Cycle Carbohydrates To Shed Fat But Not Muscle

By Warren Sicloces

No matter how much times have changed and technology has advanced, bodybuilders still pursue the same aims: construction of as much muscle and disposal of as much fat as possible. And although it’s true that there are a number of ways you can achieve the same objective in bodybuilding, the way you’re most certain to succeed is by controlling your carbohydrate intake.
The most successful bodybuilders in contests and those that reach the peak of physical conditioning, aren’t necessarily the strongest, the ones that lift the most weight, or even the ones who train hardest: they are the ones that master dieting. Perhaps you’ve read or heard that dieting is a fundamental factor in the attainment of full muscle development, and some bodybuilders attribute as much as 80% of their development to it. But percentages aside, there’s no doubt about it that a lot of them will also give themselves a damned good hammering in the gym, though not all of them will reach the height of physical excellence. This is reserved for those who manage their nutrient intake, for at the end of the day, both the development of the muscles and the formation and breakdown of fatty tissue depend more upon our diet than on exercise.

As you’re sure to know, there are many methods and approaches you can use to work the muscles and build them bigger. These can turn out to be extremely effective or to do very little for them at all, depending on the person, seeing as we’re all different and our bodies don’t react the same way to certain exercises. But in any case, the restrictive factor in terms of the results possible with the workouts is determined by the biochemical conditions within the body; that is, by nutrient levels. Both the formation of the muscle tissue and of the fat comes down to biochemical factors governed by different mechanisms, but we can modify the intervention in the nutritional aspect, and, therefore, in the body’s biochemistry by way of the foods we eat.
And body composition is highly dependent on the levels of, and proportions between, carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the diets, as well as on the total calorie count. But the nutrient to have the most impact on our body composition is that of carbohydrates.
Let’s take things little by little though. 

Calories, Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats
While we’re alive our body needs energy, which is measured in calories, and calories come from the food we eat. Foods contain three nutrients with different amounts of calories in them. Carbohydrates and proteins hold four calories per gram, whereas the same quantity of fat will have nine in it.
The body expends calories just performing its functions, not to mention using up further calories when we walk, move, work and, of course, practise sports. To put on pounds you must consume more calories than the body expends to meet the requirements of the metabolism and to cope with the exercise being undertaken. When you consume more than your body puts to use your weight goes up, but if your body uses more than you consume your weight will drop.
Calorie consumption isn’t the only important factor in body composition, but also the proportion of different nutrients in the diet, which is essential, since each of the three main nutrients is of a different chemical configuration and exerts a different impact on the body, regardless of its calorie content.
The element contained within protein is nitrogen, and the body uses protein to form all kinds of tissues and structures, as well as having a secondary usage for it as a fuel to provide energy. Carbohydrates have glucose in them, the sugar that the body has a preference for as fuel. Fats have fatty acids and glycerol stored in them and the body uses them as its main material for certain structures, and also as fuel. The key, therefore, is in the balance of the calories, but at the same time it’s a question of achieving this by way of full proportion between these three macronutrients. 

Adjusting Nutrient Proportions
The perfect way to calculate how many calories your body must have in order to up your weight or to shift fat and condition the muscles is by evaluating each macronutrient separately and establishing a specific quantity for each. As we’ve seen, each of them has a different configuration and plays a distinct role in the body, so we must adjust them in line with our aims.
When you’re trying to take off the fat but still hang on to the muscle the most important part of the diet is the protein and you must make sure you eat between two and three grams for every kilo you weigh. So a person weighing 100kg (220lbs) would go on a diet that meant them eating 250-300g of protein per day. Since every gram of protein contains four calories, it means they’d acquire 1000-1200 calories from their food. This is a lower limit to ensure the muscle stays intact.
Now, the carbohydrates are the critical factor in the reduction of fat on the body, since the levels of energy we need to battle it out hard in the gym depend on them, but so do the formation and dismantlement of the fatty tissue. Essentially, fat is a spare source of calories to which the body can resort in the event of a food shortage and calorie deficit. All surplus calories in a diet can end up as fat, and the chances of this happening are greater still if the surplus comes from carbohydrates, since these macronutrients trigger the secretion of insulin, the hormone that forms fatty tissue.

