Does carb cycling work for weight loss I How to cycle carbs for fat loss

YouTube, what's going on? Welcome back to the channel. In this video, we are gonna be covering carb cycling. And you may have heard of carb cycling, you may not have heard of carb cycling. A lot of people use carb cycling for weight loss, for boosting their metabolism, for losing extra body fat. We're gonna cover everything carb cycling for body composition changes. Again, losing fat, building muscle, those kind of things. And so, 2 main methods. That we're going to focus on, which by the way, I hope the glare is not too much. I'm pretty sure it's not, but I'll find out I guess after I record this video. I'm trying to get this video in before the sun is completely beaming down on my face, and so hopefully this works. 2 main methods we're going to talk about, and then over here we're going to talk about some other things to just consider and think about and work into your specific situation scenario. Let's quickly cover the 2 main methods. When it comes to carb cycling, there are 2 main methods that you could use. First off, you could essentially just go into literally carb cycling, which is just you keep the same amount of calories, but you just simply cycle the carbohydrates. So let's say, for example, you have an overall calorie goal of 1,800 calories. And I'm gonna make up some macros here, which again, by the way, macros are just protein, carbs, and fats. So, I'm gonna make up some make-believe macros. I don't know if these actually add up to 1,800 calories, but either way, let's say you're doing 1,800 calories and you're doing, you know, your normal day would be, you know, 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, and 55 grams of fat, right? That's a typical day. What you can do with carb cycling is, let's say you work out 4 days a week, right? Let's say on your workout days you want higher carbohydrate days 'cause you just want more carbs 'cause you're pushing harder and you just enjoy more carbs. Whatever the case may be. So let's say on those 4 days you go with 1,800 calories still, but let's say you go with 150 grams of protein, 230 grams of carbs, and, you know, drop the fats down to— it was 55, I believe. Say you drop the fats down to 45 grams of fat. That way you would change the carbs and the fat of that goal to essentially keep the same calorie amount, because if you just increased carbs, You would increase calories, right? You would increase your overall calories if you don't change your protein and you don't change your dietary fat intake. So if you're looking to just literally cycle carbohydrates but keep the same calories, you would go from 1,800 calories, 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, 55 grams of fat to, if you want a higher carbohydrate day, 1,800 calories, 150 grams of protein, 230 grams of carbs, 45 grams, excuse me, of fat. And this way you're essentially just kind of taking away from the dietary fat in order to make room for extra calories, extra carbohydrates that you can put then into your diet. And so that is literally just kind of carb cycling. So one day, let's say you do that. Let's say you work out 4 days a week. You do that 4 days a week. Let's say you don't work out 3 days a week. On those days you either want lower carbohydrates or you just want higher. You enjoy dietary fat. Maybe, you know, you're having meals higher in fat. And you want to be able to have more fat that day. What you would then do is say, all right, cool, I'm going to keep 1,800 calories. I'm going to go to 150 grams of protein. I'm going to go to— so we started from 200 grams of carbs. I'm going to go to 170 grams of carbs. I'm going to go to, you know, 70 grams of fat. Again, not exactly sure of the macros, but you get the idea. You would essentially change the carbs to lower and you would change the fat and/or the protein to higher. Um, Notice how in both those scenarios, again, number one, your calories, overall calories did not change, just the carbohydrate intake. And also number two, notice how we never decreased the protein. If you're gonna do a carb cycling approach, you typically never decrease the protein. You eat, you, you just change the carbohydrate amount and the fat amount. So remember, for every 1 gram of carbohydrate, there is 4 calories. For every 1 gram of dietary fat, there is 9 calories. And so that's why, like, for example, If you changed, you know, 90— let's say you changed 10 grams of fat, that's then 90 extra calories you can then put towards carbohydrates. And that's how you can have more carbohydrates and/or less carbohydrates depending on, you know, high calorie, high carb day, low carb day, so on and so forth. And so that is one way you can do that. Um, a lot of people do that sometimes if they, number one, just want more carbohydrates throughout the week some days, and/or number two, like I know sometimes, um, females do this during their time of the month. I know sometimes like, you know, you have more cravings and stuff like that. And so You could potentially work in more carbohydrates that way while keeping your overall calories the same if you're concerned with whether it's body fat loss or maintenance or whatever the case may be. And then number 3, if you know you're having a meal, let's say every Friday, for example, you know you're having a meal that's gonna be pizza and pizza is higher in fat, right? Well, you could essentially just kind of say, hey, you know what? We're gonna make sure we switch some things around so we can have a meal that's higher in fat. So typically speaking, those are the, you know, 2, 3, 4 main ways. And again, kind of what I just said earlier, which is— If, you know, again, if you want those days where you have more carbohydrates on your workout days, like, that could be a situation where that happens. And so that would literally just be carb cycling. Now, calorie carb cycling would be essentially what I just said but while changing carbohydrates. I'm sorry, while changing calories. So let's say, for example, you want your average calorie intake for the day should be 1,800 calories, right? Again, let's say you have 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs and 55 grams of fat. Well, let's say you, on the days you work out, let's say you want to go into a calorie deficit for fat loss, right? But