How can I use carb cycling to lose weight?
You might be familiar with fasting and crash diets, if you are trying to lose weight. But have you ever thought what a long term fasting and crash diet can cause to your body. It can simply land you with nutritional deficiencies. So what is a sustainable way to lose weight?
Carb cycling is an effective nutritional strategy to lose fat and build muscle. This strategy requires you to make small tweaks to your diet in order to lose weight effectively. You need not to shuffle everything in your diet as you do in most of your weight loss diets.
How to Lose Weight with Carb Cycling?
You can lose weight effectively with carb cycling by altering the intake of your carbohydrates in your day. However you should stay in a calorie deficit mode in order to lose weight. You will have high carbohydrate days with some low carbohydrate days in your week. Altering the intake of carbohydrates will help you increase or decrease your calorie intake according to your daily energy expenditure.
Planning your Carbohydrate Intake
High Carb Days: When you are doing vigorous activities in your day which requires burning a lot of calories like heavy lifting or running.
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Moderate Carb Days: When you are doing moderate activities including walking, jogging, swimming or some kind of cardio.
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Low Carb Days: When you are not moving much and doing little activities.
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No Carb Days: When you are resting and not doing much of work.
Now that you have understood how to plan carbohydrates, you should know how to plan your macro nutrient intake and eat nutritionally.
Macro Nutrient Intake
No Carb Days
Carbohydrates: 5% of calorie intake
Proteins: 30% of calorie intake
Fats: 65% of calorie intake
2. Low Carb Days
Carbohydrates: 20% of calorie intake
Proteins: 45% of calorie intake
Fats: 35% of calorie intake
3. Medium Carb Days
Carbohydrates: 45% of calorie intake
Proteins: 35% of calorie intake
Fats: 20% of calorie intake
4. High Carb Days
Carbohydrates: 60% of calorie intake
Proteins: 30% of calorie intake
Fats: 10% of calorie intake
Once you are able to calculate your daily calories, you need to plan the types of carbohydrate foods in your diet. You need to have nutrient dense carbohydrates in your diet. And, you should not simply eat sugar or sugary foods as they are also a type of carbohydrate.
Carb Diet Menu
Carb Cycling Menu foods for high carb day (Glycemic Index: 70-55)
Boiled White Potato
White Rice
Oat Meal
White Bread
Digestive Biscuits
Carb Cycling Menu foods for moderate carb day (Glycemic Index: 55-40)
1. Brown Rice
2. Boiled Sweet Potato
3. White Pasta
4. Quinoa
5. Whole grain bread
Carb Cycling Menu foods for low carb day (Glycemic Index: 40 or less)
1. Apple
2. Orange
3. Grapefruit
4. Pineapple
5. Cherry
6. Yogurt
7. Milk
8. Spaghetti
9. Soya beans
10. Chick peas
Timing of your Carb Cycling Diet
An important thing with carb cycling is the timing of foods. If you wish to have best results, you should plan most of your carb intake before evening. And, split the remaining day with other macros namely proteins and fats evenly.
Read: List of Protein rich Vegetables
Further, if you need to plan your carb cycling meals, then you can check our sample carb cycling meal plan. Do up vote, if you find this answer helpful and don`t forget to share this knowledge with your friends and family.