Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - The Simple Science of Carb Cycling

Episode Date: January 10, 2018

I don’t know about you, but I like simple.And here’s a simple fact for you: You don’t need to do anything particularly special or fancy to build the body of your dreams. At least 80% of the game is just understanding and applying a relatively small number of physiological principles related to diet and exercise.And I’d go as far as saying that the majority of what’s left is just patience and persistence.You don’t need convoluted training programs or diets. You need fundamentals.That said, once you have the fundamentals firmly in place, you can look to gain slight edges.This is where things like supplementation, fasted training, periodization, and carb cycling come into play.In this episode, we’re going to dive deep into carb cycling and learn what it is, how it (supposedly) works, and how to do it.We’re also going to review many of the fundamentals that supercede it, and ultimately, we’re going to get an answer to the most important question:Is carb cycling better than traditional dieting?That is, can it really beat the simplest way to diet?Let’s get to it. 3:49 - What is carb cycling? 5:29 - Why do people carb cycle? 7:48 - What are the myths of carb cycling? 12:12 - How much protein should I take on a carb diet?16:55 - What is insulin and how does it work in the body? 19:15 - What is energy balance? 21:12 - How does protein effect insulin levels? 23:50 - Is carb cycling better for fat loss? 23:56 - Can you use carb cycling to build muscle? 29:37 - How do you do carb cycling? 30:42 - How do use carb cycling to lose fat? 34:11 - How do you use carb cycling to build muscle? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

So long as you regularly eat less energy than you burn, you are going to lose weight. The real question then is if carb cycling is better for weight loss than traditional dieting. If you want to know what carb cycling is, how it works, and whether you should do it or not, then you want to listen to this podcast. Now, I don't know about you, but I like simple. And here's a simple fact for you. You don't need anything particularly special or fancy to build the body of your dreams. At least 80% of the game is just understanding and applying a relatively small number of physiological principles related to both diet and exercise. And I'd go even as far as saying that the majority of what is left after that is just patience and persistence. You don't need convoluted training programs or fad diets. You

need fundamentals. Now, once you have the fundamentals firmly in place, you can look to gain slight edges. And this is where things like supplementation, fasted training, periodization, and carb cycling come into play. And in this podcast, we're going to dive deep into the latter, into carb cycling. We're going to learn what it is, deep into the latter, into carb cycling. We're going to learn what it is, how it supposedly works, and how to do it. We're also going to review many of the fundamentals that supersede it. And ultimately, we're going to get an answer to the most important question, which is, is carb cycling better than traditional dieting? Is it better than not carb cycling? Can it really beat the simplest way to diet? Now, before we dive into this episode, I have to shill for something to

pay the bills, right? No, I'm just kidding. I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and really believe in. So instead, I am going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my 100% natural pre-workout fat burner supplement Forge. Now it was designed to be used specifically when exercising in a fasted state, and it helps you maximize fat burning while training on an empty stomach, minimize the amount of muscle that you lose while training in this state and maintain intensity and focus in your workouts. All that is why Forge has over 400 reviews on Amazon with a four star average and another 220 on my website with a four and a half

star average. So if you want to get leaner, faster, and especially in the quote unquote, hard to lose spots like the hips, thighs, and belly, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Forge today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you'll save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.legionathletics.com now, place your order,

and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now, at least. Let's get to the show. Okay, so what is carb cycling? Well, carb cycling is a style of dieting that involves planned increases and decreases in your carb intake and also generally your caloric intake as well. Now, there are many different types of carb cycling protocols out there, but most of them have you alternate between at least two of three type of days. So one is the high carb day, and a high carb day typically calls for about two to two and

