Showing posts with label carb diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carb diet. Show all posts

Will Carb Cycling Help Me To Become Muscular and Lean?

Saturday, 19 October 2013
Definitely. Carb cycling when done correctly is one of the best ways to trim off the fat and retain your muscle mass. Many men are constantly looking for a way to burn off fat and gain muscle at the same time.

Carb cycling is the answer. The worry that most men have is that they will lose muscle mass along with their fat. This is true with conventional dieting and other fat loss methods. However, since carb cycling involves both caloric deficit and surplus, you will be able to do both, gain muscle and lose fat.

The traditional way bodybuilders used to get muscular was to have a bulking and cutting phase. During the bulking phase, they would eat as much calories as possible. They'd get muscular but they'd also get fat. During the cutting phase, they'd try and lose the fat and hold on to as much muscle as they could. Often, they lose a lot of muscle too. A waste of time and effort.

Carb cycling enables one to do both at once. There are 2 phases to carb cycling. The low carb phase and the high carb phase. On days of intense, heavy training, you will have a high carb intake. This will ensure that your body has fuel to workout hard. You will also allow your body to recover since the carbs will be used in muscle recovery.

During your off days, your carb intake will be minimal. This will ensure that your insulin levels are stable. The caloric deficit that you are in will create a fat burning environment in your body. You can also consume healthy fats during your off days.

It is never a good idea to eat your carbs and fats at the same time. The carbs will cause insulin spike in your body. If there are fats present during the insulin spike, the conditions for fat storage in the body are ideal. You definitely want to avoid this.

On your high carb days, you want your workouts to be intense and heavy. Lift the heavier weights, perform the compound movements and create an oxygen deficit. Your workouts should ideally last from 45 minutes to not longer than an hour.

On your low carb days, you may engage in low intensity cardio such as slow jog or walk. This will keep your body active and in fat burning mode constantly.
The key point to note is that your weekly calorie intake must be maintained. If you can only consume 16, 000 calories per week to lose a pound of fat per week, you'll need to stick to this number.

Then assuming you have 3 intense workout days per week, your daily calorie intake during each of these 3 days will be about 300 to 600 calories more than a low carb day.

This may seem a little complicated but it's really simple once you get the hang of it. Going into details is beyond the scope of this article. There is an excellent website dedicated to carb cycling and how you can get lean and muscular. If you wish to learn more about carb cycling, you may visit The 4 Cycle Fat Loss Solution website.

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The Secrets of Carb Cycling for Fast Fat Loss

Saturday, 19 October 2013
Carb cycling is a method that many fitness models and professional athletes use to trim off their body fat and get into shape. It is a highly effective tool for losing fat fast. Yet, most people who are struggling to lose weight have no idea about this method. They spend countless hours on the treadmill or pounding the tracks only to see measly results.

Carb cycling requires one to adopt a cyclic ketogenic diet. That's a big term but it simply means that you will be on a low carbohydrate diet for a few days and then shock your body with periods of intermediate or high carbohydrate meals.

This is perfect for boosting metabolism, accelerating fat loss and giving the body the energy it needs to engage in high-intensity exercise, which will in turn boost metabolism and burn even more fat.

Unlike conventional diets such as the Atkins diet, Lemonade diet, or other fad diets, carb cycling is a method that can be adopted as a way of life. It is not highly restrictive and does not place undue stress on a person the way strict diets do.

In fact, carb cycling has seen a surge in popularity lately and one of the best guides on the market is "The 4 Cycle Solution" by Shaun Hadsall. It covers the topic in depth and helps people shorten the learning curve and avoid the common carb cycling mistakes.

The 4 main mistakes that most people who are starting off on a carb cycling routine make involve proper food choices, nutrient timing, nutrient combinations and nutrition portion control.

If you are constantly eating the wrong foods, you are going to see minimal results or in some cases, negative results. That is going to be real depressing because everyone hopes to see positive results with effort expended. Or else, it's all pointless right? So, eating the correct foods really matters.

