BUILD MUSCLE. REDUCE FAT

Carb Cycling

Carb Cycling & Training

CARB CYCLING AND EXERCISE

If you DO NOT exercise at all, you need to watch your carbohydrates and calorie consumption very carefully. If you DO exercise, you can have more carbs in your diet. .

The first thing to do is to organize your exercise program for the week: how many days of training you will be doing. That way, you can work-out accordingly (you want to train each muscle group twice per week).

To plan your meals, you need to decide what's the goal for the day, fat loss, or muscle gain - remember, you can not have both on the same day (read Metabolism & Hormones). The food intake is based on the type of exercise to perform that specific day.

If you wish to lose fat, you need to go Low Carbs and proceed with aerobic exercise (treadmill or any cardio machine).
It is also, considered "cardio" or aerobic exercise, to lift weights less than 60% of 1RM (1 Repetition Maximum). Or when we lift "light," and we can perform more than 12-15 repetitions per set.

If the goal is to gain muscle mass, you need to consume more calories (high carb days) and proceed with anaerobic exercises.
The best form of anaerobic exercise is weight lifting with weights that exceed 60 % of your 1RM. Or when you can NOT make more than 6 to 8 repetitions per set, in good form.

If you DO NOT exercise at all, you need to watch your carbohydrates and calorie consumption very carefully. If you DO exercise, you can have more carbs in your diet.

The following approach involves putting your higher carb days on your hardest training days; Legs day. And your lower carb days on your off days, or cardio days.
On High carb days, you can treat yourself to that ice cream you've been thinking of; you will be balancing these "pleasure food" with the alternating days of restricted food intake.

This approach will allow more energy and strength for workouts. The increase in insulin also helps facilitate glycogen storage in the muscles after training, which also means no fat storage.

ESPAÑOL

THE RANDON APPROACH

There is also a "random" approach - my favorite- to try and still get the benefits from carb cycling, as long as you take the time to weight train. That's why we see bodybuilders religiously going to the gym. They want to manipulate, "consciously," the metabolic state of the day; anabolic, or catabolic.

With this random approach, the body will know what to do anyway. If you weight train, ether anaerobic or aerobic, you still win. As an example, I work out my legs today, but I'm on a low carb day. I perform 12-15 reps per set. I know I'm not going to build muscle mass because I'm not providing my surplus of calories for this. But I will get rid of fat, and that's fair enough for me.

This concept is good to keep in mind because, let's say, on vacations or holidays, we should take the opportunity of this "surplus" to build some muscle mass through weight training. Vacations and holidays might not be the best time to get rid of fat, but it is the best time to construct muscle mass and prevent fat storage.

So the next time you go on vacation, you know better. It will benefit your body no matter what, low or high carb day, as long as you make an effort and hit the gym.

I will recommend getting familiar with the basic approach, then start experimenting with what works best for you.

For many of us, there might be seasons, moments in our life when "fat" (adipose tissue) takes over our body (25% or more). If you are one of them, consider it as something momentarily, not permanently. Because it doesn't have to be.

The benefits of physical exercise are unquestionable, but when we talk about weight control, physical activity is a must. Without physical activity, the process of fat loss becomes very slow, if not impossible, and discouraged.

There are some myths about weight lifting. One of them is, that if the individual is overweight, weight training might turn the fat into muscles. And that if you stop training, the muscles will turn into fat.

Muscle and fat are different tissues. Meaning, fat tissue doesn't turn into muscle tissue or the other way around. When you weight train, the muscle tissue gets toner, and the top layer, the adipose tissue (fat), gets reduced. A win-win process.

Let me remind you for a second, that the skeletal muscle is what gives shape to the body - at least that's our intention. If we don't take control of our body and start lifting some weight, "fat" will take control of our body.

If we do not weight train the body for at least two days per week, as a minimum, we will always get that feeling of being "soft" and "fat." When in reality, what we need is some muscle mass.

Physical activity change your body at a cellular level. That is the magic of it. Exercise, especially weight training, gives the body that metabolic advantage. It uses the extra surplus of calories for muscle recovery - instead of saving those calories as fat - allowing your metabolism to speed up, and burn more calories even while you sleep.