Recently, I have been receiving numerous e-mails about how to break the fat loss plateau. There are many diets out there that can work, but one that I find to be most beneficial during these times when you hit a plateau is by carbohydrate cycling. Carbohydrate cycling is the practice of lowering carbs for 1-2 days and then bringing your carbs back up for 2-3 days, instead of just keeping your carbohydrate ratios the same every day. Carbohydrate cycling helps your body to burn fat at a higher rate on the lower carbohydrate days and then replenish your carbs on higher days. This keeps your metabolism slowing down and makes sticking to your diet and exercise program a lot easier knowing that you will be able to eat higher carbs and calories on certain days.
This diet is fairly easy to follow if you have the right game plan and directions. I will go ahead and give you the directions in hopes that this will help many of you to break your fat loss plateau!
- The biggest rule is that there aren’t really any rules or special guidelines to the carb-cycling diet. What you need to do is pick 1-2 days out of the week to carb-cycle. Everyone is different, so you will have to play with what you choose to eat and not eat during these carb-cycling days. You will find that like any other diet, you will learn what works through trial and error. I suggest sticking to carbs that are fibrous in nature. ShapeFit.com has an excellent list of good carbs so make sure you check out that page on the website.
Carbohydrates are what provide our body with the energy, so I find that by focusing most of my carbs around my workouts, it helps provide me with enough energy to really put in a good workout.- Women should lean towards eating 125-175 grams of carbs on low days and 200-300 grams on higher days. Men should focus on eating 175-225 grams on low days and 350-400 grams on high days. As I have mentioned before, every person is different and may need to play with these numbers a bit to find what works best for you.
- Pay attention to how your body is feeling. If you are lacking in energy and feeling very weak, increase your starchy and fibrous carbs, but focus your starchy carbs around your workouts. However, if you have plenty of energy but are not seeing any fat loss results, slowly decrease your starchy carbs.
- Your body is a tool and you can use it to achieve many things. Don’t be afraid to try different things, especially if you have hit a plateau. Changing things up, whether it’s your nutrition or your workouts, is always a good way to stir up your metabolism and help you to start making progress again.
Carbohydrates are what provide our body with the energy, so I find that by focusing most of my carbs around my workouts, it helps provide me with enough energy to really put in a good workout.Lastly, let me go over the structure of carb-cycling once again just to make sure it is clear. If not e-mail me!
- Carb cycling is similar to the nutritional practice of eating carbs only in the morning, and after workouts.
- The biggest difference is that the amount of carbs will vary each day, which will help you accomplish more fat burning and muscle building. Also, your metabolism never will have the chance to slow down, which happens often if you stick to a typical diet. In a sense, you are constantly shocking your body. So, make sure to check the scale often, especially after a carb-cycling day.
I can almost promise you that you will see results. Long-term success is practical because carb-cycling is easy to follow compared to other low-carb diets or diets in general.
