In researching different nutrition and diet approaches I collect a lot of articles on paper and links to online articles. I thought I’d share a few on carbohydrate and calorie cycling for anyone interested in the hows and whys to this dietary approach. I also included articles on eating for abs as it is Summer time and we all want great abs, right?
Carb Cycling – What You Need To Know
What I am about to present is not a new paradigm, or revolutionary approach to diet. Nor is it the end-all, be-all to dieting; there are many viable approaches.
This diet is, on the other hand, an easy (relatively speaking) approach to diet that is physiologically and psychologically rewarding. Moreover, it is rather malleable and also forgiving, yet effective. For these reasons, I am astounded that it has not caught on to a greater extent (in some form or another), and played a bigger role in the dieting revolution.
This is the first installment of a multi-part article. Here, we will briefly discuss my background (as it relates to this diet), its genesis (in the form I present), the basic tenets of the diet, as well as the basic diet structure. We will also discuss, briefly, its psychological benefits, as well as its physiological strengths and underpinnings.
Psychology and physiology, as you will see (and as Par Deus has propounded) are inextricably intertwined, in the world of diet and food. Or, "food and mood," as Par is so fond of saying. Read more.
The Carb Cycling Codex - Gain muscle and lose fat optimally! by Christian Thibaudeau
Life is funny sometimes. Over the course of my T-Nation career I went from a fat but strong guy to a lean and muscular one, despite having the worst "fat loss genetics" in the world. In the past, I made most of my transformations via a low-carb dietary approach, and as a result I became somewhat carb-phobic and truly believed that ingesting carbs would turn me into a fat slob.
What's humorous is that, as a strength coach, I have access to the top sports nutritionists in the world. I've read everything by everyone. Drs. Berardi and Lowery's work weren't able to convince me of reintroducing carbs to my diet. Even the work of bodybuilding coach Chris Aceto (who uses relatively high carbs even during the pre-contest period) didn't help. When it came to carbs, I lost all rational thought capacity!
But as of now, carbs are back in my own diet and the diets of my athletes and bodybuilders. What happened? A 135 pound girl made me change my outlook on building muscle and losing fat. She succeeded where all the best experts failed! Read more.
Carbohydrate Cycling
Carbohydrate cycling is a 6 day program that will allow your body to burn bodyfat while still retaining muscle mass. It's a technique that is described in detail in the book SLICED by Bill Reynolds and Negrita Jayde, however I will summarize it here.
Over the last 10 years I've competed, I've used this technique each time and without fail I've been able to achieve exceptional definition while retaining the muscle mass that I gained during my bulking phase.
If you're using this program takes time to cut down for a bodybuilding competition, remember to give yourself enough time to get the results you want. Depending on your bodyfat percentage you may need 12-24 weeks to get to competition quality definition.
Read more.
ZigZag Dieting: if you can keep your body guessing and your appetite in check, you’ll continue to lose lard. This special six step carb cycling plan will do just that for you, sparing your muscle while burning your fat in just six weeks.
If you've been on a diet before, you're all too aware of the standard outcome: You cut back on your food and you lose weight ... at least initially. But then your progress slows to a crawl, before stopping altogether. At this point, no matter how strict you are with your calories, no matter how much you work out, the pudge won't budge.
What gives? Your body's natural instinct to preserve itself at all costs kicks in. Sensing a calorie deficit, your body shifts into starvation mode, shutting down all fat burning as it hoards calorie stores.
Even if you're successful at losing a few pounds, your body often reacts by adjusting your energy expenditure in order to revert to your previous weight, known as your "setpoint." A 1995 study out of the Laboratory of Human Behavior and Metabolism at Rockefeller University in New York measured both obese and non-obese people who either increased or decreased their body weight 10 percent to 20 percent. In both cases, metabolism shifted--at a lower weight, the subjects began burning less energy throughout the day, while at a higher weight they burned more, an effort by their bodies to return to that setpoint.
These metabolic shifts, meant to preserve you in times of starvation, were great in prehistoric days, when men didn't know when or from where their next mastodon steak was coming and paid no mind to crafting a six-pack. But if you covet beach-worthy muscle, these annoying physiologic mechanisms will quash your efforts every time--unless you learn to make them work for you. That's where calorie cycling comes into play. Read more.
Take burning fat to a whole new level - Part 1 Researched and Composed by Jacob Wilson
Note: this writer uses the word “lose” in place of “loose” so keep that in mind.. Otherwise his material is well presented and accurate. I’ve seen diet bloggers make the same error. The meanings are similar.
Loose – adjective
1. free or released from fastening or attachment: a loose end.
2. free from anything that binds or restrains; unfettered: loose cats prowling around in alleyways at night.
Lose - verb, lost, los·ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to come to be without (something in one's possession or care), through accident, theft, etc., so that there is little or no prospect of recovery: I'm sure I've merely misplaced my hat, not lost it.
2. to fail inadvertently to retain (something) in such a way that it cannot be immediately recovered: I just lost a dime under this sofa.
