What Is Carb Cycling and How Does It Work?

Professional cheerleaders use different strategies when preparing for a performance, and one of these is nutrition. A proper diet can be crucial in maintaining your health and optimizing your performance. But choosing a diet depends on your goals and energy requirements.

You might need more energy to fuel your body during training and game day. On other days, less energy is required because you're resting or taking a break. If you want to maintain your shape but have varying energy requirements, a carb cycling approach might work for you.

The term “carb cycling” seems complicated, but it’s just a simple diet where you consume more or fewer carbs depending on your needs. This article explores carb cycling, its benefits, and how it's done.

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling was initially developed to help bodybuilders immediately lose fat while maintaining their muscle mass. Now, carb cycling is becoming a trend among many athletes to reach their optimal shape during a competition.

Carb cycling involves adjusting your carb intake according to your energy expenditure and exercise protocols. Basically, you manipulate the amount of carbs you consume daily based on how rigorous your activity is. Carb cycling is a way to ensure that you're not overconsuming carbohydrates and allows you to take other nutrients like proteins and healthy fats.

However, carb cycling requires more planning than other diets because your macronutrient ratios vary based on your goals and activities. For example, you need to take in more carbs if you want to increase your muscle mass and endurance during training. Meanwhile, you need to take fewer carbs if you want to lose weight.

Using Carb Cycling for Weight Loss

When your goal is losing weight, you need to follow stricter guidelines in carb cycling.

First, you need to establish a daily calorie goal based on how much weight you're aiming to lose. Then divide the calories among your carbs, proteins, and fats.

When you do a lighter activity like walking or yoga, you need to consume fewer carbs (around 10-26% of daily calories) and more fat or proteins. When you take a high-carb diet during these days, your body might not need all the carbs and will more likely be stored as fat.

Using Carb Cycling for Physical Performance

You can take a high-carb diet on days that require stamina and endurance, like weight lifting or pro cheer dance training. Your body can tolerate more carbs and utilize them for muscle growth. On a "high-carb" day, more than 45% of your calorie intake will come from carbs.

Then on your rest day, you go back to low-carb. Note that you need to eat enough, even on low-carb days. Eating more than 130 g of carbs on your low-carb days is recommended.

Conclusion

Many are afraid of eating carbs because they're scared to gain weight. But in reality, carbs only become an issue when you consume more than your body needs and if you’re predisposed to or are diagnosed with a metabolic condition, such as diabetes and PCOS, which both involve insulin resistance.

Remember to pick meals that contain complex carbohydrates like starch and fiber. Carb cycling allows you to plan when to take more or fewer carbs, and it also ensures that you eat complete and nutritionally balanced meals.

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