Get shredded and built at the same time.

In the world of diet crazes and fitness fads it’s hard to know what to do anymore. Cut this, eat that, in the quest for physical perfection bodybuilders are asked to give up many foods that we love. But alas, there is a diet plan out there that allows you to get your good fats and proteins in while allowing you to eat your favorite italian meal again. It’s called carb rotating (or carb cycling) and it gives you the fat burning benefits of a low carb diet with the bulk and muscle mass of carb loading.

The benefits of most low carb diets is that they burn fat. I’m sure we’ve all heard “success” stories of people that have dropped massive weight in a short period of time just by cutting out carbs… Atkins diet, we’re looking at you. The drawback to these diets however is that your metabolism also goes down, limiting the amount of calories you burn each day. The benefits of eating carbs is that you do gain mass but because they break down to simple sugars, which are stored as fat, you could see less results in terms of aesthetics. This is why something like intermittent fasting works so well.

Cycling the days you eat a high volume of carbs with fat and protein days will help you burn more fat effectively by also raising your metabolic rate. With that being said don’t up your subscription to Olive Garden just yet. You want to try and incorporate healthy carbs as much as possible. Thing such as yams, brown rice, oatmeal, and whole wheat breads are good because these are slow burning carbs. Fast burning carbs like honey or sugary treats can also be consumed but in moderation. You want to eat those directly before or after a workout. As far as the fat/protein days you want to stick with the standard bodybuilding diet. Foods such as eggs, meat, protein shakes, cheese, fruits and vegetables can all be part of your consistent diet. These foods are staples for a reason.

So what does this diet actually look like? Easy. For the average bodybuilder you want to eat anywhere from 150-200 grams of carbs 5 days out of the week. Let’s say for instance Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat. The other two days (Tues, Sunday)  you want to eat anywhere from 300-500 grams of slow burning carbs depending on your size. Of course, these numbers might vary slightly depending on your size – so adjust accordingly. Listen to your body and figure out what works best for you.

Cheat meals are allowed but try to keep it to one sitting as opposed to snacking throughout the day. What you don’t want to do is mix them together. Try and keep the carbs low on high protein days and keep the proteins and fats significantly less on high carbs days… as they are a substitution on these days not an incorporation. So keep the difference in carbs and protein/fat consumption different for their respective days.

So there you have it, you’re new diet to back on muscle mass and cut the fat. What do you think of our fat burning muscle building diet? Have you tried it something similar? Let us know at the comments below!