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okay today we're going to talk about
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carb cycling
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what it is how it works why it works and
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why you should implement it in your own
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diet strategy and so we're going to
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start with
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is essentially what is a diet
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and that starts with what the human body
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is and basically what we are
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is a closed thermodynamic system meaning
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we have some energy input in
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and some energy input out and they have
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to equal each other and the reason they
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have to equal each other is the law of
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conservation of energy
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and you can disagree with that all you
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want but i can tell you that every
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physicist of the last 150 years
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has devoted a large portion of their
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life to proving that wrong
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because if anyone could ever prove it
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wrong it's an immediately guaranteed
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nobel prize
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and even better you're the world's first
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trillionaire because you solve the world
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energy crisis and you're creating energy
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from nothing
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that's what this means if calories in a
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dozen equal calories out it means you've
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created
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energy from nothing meaning we no longer
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need
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uh coal fuel gasoline oil electric
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energy nothing
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we just snap our fingers and have
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magical energy and so that doesn't
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happen
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and so what's going on that is so
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if we eat thousand calories
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and we burn three thousand calories
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we're in that negative one thousand
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calories where do those calories have to
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come from
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they come from stored energy in the body
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and the body stores energy in three ways
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one is carbs
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which is glycogen the body stores
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carbohydrates glycogen in the muscle in
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the liver
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two is fat obviously we have
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almost essentially unlimited ability to
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store fat for other users
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and three is muscle
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now we want to not use muscle for energy
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and we want to maximize the amount of
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fat we use for energy
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by playing with the way we use
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carbohydrates for energy
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and that's essentially the gist of carb
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cycling
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and so how does it work
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well let's start with the case of a diet
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situation
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and i'll start with uh this is shown in
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studies
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let's take two cases case one is a
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person eats a hypercaloric diet
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with the same amount of calories every
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single day of the week
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say they're in a 500 calorie daily
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deficit that's 3 500 calories for the
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week or about a pound of fat per week
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if all those excess calories come from
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stored fat energy
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now if you take that same person and
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have them eat the same total weekly
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calorie count but on one of those days
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the calories go very high
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and on the rest of the days they're a
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little bit lower that person will
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actually have an improved body
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composition over the first person
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and why that's that's where
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consolidation comes in
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so let's take an example we have a
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person
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let's do a simple a simple carb cycle we
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do very low carbohydrate is one high
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carbohydrate day
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so six days a week we have very low
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carbohydrates we're burning stored
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glycogen we're burning fat for energy
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and hopefully not any muscle for energy
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now we get to the seventh day
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and we're depleted in glycogen uh we've
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been burning some fat but we're so
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depleted glycogen not that now we're on
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the verge
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of running out of muscle glycogen and
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and needing to create
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that carbohydrate energy in cases where
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we need it and the way the body creates
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it is through gluconeogenesis which is
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breaking down protein structures
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to create glucose to create the energy
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source
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and the worst case scenario that's going
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to come from breakdown of muscle tissue
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and so i'll use myself for example
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someone my size
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can probably store about a thousand
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grams of uh glycogen
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and then let's say on a typical diet for
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round numbers let's say
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i can eat 250 grams of protein and 500
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grams of carbohydrates without storing
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any calories that's fat let's say that's
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my baseline metabolism
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now i let's say that i go into that high
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carb day depleted of all thousand grams
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of glycogen
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it's not going to happen when it's easy
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for just for round numbers we'll use
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that
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so i go into the high date already
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depleted a thousand grams of glycogen
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and we know i can eat 500 grams of
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carbohydrates
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without storing as any as fat so what
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that means then
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is i can eat 1500 grams of carbs on that
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day
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which i know is more calories than i
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burn so i know i'm going to store
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those calories as energy in the body but
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because i'm depleted of glycogen
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those calories are going to be
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preferentially stored as glycogen rather
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than fat
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if they come from carbohydrate sources
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and so that's what we do
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so in that case i can eat 1500 grams of
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carbs now imagine yourself
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four weeks out of a contest starving
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carb depleted
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imagine what kind of mental and physical
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energy boost you're going to get from
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eating 1500 grams of carbohydrates in a
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day
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and even better knowing that
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none or very little of those
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carbohydrates can be stored as fat
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they're going to be stored with muscle
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glycogen
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which then powers you through the rest
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of the week for the initial stages of
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any energy deficit where you're using
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stored glycogen
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before stored fat and that and that's
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basically the gist of carb cycling for