a half, maybe three grams of carbs per pound of body weight. And these are also, of course, usually your highest calorie days. Low carb days are days that call for usually around a half a gram of carb per pound of body weight. And they are usually your second highest calorie days. And then you have the no carb days, the days where you suffer, because these days usually call for less than 30 grams of carbs and then are also your lowest calorie days. Now, if all that sounds kind of complicated, that's because as far as dietary strategy goes, it kind of is. Carb cycling requires that you be meticulous in your meal planning and in your weighing and measuring and steadfast in your compliance. Many people also find it pretty physically and mentally taxing because your high carb days are great, high energy, good workouts, and your low carb days,

not so much. So carb cycling does have quite a few moving parts and may make you a bit manic depressive. So why do people do it? Well, most people that carb cycle do it because they believe that carbs are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they believe that carbs are conducive to muscle growth, which they are right because they fuel our workouts and they also create a more anabolic environment in our bodies. Now, on the other hand, though, people believe that carbs are also conducive to fat storage because they spike insulin levels, which then feeds our body fat cells with precious glucose for them to store. And therefore, we have a predicament, or at least many people believe

there is a predicament. We need carbs if we want to build muscle and strength as quickly as possible. But if we do that, then we also have to pay the price of an ever expanding waistline. Or do we? And that's where carb cycling enters the picture because we're told that what it can do is deliver most or all of carbs muscle building benefits with little or none of its fat gain drawbacks. Now, advocates of carb cycling say that it accomplishes this rather staggering feat by using the higher calorie, higher carb days to do several things. One, to replenish glycogen stores and thus increase training intensity. And two, favorably influence various hormones related to muscle protein metabolism and just general metabolism. And

three, temporarily spike insulin levels to help preserve muscle tissue. And then carb cycling uses the lower calorie, low and no carb days to maximize fat burning. So theoretically then what this does is it allows us to build muscle and gain strength while gaining little to no fat, or even better, some people say to actually build muscle and lose fat at the same time or recomp as it's generally referred to. And all that is why carb cycling is very popular these days. And especially among the more hardcore and dedicated weightlifters, it sounds like a dietary miracle, much like intermittent fasting. It's also sold on many of these same benefits. Unfortunately, though, when you look beneath the hood of carb cycling,

you realize that it really can't live up to the hype. And to find out why, let's start with its biggest claim to fame, which is rapid fat loss. Now, can you use carb cycling to lose weight? Absolutely. Any dietary protocol that has you in a caloric deficit over an extended period of time will result in weight loss period, regardless of the foods you eat or how you structure your meals or anything else. So long as you regularly eat less energy than you burn, you are going to lose weight. The real question then is if carb cycling is better for weight loss than traditional dieting. And that's how it's sold. It's not sold as just another way to lose weight. It is sold as the way to lose weight. It's the secret of the fitness elite, and it's the best way to melt pounds fast. And that's where the wheels start to fall off. To understand why, we have to

first make a distinction here between weight loss and fat loss. So when you diet to lose weight, a portion of the weight that you lose definitely comes from fat, but a portion also comes from water, glycogen, which is a form of carbohydrate stored primarily in your muscles and liver, and in some cases, muscle, depending on your protein intake, your caloric intake, what you're doing in terms of exercise and so forth. Now, water and glycogen levels, they will fluctuate up and down depending on your diet and other lifestyle factors. So we don't really care about that. The real goal is not to lose weight, but it's to lose fat and not muscle. That is what improves our body composition and gives us what we really

want to see in the mirror. Now, what does this have to do with carb cycling? Well, at its core, carb cycling is a carbohydrate restricted diet. And while it may be able to help you lose weight faster, in the short term at least, it is not going to help you lose fat faster. So in other words, if a traditional 40-40-20 bodybuilding diet would have you eating, let's say, 1,500 grams of carbs per week, a carb cycling diet might peg your intake at about half of that or less. And while low carb diets can in the short term beat out traditional diets in terms of weight loss, we've seen that in a few studies, not always though, they do not result in greater fat loss. And yes, you heard me right. Low carb diets are not better for fat loss than their higher-carb counterparts.

