Carb Cycle Critique! First Time!

TyMan14

TyMan14

Active member
Whats up guys!

If you have seen any of my previous posts, its well known that I have been having major issues with my cut for Summer this year. I still can't figure out what is going on, but what I have been doing the passed 3 weeks has not worked, so its time to try a new protocol and see if my body responds. Stats are as follows- 20 years old. 6 foot 2. 233 pounds. Roughly 19-21% body fat. I am following an upper/lower split training 4 days per week, 1 day of HIIT cardio, and 1 day of either LISS or completely off, and one day of a bootcamp training that I do with my mom (cardio and core movements). This protocol has worked for me on bulks before, so I'm going to give it a go with my diet. The program itself was created by a coach that I trust that has more certifications than years I've been alive, and has been in the game for 20 years. So I know the training is on point.

Now, I'm going to attempt carb cycling for the first time in my life. My meal timing is bad, I'll admit, but from what I understand it doesn't seem that it should be too big of an issue. 2 large meals has always served me well, and is currently the plan for this cut. I am running 2650 calories (dropped 200 from my current cals due to a lack of weight/fat loss), so here is what I am thinking. I am a person that does not do well on low carb, and I am starting a new job as a manager so I need to be mentally on my game in the coming months, so anything below 100 carbs or so will sadly not be an option. This is my layout for what I am thinking as of now, and I am starting on this today (writing drinking my pre headed to the gym now).

Monday-Legs
Protein-265g
Fats-80g
Carbs-218g

Tuesday-off
Protein-290g
Fats-110g
Carbs-125g

Wednesday-Upper
Protein-265g
Fats-100g
Carbs-175g

Thursday-Legs
Protein-265g
Fats-80g
Carbs-218g

Friday-Off
Protein-290g
Fats-110g
Carbs-125g

Saturday-Upper
Protein-265g
Fats-100g
Carbs-175g

Sunday-Bootcamp Training
Protein-290g
Fats-110g
Carbs-125g

I feel like this can be followed very easily for me, and it would work well with my training schedule. Then I can just drop a hundred cals as things stall and it creates a great base for me to continue my cut. Supplements are simple as of now, just using a preworkout, aminos, green magnitude, 7keto, T2, and my prescription adderall. Maybe I should add a thermo?

Please let me know what you guys think! As I said, this is my first attempt at carb cycling, and my calories are already really low compared to what I am used to so I don't really know what other direction to go. I have been considering raising calories up to about 3300 for a week and taking a deload week of training and see if I can kind of reset, because this is not a normal calorie range for me to not be losing weight. Although, I am nervous that it would just be a week wasted when I could be progressing in a different way. Most online calculators and my own calculations have my TDEE at close to 3500 cals so I should be losing plenty of fat. I wouldn't be freaking out as much as I am if I didn't have a trip planned in late June that I set a personal goal of 12% bodyfat for. Its probably not realistic now that I've had well over a month of cutting wasted on not progressing, but Id still like to get as close as possible.

Thank you for the reading this long post!

TL;DR-Please critique the carb cycling layout above. Thank you!!
 
MMKELS said:
How are you structuring your meals throughout each day?
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Usually I fast until after my workout which leaves me eating at about 230-4PM each day depending on if I had class or if I slept in on an off day. And I am about to start working full time next week (lost my job, so I've had a bit of down time), so my schedule is about to change dramatically. But usually I eat until around midnight, and then I go to bed around 3 (college does have some perks when you don't have class until almost noon!) lol
 
Your setup looks pretty solid. I have a few ideas from personal experience that you might want to consider:

1. Protein seems a bit on the high side (especially on rest days). If you're struggling with your cut, I would lower overall calories on your rest day since you won't be burning as much. I would lower protein to the 230-240 range on your rest days, which will create an additional 200 cal deficit on those days. This might be beneficial for speeding progress.

2. The breakdown in carb cycling looks good, but I would also recommend having one higher carb day where you lower protein to 1g/pound and add those calories to your carbs. For example, on one of your leg days, you could lower protein to 230 and increase carbs to 250-260g. The calorie intake would still be the same, but having a day with higher carbs might be beneficial. It's not a guarantee, but it's worth a shot.

3. I would also suggest adding in a refeed once every 2 weeks for starters. This can fall on the same day as your higher carb day as mentioned above. The goal of a refeed is to eat slightly above maintenance to help with leptin levels and to restore glycogen. There are some great threads on AM about refeed days that you can read up on, but they can be very helpful and beneficial while dieting.

4. Not too sure what your current supplementation looks like, but I would also suggest adding in a GDA product on your higher carb days around your heavier carb meals. Using a product like Slinmax can help your body to better utilize the carbs you eat and it can reduce bloating and water retention you get from consuming more carbs. A GDA product is always a staple for me while carb cycling
 
john.patterson said:
Your setup looks pretty solid. I have a few ideas from personal experience that you might want to consider:

1. Protein seems a bit on the high side (especially on rest days). If you're struggling with your cut, I would lower overall calories on your rest day since you won't be burning as much. I would lower protein to the 230-240 range on your rest days, which will create an additional 200 cal deficit on those days. This might be beneficial for speeding progress.

