The fitness industry, unlike any other industry is full of extremism and bogus theories/protocols that promise magical results. What is considered status quo today is treated like garbage tomorrow. Moreover, people simply ignore the basics and buy into the hype which is propagated by gurus and hipsters in the industry. Today, I'm going to breakdown one such protocol (or as the gurus call it - the carb cycling diet) which hipsters claim to be the single greatest thing since the discovery of electricity.
What Is Carb Cycling?
Carb cycling is a dieting technique/protocol (it's not a diet!) which involves planned increases and decreases of carbohydrate intake (and calories) through the week. So depending on your carb intake, you have High Carb, Moderate Carb and Low carb days. There are a few different ways in which this is done. One method is where protein intake is kept constant and the fat and carb intake is changed. A different method also involves changing all three macros through the week.
Busting The Myth
This technique has now been touted as this magical thing that helps you put on muscle mass and lose body fat at the same time. The mechanism (rather bro-science) behind this diet is stated below:
• On high carb days, the carbohydrates will refuel your muscles' glycogen levels and flood the body with insulin which has anabolic effects
• Moderate carb day will give you plenty of carbs to maintain glycogen stores; however, it still does not put you into a caloric deficit. Hence no fat loss here.
• No carb and low carb days are the days when you're in a caloric deficit diet, when your body starts burning fat at an accelerated rate by generating low insulin levels.
Let us examine these claims one by one.
A) Muscle Gain
The main alleged factors stated for muscle gain in carb cycling are glycogen replenishment and an insulin surge which allegedly has anabolic effects. Insulin is not anabolic. It has some anti-catabolic property as it inhibits rate of protein breakdown but it is not inherently anabolic. [1] Moreover, complete glycogen resynthesis post exercise takes up to 24 hours. [2] Most people looking to make gains need not worry about glycogen replenishment as in 90% of the cases they are not doing multiple bouts of glycogen depleting training for the same muscle group. If they were to work on regular weight training, anywhere between 9-12 sets for a body part, they'd deplete muscle glycogen for that part by around 40%. [3] Also, after that they won't be training that muscle again for 2-7 days depending on their training routine. So they will get only see glycogen replenishment within a 24 hour period, even on a moderate carb diet.
B) Fat - Loss
The fat loss part of this protocol is credited to the carb insulin hypothesis. Because carbohydrate stimulates your body to release insulin, it has caused some people to argue that a diet high in carbohydrate will cause you to gain fat. Their argument goes like this: High Carbohydrate Diet -> High Insulin -> Increased Lipogenesis/Decreased Lipolysis -> Increased Body Fat -> Obesity. However there are plenty of research studies which show that this hypothesis is totally flawed. Let us take a look at them.
1. Fat loss is simply a result of eating lesser calories than what you expend for a sustained period. [4]
2. The carb-insulin thesis has been debunked in metabolic ward studies which closely monitors energy intake and output. [5][6]
3. A meta-analysis of 32 studies has suggested that low-fat diets might have a slight edge over low-carb diets for fat loss. [7]
Summary
Now, in no way do I mean to say that this protocol won't help you see results. The propagated logic behind it is flawed and not scientifically valid which is what I wanted to clear up through this article.
It's essentially the weekly caloric average that will determine whether you are losing fat or gaining muscle while following this protocol.
Don't Miss
However, this protocol does have some practical uses:
• If you have heavy intensity training days in your program, then it would make sense for you to increase your carb intake for those days to fuel those sessions.
• Also, if you have an active social life or have an outing planned or a wedding to attend, a higher carb (or calorie) intake would allow you to accommodate for some of the calorie dense foods you'll end up consuming.
References:
Safwan Hurzuk is a content writer and research curator for GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company that helps the average joe get shredded and become a hunk. Apart from reading research journals, he watches South Park and facepalms to all the bro-science that goes on in his gym and on the internet. That makes him such an efficient writer and witty fitness content writer. You can reach out to him at safwan@getsetgo.fitness.
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