How you can use calorie cycling to build muscle and lose fat Part 2
After looking at the basics of calorie cycling and its use while dieting and maintaining a low body fat percentage in the first part of this article, in this second part we will look at how you can use calorie cycling while building mass and go into more detail about creating a calorie cycling nutrition plan.
Is calorie cycling good for building muscle?
The answer is yes and no.
If you are relatively new to training with weights and want to build muscle, then calorie cycling is not for you. As long as you are eating enough calories and protein in general, you will make rapid progress and making this process more complex by calorie cycling will only distract you from the important points.
Even for a somewhat advanced exerciser, which I define as a person who has been exercising properly for at least two or three years, is eating right and has already reached 50 to 80% of his or her potential, it's probably better to keep it simple when dieting and building mass.
This means eating about 10% more calories than you consume, doing a lot of heavy training and, with a body fat percentage of 15% for men and 25% for women, dieting back down to 10% for men and 20% for women before the game starts all over again.
In terms of building muscle, calorie cycling is most useful for advanced exercisers who have been training properly for several years, have reached at least 80% of their genetic potential and want to continue to make steady gains in strength and muscle mass while staying lean.
Specifically, I am referring to exercisers who want to keep their body fat percentage in the range of 8 to 12% for men and 18 to 22 for women.
The reason that calorie cycling works so well for these people is that once you have built up most of the muscle and strength that your genetic potential allows you to, the process slows down to a lethargic crawl. After five years of proper nutrition and training, you'll be lucky if you gain a pound of muscle every six months.
When you start training with weights, your body's muscle-building machinery is ready to run at full speed, whereas in the later years of your training career it will never run faster than first or second gear.
This machinery is metabolically expensive and requires a large amount of energy and raw materials, and the more muscle it builds, the more food it needs. If you are new to the sport, your body will be able to utilize excess energy more efficiently than later when you are more experienced.
Thus, during the first 12 months of your training career, you can achieve excellent results with a larger calorie surplus - up to 500 kcal above your maintenance calorie intake - due to the substantial muscle building demands your body is exposed to. However, as these demands decrease - and they will decrease as you become more advanced in the gym - your body will no longer need as many extra calories to meet these demands.
In other words, it takes a much larger caloric surplus to build 20 pounds of muscle (which many men can do during their first year of training) than it does to build a few pounds (as will be the case in later years). In the latter case, only a few hundred calories above maintenance calories are required.
For me, this equates to around 3,200 kcal per day, as my maintenance calorie allowance is 2,900 kcal.
The good news is that while muscle gain is slower and slower as we get more muscular and stronger, the smaller calorie surplus needed for further progress produces smaller gains in body fat - so little that you can do a low-fat mass gain for several months before your body fat percentage gets so high that it necessitates a definition phase. And if you use calorie cycling during a low-fat mass building program, this phase can last even longer.
By maintaining a calorie surplus for four or five days a week and a calorie deficit for two or three days, you create a type of "maintenance calorie intake with benefits" where you are able to build muscle with minimal increase in body fat.
It can look like this:
I work out five days a week and take time off from training with weights on the weekends, but usually do 30 minutes of low intensity cardio on those two days. When calorie cycling during a low-fat bulking phase, you should maintain a calorie surplus during your training days, which in my case means that I eat more than I consume five days a week.
Since the calorie surplus doesn't have to be particularly large, 300 kcal above the maintenance calorie amount is more than enough, resulting in a total calorie surplus of 1,500 kcal during my five training days before my weekend starts with its non-training days.
Approximately half of the weight gained during low-fat mass gain is muscle, and my body needs to draw on the calorie surplus to build that muscle. It is also realistic to assume that I will have stored about 750 kcal in the form of fat by my first non-training day.
Then on the next (non-training) days I could eat 700 to 800 kcal less than I consume in order to lose the fat built up on my training days without having to sacrifice muscle or strength. And the net result of all this - at least in theory - would be a slight increase in muscle mass without any visible change in body fat percentage
I say "in theory" because things never work that optimally in real life. For one thing, muscle growth is a process that starts in the gym and is not completed after a few hours, but several days later. By restricting your calories even a few days a week, you are slowing down this process and sacrificing at least some of your potential gains.
Many people also find it difficult to stick with this plan because it takes some of the fun out of low-fat mass gain. Even if you're not a big gourmand and are striving to build flawless low-fat muscle, it's nice to be able to eat off-plan here and there without any real consequences.
