t post if you’re gonna bash carb cycling.

Not bashing carb cycling - I think it’s great, but I don’t think it’s the thing for you at 140 lbs. Go with a 33/33/33 diet and you might get up to 8-10% bodyfat. Your ability to gain muscle will be greatly increased though.

I’m not going to bash carb cycling, but I am going to question why you’re using it. It’s primarily a diet strategy for fat loss, and if you’re really down to 5% bodyfat, fat loss isn’t something you need to do. What goal do you have in mind that suggests a carb cycling diet?

[quote]boatnerj wrote:
Hey guys,

I weigh around 140 and am about 4-6% body fat. I have been doing the anabolic diet for a bit now wich is 5 days low carb, then 36-48 hours high carb. I have found I run much better on low carb diets. My energy is great, strenght climbing, and on the carb ups I never get tired or crash.

I did a little reading on Poliquins methods and was wondering if anyone would reccomend his method of 4 days low carb, 5th day high carb for gaining mass over Dr. Di’s 5 low 2 high.

One thing I am also confused about is that on poliquins 5th day, is it carbs all day or just one meal. I know he says fatter and carb intolerant people should only do one, but what about vacuums like me? Any personal experience is recommended, and please don’t post if you’re gonna bash carb cycling.[/quote]

I like carb cycling.
If you’re 4-6% fat I would say you can start experimenting with carb loads on the higher side. What’s gonna happen, you’ll wake up 7% bodyfat…Oh My god!!

Seriously, I wish I had this problem. I would try poliquins method with a full day carb up. Not just a meal. Also, check out Thib’s article the Carb cycling codex over here. It’s good.

One more question. Will I still remain mainly a fat burner while doing the 4 low carb then 1 high, or will I lose the fat adaption, because I feel so much more energized using fat as energy!! (I dont care about some fat gain, the energy is just so much steadier and stronger using fat)

[quote]boatnerj wrote:
Hey guys,

I weigh around 140 and am about 4-6% body fat. I have been doing the anabolic diet for a bit now wich is 5 days low carb, then 36-48 hours high carb. I have found I run much better on low carb diets. My energy is great, strenght climbing, and on the carb ups I never get tired or crash.

I did a little reading on Poliquins methods and was wondering if anyone would reccomend his method of 4 days low carb, 5th day high carb for gaining mass over Dr. Di’s 5 low 2 high.

One thing I am also confused about is that on poliquins 5th day, is it carbs all day or just one meal. I know he says fatter and carb intolerant people should only do one, but what about vacuums like me? Any personal experience is recommended, and please don’t post if you’re gonna bash carb cycling.[/quote]

No, car cycling is an awesome tool. Anyway, what are your goals?

I was gonna try and use Poliquin’s 4 low carb 1 day high carb cycle to put on some mass at a medium to medium-slow pace. One question I have though is with the 4 low carb and one high carb cycle will I stay fat adapted (using FFA as my primary energy sources). Is it necessary to do the 5 days low carb then 2 days high carb like Dr. Dipasquale’s anabolic diet, or can I stay fat adapted on 4 low carb and one high carb.

This way my glycogen will get replenished a little more often, but I wont be takin in as much as a two day carb up (Aiming to get about 500-600 grams carbs on the 4 on one off where as I would get about 800-1000 gram’s on the 5 low 2 high, *Still works out to about the same amount of carbs on a monthly basis, just not a weekly one). I just have such stronger and more consistent energy while fat adapted.

Yes, you will remain fat adapted.

I’ve seen you post in the AD thread, and I should tell you based on personal experience that it’s best not to overanalyze the carb-up. Tweak the carb-up only when you are cutting.

On a final note, abandon the notion of putting muscle on at a “medium” or “medium-slow” pace. Just go work out hard and consistently and eat lots of food. Like carbing-up, don’t overanalyze the muscle-building game.

Thanks man. Your right. I’ll eat lots doing 4 on one off and workout hard, see what happens and adjust from there. Had a good carb up today from about 8/9 this morning and will finish around 10 or so tonight so I can get to sleep fine.

