How to Get Big and Stay Lean

A Real World Approach to Carb Cycling

As I promised in a previous article, I will now talk about the method I recommend for increasing lean muscle mass while maintaining body fat. Please note that this method is highly effective and should be used by lifters that are already pretty lean. If you need to loose a lot of weight, you should diet down first. If you need to gain a lot of weight (greater than 15 lbs), you should focus on taking in more calories. This approach is perfect for the trainee who is looking to critique their physique while making steady progression. So how is it possible to add muscle mass and not put on any fat? The answer is carb cycling.

Carb Cycling is an approach to eating that manipulates the amount of carbohydrates consumed on a given day. “By fluctuating macronutrients on a daily basis, we can ensure that performance and muscle building can be optimized on the days when it’s most important, while burning fat on the other days”(Starnes). The three possible days that we will utilize include “high carb” days, “medium carb” days and “low carb” days.

“High carb “days are utilized during the hardest training days. On these days, you want to feed your body a ton of carbs in order to put it in a highly anabolic state.

“Medium carb” days are utilized on training days that are less taxing on the body. On these days, the goal is to give your body just enough carbs to fuel your workout but not enough to put your body in a highly anabolic state. These days are maintenance days.

“Lower carb” days are utilized on your off days or days you are performing cardio or light conditioning. On these days, your primary goal is to burn fat. Since you are performing minimal activity, your body will not need carbohydrates. These days are fat burning days.

Now that we understand what carb cycling is and what variables must be manipulated, we need to know how many carbs we should put in our bodies on given days. Since we are varying our carbohydrates on certain days, our fat and protein intake will also vary. Here is an easy chart to follow. Please note that these numbers are based on grams per pound of body weight.

High day

Fat: minimal fat

Carbs: 2-3 grams

Protein: 1-1.25

Medium and low days

Fat: 0.15-0.35

Carbs: 0.5-1.5

Protein: 1.25-1.5

While I recommend you evenly spread out your carbohydrates, proteins and fats over the course of 5-8 meals, in the “real world” most people don’t have the time to count calories. NO WORRIES! If you follow these rules, you will not have to worry about counting calories.

-Have a complete breakfast everyday.

-Always eat veggies/fruit and lean protein with each meal.

-With the exception of breakfast, only eat starches (oatmeal, brown rice, baked potato, whole grain pasta, etc…) on medium and high carb days. Starches are your main source of carbohydrates and thus if you manipulate your starch intake you will manipulate your carbohydrate intake. To understand this fully please see the chart below:

Low Days- No starches! Only exception would be post workout shake after cardio or conditioning.

Medium Days- You will eat starches during your meal before your training session, during and post training, and than your first two meals following your training.

High Days- Eat starches with every meal. While this may seem like a lot of carbs, remember that these are your highly anabolic days. Check this out. If you weigh 200 lbs and you are suppose to take in 2-3 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight; that equals 400-600 carbs that day! The only feasible way to get in the necessary amount of carbohydrates is to constantly feed your body starches throughout the day.

In addition to bulking up, please note that carb cycling is a great approach for shedding body fat. While the principles remain the same, you will need to vary how many high days you have vs. low days. Obviously, bulking up will require more high days than if you were cutting. For newbie’s to carb cycling, I recommend you start with 3 high days a week, 2-3 moderate and 1-2 low days. After a couple weeks, you can critique these numbers depending on your goals and what works best for you. The benefit of using carb cycling during a cutting phase is that it allows you to decrease body fat without loosing any size.

Now that you know the secret to putting on lean muscle while maintaining body fat, it is time to take action! For those of you that are still confused, don’t worry about the macronutrient breakdown on high, low and medium days. Instead, focus on your starch intake. Lastly, remember to follow my 8 rules for getting the body you want. Stay tuned for my next article, as I will discuss optimal food selection.

Joe Meglio

Performance Enhancement Coach
www.MeglioFitness.com
www.MeglioNutrition.com
Joe@MeglioFitness.com

Sources:

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_nutrition/a_beginners_guide_to_carb_cycling

5 Tips for Building Serious Muscle

1. Train 3-4 days per week- Unlike fat loss, which requires 6-10 sessions a week (this includes both strength training and cardio sessions), building muscle requires only 3-4 training sessions per week. Not including the warm up, these sessions should last no more than 45 minutes. Also, each workout should be a full body, or upper/lower body split.
2. Perform compound movements- Squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press. Pick one of these movements each session and train it hard. Work up to a 3 or 5 rep max. Keep in mind you will need a few warm up sets to prepare you for your 3 or 5RM. I suggest starting with the bar and making 10 %( of your 1RM) jumps each set until you perform 4-6 reps above 90% of your 1RM.
3. Choose the right supplemental lifts- Supplemental lifts are performed directly after your main lift. The goal of these lifts is to help increase your main lift. For example, supplemental lifts for the bench press would be DB bench, heavy lat work, triceps work and so on. Choose 2-3 supplemental lifts per workout. Keep in mind these lifts are supplemental and they should help build your main lift. These lifts should also be compound! My favorite lifts for the upper body are chins/pull-ups, dips, pushups, rows, db bench. For lower body, I recommend, any unilateral training with a dumbbell or barbell (lunge variations, step-ups, split squats) and movements for the posterior chain ( RDL’s, Good mornings, kettlebell swings, GHR, back XT and pull throughs). Think outside the box for these! Stick to dumbbell, barbell and kettlebell lifts for supplemental work. AVOID MACHINES! They do not recruit as many motor units and those don’t work the stabilizing muscles.
4. Finish your training with a “finisher”- My favorite finishers are barbell complexes, sled dragging and prowler pushes. These are the absolute best when it comes to conditioning. However, when your goal is to build muscle, you should be careful with how much conditioning you are doing because it will limit your strength gains. Instead choose a finisher that will get a tone of blood in the targeted muscles without raising your heart rate too much. For example, perform 100 pushups as fast as you can or perform heavy farmer walks with kettlebells or dumbells. Think outside the box!
5. Add weight to the bar- Last but not least, you must add weight to the bar! This is the only way you will ever get stronger. If you are not adding weight to the bar you will just spin your wheels and get nowhere. This includes adding weight to both your main lifts and your supplemental lifts. Each session you should track your training so you can see how you are progressing and keep track of when you set new PR’s.

Lift strong,

Joe Meglio
Performance Enhancement Coach
www.MeglioFitness.com
www.MeglioNutrition.com
Joe@MeglioFitness.com