How to set up a diet and adjust calorie intake - Part 6
Author: In the previous lessons we went through the points for calculating our energy intake and converting it into the skeleton of our diet.
These points were:
- 1.calculating basal metabolic rate
- 2.calculating physical activity
- 3.matching caloric intake to sports goal and somatotype
- 4.distribution of caloric intake into nutritional values
- 5.creating a skeleton diet
Yet we are not at the end. What is left?
Calorie cycling
Especially if you're a natural, i.e. you don't use chemical hormones, cycling could be useful for keeping in shape. If we want to gain lean muscle mass, we need to take in slightly more calories than we would need. It's just that if we take in a constant constant excess, we will put on fat. This is the reason for calorie cycling.
Especially the natural faces a double problem:
- 1.If he takes in more calories than he burns, there is a high probability that he will gain fat, even more fat than muscle.
- 2.Trying to stay with a reasonable fat level may lead to taking in fewer calories than would lead to growth.
- 3.If a natural starts to lose fat and machine-reduce his calorie intake, it happens quite easily that he slows down his metabolism so that the reduction in calorie intake misses its effect.
- For all these reasons, we use calorie intake cycling. It will allow a natural to lose fat, not have an energy deficit, and not lose too much muscle mass.
Basic rules for cycling in the diet:
- 1.The ratio of low-energy to high-energy days will be 2:1, ideally 3:1.
- 2.The total energy intake will be equal to the planned energy intake in four-day cycles
How to proceed
1.Determine the caloric intake of the high-energy day. For example, by adding 20% to your calculated intake
For example:
Calculated intake 2125
2125 x 20% = 425 kcal
High-energy day - 2550 kcal
2. Calculate the caloric intake of the low-energy days by dividing this addition by three and subtracting the result from our baseline. The total caloric energy intake for the 4 days of the cycle equals the planned intake.
Continuing the example
425 kcal / 3 = 141 kcal
2125 - 142 = 1983 kcal = energy intake on low-energy days
A very used option is also the possibility of 2 low-energy days during training days and two high-energy intakes during days off.
Other schemes to experiment with
1 high-energy + 2 low-energy + 1 minimum-energy
5 low-energy + 2 high-energy days
etc...
Last rule. You should cycle all three nutrients - protein, carbs, fats. If for some reason you don't cycle all nutrients, then you must always cycle carbs.
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