I think I’ll end up with around 5000 cals (surprise the shit outta my metabolism :slight_smile: ) and 600-650 grams of carbs, and all of that has been clean, but I plan on finishing the day with something from dairy queen (reese cup blizzard is callin my name) and goin back to protein and fat tommorow. Ovalpine, have you tried the 4 low carb one high carb (how’d it go if you did).

I am really diggin the carb cycling codex by thibs. I just started using it 2 weeks ago. One thing I dont like are the low days. I dont like being flat:(

[quote]boatnerj wrote:
Thanks man. Your right. I’ll eat lots doing 4 on one off and workout hard, see what happens and adjust from there. Had a good carb up today from about 8/9 this morning and will finish around 10 or so tonight so I can get to sleep fine.

I think I’ll end up with around 5000 cals (surprise the shit outta my metabolism :slight_smile: ) and 600-650 grams of carbs, and all of that has been clean, but I plan on finishing the day with something from dairy queen (reese cup blizzard is callin my name) and goin back to protein and fat tommorow. Ovalpine, have you tried the 4 low carb one high carb (how’d it go if you did).[/quote]

I only stuck with the traditional 5-2 split.

Gotta be completely honest with you, I think you’d be better off using a carb cycling approach (or Berardi approach). Low carb and cyclical diets are just not as anabolic as their higher carb counterparts.

Also, from personal experience, low carb and/or cyclical diets are a good short term approach. Long-term, they severely lack.

Actually many knowledgable and experienced folks find them to be the best format for anabolism. DiPas, Poliquin, Alessi, Forsythe, Gironda, Draper, Blair, Faigin, etc…

Best gains of my life. Critics really don’t have a good handle on the mechanics of the whole thing in my opinion.

Just my 2 cents.

Best,
DH

[quote]ovalpline wrote:
boatnerj wrote:
Thanks man. Your right. I’ll eat lots doing 4 on one off and workout hard, see what happens and adjust from there. Had a good carb up today from about 8/9 this morning and will finish around 10 or so tonight so I can get to sleep fine.

I think I’ll end up with around 5000 cals (surprise the shit outta my metabolism :slight_smile: ) and 600-650 grams of carbs, and all of that has been clean, but I plan on finishing the day with something from dairy queen (reese cup blizzard is callin my name) and goin back to protein and fat tommorow. Ovalpine, have you tried the 4 low carb one high carb (how’d it go if you did).

I only stuck with the traditional 5-2 split.

Gotta be completely honest with you, I think you’d be better off using a carb cycling approach (or Berardi approach). Low carb and cyclical diets are just not as anabolic as their higher carb counterparts.

Also, from personal experience, low carb and/or cyclical diets are a good short term approach. Long-term, they severely lack.[/quote]

At that bodyfat level, you should eat a full day’s load. Make it mostly starchy, not because of the over-rated GI, but rather because starches provide proportionately higher levels of glucose which fills muscle vs fructose which mosey’s over to the liver for the most part.

By choosing pasta, oatmeal, rice, baked potato, etc… you will fill the muscle up nicely without your fingers and such bloating. Try for a ratio of at least 75% quality to 25% “fun” carbs to allow some give room and enjoyment.

CP usually advocates a single meal for those who are at 15% or above.

Best,
DH

[quote]boatnerj wrote:
Hey guys,

I weigh around 140 and am about 4-6% body fat. I have been doing the anabolic diet for a bit now wich is 5 days low carb, then 36-48 hours high carb. I have found I run much better on low carb diets. My energy is great, strenght climbing, and on the carb ups I never get tired or crash.

I did a little reading on Poliquins methods and was wondering if anyone would reccomend his method of 4 days low carb, 5th day high carb for gaining mass over Dr. Di’s 5 low 2 high.

One thing I am also confused about is that on poliquins 5th day, is it carbs all day or just one meal. I know he says fatter and carb intolerant people should only do one, but what about vacuums like me? Any personal experience is recommended, and please don’t post if you’re gonna bash carb cycling.[/quote]