Now, if that sounds blasphemous to you, I understand, but a sober review of the scientific literature makes my point abundantly clear. Now, low-carb advocates often have a number of studies that they like to bandy about as definitive proof of the superiority of their ways, of the superiority of their mousetrap. Now, if you review these studies superficially, if you just read the abstracts, for example, then yeah, you're probably going to think that low-carb dieting is indeed more effective for losing fat than high carb or moderate carb dieting. But if you review the details of these studies, if you do a more in-depth analysis, then you realize that there are problems. And one big problem in particular, and it has to do with

protein intake. Namely, what you'll find is that the low-carb diets in these studies invariably every single time contained more protein than the higher-carb ones. And what that means then is what the scientists were looking at actually is a high-protein low-carb diet versus a low-protein higher-carb diet. And yes, a high-protein, low-carb diet versus a low-protein, higher-carb diet. And yes, a high-protein, low-carb diet is better for fat loss than a low-protein, high-carb diet and better for muscle retention. No question about it. Now, why is that though? Is it because the carb intake was lower or because the protein intake was higher? You don't know if you just look at those studies. And furthermore, what happens if you match protein intake, not just calories,

but also protein? So what happens if you have people on a high protein, low carb diet, and then you have another group of people on a high protein, high carb diet. Who loses fat faster? Well, fortunately, we can find answers to those questions in the literature. There are several studies that have already been done that show when protein intake is high and matched among low and high carb diets, there is no significant difference in weight loss. So in other words, if you eat enough protein, then going low carb as well offers no special fat loss benefits. It has also been shown that low carb, low protein dieting is worse for fat loss and muscle retention than high protein, low carb dieting. And there are several reasons for this. One of them has to do with something

known as the thermic effect of food or TEF. And what this is, is the amount of energy that is required to eat, digest, absorb, and store food. And studies show that it accounts for about 10% of our total daily energy expenditure. That number can vary though, based on the macronutrient composition of your diet, because protein, carbs, and fat, they all have different TEF values. So for example, research shows that protein costs the most energy to process. It costs about 30 to 35% of the energy that it contains to process process while carbs cost quite a bit less, anywhere from about five to 15% of their energy to process. And of course, when I'm talking about energy, I'm talking about calories. And lastly, dietary fat costs the absolute least amount of

energy to process. It costs about on average three to 4% of the energy that it contains to process. So one of the things that happens then when you eat a lot of protein, when a considerable amount of your daily calories come from protein is then a considerable amount of energy is expended through TEF, which of course helps you maintain a larger calorie deficit, which then results in faster weight loss and faster fat loss, of course. Now, another reason for protein's preeminence is the fact that eating too little while dieting to lose fat can accelerate muscle loss. This then hampers your fat loss in several ways. It causes your metabolic rate to drop, even if just slightly. It reduces the amount of calories that you burn in your workouts. And it also even impairs the metabolism

of the food that you eat. So the bottom line with protein and fat loss is if you want the best possible results when you are dieting to lose fat, then you want to be eating plenty of protein. fat, then you want to be eating plenty of protein, somewhere between 0.8 and 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. If you are very overweight, you can get away with the lower end of that. And if you are already relatively lean, and especially if you're already relatively lean and muscular, and you want to get really lean and not lose muscle, then you want to be eating closer to the 1.2 grams per pound per day. Now let's bring this discussion back to carb cycling. And I want to talk about insulin before we move on, because this is the boogeyman of the day. And many people that think that low carb diets are better for fat loss think this is true because they result in generally lower insulin levels than higher carb diets.

And while it's true that yes, if you eat fewer carbs, your insulin levels are going to be generally lower. What is not true is that that makes for more or better fat burning. makes for more or better fat burning. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness.

Twitter at Muscle for Life and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. The reality is, is that insulin doesn't make you fat. Overeating makes you fat. And to understand why this is, we have to start at square one, which is what is insulin and how does it work in the body? Well, insulin is a hormone that shuttles nutrients from your blood to your cells. So when you eat food, it gets broken down into various substances like amino acids, glucose, and fatty acids. And these things make their way into your bloodstream and then are joined by insulin, which is produced by the pancreas. And as these nutrients make their way into cells, your body gradually reduces insulin levels until everything's absorbed. And then insulin remains at a low baseline level. Now this cycle, it occurs every time that you eat.

