Calorie Cycling

[fitx3]

Has anyone tried this and did it work for you?

Calorie Shifting (Calorie Cycling)

[joelr]

On my last pre-contest diet I used that. On days I lifted I ate about 150 grams of complex carbs and on off days I had carbs with only the first meal, a bowl of plain oatmeal, about 30gr. Some days were 0 carb. All other macronutrients (fat, protein) were the same every day so this resulted in eating 600 more calories on lifting days.
It was hard to tell if it worked better than just eating say 50gr of carbs daily.
But the diet was very successful. I lean towards saying it helped to trick my body into losing a bit more fat than other times. Plus it's great to have complex carbs with several meals on some days. Oatmeal and brown rice never tasted so good!!! I will use it again.

[Kasha]

While I don't relate to the above poster, I've heard of many athletes cycling carbs with great success.

Since the post talks of calorie cycling, I thought to mention Intermittent Fasting. I touch upon this subject on an article I recently wrote (today!) here:

Planning healthy breakfasts that are fast, easy and nutritious | Ask Kasha

The article is about breakfast, but I talk a bit about how I allow a 16 hour fast to take place each day. This allows my digestive system to clear out and affords me to have some 'naughty' foods like carbs. It's sort of like the carb-cycling the poster above describes.

I love this way of eating...plus it got rid of lots of fat and I'm seeing my abs come through for the first time EVER!

[funchy]

Fitx3: The article says "By constantly changing the foods you eat and the routine in which you eat them, your body is constantly kept guessing, so to speak, as to what is happening." and the the author assumes your body will guess by going into a calorie burn mode. But doesn't stress usually put the body into a calorie conservation mode?

Kasha: How do you have a zero carb day? Meat and other high-protein foods have carbohydrates. Do you mean you don't eat at all?

[ginkgo]

Fasting means not eating-- zero calories a day. The only thing that you can eat that does not give you calories is something like psyllium seed husks. It has fiber but does not give you any since it is pure fiber.

Tuna fish is high protein, but it has no or 0 carbs!

[fitx3]

Originally Posted by funchy

Fitx3: The article says "By constantly changing the foods you eat and the routine in which you eat them, your body is constantly kept guessing, so to speak, as to what is happening." and the the author assumes your body will guess by going into a calorie burn mode. But doesn't stress usually put the body into a calorie conservation mode?

Kasha: How do you have a zero carb day? Meat and other high-protein foods have carbohydrates. Do you mean you don't eat at all?

Good question funchy. I think the body goes into conservation mode when you go a long time on low cals then begin to eat higher cals. The fattening result after a crash diet ends is an example of this.