Yesterday I began to eat off my meal plan and I felt pretty bad about it until I realized I was actually enjoying food again. Who wants to eat when you don't enjoy it! So this morning as I was eating breakfast (a meal that I randomly threw together) I looked for bodybuilding plans.
Instantly I remembered the Dr.Oz episode I watched with the very handsome Chris Powell about carb cycling. I've heard of the idea but on the show he laid out a meal plan which looked perfect for me.
According to Chris Powell's Reshape the Nation Blog "By offsetting the High Days with Low Days, the overall net result is a wonderfully balanced nutrition program. Plus, using this pattern we can actually reap the metabolic boosting benefits of High Days and fat burning benefits of Low Days for a nutrition structure that is much more effective than any static or stable nutrition program! In addition, the high and low calorie nature of cycling keeps the metabolism constantly “guessing,” so it can never adapt and plateau our weight-loss."
I come from a big Spanish family where carbs are one of the biggest food groups. On Sundays we have tea with carbs, bread, cakes, muffins any kind of carb. Its been my biggest challenge over the years but this plan makes it simple to have carbs and then cut them every other day.
The challenge would be calculating the grams of protein, carbs and fats for each day. I will have to plan my meals meticulously but I believe this will be the meal plan that is the right fit.
On high carb days I will consume 108 grams of carbs, 90 grams of protein and as little fats as possible, and lots of veggies. On low carb days I will consume 24 grams of carbs, 108 grams of protein and 12 grams of fat.
Pretty vague I know, but I'm still figuring it all out.What do you guys think about carb cycling?
