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Should I bother with macro cycling?


AlkalineBased

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I'm transitioning into a bulk right now and I want to know; Is macro cycling efficient enough at reducing fat gain to be worth doing? I'm talking about eating high carb and low fat on workout days and high fat-low carb on rest/cardio days. For cardio I do HIIT in the form of sprint intervals, so it gets fairly intense. I'm not sure if that's enough to burn through enough glycogen that on workout days those carbs will be mostly used by my muscles for fuel and not stored as fat.

 

Who has done this and is it worth it to minimize fat gains during a bulk? Keto has worked wonders for a cut and I understand the idea of TKD and CKD using carb loading to boost energy and metabolism while keeping glycogen storage low, but if I'm doing a 3/week full body program with HIIT on off days, is that even enough time for it to matter? I know ketosis doesn't happen that quickly, obviously, but is it still efficient?

 

What's your opinions on this guys? Macro cycling or no? Worth the effort or just stick with a 50/30/20 (C/P/F) ratio each day?

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To be honest, I'm still playing around with this myself at the moment. I can't give you any conclusive personal experience yet, but here's my gut feeling...

 

In the long run, it probably doesn't matter too much.

 

Particularly on a bulk, I don't think cycling your calories is going to minimise fat gains - that's determined by your overall caloric excess.

 

Where macro cycling MAY make a difference (and this is what I'm experimenting with) is whether it helps you continue to grow on a cutting diet. It means on your training days you're in caloric excess, but on non-training days you're in caloric deficit (and deeper in deficit than you would otherwise be).

 

But that's just my opinion, and as I say, I'm still forming it. :D

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Actually, you might want to check these articles out. I found they really put things in perspective...

http://www.gymnation.co.nz/topic/18363-the-best-diet-articles-i-have-ever-read/

 

Sweet Odin, that nutritional hierarchy article was amazing. Read through it all and I understand things much more now. I had the knowledge before, but this really helped to connect the dots and explain it simply. Thanks for the link!

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I'm new to gymnation but thought my 10 cents could be useful,

 

I haven't so much done macro cycling but more carb cycling which is more or less very similar. Your overall energy intake (calories) is what matters when you're dieting or in your case bulking. If you consume more energy than your output you will put on weight. Unless you have Phil Heath genetics, chemically enhancing or brand new to training you will put on fat (and lean mass hopefully) when you bulk. The size of caloric or energy surplus will determine your weigh/mass gain. The bigger your surplus the greater chance that more of what you store will be fat.

 

Tying it back in with macro cycling... Think of your weekly food intake as a pie. The more you eat the bigger your pie is. Macro or carb cycling is just a fancy terminology for cutting your pie into 7 different size pieces for each day. At the end of the day/week assuming your pie has an appropriate protein content the remainder of that pie be it all carbs, fat or a mixture it doesn't really matter. If your pie is too big you will gain weight, too small you lose weight.

 

From my experience, It's generally beneficial (or is for me) that I consume more carbohydrates on workout days not for bulking purposes but gives me more energy to have an effective workout. On non-training days I tend to have lower carb higher fat days because fats keep me full for longer.

 

So yeah, carb/macro cycle if you like but it's not as important as reaching your daily/weekly caloric intake goal, make sure you hit your protein target too. HIIT or any form of cardio is good for your heart but not essential, if you're bulking just means your have to eat more.

 

If you have spare time I recommend watching this series by Eric Helms. Dude knows his stuff, has just released another series on strength and hypertrophy which is well worth a watch too

 

sorry for novel, hope this helps

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Something I did back when I was experimenting with growing and trying to stay relatively lean was 2 weeks higher carbs then 2 weeks slight defecit. Protein higher on low carbs but overall cal intake was lower than high weeks.

Worked pretty well.

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