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fat loss
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and so let me let me give an example of
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typically how i'll do it we'll have
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three different days
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we'll have your low carb days
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your medium carb days
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and your high carb days now the low carb
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days are going to be on your days off
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and on those days we're going to go very
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low carbohydrate you don't need carbs
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we're not doing anything we're not
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training
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maybe we're doing cardio but we don't
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want to use carb energy for cardio
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anyways we want to maximize a lot of fat
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we use
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so on that day let's i'll just give some
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examples let's say this person is eating
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50 grams of protein per meal
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maybe only vegetables for carbs
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and maybe 10 grams of additional fat on
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top of the protein fat
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per meal so it's a hypochloric day very
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low calorie
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they're depleting the body of energy so
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reserves uh
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prefer preferably from fat sources
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hopefully
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uh and because carbohydrates are so low
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and we're not doing any intense activity
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a lot of those calories will come from
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fat and then on the medium carb day will
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be
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basically any day we're training with
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weights and let's say we do the same
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thing
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50 grams of protein and let's say for
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it wouldn't be this way with the way i
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would do it we would vary by the meal
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but let's for round numbers let's say
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the person is having
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50 grams of carbs per meal and
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let's say 7 grams of fat so in this case
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the calories are higher than the low day
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most of the excess calories really all
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of them because everything else either
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equal or lower
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is coming from carbohydrates that
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provides an easy energy source for
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weight training
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uh to make sure they're you know so you
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can actually train how you're not so
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depleted
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but if that net calorie total is less
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than the calories you burn you are still
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going to lose
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that stored energy from the body as a
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mixture of fat and carbohydrates
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now we go into that high day and now i'm
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extremely depleted in glycogen from all
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the low days in the medium days
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throughout the week
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and on this day let's say i do 30 grams
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of protein
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150 grams of carbs per meal
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and 0 grams of added fat now
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imagine being in a in a deep contest
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diet being able to eat 150 grams of
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carbs six times a day
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and not only not lose progress with your
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diet but improve progress from the diet
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and that's basically what this is doing
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and that that's all it is
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it's just it's just it's just playing
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with the way
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the body stores energy everything is
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bound
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by the boundary conditions of calories
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inverse calories out
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but because their calories aren't
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created the same we just work with the
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difference
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to maximize the rate of fat loss and
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minimize the rate of muscle loss that's
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that's all it is
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the high day increases your metabolism
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uh keeps you
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stored filled with glycogen stores so
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you have readily energy
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sources available for your training on
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your medium days
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and then uh it provides a mental boost
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of
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not being so depleted in glycogen where
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you're unable to function essentially
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and so that's really the long and short
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of it
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now this also works in the off-season
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and so in the off season why do you want
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to extremely high carbohydrates
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and so everyone's going to think well
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protein is what builds most of what
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don't i want to extremely protein in the
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off season
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and i'll tell you why you don't i mean
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you want some of that protein and no one
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knows the exact amount you need to
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prevent muscle loss and that's my muscle
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growth
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but i can guarantee you it's not as high
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as what people are eating
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and we'll we'll actually use things
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we'll do numerically what happens
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so let's take someone and say they've
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gained they've been training for 10
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years and they've added 150 pounds of
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muscle
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they started as a 15 year old as a 150
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pound
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15 year old kid and now they're 25 and
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they're 300 pounds
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of mass monster and so that's an
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extremely high rate of growth
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you know 15 pounds a year well if you
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break that down that's only about 25
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grams of protein synthesis per day
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that's it
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so if you're eating 500 grams of protein
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only 25 if only 25 grams of those
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actually go to build new muscle
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you go from 150 pound junior in high
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school to 300 pound 25 year old mass
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monster
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and so it's it's there's more involved
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than just throwing protein
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at the problem and that's what i call
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first level thinking
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and and everyone does this but anytime
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you try something new and you think okay
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protein does muscle
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i'll eat more protein and build more
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muscle that's personal thinking
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meaning that it and
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with anything that has any level of
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difficulty to achieve first level
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thinking is never the solution because
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if it was
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everyone would achieve their goals
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because the first thing you think
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i need more protein to grow i'll eat
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more protein boom i'm bigger
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that's the first thing everyone thinks
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since everyone isn't bigger
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there's more to the problem and that is
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how you actually use that protein
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and in the season the high carbohydrate
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days allow you to maximize the muscle
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growth
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despite eating less protein and the way
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that works is