3. to suffer the deprivation of: to lose one's job; to lose one's life.
4. to be bereaved of by death: to lose a sister.
Control, complete mastery over your own body. How do you achieve such a state? Do you listen to your body? Are you in tune with it? You must be if you ever hope to achieve this position of dominance. That is what this article is about. It is the first of several diets I will discuss that are based on literally manipulating your body, its functions and the rate at which it burns fat.
Insulin
This is an extremely vast subject. So vast in fact that I am going to cover it in greater detail in future issues of the magazine. I will only discuss a small portion of its properties in this paragraph.
Insulin is a hormone, produced in our pancreas, that regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats in our body. You need to understand that it has a very high upside and also a very low downside!
Its upside is that it literally shuttles vital nutrients such as carbs, creatine and amino acids right smack into our muscles. The more nutrients your muscles receive, the more anabolic a response you will get from resistance training. Insulin also suppresses the hormone known as cortisol, which is responsible for muscle wasting. It literally steals protein from them! It suppresses this and in turn helps to put us back into a state of anabolism. When it comes to having muscle building properties this hormone is a Giant!
In fact I would rate the anabolic effects of insulin as second only to testosterone! And there are many experts who have dubbed it number one in this category.
Unfortunately it has an extremely low downside! Insulin is also responsible for increased uptake of nutrients in our fat cells. This means we are highly likely to store fat when a huge burst of this hormone is released. To put it bluntly, burning fat is impossible in the presence of a huge burst of insulin.
How can we control insulin levels and benefit from them at the same time? Read more.
Cycling Calories - How Does It Work? By John Davenport
One of the main reasons why 95% of diets fail is that your metabolism slows down during the diet until it burns less and less fat. That is also why people lose a lot of weight when they start dieting but see their weight loss rate slow down with time. What happens is that your metabolism doesn't know your dieting, it thinks your starving. And so it slows down so your burn less calories. It's a biological process which exists in all the animals in nature and in us humans as well.
Cycling calories is a weight loss method which attempts to 'trick' our metabolism into thinking that we're not dieting. That way the metabolism doesn't slow down and we continue to lose weight at a rapid pace. Read more.
Calorie Cycling - And Why It Works By Rachel Jenkins
Thanks to the weight loss industry, many people think that weight loss is a complex, overwhelming process.
It's not their fault - companies have spent millions of dollars trying to confuse dieters, so that they helplessly spend their money, hand-over-fist, in order to find the latest and greatest "cure".
But people who are able to get "out of the box" and learn about simple and proven weight loss methods tend to have the huge advantage. This is because once they realize that food and the patterns in which they eat is more powerful than any kind of weight loss pill or surgery... they have complete mastery over their body.
Once these people have a grasp of how to eat, they never again have to worry about gaining weight back or becoming fat ever again.
Because it's very, very easy!
All people have to do in order to lose weight is to shift their calories. That's it!
With typical low-calorie or low-carbohydrate diets, people eventually end up plateauing. Their bodies adjust to the diet, and weight loss halts. Read more.
Uncovering The Truth About Abs by Anthony Lee
Excerpt: Well-defined abdominal muscles, whether achieved through pure dedication, superior genetics, or both, are as coveted as they are elusive. The following are approaches that I've tried through trial and error to reveal the elusive six-pack. Try them out!
Carbohydrates & Cutting:
There is much controversy and disagreement about the role of carbohydrates in a "cutting" diet, which is meant to decrease body fat and increase muscle definition.
Opponents of low-carbohydrate consumption cite inadequate energy, decreased mental focus, and ambiguous long-term effects as reasons to avoid reducing carbohydrates.
Proponents of low-carbohydrate diets cite numerous real-life cases to bolster their arguments. I am a firm believer in cycling carbohydrates, which involves varying intake each day in order to stimulate metabolism while supplying adequate levels of energy. Read more.
How I Got “Ripped” Abs For The Very First Time by Tom Venuto
Excerpt: Oh, I had muscle. I started gaining muscle from the moment I picked up a barbell. I got strong too. I was benching 315 at age 18. But even after four years of successful strength training, I still hadn’t figured out this getting ripped thing. Muscle isn’t very attractive if it’s covered up with a layer of fat. That’s where the phrase “bulky” really comes from – fat on top of muscle. It can look worse than just fat.
That’s when I started to figure it out. If you’re expecting me to say that running is the secret, no, that’s NOT it per se. I was thinking bigger picture. In fact, I noticed that my legs had lost some muscle size, so I knew that over-doing the runs would be counter productive, ultimately, and I don’t run that much anymore these days. But that’s how I did it the first time and I had never experienced fat loss like that before. The fat was falling off and I had barely changed my diet.
My “aha moment” was when I realized the pivotal piece in the puzzle was calories. It wasn’t the type of exercise, it wasn’t the specific foods and it wasn’t supplements. Today I realize that it’s the calorie deficit that matters the most, not whether you eat less or burn more per se, but in my case creating a large deficit by burning the calories was the absolute key for me. Read more.