you still want to have some days that are higher in calories and higher in carbohydrates, whether it's for workouts, whether it's just for adherence purposes, whether it's, you know, for example, the weekend might be a bit higher in calories, whatever the case may be. I've done an entire video on calorie cycling for weight loss. And so I'll link that here. I won't go too in-depth because I did an entire video, so check that out if you want to. But let's say you want to cycle your calories and you do that via carbohydrates. So what you would do is, let's just say, for example, again, you work out 4 days a week and you have 1,800 calories. That's what you're supposed to have, right? Let's say on your workout days you have 2,000 calories, right? So on your workout days you now bump up to 2,000 overall calories, keep your protein the same, keep your fats the same, and then increase carbohydrates, you know, 30, 40, 50 grams again, whatever that kinda comes out to. Math is kinda slipping me right now, but you would essentially increase carbohydrates that day. And so you would increase your calories and increase your carbohydrates. That would be calorie cycling. Let's say those 4 days you do 2,000 calories. Let's say 3 days you do 1,500 calories instead, right? So let's say again, your number one goal was 1,800 calories. 4 days a week you're doing 2,000 calories. 3 days a week you're doing 1,500 calories. And you're decreasing the calories via carbohydrates. And so on those 1,500-calorie days, let's say you're going from 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, 55 grams of fat. Let's say on the lower calorie days you're going to 150 grams of protein, 150 grams of carbs, and 55 grams of fat. This way you are, again, not changing protein, not changing fat, but you're changing your carbohydrate intake to allow for this calorie cycling. And so At the end of the week, if your total goal was 1,800 calories every day, you just simply did— some days were 2,000, some days were 1,500. At the end of the week, your overall calorie total would average out and you would still be in an overall calorie deficit for that week, which means you would then end up losing body fat. You're just taking a calorie cycling approach as opposed to— you're taking a calorie cycling approach in the form of— Carb cycling, because one day you're having more carbs, one day you're having less carbs. That's literally what that would be right there. So those are your 2 main methods. Again, one way is you're literally just cycling carbs and fats. One day you're cycling overall calories. Again, notice how each of those times the protein content did not change because you never really— typically you never want to take away from your protein. Typically speaking, of course there's going to be individual scenarios and so on and so forth, but for the most part, trying to keep your protein roughly the same and either just changing carbohydrates or Changing fat or changing a bit of both, right? You could change a bit of both as well. So those are your 2 main ways of going about doing that. Now, remember what I just said. So, you know, here's the thing. The most important thing is going to be your overall calorie intake for that day, especially if you're focused on things like body composition and things like losing body fat or building muscle. It gets a bit more in-depth when talking about building muscle, which again, I've done an entire video On how to build muscle without building a ton of body fat, without gaining a ton of body fat. I guess you don't build body fat. Well, I guess you do build body fat, but if you want to gain muscle and not gain too much fat, check out that video because I go in depth on how to kind of set up your macros to make sure you can build muscle but not gain a ton of fat. Because when you do go into a calorie surplus to optimize lean muscle mass building, you want to do it in a way where you can optimize muscle building and minimize fat gain. Because when you're eating more calories than what your body is burning, You're gonna end up gaining some body fat, but if you do it in a smart way, like I talk about in that video, you will gain very minimal body fat and you will gain optimal lean muscle mass during that calorie surplus phase. And so check that out if you want to. But let's talk about fat loss, for example, and let's talk, for that matter, let's talk about maintenance, for example. The biggest thing is, and you maybe have seen this already, the biggest thing is your overall calories and your protein goal. Those 2 things right there are the most important things when it comes to Maintaining your weight, maintaining healthy body fat, or losing body fat. Sometimes I'll get people asking me, well, how many carbs should I eat in my calorie deficit? Da da. So on and so forth. Listen, what I do with all of my clients and everybody I've ever worked with, we track our calories and we track our protein. And I lie. We track carbs and fats, but we don't look at carbs and fats. We just track them just because MyFitnessPal tracks them. Um, we focus on our calorie goal and we focus on our protein goal. Because think about it, if you hit your calorie goal for the day and you hit your protein goal for the day, your carbs and fats are gonna fall where they— like, you can only have but so many carbs and fats if you hit your calorie goal and you hit your protein goal. So instead of tracking 4 things, we just track 2 things and get the same benefits. 