The "carb cycling”Is a very fashionable diet strategy in recent times!
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But what does it consist of?
The carb cycling diet involves a cyclization of the introduction of carbohydrate foods for a usually short period of time (one week).
High carbohydrate days, medium intake days and days with very few or even zero carbohydrates are established.
What are the benefits of this diet?
- The muscle is trained to over-compensate the glycogen and increases its reserve capacities, essential for muscle functioning and general well-being
- The desensitizations annex'insulin they are reduced, ensuring a continuous response of the organism to insulin levels
- It makes you lose weight faster because it speeds up the metabolism on high carbohydrate days, while on fast days more calories are burned
- If well studied together with the training program, it promotes the hypertrophic response of certain muscle areas
- On a psychological level it is easier to follow in the long term because the idea of having days with lots of carbohydrates facilitates the endurance of the more restrictive ones
- This diet works as a regulator of hunger-related hormones, in fact it stabilizes the levels of Leptin, responsible for the sense of satiety
How to behave with other macronutrients?
- Protein intake must stay in one 1,5 / 2,2 gr / kg body range
- The intake of fats must not exceed 2 g / kg of body
So how do we deal with the quantities of carbohydrates?
In addition to the manipulation of carbohydrates, cycling is often accompanied by caloric manipulation by varying not only the carbohydrates but also the calories at the same time: based on our daily caloric needs, we calculate the calories ingested between protein and fats and the difference will be the amount of carbohydrates we have to eat!
And for the breakdown?
The days when we keep carbohydrates higher we mainly reduce fat and then protein and vice versa.
What days to keep a high carbohydrate intake?
With a view to body recomposition, the best choice is to reduce the carbohydrate intake and at the same time reduce the output; on ON days (days when you train) you will eat more, while on OFF days (days off) you will adopt a normocaloric or hypocaloric approach.
If you prefer to maintain a higher intake of carbohydrates even on OFF days, better to introduce cardiovascular activity.
Who is carb cycling suitable for?
Everyone can adopt this type of diet, but it is not a necessity; it is recommended, however, for those people who have problems managing carbohydrates, who easily gain weight and accumulate water retention, but also for those who have a high percentage of fat or a muscle-fat ratio in favor of the latter.
LONG LIVE CARBOHYDRATES!
Depriving carbohydrates for long periods is useless from the point of view of weight loss (remember that carbohydrates are the gas that burns fat), and it is also harmful to health.
You don't have to overdo it of course, but remember that they are fundamental for us!
However, our main advice is to do it follow by a nutritionist and don't try to do it yourself; this type of diet is advantageous and brings results, but only if the quantities of macronutrients and the sports activity performed are monitored and controlled by a competent person!
Have you ever tried to cycle carbohydrates? How did you find yourself? Let us know in the comments!