Tomorrow morning, flip on the local weather channel. You'll probably see the "five day forecast," that tells you the weather for the coming week.

If they predict it's going to be 95 degrees and sunny on Monday, and then say you'll get 15 inches of snow on Tuesday, you know what to expect. Not only are you in the middle of the weirdest storm ever recorded, but more importantly, you know exactly what you'll be wearing each day.

We can apply this same concept to our weekly diet plan to help us gain lean muscle and lose bodyfat. This approach is called carb cycling, and it's being used by bodybuilders and figure competitors to drop bodyfat consistently and effectively.

It's based on rotating your carbohydrate intake each day, depending on the amount of exercise you have planned. More training... you get more carbs. No training that day... less carbs on the menu.

In my original carb cycling article, I went into detail about the history of carb cycling, as well as discussing how you can manipulate nutrient intake to affect your body's hormone levels. But for now, let's learn how to make it work for you.

Carb Cycling: The Basic Structure

Carb cycling is similar to the nutritional practice of eating carbs only in the morning, and after workouts. The biggest difference is that the amount of carbs (and thus, the amount of calories) will vary each day. What will this accomplish?

• It allows you to have fat burning and muscle building days each week.

• Your metabolism never gets a chance to slow down or adapt, which often happens with "traditional" diets.

• Long-term success is reinforced because it's relatively easy to follow, especially compared to more strict, low-carb diets.

Carb cycling is based on having three different carbohydrate levels during the week: higher carbs, moderate carbs, and lower carbs. Ideally, these days are split according to your training schedule.

The carb cycling philosophy is, "Eat for what you did, and what you have to do, on that day."

If you train 3 times per week:

• Select your two "priority workouts." These are the toughest workouts of the week, or the workouts targeting the muscle groups you need to improve the most. On these days, you have a higher carb intake.

• The other workout day has a moderate carb level.

• With the four remaining days of the week, you have one moderate carb day, and three low carb days.

If you train 4 times per week:

• Select your two "priority workouts." On these days, you'll have higher carbs.

• On the other two workout days, consume a moderate amount of carbs.

• On the three non-training days, have a lower carb intake.

If you train 5 times per week:

• Select your two "priority workouts," and have a higher carbohydrate day.

• Select two "secondary workouts," with a moderate amount of training. On these days, you have a moderate carb intake.

• On the remaining workout day, and during on your non-training days, consume a lower amount of carbs.

The 6-Step Diet Plan

After you've established your basic structure, you need to figure out the numbers. The first thing to do is calculate many calories you burn each day. This will help determine your daily calories, protein, carb, and fat intake.

Go grab a calculator, a pencil, and a notepad. There's some important math coming up.

Step 1: Calculating Your Basal Metabolic Rate

If you're inactive for 24-hours, just lying around doing nothing at all, your body still burns a number of calories. That number is your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Your BMR is effected by your size, sex, and age. It's also influenced by your metabolic status (hypo- or hyperthyroidism, for example).

Women can calculate their BMR with the following formula:

BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kilograms) + (1.7 x height in centimeters) - (4.7 x age)

So, for a 28-year old figure girl weighing 132lbs (60kg) at 5'6" (165cm) it comes up to:

BMR = 655 + (9.6 x 60) + (1.7 x 165) (4.7 x 28)

BMR = 1380 calories per day

Now, figure out your own BMR.

Remember: Pounds ÷ 2.2 = kilograms, and inches x 2.54 = centimeters.

Step 2: How Active Are You?

Your BMR is what your body burns everyday, all by itself. But, the more active you are, the more calories you'll burn. Obviously, this amount will change depending on your workout schedule.

To figure out what you burn in a given day, multiply your BMR by the proper activity level factor below:

Sedentary: BMR x 1

This is the same as your base BMR. If you're doing nothing all day long; just sleeping, watching TV, and posting on this site.

Very Light Activity: BMR x 1.2

Very light activity requires no physical exertion. Working behind a desk most of the day, and not performing any type of major physical activity (light vacuuming, folding laundry). No exercise.

Light Activity: BMR x 1.4

By light activity, I mean having a non-physical job, but performing some sort of physical activity during the day (like quick-pace walking). No hard training, and no weights.

Moderate Activity: BMR x 1.6

Moderate activity would be a non-physical job, doing some sort of physical activity during the day, andperforming a good workout. This is where most of you are, most of the time (hopefully).

High Activity: BMR x 1.8

High activity means you're either working a physical job (lots of moving, carrying things, etc.) and exercising later on, or you have a non-physical job, but you're training twice a day (cardio in the morning, weights at night.)

Extreme Activity: BMR x 2

Extreme activity would be a very physical job (like construction work) and hard weight training and/or cardio.

So, if our 132-pound figure girl (with a BMR of 1380 calories) is moderately active, her energy expenditure is bumped up to 1380 x 1.6.  She's going to burn 2210 calories per day.

She's earned some whole wheat pancakes.

Step 3: Match Your Calories to Your Goal

To gain lean muscle, you need to eat more calories than you use each day. To lose bodyfat, you've got to do the opposite. A 20% increase or decrease is ideal for most people.

Our sample figure girl has an average daily caloric expenditure of 2210 calories. If she wants to lose fat, she needs to decrease it to around 1770 calories, on average. If she needs to gain lean muscle mass, she should bump the calories up to 2650 per day.