However, if you're using calorie cycling, you'll need to pay closer attention to your daily calorie intake. And since most people work out during the week and keep the weekend workout-free, a calorie deficit on non-workout days makes eating out, inviting friends over, and other things along those lines less enjoyable.
However, as with anything fitness related, you don't have to be perfect at calorie cycling to make it work.
If you eat a little too much on one or two of your days with a calorie surplus, you can compensate by eating a little less on your days with a calorie deficit. And if you eat a little too much on a day with a planned calorie deficit, so that you come closer to or even exceed your maintenance calorie amount, then you can compensate by eating less on your next day with a planned calorie deficit, or by making your next day with a planned calorie surplus a day with a calorie deficit.
For example, let's say your plan is to eat a 10% calorie surplus four days a week and a 10% calorie deficit on the remaining three days, and on your first planned calorie deficit day you eat about as much as you consume. To make up for this, you can either simply maintain a 20% calorie deficit on the following day or eat 15% less than you consume on each of the following two days. Of course, the fewer "mistakes" you make, the better your results will be in the long run, but as long as you do things right most of the time, you can benefit greatly from calorie cycling.
If you are wondering whether it would also be possible to maintain a slight calorie surplus on training days and eat your maintenance calorie intake on non-training days, this may make sense if you only train two or three days a week as this will significantly reduce the build-up of body fat. However, if you train more often, such an approach will not really help you, so in this case I would suggest using a low-fat mass-building phase followed by a short diet phase or calorie cycling. So the bottom line on calorie cycling and muscle building is this:
The whole thing is unnecessary and often even counterproductive as long as you are not a more advanced exerciser who wants to stay relatively lean over a longer period of time.
How you can put together a calorie cycling nutrition plan
If you've read this far, you probably want to learn how to put all of this into practice, so let's get down to business and create a sample plan.
There are many possible approaches to this, but I would recommend rotating between three different levels of calorie intake depending on your goals:
- A high calorie day, with about 10% above your maintenance calorie level.
- A day with a low calorie intake, about 20% below your maintenance calorie intake.
- A day with a medium calorie intake in the range of your maintenance calorie intake.
There are extreme versions of calorie cycling that involve alternating between very low and very high calorie days, but I don't recommend these approaches.
While some of these protocols may work, they involve far more discomfort than they are worth and usually produce worse results in the long run than the method I will describe here.
When creating a calorie cycling diet plan, remember that you still need to plan and monitor your macronutrient intake if you want to achieve the best possible results.
How to put together a calorie cycling diet plan for weight loss
Before using calorie cycling during a fat loss phase, the first thing you need to consider is your body fat percentage.
As you may recall, if your body fat percentage is over 15% for men and over 25% for women, calorie cycling doesn't have much to offer beyond regular dieting (with the same calorie and macronutrient intake each day).
If your body fat percentage is below 15% (for men) or below 25% (for women), then it may make sense to consider calorie cycling while dieting.
In this case, I recommend a diet plan that includes five low-calorie days and two medium-calorie days per week. You can arrange these days however you like, but I recommend that you have your two medium-calorie days on the days or days when you are on a low-calorie diet. calorie intake days on or before the days with your hardest workouts.
If you train first thing in the morning, then you should schedule your medium calorie days on the days before, and if you train in the evening, then you should schedule those days on your training days.
This way you give your body enough time to maximize its muscle glycogen levels, which will have a positive impact on your training performance.
Here is an example of what this might look like:
- Monday (Press): Medium calorie intake day
- Tuesday (lower body): Low calorie day
- Wednesday (shoulders): Medium calorie day
- Thursday (pulling): Low calorie day
- Friday (upper body): Low calorie day
- Saturday (no training): Low calorie day
- Sunday (non-training): Day with low calorie intake
If you train in the evening, it could look like this:
- Monday (press): Low calorie day
- Tuesday (lower body): Medium calorie day
- Wednesday (shoulders): Day with lower calorie intake
- Thursday (pulling): Day with medium calorie intake
- Friday (upper body): Day with low calorie intake
- Saturday (non-training): Day with low calorie intake
- Sunday (no training): Low calorie day
Next, let's talk about macronutrients. Here I would recommend the following:
- Your protein intake should be 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight
- Your fat intake should be 30% of your daily calorie intake
- Your carbohydrate intake should make up the rest of your calories
A low-calorie day for me looks like this:
- 195 grams of protein (780 kcal)
- 55 grams of fat (495 kcal)
- 280 grams of carbohydrates (1,120 kcal)
- Approx. 2,400 kcal
A day with an average calorie intake would look like this:
- 195 grams of protein (780 kcal)
- 65 grams of fat (585 kcal)
- 410 grams of carbohydrates (1,640 kcal)
- Approx. 3,000 kcal
Once you've calculated your calorie and nutrient amounts, the next thing you need to do is put them into a nutrition plan that you can follow over time.
