Cycling nutrition

Go to any gym and you'll find some know-it-all telling you about how he does 4 weeks on high repetitions, 4 weeks on 8-12 reps to build muscle and, 4 weeks on pure strength with reps of 3-5.

Now whilst that guy is well behind the times in terms of what works for building muscle and burning fat, Big Jimmy Four Chins has one thing going for him.



He understands that performing the same kind of training or worse, the same session, for more than a few weeks at a time will result in a plateau and no further progress.

This is an all too common site in gyms.

However, many people do understand (to varying degrees) that you need to mix things up on the gym floor to see results and keep your body, guessing, adapting and ultimately, changing.

This is great but what about nutrition.

Why do we all agree that training variety is required for change to take place, yet we all settle into a nutrition pattern and do it on auto pilot?

Before I go on, this does not mean that you ladies who start a new crash diet every time Heat magazine comes out with the latest 'baby seaweed cabbage soup hypo-caloric breast implant' sensation, are doing the right thing.



The message today is not to get into too many habits no matter how good or healthy you think they are.

Again, your body will adapt.

Eat a high carb diet because you are training for a long-distance event and your body will become more efficient at utilising carbs and therefore less fat will be burnt so don't expect any improvements in body fat for a long time should that become your focus.

Go on a high protein, low carb, low fat diet to lose fat and you will eventually become more efficient at utilising protein as a fuel source. Later attempts at building muscle are likely to take much longer as your body readapts to using other sources for fuel leaving the protein for muscle building purposes.

Your body will do whatever you ask of it, whether you know you're asking the questions or not.

The key to success is rotation of different PROVEN nutrition systems.

My favourite method for fat loss is to follow the lean, clean, 5-6 meals per day, complex carbs only after training plan I use in the Fat Loss Action Blueprint.

After 4-6 weeks, switch things around and be less strict on meal timings and regular protein doses and use Intermittent Fasting (24 hour periods of nothing but water)which helps increase insulin sensitivity.

It also helps easily create a calorie deficit over the week without having to worry about anything on 'normal' days.

So long as you are not overeating to begin with and you can get your head around it mentally, this is an easy way to drop body fat without worrying about carbs, protein, fat, calorie counting or any other annoying inconveniences!

The best resource I've found on this topic is Brad Pilon's EatStopEat program which also provides some shocking evidence about how much protein you should be eating.

(Boys it's no where near what you thought!)

Don't get stuck in your ways but keep challenging your body.

Results will follow!

Jon

Get on the FLAB

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