Carb Cycling Help as a College Student

Diet and Nutrition
1

So I’m new to the site and hoping that you all can grace me with your knowledge…

I’m going into my senior year of college and I’ve tried a few diets here and there, but my most successful one was carb cycling over the summer. I’m hoping to get those same results, or some results. My biggest problem is working diets into my schedule. I’m pretty active on campus and I never miss a workout, but 6-8 meals is sometimes difficult. I’m 6’2 235 and working on getting down to 220 for starters.

Here’s what I’ve figured (no foods yet, but I know I can hit the numbers)

High Carb Day (Monday and Thursday)
Meal 1 (40g Protein, 70g Carbs)
Meal 2 (40g Protein, 70g Carbs)
Preworkout (40g Protein, 80g Carbs)
Intraworkout (60g Carbs and BCAA’s)
Postworkout (40g Protein, 80g Carbs)
Meal 5 (40g Protein, 70g Carbs)
Meal 6 (40g Protein, 30g Carbs)
**About 50g Fat

Medium Carb Day (Tuesday)
Meal 1 (45g Protein, 40g Carbs)
Meal 2 (45g Protein, 25g Carbs)
Preworkout (45g Protein, 40g Carbs)
Intraworkout (60g Carbs and BCAA’s)
Postworkout (45g Protein, 60g Carbs)
Meal 5 (45g Protein, 25g Carbs)
Meal 6 (40g Protein)
**About 70g Fat

Low Carb Day (Wednesday and Friday)
Meal 1 (45g Protein)
Meal 2 (45g Protein)
Preworkout (45g Protein, 40g Carbs)
Intraworkout (40g Carbs and BCAA’s)
Postworkout (45g Protein, 40g Carbs)
Meal 5 (45g Protein)
Meal 6 (40g Protein)
**About 80g Fat

Also, I was wondering what a good idea was for the weekends, I don’t eat a lot on the weekends as is, but I do go to the bars every once in a while (I’ve been 21 for like 3 weeks…)

Any help is greatly appreciated

2

If you want to be graced by our knowledge, I would suggest using the search function and reading the articles and threads that have already diligently and thoughtfully discussed this topic. If you had taken the time to do your research and reading, you would have been able to purpose a much more specific question, instead of the absurdly vague one above.

I think a good first step, if your trying to drop lbs, would be to cut out your high carb day, because that is a shit ton of carbs for someone who is trying to cut.

Also, you need to fill us in on what your doing for your workouts, and why the hell you aren’t eating on the weekends.

3

Just a quick tip:

Unless you are trying to bulk, I wouldn’t worry about the “6 meals a day” thing so much. That seems to work well for people who are trying to cram down as much food as possible to bulk. If you are cutting weight, it’s not quite as important. You will be just as successful losing weight by eating 3 meals a day, as long as they are healthy meals, and as long as you are taking in less calories than you burn. Nobody is going to fault you for eating 3 meals a day if that’s all your schedule permits. Just make sure that you get proper nutrition for your workouts.

Carb cycling works really well for me as well, but on my medium days I have 100-150g and on my low days I have < 50g. It seems like you are eating a considerable amount more carbs than this. As West Cost mentioned, I’d try dropping some of them if you want to cut.

4

Number of meals isn’t a big issue. As long as you’re hitting close to your numbers on the specified days you’ll get the benefit of cycling. Aside from the carbs peri-workout, the rest of the timing issues are secondary as well. Don’t over think this. If you’ve done it before, and it worked, you should be fine.

S

5

Thanks for all the advice. I did actually read a lot, and I was wondering more specifically about the numbers. I followed people with similar stats on here and read the “Beginners Guide to Carb Cycling” article. I pulled all the ratios directly from that, and it’s for cutting. I’ll definitely adjust accordingly.

Are there any good suggestions to make a good meal on the go aside from shakes, especially when I’m trying to get some low GI carbs in too, or do most just pack a big ass cooler. There are days where I’m gone for 10+ hours and am not able to run back to my apartment. I know cutting back on the “6 meals” will help a lot.