Carb Cycling and Macronutrient Timing

WHAT IS CARB CYCLING?

Carb cycling is an eating pattern where you will vary your carbohydrate consumption day to day depending on your training regimen and/or activity level. The Ready To Win program Carb Protocol goes:

 

 

Most online training programs try and force you into a cookie cutter workout plan and a single sided nutrition scenario. Sad thing is, most of these plans are comprised of “fad diets” paired with a bit of “bro science”. As we all know, success requires a program much more individualized and complex than that. Ready To Win utilizes a uniform carb and training cycle, but still allows for variance in much of the programming. We strive to be the most flexible program on the market that still gets you results!

*more great information on low carb in Week 1 Day 7

 

WHAT DOES CARB CYCLING DO?

Carb cycling allows for us to strategize and properly set up our carbohydrate intake. When you carb cycle, you will plan your higher carb days with more intense training days, moderate carb days for less intense training days, and lower carb days on our rest/off days. When we carb cycle properly it allows us to keep your insulin response, blood glucose levels, and insulin sensitivity optimal. High or low carb all of the time will still allow you to lose weight and/or body fat, but both options will have adverse effects on your insulin response and insulin sensitivity over a prolonged period of time.

We spoke earlier about how fats and carbs are inversely related when we talk about nutritional intake, so when you have a high carb day you will have a lower fat day and vice versa. This is important because this means as we cycle carbohydrates we are simultaneously cycling our fats. The correct amount of fat intake is paramount for hormone regulation and cognitive function, making its cycling vital to your overall success.  

 

CAN I DO LOW CARB ALL THE TIME?

Eating low carbohydrate for too long can encourage your body to start to become resistant to insulin, in turn lowering your insulin sensitivity. Going lower carb after multiple moderate and/or high carb days is a great strategy to deplete glycogen, increase insulin sensitivity, and lower insulin resistance. Going lower carb is also great for non-training or low activity days; since you don’t need as much energy on these days. The myth of going low carb all the time so that you burn more body fat has been proven wrong time and time again in a wide array of studies. As stated earlier, your fuel source will shift to fat, increasing a process called fat oxidation, but no studies have linked this with the lowering of total body fat loss (no lower in body fat percentage or body weight).

 

 

MACRONUTRIENT TIMING

 

PAIRING NUTRITION AND EXERCISE

Now you should be beginning to understand why we utilize a “carb cycle.” Moving forward, we will dive a little deeper into how and why it is so important to time your nutrients up correctly around your workouts. Fat carries the most calories per gram (9 cals) and are great for energy, but carbohydrates are still the preferred fuel source when resistance/strength training. The body breaks down the carbohydrates into glucose, fructose, and galactose to be used as energy.   When carbohydrates are put into your body they refill the glycogen stored in the muscle and liver, which is important for short intense bursts of energy. On moderate and high carb days, we prefer to place a carb meal 1-3 hours before training and also have carbs and protein post exercise (it does not have to be done immediately after).

Eating a low-carbohydrate diet on strength training days can lead to a breakdown in lean body mass, which is contradictory to your long-term success with the Ready To Win program. One of our main goals is to support your metabolism and we accomplish this by building more lean body mass. The body has to use more energy (calories) to maintain lean body mass (while it takes less energy to maintain fat). More lean body mass helps ensure your metabolism is running efficiently, therefore burning more calories, and changing your overall body composition.  

HIGH CARB DAYS= RESITANCE/STRENGTH TRAINING DAYS

MODERATE CARB DAYS (regular macro) = HIIT/LISS DAYS and 1 STRENGTH DAY (per week)

LOW CARB DAYS = REST/ACTIVE RECOVERY DAYS