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ever heard of carb cycling
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how's it going guys my name is richie
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kirwan and today we're going to talk all
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about carbohydrate or carb cycling what
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it is how it works and whether it can
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benefit you in the gym or on the playing
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field let's get started so as much as
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some people like to make carb cycling
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sound as complicated as possible to make
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it seem like a very advanced technique
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in reality the idea behind it is super
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simple in its simplest form carb cycling
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means eating different amounts of carbs
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at different times of the day
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week or even year in order to get some
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sort of benefit for performance or body
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composition the best way to explain this
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would be to give some extreme examples
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and then to explain how you might be
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able to use it yourself and before we go
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any further i'm just using these
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examples to explain the concept i'm not
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suggesting that you should do this or
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even that any of these techniques are a
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good idea now let's take a look firstly
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let's imagine someone who's dieting
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trying to keep calories low to lose some
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body fat they're also training regularly
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let's say five days a week because they
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want to retain as much muscle and
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strength as possible and resistance
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exercise is the best way to do that
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because they're following a plan and
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have been dieting for a while they don't
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have many calories to play with they
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have a certain amount of protein and fat
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that they need as a minimum which leaves
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them with let's say 100 grams of carbs a
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day the workouts are in the mornings and
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are really hard because the diet has
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been so long you with me so far instead
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of spreading their 100 grams of carbs
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evenly amongst their three meals which
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would give them a really small portion
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of carbs each time they decide to have
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all of their carbs together for
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breakfast a couple of hours before they
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work out they enjoy breakfast and always
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feel that they train better after eating
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a large dose of carbs some people do
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some people don't so they have their
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really carby breakfast enjoy a great
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training session and then eat some
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really low carb meals during the rest of
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the day that's an example of carb
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cycling let's look at another example
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someone who wants to bulk but wants to
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do it as a lean bulk so she gains as
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little body fat as possible she's
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training four days a week and her
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sessions are super heavy and really take
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it out of her and she knows she
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struggles to recover from them sometimes
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so instead of having the same amount of
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carbs every day she decides to change
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her macros based on training days and
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rest days she reduces the amount of
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carbs on rest days because she's pretty
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inactive and feels she doesn't need them
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all that much she then divides those
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carbs pretty evenly amongst her meals on
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her training days that means on training
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days she has more carbs than on rest
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days she has more carbs for her
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breakfast before she trains which helps
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her train harder and she has more carbs
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in the meals after her training which
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she feels helps her recover better then
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on rest days she doesn't have as many
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carbs but she's okay with that this is
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not only carb cycling but also calorie
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cycling because she ends up eating more
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calories on training days than on rest
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days now there's not much evidence to
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suggest that carb cycling like this is
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better for lean gains than having the
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same amount of carbs and calories every
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day but and it's an important part if
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she enjoys it and it makes her feel
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better on her training days it's a
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perfectly reasonable nutrition plan
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remember nutrition doesn't always need
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to have an actual effect on your body
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enjoying one way of eating more than
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another is a perfectly legitimate reason
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to choose it okay let's look at another
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example one a little bit more aimed at
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performance in endurance sports like
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long distance running or cycling there
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are training techniques called train low
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sleep low and recover low
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basically the idea is to train on a low
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carbohydrate diet recover on low carbs
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or do both when your body is forced to
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train with low carbohydrate availability
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it's forced to burn more fat instead
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to do this your body starts
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manufacturing more mitochondria in your
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muscles these are the little energy
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generating organelles in your cells that
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can burn both carbs and fat like i said
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when you train with low carbs on a
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regular basis your body produces more
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mitochondria a process called
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mitochondrial biogenesis remember that
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and it also makes more enzymes and
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proteins needed for burning more fat but
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and again it's another important but
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most of the time an athlete will train
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with much higher carbs because carbs
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improve performance and help people
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train harder athletes also compete with
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very high carbohydrate intakes that
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means when it comes to the race they can
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effectively use both fat and carbs as
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fuel so this is yet another example of
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carb cycling okay how about this one
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someone is trying to diet and finds a
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lower carb diet is pretty easy for them
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during the week but on the weekend let's
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say saturday they want to eat more carbs
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just to help them enjoy the weekend a
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little bit more the carbs make them feel
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better and might also help improve
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training for a few days after eating
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them too if this sounds familiar that's
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because this approach can also be called
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but it's also an example of carb cycling
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finally just to give a very very broad
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example bodybuilders often do bulking
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and cutting cycles where they try to
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gain muscle or lose body fat
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respectively if you think about it
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bulking diets are much higher in
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calories and a lot of those calories
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come from carbs and some fat obviously
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on the other hand when trying to cut
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athletes reduce their calories and they
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do that by reducing their carbs and
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again some fat for a few months while it
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this is also an example of carb cycling
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so i hope this video has helped you see
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that carb cycling is nothing fancy at
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all it's just choosing to eat more or
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fewer carbs at specific times with a
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specific goal in mind so whether it can
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help you or not depends entirely on your
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goals and on your food preferences did
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this answer your questions about carb
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cycling as always if you have any more
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let me know in the comments below and
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remember to like and subscribe to the my
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protein youtube channel for more great
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evidence-based nutrition information
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i don't have any there's nothing on
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screen i can't see anything