'Cause studies have shown if your overall calories are in check regardless, You're going to end up still losing body fat or doing whatever your goal is. And so making sure you understand that, you know, carb cycling, like some people might— I see sometimes people tout it as this thing where it's like, oh, it's going to increase your metabolism or burn a ton extra body fat or whatever the case may be. That's just really not the case. These 2 things right here are a tool that you can use to adhere to your overall calorie deficit or calorie maintenance or calorie surplus. That much more. It's just, again, it's like the sink and the well, right? The sink is up here but the well is really what kind of, like, you know, makes the thing go. The well is the calories, right? That's the most important thing, calories and protein. And as you saw over here, I wasn't changing protein in these 2 scenarios, right? The calories and the protein are the well, the carbs and the fats are the sink. If you take care of the well, the sink pretty much runs how it's supposed to run, right? So, kind of keep that in mind because, again, you're gonna hear people possibly talk about, oh, well, Try this carb cycling or do this carb thing or do that carb thing. As long as your overall calories are in check and your overall protein is in check, you will be good to go. Your carbs and fats can be variable and you still will see the benefits you are looking to see. Again, I know sometimes people get overwhelmed 'cause they're like, well, there's all these things to look at and what should I do for weight loss and weight maintenance, all this kind of stuff. Focus on your protein, focus on your overall calories. If you do those 2 things, you'll be 2 thumbs up good to go. So that's the first thing. Now, These 3 things right here, just kind of talking about— I wanna throw this in there. The most optimal time to have carbohydrates, are there most optimal times or not most optimal times? Definitely there are some optimal times. And I'll finish with something else. The 2 most optimal times to have carbohydrates are either pre-workout or post-workout. Pre-workout because carbs are literally your body's main source of energy, your body's main source of fuel. So if you give your body some carbohydrates Roughly, you know, 45 to 90 minutes pre-workout, you're literally giving your body more fuel, more energy for that workout. I almost— I sometimes don't like this analogy, but it's similar to if you're giving your car gas, right? Like, you're giving your body gas to then use for the workout ahead of you. And so having carbohydrates pre-workout, those carbs are going to get used for workout performance. And if you increase your workout performance, Build more muscle, do more weight, do more reps, all those kind of things. That's only going to lead to you having a better result over the long term. So having carbs pre-workout can help you, and then having carbs post-workout as well, because what's going to happen is, without getting too in-depth, those carbohydrates can spike your insulin, which then helps you then push those carbohydrates and that energy and all types of nutrients and fuel to your muscle cells, which is going to help your muscle cells start to recover. It's going to help your muscle cells repair and all, again, all those great things of building muscle, building strength, doing all those things you want to get from your workouts, carbohydrates post-workout can help almost like shuttle all those nutrients and tell your body, hey body, like here are these nutrients, use these to help start, you know, doing the repair process essentially. And so those 2 times right there are the most beneficial times to have carbohydrates. And I will say this, you can have carbs whenever the fuck you want, man. Again, Going back to the point we just made earlier, the most important thing is you hitting your overall calorie goal and your overall protein goal. Something like, you're gonna hear some people tell you, don't eat carbs past 7 PM, or don't eat carbs when you wake up, or don't eat carbs throughout the day. Please don't listen to them. You can have carbs all day long. You can have them at every single meal, have them at 3 meals, have them at 4 meals, whatever. If your overall calories are in check and your overall protein is in check, You will be totally fine. Again, like I said, pre and post workout, I would definitely try to work in some carbohydrates. And actually, I've done 2 separate videos on this channel. There's a lot of videos on this channel. If you— just really quickly, if you have not yet checked out this channel and all the videos, go check out all the videos. There's a lot of videos on this channel. A lot of educational videos. But if you, you know, if you're gonna have them 2 times, definitely make sure you have them pre and post workout. But remember, you having carbs at 8 PM or 9 PM or 2 PM or 11 AM, it— It's all good. As long as your overall calories are in check and your overall protein is in check, you will be totally fine and you will be able to, again, either lose body fat, maintain body fat, whatever your goal is. Again, fixing, you know, having the well versus the sink, making sure you get the well right first, the sink is gonna follow after that. One last thing I will say on that, those of you who are gonna question me, if you have carbs later at night, like 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 PM, and you wake up at 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 AM, You may store some extra water weight, but that's— and again, it's water weight, it's not body fat. 'Cause what happens is when you eat carbohydrates, for every 1 gram of carb you eat, you store 3 to 4 grams of water weight. And so when you eat carbohydrates, you just store a bit extra water weight, but you're not gaining fat. And that's why this whole myth of like you can't eat carbs past 7 PM is because people would wake up the next day and their scale would be up, so they thought it was body fat gain. It's not body fat gain. You don't gain body fat overnight. It's physically impossible. So, excuse me, so it's not body fat gain, it's just you gain some extra water weight from the carbohydrates, which is normal, like it happens to everybody. And again, I have an entire video on why the scale is gonna fluctuate, so check it out on the channel. But that's why people tell you not to eat carbs past 7:00 PM. It does not make you inherently fat. You may, may, you may see a higher number on the scale the next day, but like, again, it's just water weight, it's not body fat. So just keeping that in mind as well. So guys, that is everything. Carb cycling, carb cycling, calorie cycling, when to eat them, when not to eat them, so on and so forth. Hope this video helped you. If you got one thing from this video, again, the most important thing is your overall calories, the most important thing is your overall protein for that day, your carbs and fats can be variable and you can still see tremendous progress, I promise you. Hope this helped. If it did, please feel free to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, let me know below, and we'll chat soon. Thanks, Eric.