2. The breakdown in carb cycling looks good, but I would also recommend having one higher carb day where you lower protein to 1g/pound and add those calories to your carbs. For example, on one of your leg days, you could lower protein to 230 and increase carbs to 250-260g. The calorie intake would still be the same, but having a day with higher carbs might be beneficial. It's not a guarantee, but it's worth a shot.

3. I would also suggest adding in a refeed once every 2 weeks for starters. This can fall on the same day as your higher carb day as mentioned above. The goal of a refeed is to eat slightly above maintenance to help with leptin levels and to restore glycogen. There are some great threads on AM about refeed days that you can read up on, but they can be very helpful and beneficial while dieting.

4. Not too sure what your current supplementation looks like, but I would also suggest adding in a GDA product on your higher carb days around your heavier carb meals. Using a product like Slinmax can help your body to better utilize the carbs you eat and it can reduce bloating and water retention you get from consuming more carbs. A GDA product is always a staple for me while carb cycling
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I'll be heading your advice and dropping cals on my low carb days. I appreciate it! I've never had to diet this hard in my life, and I have a feeling it was from a bad blood test I had recently with low testosterone. Which brings me to one thing that I left out for fear of judgement, but it is a pretty important piece to the puzzle. The T2 and 7 Keto I mentioned are a part of a product that I chose to use. Spartan lean. The other piece is 300mg epiandro. I know that I am too young to discuss such products on the boards, but I feel that is a very important piece to the puzzle. I am in week 2 so waiting for it to fully kick in. I don't know if that would change any recommendation that you made, but I felt it was worth mentioning. I know that is considered to be irresponsible, but it was the choice I made and am sticking to it (supports/SERM are being used).

I can raise carbs even higher on the one day a week I usually go out with the girlfriend. That will actually work even better with my schedule. Will be following that suggestion as well!

I'll also begin making a plan for my refeed days. I'll start with every 2 weeks just as you suggested and adjust over time as needed.

For a GDA, normally if I have a crazy high carb meal I use Metformin, but I will look into natural alternatives. I have only used the one from SNS and Recompadrol, and both were excellent. When I get paid I'll have to give Slinmax a shot. I've always loved Performax so I can only assume that it is of the same caliber as the other products.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I've dieted many times successfully and I guess my body is just not responding to my usual methods, so it was time I try something different. After this huge exam I have tomorrow I'll go ahead and rewrite this plan up and post it up for you to take a look at.
 
Been following this protocol for almost 2 weeks now (heeded advice and dropped cals by 200 on cardio days) and had a cheat meal on Saturday night (nothing too big. Went over by roughly 1k cals) and no weight loss to speak of. Going to continue doing it and see if anything happens. I'm completely baffled as to why I'm not dropping fat. Debating switching back to shortcut to shred and seeing if I can get it to burn. I REALLY need to drop fat (sitting up around 20%. Haven't been this high in a few years) and I can not for the life of me figure out what's going on
 
Any other ideas? I'm used to being able to drop 1-2 pounds a week no problem on over 3k cals. I just don't get it
 
You could try low carb / ketogenic for 4-6 weeks, and then PSMF for a week or 2.
 
Wimsicle said:
You could try low carb / ketogenic for 4-6 weeks, and then PSMF for a week or 2.
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Currently doing the carb cycling plan I laid out (albeit not OVERLY strict, but the calories are strict. Some days I'm over by 10-15 carbs and under on fats) and I have dropped down to between 229-231. So something is working. At 2700 cals and increased cardio. I don't know much about PSMF(actually I don't know what that is). I'll do some looking though! Me and Keto do not get along. I feel terrible on low carb.
 
Ehh if you don't like how you respond to keto, you probably aren't going to dig PSMF. It stand for Protein Sparing Modified Fast and is basically high protein, very low fat, very low carb, with occasional refunds throughout the week/month or however long you choose to do it. There are different categories and methods based on body fat %.

It is a crash diet. It should not be done for an extended period of time. It is effective though.

If interested more, I'd recommend reading Lyle McDonald's book on it. Fast and informative read.
 
Hey man - my recommendation would be to check out avatar nutrition. I recently did a cut from 245 to 220 and I attribute much of my success to avatar. I was eating way under what I should have and it pumped up my numbers. I cut eating close to 400 carbs a day, even on rest days. I do basic 20minutes of cardio and lift 5 days a week so no magic pill there.
 
Wimsicle said:
Ehh if you don't like how you respond to keto, you probably aren't going to dig PSMF. It stand for Protein Sparing Modified Fast and is basically high protein, very low fat, very low carb, with occasional refunds throughout the week/month or however long you choose to do it. There are different categories and methods based on body fat %.

It is a crash diet. It should not be done for an extended period of time. It is effective though.

If interested more, I'd recommend reading Lyle McDonald's book on it. Fast and informative read.
Click to expand...

Actually quite interested... weight has dropped a bit now. Down at astound 227 so we're getting things moving! I may look into this for the tail end of this cut in July
 
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