Carb Cycling

A lot of people get to a point in their weight loss where they plateau. It becomes more frustrating than trying to catch a badger with a butterfly net and a shoe string. I hit that plateau a while back and stumbled upon carb cycling, which has kicked it back into motion. Here is how it works: One day you take in a high amount of carbs. When I say high carbs I don't mean crack open the doritos bag and eat until your greasy powder grin scares crows. I am talking about fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Use the one ingredient approach, if the food has one ingredient, you can eat it. If you find a list of words that only scientists and spelling bee champions can read, do not eat it. Anyway that high carb amout will kick your metabolism up not for just a few hours, but for a couple days. Along with the high carbs you also want to eat about your weight in grams in protein. If you are trying to keep lose weight stay about 500 calories under your Regualar Daily Intake or RDI. The next couple days eat very high protein and very low carb. About a 3g protein to 1g carb ratio. This way your muscles still have all the nutrition they need to grow and be healthy, however because the intake of carbs is low, your body will break down and release fat to help rebuild and give energy, pretty awesome huh? Here are some carb cycling examples:

Mon: low carb
Tues: low carb
Wed: high carb
Thurs: low carb
Fri: low carb
Sat: high carb
Sunday: Reward your self

This is the method I use. There are many options, this applies more to a muscle building routine. Eat the high carbs and protein as soon as you possibly can after your work out.

Other methods just alternate high and low days. The third is what the runners do which is two high carb days to one low carb day. This is a great way to shed extra fat. Give it a try.