In Part One, The Starter Muscle Building Meal Plan, we showed you how to clean up your diet and make better food choices to improve overall health and get your body into better shape. Once you’ve got that down, you can progress onto Part 2. In this chapter, we show you a quick and easy way to cycle your carbohydrate intake to support lean muscle gains without accumulating unwanted body fat.
Quick nutrition overview: Your body stores carbohydrates as glycogen in muscles and in the liver. The more carbohydrates you can pack into your muscle cells, the bigger and fuller your muscles will be. In addition to that, for every extra gram of carbohydrate you can store inside muscle cells, an extra 3 grams of water will follow along with it, which further volumizes your muscles and creates more size and hardness.
It’s also important to remember that weight training and most high-intensity sports rely primarily on stored muscle glycogen as a fuel source. The more glycogen you have stored in muscles, the more strength, endurance and overall performance you will have in the gym and on the field for your high-intensity sport. Bottom line, more carbs equals more size and more strength…but only up to a point. You can’t simply keep loading up on large amounts of carbohydrates every day. At some point you will spill over – a term used to describe how excess carbohydrate intake can be converted to free fatty acids and stored as fat if you’re consuming well beyond what your body can assimilate. That’s where the strategy of carbohydrate cycling comes in.
Carbohydrate cycling involves periodically loading up on higher amounts of carbohydrates and calories to fill up your muscle glycogen stores and create an anabolic environment for muscles to grow. This is combined with periods of regular and reduced carbohydrate intake to balance out any potential spill-over. Here is a sample diet that incorporates a simple version of carbohydrate cycling that focuses on increasing lean muscle without adding unwanted fat.
SAMPLE WEEKLY SCHEDULE – CARBOHYDRATE INTAKE
| Monday | Regular Intake |
| Tuesday | Regular Intake |
| Wednesday | Increased Intake |
| Thursday | Regular Intake |
| Friday | Increased Intake |
| Saturday | Increased Intake |
| Sunday | Half Regular Intake |
NUTRITION PLAN – REGULAR INTAKE DAY
| MEAL 1 |
|---|
| 6 egg whites |
| I2 whole eggs |
| 2/3 cup oats (dry volume) |
| 1 serving fruit |
| MEAL 2 |
|---|
| 1 scoop Protein Powder |
| 1 cup skim milk or almond milk |
| 1 oz. almonds |
| MEAL 3 |
|---|
| 6 oz. lean ground turkey (cooked weight) |
| 8 oz. rice (cooked weight) |
| 1 cup vegetables |
| MEAL 4 |
|---|
| 6 oz. baked chicken breast (cooked weight) |
| 8 oz. sweet potato (cooked) |
| 1 rice cake with 1 tbsp. natural peanut or almond butter |
| MEAL 5 *POST-WORKOUT* |
|---|
| 1-2 scoops Protein Powder |
| 1 cup rice milk |
| MEAL 6 |
|---|
| 6 oz. fish or lean beef (cooked weight) |
| Large green salad with 1 tbsp. olive or flax oil |
NUTRITION PLAN – REGULAR INTAKE DAY
| MEAL 1 |
|---|
| 6 egg whites |
| 1 cup oats (dry volume) |
| 2 slices ezekiel or rye toast with fruit jam |
| 1 serving fruit |
| MEAL 2 |
|---|
| 1 cup skim milk or rice milk |
| 2-3 rice cakes |
| MEAL 3 |
|---|
| 6 oz. lean ground turkey (cooked weight) |
| 12 oz. rice (cooked weight) |
| 1/2 cup vegetable |
| 1 serving fruit |
| MEAL 4 |
|---|
| 6 oz. baked chicken breast (cooked weight) |
| 10 oz. sweet potato (cooked) with honey |
| 1 serving fruit |
| MEAL 5 *POST-WORKOUT* |
|---|
| 1-2 scoops Protein Powder |
| 1 cup rice milk |
| 1 bowl organic cereal |
| MEAL 6 |
|---|
| 6 oz. fish or lean beef (cooked weight) |
| 8 oz. baked potato (cooked weight) |
| Large green salad with pure balsamic vinegar |
*Reduce Complex Carbohydrate Portions By Half On The “Half Regular Intake” Day (Sunday)
