Carb Cycling: Day 4

Day 1 of my carb cycle, i was loving it, if you read my last post.
My first high carb day went to pot a bit, i found myself eating as many carby foods as possible, porridge, sandwich, toast, bananas, homemade curry and rice. Not at all thinking about the fat contents of these foods as they were all relatively healthy.
 Big mistake. I went waaaay over my macros for my fat for the day and only just hit my carbs and protein. I didn't plan ahead because i thought high carb day would be easy peasy. I'll definitely have to plan better.

My moderate carbs days were fine, no planning really needed there, my usual diet fits fine. Even managed to squeeze a cheeky meal out of paella and tiramisu :P yum yum.

Yesterday however was a different story. My 2nd low carb day of the week. I was really looking forward to it after how easy i found the last one and how great i felt. Only different once this time i had work.
After a busy day at work, where I'm on my feet moving all day, in a kitchen, eating low carbs, and then going for an evening workout. I really struggled with it. On my way to the gym i was hungry, i didn't eat because i wanted to save the rest of my macros to eat before bed after the gym as I'm always starving then. I came home, famished. Ate some scrambled egg whites but felt a little light headed so allowed myself a piece of wholemeal bread, i think it only took me 2g over my macros. Went to bed, feeling fine. I awoke at 2am with the worst headache ever and feeling rather dizzy. Now, i do suffer with labyrinthitis, so i don't know if it was that or lack of carbs but it wasn't good. When i woke up this morning, i still felt a bit shaky. Ate my breakfast of eggs and black beans and went to work. Felt a bit worse, being moderate carb day i ate a piece of thick toast, thinking carbs might make me feel better. A little, Drank some carrot/orange juice and felt absolutely perfect. Been tired all day though. had to miss my workout today :(
I don't think that low of a carb intake agrees with me on a busy working day so i may up my carbs a bit for my low carb day in the week and see how it goes.

Gone off the idea of carb cycling a bit after that episode, but ill stick with it.

Tomorrow is my second high carb day and I'm travelling to manchester for the night straight from work, so we'll see how eating on the move goes.

Carb Cycling: Day 1 - Low carb

So i decided to start my carb cycling today , after a few days of what felt like heavy carbs, i don't know if it really was, or if it was just because i was more aware of every carb i put in my body as carb cycling was always in the back of my mind.
I wanted my first low carb day to be a weekend so if it did kill me, at least i didn't have work to deal with too!
Going into this i thought low carb days were going to be really tough, from what people have posted online from there experience and the fact that 35g of carbs is not a lot! But I've found it surprisingly ok today. A lot easier than i thought. I nearly panicked this morning and changed my macros to allow more carbs but i didn't, i decided to give it a go as it was and I'm glad i did.

My low carb day foods...

Ate breakfast at 7am - Omelette with roasted veg and mixed leaf salad.

Went for what turned out to be a very intense workout, probably not the best idea for a low carb day.

Post Workout - 1 scoop peaches and cream whey (bulk powders), 1/2 frozen avocado, 1tsp powdered peanut butter, 1tsp chia seeds, 8oz water blended into a smoothie. - Yummier than it sounds. Promise.

Lunch: Salad (mixed leaves, cucumber, peppers, raddish, spring onion), 1/4 avocado and 1 whole tin of salmon.

Looking at my macros at this point, i thought i was going to struggle to hit my fat and protein for the day so i decided to do some yummy baking!

I made these vanilla, nut, coconut slices. Never made them before, but they were to die for.

Consisting only of brazil nuts, almonds, nut butter, coconut, coconut oil, protein powder and almond milk. They were a good way of getting in some healthy fats and proteins without all the carbs.

I literally can't get over how tasty these turned out. So sweet and creamy, almost taste like caramel. Took all my might to only eat one.

For my dinner i then made courgetti with 2 vine tomatoes, prawns, chilli flakes and a tbsp of soft goats cheese.

It was very yum, but i never find courgetti filling enough so I'm still a little hungry.

Its 6pm and my macros aren't looking too bad so far,

Think I'm going to eat about 4 eggs and maybe some goats cheese before i go to bed to try and use up the rest of my macros.

Overall I've not been tired, or too hungry at all so day 1 at low carb has been a success! Wooo!

Carb Cycling

I've been doing a lot of research in to Carb cycling lately, Carb cycling a process using high carb days, low carb day and moderate carb days. This allows you to build up your glycogen stores (the preferred source of energy used by the body) on high carb days and then deplete these stores on low carb days, once your body has used up all the glycogen for energy, it will begin to burn fat for fuel instead. 

This is a great way of boosting your metabolism and therefore becoming a fat burning furnace! Giving you great results. It is very popular method of many body builders these days.

 You may read this and think, 'great i'll eat low carb every day and that'll just burn fat and i'll look amazing' No!, A purely low carb diet may work to begin with, but it is not sustainable. You''l body will soon get used to the lack of carbs and adjust, your metabolism will slow down and you won't burn as much fuel, not to mention the lack of carbs will make you tired, grouchy, do i need to go on.. Thats why long term, these low carb, atkins diets or whatever you call them don't really last.

You need to mix your carbs up, keep your body guessing, keep it working hard, keep it burning fat!

So... Im going to give it a go. I've hit a bit of a platau fat loss wise. My diet is balanced and healthy, i hit my macros, with a deficit and i hit it hard at the gym 5 days a week.

Im going to do 2 high carb days on my busiest most active days of the week, I'll do 2 low carb days on my rest days from the gym or where my workout perhaps isn't as gruelling (definitely not on leg day!) and then the other 3 days of the week i will have moderate carb days - normal day of eating.

My protein will remain the same each day, regardless of what day it is, i eat just over 1g per lb of bodyweight.

I'm going to eat higher fat on my low carb days and moderate fat on my moderate & high carb days. Only my amount of carbs will change on these days.

My low carb days will be low calorie(1347kcal) and my high carb days high calorie (2000kcal).

This sounds like a lot of hard work, but once you've worked out your macros, its pretty plain sailing- well hopefully! I haven't started yet.

Im going to use myfitnesspal for a few weeks to work out what sort of food intake i can have on each day then once I've got a rough idea, i probably won't track my macros.

I pretty much hit my macros each day without tracking and I'm not that bothered if they're not exact, as long as they are around about. 

I don't want to track to the point where it stops being fun.

Im probably going to start on monday, will give me time to plan some meals for low carb days and high carb.

I shall track my progress and keep updating.

Hello there...

I  suppose i should begin by introducing myself, My name is Emma, I'm a 23 yr old food loving, health fanatic punk rocker from dear old blighty. 

I love to cook, i love to workout and i love my music.

I currently work in a kitchen, However i am a qualified Gym instructor, nutrition & weight management advisor & a specialist in pre & post natal nutrition and exercise. I am currently studying to become a personal trainer and cannot wait to move into the fitness industry full time.

This blog is mainly a use for me to encourage/ inspire myself, to keep myself on track with my goals, track my progress and any other fitness related ramblings i decide to post.

If along my journey i can help, educate, or inspire any of you lot, then great!