And therefore your body's insulin levels are constantly rising and falling throughout the day. Now, at this point, you might be wondering what the big deal is, because when explained like that, your body's insulin levels are constantly rising and falling throughout the day. Now, at this point, you might be wondering what the big deal is, because when explained like that, insulin seems like a pretty cool dude. I mean, we can't live without it. So why then are we constantly being told that insulin just makes us fat and sick? And the reason for that is because one of the roles in the body that insulin has relates to fat storage, and that makes it an easy target for diet and exercise hucksters. And specifically, insulin inhibits the breakdown of fat cells, and it stimulates the creation of body fat. body fat. So what it does is it tells the body to stop burning fat and to start burning the energy that is readily available from the food that you just ate. And then it also tells the body to store a portion of that energy as body fat. And yes, that sounds bad and it makes insulin

an easy target and an easy scapegoat. The logic, and let's put that in scare quotes, usually goes like this. So a high carb diet equals high insulin levels equals burn less fat and store more fat equals just get fatter and fatter. And then the corollary, of course, if that were true, would be a low carb diet equals low insulin levels, which then equals burn more fat and store less, which then equals stay lean. And while that may sound reasonable, the reality is it is deeply flawed, mainly because it violates the principles of energy balance. Now, energy balance is the relationship between how much energy you eat and how much you burn. And nearly a century of metabolic research has conclusively proven that this relationship is what most determines weight change over time

and that it takes precedence over anything related to insulin or any other hormones in your body. The simple reality is you cannot gain a significant amount of body fat without providing your body with a surplus of energy to store as fat. And you also can't lose a significant amount of body fat without keeping your body in a significant energy deficit, which then forces it to whittle away at its fat reserves to stay alive. And those facts help us understand then why studies have shown that so long as you match protein intake and match calorie intake, people lose fat equally well on high and low carb diets. So the simple takeaway here is so long as there is an adequate caloric deficit, carbon intake and insulin levels have very little bearing on fat loss. who is a professor. And he lost 27 pounds on a convenience store diet consisting mainly of

protein shakes, Twinkies, little Debbie cakes, Doritos, and Oreos. So what Mark did is he fed his body less energy than it burned with some of the lowest quality foods you can possibly eat. And his body then had no choice but to tap into its fat stores. And it had to do that regardless of how unwholesome his diet was. Another point worth noting about insulin and fat loss is that protein, which is very conducive to weight loss and fat loss, we already talked about that earlier. Protein actually raises insulin levels quite significantly. In some cases, high protein, low carb meals can actually cause more insulin production than high carb meals. And beef, for example, it produces a similar insulin response in the body as brown rice.

And my point with that, of course, is if it were true that insulin impairs fat loss and that high insulin levels makes it very hard to lose fat, if not impossible, or even can lead to fat gain, why then is a high protein diet, which does result in a lot of insulin production, fantastically effective for fat loss. So with all that in mind, let's revisit the question of, is carb cycling better for fat loss? Does it help you lose fat faster? And the answer is no. And the reason is that eating fewer carbs on some days and fewer calories in some days, and then more on others, and also just eating less carbohydrate in general, some days and then more on others, and also just eating less carbohydrate in general,

isn't going to significantly impact your fat loss. The low and no carb days are not your hyper fat burning days. They're simply lower calorie days on which, yes, you are going to lose some fat if you are in a caloric deficit, but you will lose more or less the same amount of fat if you eat the same amount of calories and feed the same amount of fat if you eat the same amount of calories and feed the same amount of protein, regardless of your carbohydrate intake. Now, just because carb cycling doesn't offer any special metabolic advantage as far as fat burning goes, doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't cycle your carbs when you want to lose fat. The reality is some people's bodies actually don't process carbs all that well. And therefore some people actually prefer carb cycling because they feel better when they cycle