Cycling Carbohydrates to Modify Body Composition
When it comes to conditioning the physique you must modify carbohydrate consumption so that the body turns to fat for our energy, but you must not do so to the point of not having enough glycogen to engage in the weights workouts with the required intensity. Doing this incurs the double risk of not training intensely enough to work the muscles and shedding muscle tissue, since if the muscles don’t have enough glycogen in them, the body breaks down the amino acids, transforms them into glucose and, in this way, extract the fuel it’s not getting from carbohydrates. Obviously, it take’s the muscles apart to do this. Simply put, you’ll lose weight because the carbohydrates preserve the protein, and it’s better to burn up the carbohydrates and leave the protein to build up the muscles.
If, however, you eat too many carbohydrates, you won’t strip off any fat because the surplus glucose will be turned into fat, or at the very least it will slow down the disposal of fat. Bear in mind, though, that in the absence of glucose the body will secrete glucagon, the hormone that transforms fat into glucose for energy, but the presence of insulin will hinder the production of glucagon, since the two hormones are antagonists.
The trick, then, is to eat more carbohydrates on the days you’re heading out for the gym and cut them down to a minimum on the rest. A good portion in the morning and just before working out is enough to stock up the glycogen reserves and have the energy to go at the weights. Glucose and glycogen levels are extremely low first thing in the morning, which makes it the perfect time to undertake some cardio exercise because the energy comes directly from the fat and burns it off. Then you can enjoy a breakfast with protein, and complex carbohydrates with a low glycemic index such as oatmeal and wholegrain rice, in it. The other ideal moment to get some carbohydrates into your system is right after your workout because the glycogen reserves in the muscles will be completely spent and if you don’t replenish them, the muscles will remain flat and exposed to catabolism; and the next time you try to train they’ll have no glycogen in them and it will be impossible for you to perform well. You won’t be able to keep your muscles the same size and your body will enter a catabolic state in which you’ll shed pounds and muscle at the same time.
Those days you’re not working out on will require very little carbohydrates, so settle for half a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, a salad at midday and half a bowl of boiled vegetables at night. Your body will have the minimum amount of carbohydrates it takes to run the operations of the metabolism, preserve the protein and assist in the disposal of the fat.
As a general rule, carbohydrate intake should be restricted to 50g per day in a conditioning diet, which is very little and will trigger the employment of the fat for energy. The problem is that if you keep your intake as low as that every single day you place the muscle at risk of taking its leave and, on top of that, the metabolism will slow down because the thyroid gland, in view of such low levels, will stop synthesising its hormones.

The secret of all great bodybuilders is consuming carbohydrates in different cycles to get rid of the fat without seeing the same thing happen to the muscle. These fluctuations will prevent the metabolism from slowing down and the muscle being broken down for glucose.
On workout days you can eat a whole bowl of oatmeal instead of just half, and, mid-morning you can eat some boiled wholegrain rice. The biggest portion of carbohydrates must come after working out because at that particular time all of them will be go towards replenishing glycogen reserves and revitalising the muscles, and there will be no risk of them triggering any fat formation. In this particular case, you can consume between 50 and 70g of carbohydrates with a high glycemic index.
If you follow this advice then your muscles won’t fall short of glycogen and you’ll be able to pound the weights, hold on to all your bulk and, all the while, dismiss the fat beneath your skin.