How to put together a calorie cycling nutrition plan for muscle building
If you want to use calorie cycling to build muscle, I recommend the following:
- For four or five training days per week: five high-calorie and two low-calorie days per week
- For two or three training days per week: four high-calorie and three low-calorie days per week
As the size of the calorie surplus on the high calorie days will be smaller than the size of the calorie deficit on your low calorie days, your calorie intake over the week as a whole will be more or less in the range of your maintenance calorie intake.
However, if you notice that your weight is dropping over time, then you should swap one of the low-calorie days for a high-calorie day. And if you notice that your body weight is increasing too quickly, then you should swap one of the high-calorie days for a low-calorie day.
How you distribute your high-calorie and low-calorie days over the week doesn't matter and you can also shift them from week to week. Personally, I like to schedule my high-calorie days on my training days.
If I train from Monday to Friday and the weekend is training-free, then it would look like this:
- Monday: High calorie day
- Tuesday: High calorie day
- Wednesday: High calorie day
- Thursday: High calorie day
- Friday: High calorie day
- Saturday (no training): Low calorie day
- Sunday (non-training day): Low calorie day
If you train less than five days per week, I would recommend that you start with five high-calorie days and two low-calorie days per week and make adjustments later.
If you only train two days a week, then I would recommend that you follow a different training program to build muscle.
Now let's take a look at how your calories would be divided between the individual macronutrients:
- Your protein intake should be 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight
- Your fat intake should be 20% of your daily calorie intake
- Your carbohydrate intake should make up the rest of your calories
For me, a high-calorie day would look like this:
- 195 grams of protein (780 kcal)
- 75 grams of fat (675 kcal)
- 460 grams of carbohydrates (1,840 kcal)
- Approx. 3,300 kcal
And a low-calorie day would look like this:
- 195 grams of protein (780 kcal)
- 55 grams of fat (495 kcal)
- 280 grams of carbohydrates (1,120 kcal)
- Approx. 2,400 kcal
How to put together a calorie cycling nutrition plan for the maintenance phase
If you want to use calorie cycling to maintain your body weight, I recommend the following:
- Four or five training days per week: five high-calorie and two low-calorie days per week
- Two or three training days per week: four high-calorie and three low-calorie days per week
And as far as macronutrients are concerned, you can combine them in the same way as for low-fat mass building
The bottom line on calorie cycling
Calorie cycling is a method of nutrition that involves planned increases and decreases in calorie intake throughout the week, typically achieved by increasing or decreasing carbohydrate intake.
Most calorie cycling protocols involve high calorie days where you increase your calorie intake and low calorie days where you reduce your calorie intake. Many people claim that calorie cycling allows you to "hack" your metabolism so that you can...
- Dramatically increase your fat loss by boosting your metabolism, reducing hunger and giving your body more energy for your workouts.
- Simultaneously build muscle and lose fat by using the calorie surplus to stimulate muscle growth and using the calorie deficit to lose fat.
- Achieve consistent gains in muscle and strength while staying rock hard and defined
The truth is, however, that calorie cycling does none of this.
When it comes to fat loss, calorie cycling has no benefits to offer as long as your body fat percentage is above 15% for men and 25% for women. In other words, calorie cycling only makes sense if you are already lean and want to become very lean.
In this case, calorie cycling may make getting lean more enjoyable, but it has no inherent fat-burning benefits.
When it comes to staying lean, calorie cycling may help you maintain a lower body fat percentage more easily than traditional dieting methods. However, it will not reverse the negative side effects of a very low body fat percentage.
And when it comes to building muscle, calorie cycling has nothing to offer beginners and slightly more advanced exercisers. Until you've tapped into most of your genetic potential, it's more of a hindrance than a help.
However, if you are a more advanced exerciser and want to continue to make slow but steady gains in strength and muscle mass while staying lean, calorie cycling can help you. Your progress will be slower than with a constant calorie surplus, but you will gain less fat.
And just to be clear: By "lean" I mean a body fat percentage of 8 to 12% for men and 18 to 22% for women.
If you've already reached this level of leanness and want to make maintaining the status quo more enjoyable, then calorie cycling can help you mitigate some of the negative side effects of being lean.
Although calorie cycling will not 'cure' these problems, it may extend the period of time over which you can maintain this state before you feel the need to increase your body fat percentage to a more maintainable level.