their carbs and it makes it easier for them to stick to their diet, which of course is the name of the game compliance. It's very true that so long as you are following a relatively small number of flexible fundamentals like energy balance, macronutrient balance, micronutrient balance, and so forth, the best diet for you is the one that you can stick to best. And if you're like some people, you may find that you can stick to a carb cycling diet better than a more traditional steady carb intake diet. Okay. So that's carb cycling and fat loss. So let's now talk about carb cycling and muscle building. Now, can you use carb cycling to build muscle? Absolutely. So long as you are eating enough food and eating enough protein, and so long as you know

what you're doing in the gym, you absolutely can build muscle, whether you are cycling your carbs or not. The question then, of course, in this case, like last time is, does carb cycling offer any special muscle building benefits? Is it better than a traditional diet? And again, unfortunately, Is it better than a traditional diet? And again, unfortunately it doesn't. And in this case, actually, I would say that it is less suitable for building muscle than traditional dieting, simply because it generally involves restricting your carbs. You just eat less carbs overall when you're carb cycling than when you're not. And this is not good for gaining muscle and strength because when you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible, you generally want to eat large amounts of carbs. You want to

eat as many carbs as you can, and there are a couple reasons for this. One of them has to do with glycogen, which we recall is a form of carbohydrate that's stored in the muscles and liver, and studies show that high-carb diets help maintain high levels of glycogen in the body, which then improves your workout performance. And of course, the more strength and energy you have in your workouts, the better you are going to be able to progressively overload your muscles, which then will lead to more muscle growth over time. Carbs are also good for muscle building and strength building because the more carbs you eat, the generally higher your insulin levels are going to be. And insulin actually helps with muscle and strength gain. It isn't anabolic like other hormones like testosterone, but studies do show

that insulin has powerful anti-catabolic properties. And what that means is while insulin can't increase protein synthesis rates, it can't directly stimulate muscle growth in the way that testosterone can, what it can do is decrease the rate at which muscle proteins are broken down in your body, which then creates an internal environment more conducive to muscle growth. Because in the end, when you look at the physiology of muscle building, what you're looking at is muscle protein synthesis rates exceeding muscle protein breakdown rates over time. So you can increase muscle building by increasing the synthesis rates and or decreasing the breakdown rates. And insulin impacts the latter half of that equation, the breakdown rates.

Now, all of that is why several studies have shown that high carb diets are indeed superior to low carb diets for building muscle and strength. For example, one was conducted by scientists at Ball State University. And what it found is that low muscle glycogen levels, which is inevitable with low carb dieting, impairs post-workout cell signaling related to muscle growth. Another study was conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina. And what they found is that when athletes followed a low carb diet, their resting cortisol levels were higher and cortisol is a catabolic hormone, as you probably know. And also their free testosterone levels were lower. And of course,

lowered testosterone levels and elevated cortisol levels is basically the exact opposite of what we want when we want to maximize muscle growth. Now, those studies help explain the findings of other research on low-carb dieting as well. For example, there is a study that was conducted by researchers at the University of Rhode Island. And what it looked at is how various levels of carbohydrate intake influenced exercise-induced muscle damage, strength recovery, and protein metabolism after strenuous workouts. Now, you had one group of subjects that were on a lower carb. It's not a low carb. I'd say lower because it was about 226 grams of carbs per day on average. And what research has found is that those people lost more strength. They recovered

slower and showed lower levels of protein synthesis than subjects who were eating more carbs every day, about 353 grams per day on average. And just in case you are still on the fence and not quite convinced here, I have another study to share, which was conducted by researchers at McMaster University. And what they did is they compared high and low carb dieting with subjects who were doing daily leg workouts. And what the scientists found is higher protein breakdown and lower protein synthesis rates in the subjects on the low carb diet, which then resulted in less total muscle growth. And all of that is why I generally

