Carbohydrate Cycling for Fat Loss

Carbohydrate cycling is the practice of lowering carbs for 2-3 days and then bringing your carbs back up for 1-2 days, instead of just keeping your carb ratios the same all the time. This helps your body to burn fat at a higher rate on the lower carb days and then replenish your carbs on higher days. This keeps your metabolism from slowing down and makes sticking to your ‘diet' easier knowing that you will be able to eat higher carbs and calories in a few days.

It is considered by some to be the most effective low carbohydrate diet method for losing body fat.  It is a well kept secret of bodybuilders and fitness models.

Like all plans that incorporate a new diet that is different than they way you are used to eating, it has to be viewed as a lifestyle change for it to be successful.  Eliminating junk food or other items that you take pleasure in can be extremely difficult and requires a significant commitment.

Remember that like everything else, low carbohydrate diets, when taken to the extreme, may do more harm than good. It's not wise to go to extremes in anything and this is as true for dieting as with anything else in life: moderation is the key.

Muscle Memory

Muscle memory can best be described as a type of movement with which the muscles become familiar over time.  The only way for the muscles to become familiar to new activities is for you to learn how to do these things and then practice them with a great deal of trial and error. Gradually, as you become more skilled you are able to incorporate more complicated activities movements into your routine.

This is the body's natural pattern both cognitively and physically to do an exercise effortlessly. A trained athlete develops muscles that consistently perform the same exercise in the same manner each time. It is great for an athlete increasing a skill that needs duplication, like throwing a football, baseball, shooting a basket or a golf swing…and lifting weights.

In bodybuilding, muscle memory will allow you to train automatically, without conscious thought. If you have to stop and think about what is happening and what the proper movements are, you'll constantly be correcting and possible reinforcing a poor technique. It takes a tremendous amount of repetition to do things correctly and is easily lost without constant reinforcement. It also let's you turn your attention to the "big picture" e.g. to plan the next step in the work to be done, by taking over a large part of your "mental load".

Some argue that if you do the same workouts all the time the body just learns what you want it to do and doesn't really have to think about working at it anymore. Basically you are just "maintaining" maybe even losing some muscle by repetition. This is simply not true. As long as you are constantly applying the right amount of weight for your level, then muscle memory will ensure that you continue to perform your routine correctly. Remember practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.