carb cycling and HST

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imported_ejones

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I have noticed that carb cycling diets are getting a lot of attention lately. I've read through the Ultimate Diet 2.0 and also Twin Peak's carb cycling articles over at Avant Labs forum. Lyle has said before that you either choose your diet and base your training around it, or you choose your training and base your diet around it. Although I have read some ideas about combining the UD 2.0 with HST on some older threads in these forums, I am wondering something. If you choose HST as your training then how would you design a carb cycling diet around HST for bulking and one for cutting? How about one for recomposition? I'm interested in hearing anyone's opinions, especially Bryan's or Blade's.
 
well from my understanding, carb cycling is really mainly useful as a cutting tool, not really for bulking. I've never had to tinker extensively with my diet for results though, I just stick to a gram of protein per pound of lean mass, 30 percent of calories from fat and the rest from fibrous carbs, whether I'm bulking or cutting (usually bulking hehe)
 
There is a little more to it than carb cycling, it more of strategic carb cycling in conjunction with calorie cycling with workout program designed to maximize the fat loss to muscle maintenance or in the case of bulk, minimize fat gain. If the diet is used with HST the value of plan will not be maximized.
Lyle has discussed (on his board and here) when bulking taking 1g Protein x BW/100g Carbs/the rest Fat and add 50g carbs post-workout. Starting calories around BW x 15-17, and adjust based fat:lbm changes. This can easily be used with HST.
 
i know that lyle doesn't recommend his diet with hst. some people have done it though and had good results apparently. here are two quotes from bryan in some older threads i was browsing through

"I think the reason Lyle feels HST cannot be used with UD 2.0 is that UD 2.0 specifically dictates depletion phases that require a different type of workout that HST calls for.

As to my personal opinion, I think you can still follow UD 2.0 diet wise, and use HST at the same time and get great results. "

"I deplete and load each week on my current diet but I use HST. I haven't found that the degree of "depletion" directly corelates to the amount of fat lost each week. Instead, I have found that the volume of exercise in general, or in other words, the total amount of exercise does corelate, even if I compensate with higher carbs..."

i am looking for more detailed info on how to combine something similar to ud 2.0 (maybe a little less drastic) with hst. i'd be interested in seeing how to set up both cutting and bulking cycles using it. i'm currently bulking and would like to minimize fat gain by perhaps following a carb cycling approach.
 
I dont think you'll get noticible difference which ever carb cycling approach you take. I always say go the easiest route first. I like TP's approach although it doesn't sit well with schedule so I went back to a zone approach. i think the main 'rule' to follow is to place your carb meals around workouts. TP's diet fits that easy and is flexible. For recomp I would set it up like 3 high carb days on HST days and low carb/ no carb days would depend on results and genetics. If you gain fat easily then 3 no carb days/1 low. If you need more calories then 2/3 low carb days and 1/2 no carb days. A little experimentation is needed.
 
I'm gonna give this approach (carb cycling) a try. One, it'll be easier in a sense, cause I have to eat in the chow hall, so It'll be hard for me to count calories exactly. I'll use the same approach that TP gave to Arbitro (I know he posts on bodyrecomp.com, but not sure if he posts here). Basically, it's the same as mentioned here, high carb on hst days, no carb on t and th, and low carb on the weekend.
 
Here is how I combine carb cycling with HST. It works relatively well:

I do 3 days low carb, 1 day high carb.

Here is how it goes exactly:
Low carb:
- day 1 : HST workout + 2h of low intensity cardio in 2 shots.
- day 2 : HIIT + 2h of low intensity cardio in 2 shots.
- day 3: HST workout + 2h of low intensity cardio in 2 shots.
Hi carb:
- day 4 : carb up. 1h of low intensity cardio.
- possibly day 5 : maintenance to help reset the metabolism.
 
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