recommend a higher carb diet when you are trying to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible. And also why carb cycling is simply counterproductive for building muscle. Now, just because it's not optimal for muscle gain doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. As I've mentioned earlier, you might find that your body is very sensitive to carbs and you just don't feel good on a high carb diet. And you might find that you feel much better when you do reduce your carb intake a few days per week. And you also just might like it more. Those are all valid reasons to use carb cycling when you want to build muscle, but you should just know that it's not optimal. Okay. So now that we have put carb cycling into

perspective and we have adjusted our expectations to reality, let's talk about how to actually do it. Now, as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, there are many different protocols out there. And if you want to get started, I recommend that you use a rather simple one that rotates between just two days, two levels of carb intake. You have a high carb day and you have a low carb day. Missing from this of course is the no carb day, which is a day of as little carbs as possible. Most regimens say 30 grams or less for the entire day, which is actually pretty hard to do because even vegetables contain a fair amount of carbs in some cases, like go look at peas, for example. Yeah, you're not going to be eating very many peas on your no-carb days. And the reason why I recommend you leave the no-carb day out is it makes compliance

significantly harder. Those days are no fun and it really provides no major benefit. There's no reason to eat so little carbs. Okay, so now that we have that out of the way, let's look at how to use carb cycling to lose fat. Now, when you want to do this, I recommend that you have three low carb days followed by one high carb day. And you just repeat that cycle three to one, three to one. Now where you place your high carb day doesn't really matter much because it's going to move around week to week. So for example, here's how I would do it. I would go Monday, low carb, Tuesday, low carb, Wednesday, low carb, Thursday, high carb, Friday, low carb, Saturday, low carb, Sunday, low carb, Monday, high carb, and so forth. And remember that when you're doing this, you do still have to plan and

you have to track your calories and macros if you want to guarantee results. And the starting point for determining where your total intake should be is your total daily energy expenditure. And if you're not sure what that is or how to calculate it, then head over to musclefullife.com and search for TDEE. And you will see an article that I wrote that explains what TDE exactly is, how to figure it out. And it also has a handy dandy calculator that you can use to shortcut the process. So once you have your TDE figured out, you're ready to really dive in and make your meal plan. So what I recommend is on your low carb days, you are in a 25% deficit. So you're eating about 75% of the calories that you're burning. And then on your high carb days, you put yourself in a 10% deficit. So you eat about 90% of your energy expenditure. So for example, my TD is around 3000 calories,

depending on my workout schedule. If I'm doing my cardio, which I do two or three times per week, it's about 3000 calories in additional weightlifting, of course. And so then my low carb days calories would be about 2250. And then my high carb days would be about 2700. Now, in terms of macronutrients, what you want to do is you want to take those calories and then you want to have your protein intake remain around one gram per pound of body weight per day, or if you are very overweight. So if you are a man over 25% body fat, or if you're a woman over 30% body fat, then I would say set your protein intake at about 40% of your total daily calories. Otherwise, just eat around one gram per pound of body weight per day. And then on your high carb

days, what you want to do is get about 50% of your calories from carbs. And then on your low carb days, you want to get about 20% of your calories from carbs. And of course, on both of the days, you then get the rest of your calories from fat. So you just use the calories that are left after figuring out your protein and carb intakes for fat. So for me then, it would be about 190 grams of protein and 335 grams of carbs and about 65 grams of fat on my high carb days. And then my low carb days would be about 190 grams of protein, 110 grams of carbs, and 115 grams of fat for a total of about 2,300 calories. The last step of course, then is to take your numbers and create a meal plan for both your high and low carb days, and then just stick to your plans and you just alternate according to that three to one pattern.

