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Date Posted: 16:26:13 01/04/05 Tue
Author: By Scott Mendelson Body Muscle Journal Volume 5
Subject: Maximum Muscle Mass

Cycling Nutrition
Rapid Muscle Growth
Rapid Fat Loss!

Every person who trains with iron seriously wants to gain muscle and lose fat, preferably at the same time. What�s more, everyone wants to do it fast.

Now consider that calorie deprivation is generally necessary for fat loss and calorie increases are needed for muscle gains. In addition, training for muscle growth is usually different than training for fat loss too. How can concurrent muscle growth and fat loss possibly be accomplished?

The solution evolved from a brainstorming session with Ultra Size inventor, Dr. Eric Serrano. "What if you did both an exercise routine and diet where there was an alternative focus between fat loss and muscle growth within a given week? What about cycling nutrition (and training) by the days of the week to keep your metabolism in constant physiological flux and demand?"

The Cycle Diet
High protein diets and hard training can cause caloric deficits, but also elevate fat burning via fatburning hormone increases. Bodybuilders know they can train hard on a low carbohydrate diet for 4-5 days and then raise the carbohydrate levels for 1-2 days to supply nutrients for muscle growth and recovery, and in doing so, still prevent fat accumulation.

Your body responds to a deficit of calories by shifting into starvation mode, your metabolism prepares for a famine state. But having a slow metabolism is �defeatist� in the long run. By cycling carbs, you can rev up metabolic production temporarily, handling the two-day influx of calories for a brief period of time. Indeed, your metabolic rate will remain high and just as it "slows" again towards the end of the five-day low carb eating, you rev it again with a short weekend carb-kickup (that�s good carbs, not junk).

The lack of carbs for the five-days during the workweek depletes glycogen creating a special deficit metabolic situation. Then, when you cycle in the high carbs on the weekend, you get a rebound "stuffing" of the muscles/ liver with glycogen. While it may be true that this low carb diet phase may well cause an increase in fat oxidation, gaining lean tissue during these phases is difficult! Oh drat!

Diet & 2 Day Carb Up Plan

The Two-Day Carb-Up And Muscle!
This large influx of carbs provides an excess of training fuel so your workouts on the days of the carb ups will be very strong. In addition to the abundance of fuel perhaps the "second most anabolic hormone" insulin, is produced by the body in high amounts. The carb-up creates ideal conditions for hypertrophy training and as a result you will do two tough workouts on your weekend carb up days. (In case you are asking, "Hey Scott, why not just carb up all the time, that will work for adding mass and muscle, but unless you are Lance Armstrong burning 8,000 calories a day, this will also add too much fat"!)

During the week you work on fat loss with lower carbs and a training protocol with high volume and short rest periods to stimulate the release of growth hormone (Hgh) which is a potent fat burning hormone. You will also have the option to do some interval cardio sessions during the week on your non-iron days to accelerate fat loss. Remember � piled up glycogen in the blood, muscle and liver from the weekend will fuel above average workouts early in the week, but you will be running on empty towards the end of the week. (That isn�t so bad you see since depleted glycogen levels force the body to use stored body fat as fuel)!

Now, some people respond differently to weekend carb ups than others and you will have to experiment. Start with a 48-hour period and gradually reduce to 24 hours or even less if you find you are especially carb sensitive. Vary the carb sources (very little junk) using good sources such as sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, grains and berries and see how you feel. You can fit in some of the foods that you�ve been craving, but limit your junk food attacks!

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