Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Air Force Times

Control your carbs

Are you exactly the weight you want to be right now? Do you currently possess your ideal physique? If you’re like most people, you probably have a little extra “fluff” weighing you down that, once lost, could substantially improve your health — and help you pass the Physical fitness Test. Or maybe you’re on the other end of the weight spectrum and could stand to gain some extra muscle mass to strengthen your physique.

There’s a method of eating that can address either scenario while providing you with enough energy to continue pursuing your daily activities.

It’s called carbohydrate cycling, and its main premise is that you can exploit your body’s insulin levels by altering your daily carb intake, maximizing both your muscle-building and muscle-sparing effects. The method minimizes your body’s ability to store fat and maximizes its ability to burn it.

How it works

If your goal is to lose fat, consume a high-carbohydrate diet on certain days of the week — typically your most physically demanding or toughest weight-training days — and a low- to moderate-carbohydrate diet on the other days — ones that are less physically demanding, like travel or rest days. The high-carb days raise your insulin level, fill glycogen stores, keep your metabolism burning efficiently and stave off muscle catabolism. Low-carb days are fat-burning days, keeping insulin levels lower to allow for maximum fat burning while retaining muscle.

To lose fat, you’ll have only one or two high-carb days a week; the rest of the week will be low- to moderate-carb days.

If your goal is to gain muscle while keeping fat gain to a minimum, go with two to four of these high-carb days a week — the number will depend on your metabolism and workload, how many days you train and at what intensity — and eat low or moderate levels of carbs the rest of the week.

Essential nutrients

Macronutrients are carbohydrates, protein and fat that provide the bulk of your body’s energy. Though this diet is called carb cycling, manipulating your protein and fat intake will play a key role.

The following are general guidelines for each macronutrient on a typical high-carb day and a typical low- to moderate-carb day. Note that you will lower your protein and keep fat as low as possible on high-carb days. Also, keep in mind that for optimal blood-sugar levels, metabolism and amino acid turnover, it’s better to divide your daily totals into five to seven meals per day, spaced about three hours apart.

Sample diet

Using the table (above right, High vs. Low), a 200-pound male would follow this plan:

On high-carb days: Consume 500 grams of carbs, 250 grams of protein, 30 grams of fat (while you should aim to keep fats as low as possible on high-carb days, there will always be small amounts in the foods you eat). Dividing these numbers evenly over six meals, you will get about 83 grams of carbohydrates, 42 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat per meal.

On low-carb days: Consume 200 grams of carbohydrates, 300 grams of protein and 70 grams of fat. Again, dividing these numbers evenly over six meals gives you about 33 grams of carbs, 50 grams of protein and 12 grams of fat per meal.

Depending on your goals, the days and the setup will vary. But remember that if you’re trying to gain weight, use more high-carb days (three or four a week), but if you’re looking to lean out, go with one or two high-carb days a week. On your low-carb days, aim to take your carb intake all the way down to half a gram per pound of body weight.

Space out your high-carb days during the week; having them back-to-back can lower your insulin sensitivity, which is what you’re trying to exploit in the first place.

Preparation

Preparation is the key. “But military life is demanding.” you say. “This all sounds too difficult.”

Eating like this is certainly more work than eating a couple of meals a day at your local fast-food joint, but there are a handful of things you can do to make it easier.

Prepare your food ahead of time: Cook a week’s worth of food — chicken, beef, rice, etc. — on the weekend and package it into individual meals. Freeze what you won’t be using until midweek.

Schedule your low-carb days on busier or travel days: Low-carb days are generally the easiest to manage. You only need to worry about getting in protein and a bit of fat every few hours or so. Some fibrous vegetables would be a great addition, but they aren’t required.

What to expect

If followed closely, you can expect to lose at least a few pounds within the first week or two. Keep in mind that with carb cycling, you’ll have varying levels of water and glycogen in your body on different days so your weight will fluctuate a little.

In general, though, the loss will follow a downward trend as you strip away the fat but retain and build the muscle. After the initial week or two, one to two pounds of fat loss is a reasonable goal. As the weeks pass, you’ll need to modify the diet by replacing some high-carb days with moderate-carb days and some moderate days with some low days to keep the progress steady.

Ease of use

Not only is this diet effective in terms of results, it’s also easy. It’s more mentally rewarding to push through a day of lower carbs when you know you have a day of high carbs coming up. Using the plan outlined here, you should be able to set up a diet that will not only allow you to reach your ideal physique and training goals but also improve your health and well-being.

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Shelby Starnes is a national-level bodybuilder, powerlifter, nutritionist and trainer who has helped hundreds of athletes reach their fitness goals. For more information on his consultation services or this diet plan, e-mail him at shelbystarnes@troponinnutrition.com or visit www.troponinnutrition.com/.