An Aid to Ensure Conditioning
The first thing a person does when they want to lose weight is eat less and reduce the number of calories in their diet. But that won’t yield the results that bodybuilders are after. Even if you lose weight in the beginning, a large part of this is in muscle, which, for a bodybuilder, is inexcusable. Worse than that, though, the metabolism takes its foot off the pedal and as you continue to lower the calorie count, the harder it becomes to take the fat off.
But bodybuilders have known for decades that it takes more than a lower calorie count to shed the fat and not sacrifice the muscle. The secret is to modify the proportions of nutrients, especially so in the case of the carbohydrates. Low-carbohydrate diets are advanced bodybuilders’ preferred type of diet for stripping off fat and letting their muscles shine through, with all the details carved into them.
All good bodybuilders are masters at managing the nutrients in their diets, particularly at dividing their carbohydrate intake into cycles. They do this because they know they’ll be able to condition their muscles well and not have to wave it goodbye.
And the process can be made even easer with the TH 101 by Future Concepts.
This ergoceutical, (the term by which Future Concepts refers to its formulae) consists of 12 ingredients that operate by synergising with one another to exert an impact on different metabolic features and have a more powerful effect.
The formula triggers the synthesis of hormones by the thyroid gland, accentuates lipolysis (the employment of fat as fuel), increases thermogenesis (the combustion of calories to generate heat) and keeps glucose and insulin levels stable, its core operations.
As we saw above, insulin is the hormone that controls sugar level in the blood, but it can also have other effects, for if the body produces too much insulin, glucose levels can fall, which would cause energy levels to drop and generate a craving for sugary foods to compensate for the drop incurred. One of the other effects of surplus insulin is the formation of fatty tissue, since insulin has the secondary function of conducting lipogenesis (development of fatty tissue), the very function we wish to avoid it performing. Furthermore, when insulin is secreted it’s just about impossible to urge the body to break down the fat, which is why control must be kept over insulin levels.
TH 101 has several ingredients to block these effects. One such ingredient is chromium picolinate, which regulates glucose levels and heightens the sensitivity of muscle cells to insulin whilst reducing that of fatty ones to the hormone.
Another such ingredient would be gymnema silvestre, an extract from a plant that grows in India which has the unique capacity to dull the taste of sugar temporarily and keep glucose levels from surging, thus preventing insulin spikes and the fatty tissue formation that follows.
The hydroxycitric acid (HCA) in TH 101 is extracted from the garcinia cambogia fruit and its main operation is the obstruction of citrate lyase, the enzyme that transforms sugar into fat. Thanks to the HCA, this transformation of the sugar by the enzyme is blocked and surplus glucose won’t end up as body fat.
Now, as we know, the thyroid gland is the master key that governs the metabolism, due to its production of thyroid hormone. If our thyroid hormone levels aren’t as high as they need to be our metabolism slows down, our energy levels fall and fat has an easier time settling on our body because fewer calories are being burned. The raw materials the body uses for the synthesis of the thyroid hormones are the amino acid L-tyrosine and iodine, and several coenzymes lend it a hand in this synthesis.
And for the thyroid gland to operate smoothly, Future Concepts has incorporated those three essential ingredients into TH 101. On the one hand you have the raw materials in the form of the tyrosine and, from an alga that grows in the cold and deep waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, the iodine; and on the other, you have copper lysinate, a copper chelated with an amino acid, because the mineral is also a coenzyme in the regulation of the thyroid gland. The provision of these materials in TH 101 will ensure the thyroid functions as normal and the metabolism remains active.
One of the other fronts on which TH 101 operates to shed the fat is thermogenesis, the process by which the body generates heat. The higher the body temperature, the more calories the body burns up, and a small increase over 24 hours can mean hundreds are burned up to generate the extra heat. Several plant extracts in TH 101 — namely, forskolin, guarana (which contains caffeine) and narangin, amongst others — will make this possible for you.
Lipolysis is another front on which TH 101 sets about its business and involves producing energy by breaking down the fat, instead of glucose, and using it as fuel for this energy. This is something the body does when we undertake cardiovascular exercise to preserve the glycogen and enables us to keep on exercising at the expense of fatty tissue, a long-term source of energy.
TH 101 has various ingredients in it that will set the process in motion, such as synephrine, caffeine, narangin and, in the green tea extract, catechins. The combination of all these ingredients persuades the body to favour the fat over the glucose for its energy, leaving the glycogen intact and doing away with fat.
It’s worth pointing out that, besides stepping up the disposal of the fat, TH 101 preserves muscle and even enhances the rate of synthesis, which may be something to do with the fact that forskolin, one of the formula’s ingredients, was found in recent research to release testosterone from sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), the blood protein that fastens on to testosterone and puts it out of action. Upon releasing the testosterone, the hormone can circulate freely around the body, which is how it sets about its anabolic operations. So, one of the secondary effects of TH 101 is higher levels of free testosterone in the blood.
If you’ve put on too much weight then the incorporation of TH 101 into your diet will make it much easier for you to get rid of the fat, and, at the same time, you’ll feel more energetic and prevent the fat from making a return to your body. But if, on the other hand, you’re trying to up your weight, the presence of TH 101 in your diet will guarantee that the weight gain is in muscle and not in fat.
TH 101 is already part of the diet of thousands of bodybuilders, who place their trust in it to enhance their well-being, energy levels, ability to shift fat and block further formation of it, and preserve muscle, as well as build it. 

Programmed Fluctuations in Carbohydrate Intake
Both the development of muscle and the formation of fatty tissue are processes that obey the body’s biochemistry. Depending on the type and composition of the diet, the biochemical conditions within the body will vary and the body itself will respond differently as a consequence.
High glucose levels will spark excessive insulin secretion, which will cause fat to form and obstruct the disposal of fat already on the body, making all your efforts come to nothing.
The key to taking off all the fat you can is to control your carbohydrate intake and divide it into specific cycles.
Put it to the test… and see the fat fall off.