Shannan’s Journey

I am a pretty true low carber… My life is generally proteins and veggies and moderate amounts of fats with the occasional carb meal 1 to 2 times a week only when I am in contest prep or if I am trying to lean out for something.   Otherwise I eat no more than 35 grams of carbs a day in the form of veggies.  I eat this way honestly because it keeps my weight down, my leanness stable during the year, and I don’t go through the YO-YO dieting that most of us have all been through. 

I do a type of cycling of carbs because I found that eating carbs everyday just made me hungrier for them, it made me want more carbohydrates throughout the day, and I gained weight from them especially if my activity level was lower.  I learned that I just can’t eat the same if my workouts aren’t hardcore and I’m not doing cardio every day.  So I learned to cycle those darn carbs  

Now you can cycle carbs in a host of ways…  I do it like this:  Most of the time I eat carbs only when I feel I need them, as in my performance in the gym or other activities that I do is lacking some energy.  I can go about 1 1/2 weeks before I really need them.  When I am trying to lean out more I do many more activities so I tend to need the carbs for energy a little more often so, I have them every 3rd day. 

You can cycle carbs in numerous ways… every other day, every 2 days, every 3 days etc… and so on.  Or you can do things like starting with day one at 0 carbs for the day, then having day 2 be a low carb day of 30-50 grams of carbs total, and then the 3rd day is a moderate day of carbs, 75-100 grams, and then the 4rd day you can have 150-200 and then you bring it all the way back down to 0 carbs for the 4th day… and so on. This is also known as a Zig-Zag diet.

** Carb cycling allows you to drop fat, build muscle, increase energy and sex drive, and even improve your skin – by eating carbs the right way.

Do you ever wish you had the vitality of a teenager or the muscles of a star athlete? Well, you can’t turn back the hands of time or suddenly morph into a superhero, but you can lose weight, gain energy, and reach your fitness goals by jumpstarting your anabolic hormones. It’s not complicated and it doesn’t require you to buy any special equipment. You just need to learn how to cut through popular diet trends and misinformation and understand which foods truly benefit your body the most.

The truth about losing weight is simple. The only way to shed fat is to eat less calories than your body needs to maintain your current weigh. Yet, losing weight alone will not give you the healthy glow or energy so many of us crave.  As you drop pounds, you need to increase your body’s natural production of anti-aging anabolic hormones.

Throughout life, there are two important bodily processes that determine how you look and feel - anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the process fueled by anabolic hormones that allows your body to build muscle. As younger people, we produced a lot of important anabolic growth and sex hormones. As we age, our bodies produce less of these hormones, which leads to weight gain and health problems. Catabolism is the process by which your body burns fat. Many plans focus only on changing your catabolism. Therefore, they do not help you build muscle or help your body produce more anabolic hormones.

People have been able to get the lean, strong bodies they have always wanted. They also enjoy the luxury of eating the foods they love, as long as they eat them at the right time. It takes a little discipline at first, but it is far easier and healthier than low-carb, restriction diets.

 Keep in mind that you should focus on eating unrefined carbs from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. These carbs are packed with healthy compounds that help ward off disease and keep your body young. Limit refined carbs from sugar and processed white flour.  This includes white bread, crackers, and all processed junk food. Remember, all carbs are not created equally!

The small extra effort it takes to carb cycle can bring a huge payoff.  If you combine carb cycling with exercise, you will protect yourself from countless age-related illnesses, such as osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, and even form of cancer. You’ll also look and feel great.

Best of luck to you all-

Shannan 

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.