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insulin now insulin people say insulin
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is the most powerful anabolic it's
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really not and so it's just
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anti-catabolic
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but it creates embolism through a
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secondary mechanism
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uh when insulin binds to a receptor it
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increases the amino acid uptake
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into that cell and now if you weight
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train and create a stimulus for protein
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synthesis
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at that cell that's how it's going to
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take any amino acids it has and
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synthesize new muscle proteins from them
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well if you have the high insulin level
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and have more of those cells bound with
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insulin
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driving more amino acids into them
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you're increasing the potential for
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muscle growth
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from the protein you eat so that's
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second level thinking the first level of
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thinking we said
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we just need more protein but we don't
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we have nothing to force that protein to
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actually synthesize new muscle
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with this approach we do now what we do
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is we create the protein synthesis
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through weight training
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and rather than just throw protein into
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the problem and hope it works we take
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the protein we're already eating and we
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maximize its efficiency or effectiveness
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through the increased carbohydrate
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intake and so that's what we do in the
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off season
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where the pre-contest will have one high
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carbohydrate day which is just to
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restore glycogen
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keep uh metabolism relatively high uh
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provide some sanity
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to the diet and some energy reserves to
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power you through the low carbohydrate
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days
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and that's it in the off season the high
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carbohydrate days are different because
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we're not going without carbohydrate
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days depleted
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we're going into them with the idea if
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we could just maximize
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the amount of protein synthesis we can
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create from the from the protein we eat
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on a select number of days of the week
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and so you might say well why don't we
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just do it every day of the week
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and the problem is is because these are
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hypercaloric days you're eating more
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calories than you burn
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now when done correctly we're maximizing
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the number of those calories that are
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both stored as glycogen
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and synthesizes new protein but you can
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never guarantee that you every single
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calorie you eat above what you burn
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is going to be stored the way you want
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it to some of it's always going to be
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stored as fat
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and so that's why you can't do it every
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day because if you did it every day you
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would
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essentially just i mean and that goes
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right back to first level thinking
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if you did it every day you would just
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be too hyper caloric every single day of
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the week
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you'll never be depleted enough for
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glycogen to create this
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need for more glycogen storage and you
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would know just getting fat
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so what we do is the ultimate goal is to
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move to three high carbohydrate days a
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week
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and off season so we'll have the same
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thing
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we'll have our low days on our off days
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we'll have our medium days as our base
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training day
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and then two to three days a week we'll
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have our high day
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where we take advantage of all those
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things i was talking about but typically
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that would start out as like a leg and a
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back day
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and maybe the third day would be on a
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week body part day and
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the other thing that's kind of
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counter-intuitive is the high
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carbohydrate days and the off-season
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will tend to be lower in carbohydrate
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than in the compost diet or in any fat
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loss diet
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and the reason is is because in the in
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the fat loss diet we're going into those
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hot days
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extremely glycogen depleted and so we
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have more room
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to force glycogen in to tap off the lost
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glycogen reserves
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before we start getting into that
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hyperchloric intake in the off season
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we're not entering these high days very
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depleted
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we have lots of car from this day quite
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a bit of cars on this day
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so we're ending that day a few hundred
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grams depleted at best
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where as opposed to like in the case of
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a thousand grams depletion in the in the
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contest diet
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and so we can't force it quite as high
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and so
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but but you're taking it high enough to
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take advantage of those mechanisms that
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that kind of facilitate a faster rate of
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growth
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and and that's really it that's that's
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that's the whole gist of it
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is you're always bound you have to
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understand you're bound by that
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calories in calories out this cycle
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and they always have to be equal and
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within that mix you have
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three energy sources
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protein carbs and fat now at all times
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of the year we want to
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minimize the amount of protein we're
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using for energy we want to use no
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protein for energy if possible
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and we want to maximize the amount of an
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off season we are maximize the amount of
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carbohydrates we're using for energy
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because that's the easiest energy source
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that provides the most
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effective energy for four weight
14:51
training and the context eye we want to
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maximize the amount of fat
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we're using for energy and all those
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things can be done by manipulating
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those three macronutrients under under
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the boundary conditions that calories in
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have to be equal to calories out one way
15:06
or the other and if they're not
15:07
the body is going to pull those calories
15:10
from the energy research in the body
15:12
or store those excess calories and
15:14
energy research in the body
15:15
and carbohydrate cycling is just a way
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to maximize the effectiveness
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of how those energy reserves are stored
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or lost both in contest prep
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and in the offseason
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you
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