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Carb Cycling:The Smart Alternative To Low Carb Diets
Remember when you were a teenager and had plenty of energy? You could probably eat anything you wanted without gaining weight. That’s because your body was producing high levels of anabolic hormones, including human growth hormones, sex hormones, and DHEA. As we age, we all start producing less of these vital hormones. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. You can increase your body’s natural production of anabolic hormones by starting a carb cycling program. Carb cycling allows you to optimize your health, lose weight, and feel great without giving up the foods you love.
For years I helped members of the Russian National Athletic Team drop fat, build muscle, and improve their performances by alternating between days of eating a normal amount of carbs and days of limited carb consumption. This method produced amazing results because it was based on real science, not marketing hype by the diet industry.
When I moved to America, I started seeing clients who dieted and exercised regularly but still could not lose weight. They didn’t realize that a slowed metabolism was derailing their efforts. That’s when I decided to create a plan that could be as effective as the program I developed for the Russian athletes but simple enough for anyone to use. The Carb Cycling Diet was born.
Carb Cycling is different than low-carb restiction diets. Typical low-carb diets do not work long-term because they contain too many calories. They also require you to avoid carbohydrates for the rest of your life, which quickly leaves most people feeling deprived and unsatisfied. Eating should be pleasurable, not stressful. Even worse, low carb diets can wreck your metabolism and damage your health. Traditional low carb diets ban fruits and certain vegetables. It just doesn’t make sense to deny your body these foods, which protect against cancer, hypertension and heart disease. Getting fit is not just about losing weight, it is about gaining health.
To understand the science behind carb cycling, you need to understand a little about the two important bodily processes that determine how you look and feel - anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the process fueled by anabolic hormones that allows your body to build muscle. As younger people, we produced a lot of important anabolic growth and sex hormones. As we age, our bodies produce less of these hormones, which leads to a slowing down in metabolism, resulting in weight gain and health problems.
Catabolism is the process by which your body burns fat. Many popular diets, including most low-carb plans, focus only on catabolism, while completely ignoring the other, beneficial part – anabolism. Therefore, they do not help you to stay young longer, build muscle or help your body produce more anabolic hormones. It is important to realize that while catabolism destroys fat, it also destroys bone and proteins. Proteins are very important for your health. As we age, we begin losing proteins from muscle, cartilage, and skin. This leads to a decrease in bone and muscle mass, problems with our joints, and even wrinkles. If you want to stay young longer you need to take steps to prevent protein and bone loss. Therefore, in order to lose fat in healthy way, you have to kick-start your metabolism and to increase your body’s natural production of anti-aging anabolic hormones.
To follow a carb cycling plan, you simply alternate between days of eating a normal amount of carbs and lower-carb days. During normal carb days, I recommend eating between 350 to 400 grams of carbohydrates. That’s about what you probably are already eating. Keep in mind that you should focus on eating unrefined carbs from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Limited refined carbs from sugar and processed white flour. On limited carb days, do not eat any foods containing sugar or white flour. Try to keep your carbs under 300 grams a day. You should never starve yourself or feel hungry, even on limited carb days.
Sound tricky? It’s not! Counting carbs is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Plus, the small extra effort will bring you a huge payoff. If you combine carb cycling with exercise, you will protect yourself from age-related illnesses, such as osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, and even form of cancer. You’ll also look and feel great.
About the Author: Dr. Malkov is an acclaimed health author, inventor of the "Micro and Macro Cycling" concept, and a recognized expert in the field of nutrigenetics and sports nutrition. He is the President/Founder of Nutrigen International, Inc. (http://www.1-888-nutrigen.com/). For more information and recipes to get you started, check out Dr. Malkov’s book, The Carb Cycling Diet, on Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble. You can also get some free information and tips at his website (http://www.cyclingdiet.com/).
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