It's really that simple. All right, let's now talk about using carb cycling to build muscle or maybe to just maintain your body composition. For this, I recommend that you go with a three, two ratio of low to high carb days. So for every five days, you are going three low carb and two high carb. And the reason for this is the low carb days are going to help reduce water retention, at least to some degree, because water retention is correlated with carb intake. The more carbs you eat, the more water you're going to hold, the less carbs you eat, the less water you're going to hold. And that can make you look a bit leaner. And the additional high carb day is thrown in there to help with your training and your muscle gain and your muscle recovery. Now, when you are setting up your high and low carb days,

you don't have to line them up in a row. Some people do like to do that. Some people like to just go three low carb followed by two high carb, but others like to stagger them based on how they're feeling in the gym or how they have their training schedule laid out. I myself would try to schedule most of my high carb days to fall on days that I'm lifting and most of my low carb days on days that I'm not, but some of your training days will probably have to be low carb days unless you're only training two or three times per week. Now, in terms of your calories, here's how to do it. So if you are going to be lean bulking, so if you want to focus on gaining as much muscle and as little fat as possible,

then you want to eat about 10% more calories than you are burning every day. So you want to set your daily caloric intake to about 110% of your TDEE. And if you're not sure as to why that is, head over to muscleforlife.com and search for bulking and read the article that I wrote that explains why being in a slight caloric surplus is necessary for maximizing muscle and strength gain. Now, if your goal is to simply maintain your body composition, then you of course want to eat right around your TDEE. You want to set your daily caloric intake to about 100% of that number. And as far as macros go, your protein intake should be somewhere between 0.8 and one gram per pound of body weight per day. I myself like to go a bit higher, you know, around one gram per pound per day,

because my body does well with protein. I feel good when I eat protein. And then on your high carb days, you want to get about 50% of your calories from carbs. And on your low carb days, you want to get about 25% of your calories from carbs. And then of course, the rest of your calories on both of those days come from fat. So again, to use myself as an example, a high carb maintenance day would be about 190 grams of protein, 375 grams of carbs, and about 80 grams of fat for a total of about 3000 calories. And then my low carb days would be somewhere around 190 grams of protein, 190 grams of carbs, and 165 grams of fat. And of course, what I would do then is take

my numbers. I would then create a meal plan and I would just stick to it. And I would eat the same foods every meal every day, because that is the easiest way to guarantee results. And if I got tired of any individual meal or any individual food, I would simply swap it out for something that provides the same amount of calories and macros. So the bottom line on carb cycling is this. In many ways, it's kind of like intermittent fasting, actually. Both carb cycling and IF are valid, workable dietary strategies, but they've also been seized on and sensationalized by fitness gurus and marketers. And unfortunately, neither can really deliver on many of the promises that are made, but that doesn't mean that they have no use. They just need to be undertaken with the

right expectations. And I hope that this podcast has helped put carb cycling into perspective. The long story short is if you know that your body is particularly sensitive to carbs, or if you just want to see how it responds to carb cycling, then give it a go. And if you do, and you really just don't like it, if you don't like how you feel, or you don't see any benefits over traditional dieting, then simply ditch it. Again, remember that in many ways, the best diet is the one that you can stick to, the one that you are going to enjoy the most. And for me, that is a high protein, high carb, moderate fat diet that is very flexible and that entails eating every few hours, but that also allows me to save a relatively large amount of calories for later at night after I'm done working. I like to eat a larger dinner than a larger lunch or

breakfast, for example, but that's just me. So for you, the best diet might be carb cycling. And that alone is a perfectly valid reason to do it, even if it's not completely optimal for your goals. and if you did and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss

out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me.

Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in, so instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural pre-workout fat burner supplement Forge. Now it was designed to be used specifically when exercising in a fasted state, and it helps you maximize fat burning while training on an empty stomach, minimize the amount of muscle that you lose while training in this state, and maintain intensity and focus in your workouts. All that is why Forge has over 400 reviews on Amazon with a four star average and another 220 on my website with a four and a half star average. So if you want to get leaner, and especially in the quote unquote hard to lose

spots like the hips, thighs, and belly, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Forge today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you'll save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms.

You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.LegionAthletics.com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.