The next mistake is in the timing. Eating your carbs and proteins at the wrong times will impact you negatively.For example, consuming your carbs late in the day is not going to help you. The best time to consume your carbs is early in the day. This will give your body sufficient time to burn it off.

Nutrient combinations are another factor that many people are not even aware of. If you are not combining your proteins, carbs and fats in the correct manner, your body will not be in a fat burning mode. Now, all this may sound complicated to the normal person but it's quite simple. An example would be to combine your carbs with a protein food so that you do not spike your blood sugar and raise insulin levels. This is crucial.

The fourth mistake is portion control. You need to consume the correct amounts of carbs, proteins and fats daily. You should have balance and the diet must consist of all the required nutrients. By consuming too much of any one nutrient, you will be throwing your diet off balance and impact your fat loss journey negatively.

All these often seem overwhelming to a beginner. There seems to be so many rules, conditions and it's information overload. However, this is just an illusion. Carb cycling is a simple process with only a few rules. Eat the right foods at the right time and in the right quantities. That's it.

The problem arises when you look at information from too many contradicting sources. It would be best to just get your advice from one reliable source that has proven itself. You may wish to check out The 4 Cycle Fat Loss guide. It's one of the best out there.
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Are Carbs Your Enemy? Find Out the Real Truth

Saturday, 19 October 2013
Carbs which are short for carbohydrates have received a real bad reputation. Nobody serious about losing weight is showing carbs any love. There are low carb diets, no carb diets, etc. Even celebrities have come out and said that they barely consume any carbs to maintain their slim, toned figures. So, are carbs really bad for you?

Carbs can be good and bad for you. When consumed at the right times, carbs can in fact help to boost your metabolism and help you lose more weight. They give you the energy to work out harder and carbs also make you feel better. People on low carb diets often feel sluggish and easily irritated. This is a side effect of low carb diets.

Carbs are you friend and not your enemy. You just need to know which the good carbs are and when to consume them. You’ll also need to be aware of how to combine your carbs with the other macro nutrients for fat loss benefits.

First we’ll examine the negative effects of carbohydrates. The following points were taken from, Shaun Hadsall’s bestselling fat loss guide, The 4 Cycle Solution.

Carbs Impact or “active” carbs spike insulin levels and elevate blood sugar higher and faster than all other macronutrients (proteins and fats). In the presence of high insulin levels it’s pretty much impossible to burn fat as fuel.

Consuming too many unhealthy carbs over lengthy periods of time leads to a lot of internal inflammation, which can eventually lead to other serious health issues; obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. --because it promotes excess fat storage.

Excess carb intake creates a lot of water retention, which leads to a soft look so it makes you look and feel bloated.

Now, let’s look at the positive effects.

Carbs are the purest, most natural forms of fuel, provided you eat the NATURAL carbs from sources like brown or white rice, potatoes, etc. A doughnut is NOT a natural source of carbs. Carbs help to build muscle, boost metabolism, raise thyroid output, keep leptin (your body’s #1 fat burning hormone) levels in check, improve the free testosterone to estrogen ratio for both men and women, burn more lower stomach fat and much more.

This are definitely good reasons to keep carbs in your diet. The benefits are just too many to ignore. In fact, if carbs help you lose weight faster, why would you even want to eliminate them? You’d just substitute bad carbs with good carbs in moderate amounts.

So what are good and bad carbs?

Cakes, doughnuts, white flour products and actually any processed form of carbohydrates are best avoided. Most people have difficulty doing this because of habit. They are so used to eating these comfort foods that giving them up just seems so painful. Making this crucial change to good carbs will make all the difference. Examples of good carbs would be rice, potatoes, quinoa, fruits, etc. Eating these starchy carbs when prepared the correct way, will really benefit you.

Of course, there are a few more factors like combining your carbs and when to consume them. However, those are beyond the scope of this article which just aimed to show you that carbs can be good for you.

If you wish to learn more about how to combine your carbs with other foods and when would be the best time to consume your carbs, you really should visit The 4 Cycle Fat Loss Solution. Shaun Hadsall, has information that will really help you eat wisely and lose weight at the same time.
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