Depending on your body type and metabolism, you may need to adjust these figures. It's a good starting point, but you might need more or less, based on the results you notice.

Step 4: Determining the "Moderate" Day

Note: Don't forget that protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9 calories per gram.

Losing Fat

If our sample figure girl wants to lose fat, carb intake on the "moderate" days should be set at 1.25g per pound of bodyweight. For her, that comes up to 165g per day.

Protein intake is 1.5g per pound of bodyweight (200g, in our example), and the rest of the daily calories are made up with fat.

In the case of our figure girl, who needs 1770 daily calories to get lean, we come up with 1460 calories from proteins and carbs, so she needs just about 310 calories from fat, or about 35 grams.

1770 calories — 200 grams protein — 165 grams carbs — 35 grams fat

Gaining Lean Muscle

When trying to gain lean muscle, on "moderate" days, the carb level should be the same as the protein. At least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is necessary, but for better results, I recommend 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight. As we saw earlier, that's 200 grams.

She's now consuming 2650 calories per day (800 calories from protein and 800 from carbs). She has another 1050 calories to consume from fat, preferably good fats, and this comes up to about 115 g of fat per day.

2650 calories — 200 grams protein — 200 grams carbs — 115 grams of fat

Step 5: Different Days, Different Numbers

Protein and fat intake remains constant for the entire week. Only carbs fluctuate up and down... it's called carbcycling, not everythingcycling. During higher carb days, bump your carbs to 25% above the moderate days. During lower carb days, reduce to 25% below the moderate days.

What would our 132-pound woman do?

When trying to lose fat:

Higher carb day = 200 grams protein, 205 grams carbs, 35 grams fat

Moderate days = 200 grams protein, 165 grams carbs, 35g fat

Lower carb days = 200 grams protein, 120 grams carbs, 35 grams fat

When trying to gain mass:

Higher carb days = 200 grams protein, 250 grams carbs, 115 grams fat

Moderate days = 200 grams protein, 200 grams carbs, 115 grams fat

Lower carb days = 200 grams protein, 150 grams carbs, 115 grams fat

Step 6: Fine-Tuning as You Go

In my opinion, no one who's trying to get lean and muscular should follow a restrictive fat loss diet for more than 16 weeks in a row. Actually, most people would be better off using just 8-12 weeks of dieting.

More than that, and you're bound to lose muscle mass, or at least limit your capacity to gain lean muscle. If you haven't gotten to the degree of leanness you wanted after 12 weeks of dieting, take 4 weeks "off" of your diet (continue to eat a good clean diet, but increase your overall calories), and then go for another dieting period.

When trying to lose fat, you'll need to eventually lower your calories as your body gets used to your level of food intake. With carb cycling, this is less of a problem since carbohydrates and calories regularly fluctuated.

But still, every three to four weeks, you'll need to decrease carbs and calories slightly, to continue losing fat at an optimal rate. However, you shouldn't make any drastic cuts, as this is the reason most people lose muscle during a fat loss diet.

I suggest dropping around 20g of carbs per day, every 3 or 4 weeks. For example, if your high/moderate/low carbs during the week were 250/200/150 grams, you'd reduce them to 230/180/130 grams. But if fat loss hasn't slowed down, there's no need to reduce anything.

Food: When, How, and What

To maximize food absorption, and favor lean muscle gain over fat gain (and also to preserve muscle mass while dieting), you should eat six or seven meals per day. Three of those meals should contain carbs and protein (breakfast, post-workout drink, and the meal 60-90 minutes after your workout). The remaining three or four meals should be made up of protein, good fats, and green veggies.

The ideal time to train is around 10:00am. This gives us the following meal schedule:

Upon waking: Carb and protein meal
Post-workout, around 11:00am: Carb and protein drink, like Surge
12:30pm: Carb and protein meal
3:30pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies
6:00pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies
9:00pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies

Obviously, not everybody can apply this exact schedule. For those who have to train in the evening (preferably around 5:00 or 6:00pm), the following schedule is appropriate:

Upon waking: Carb and protein meal
10:00am: Carbs, protein, and green veggies
12:30pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies
3:30pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies
Post-workout, around 6:00pm: Carb and protein drink, like Surge
9:00pm: Carb and protein meal

Those who have to train in the morning (preferably around 8:00am) should do the following:

Upon waking: Carb and protein meal/drink
Post-workout, around 9:00am: Carb and protein drink, like Surge
12:30pm: Carb and protein meal
3:30pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies
6:00pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies
9:00pm: Protein, fat, and green veggies

Note: In this situation, we use a carb and protein shake first thing in the morning. We need to get the nutrients absorbed as fast as possible, so digestion won't interfere with workout intensity.

Meals by the Numbers

Since protein is ingested in all meals, it should be evenly divided. For example, if you consume 200g of protein per day, you should aim for six meals of about 35 grams each.

Fat is ingested in three of the six meals, and it should also be equally divided. If you have to consume 35g of fat, you'd get about 12 grams in each meal.

Carbs are also ingested in only three meals. About 50% of your carb intake should be consumed immediately post-workout, 25% in the morning, and the remaining 25% 60-90 minutes post-workout.

If you're eating 165g of carbs, you'd have about 80 grams post-workout, 40g in the morning, and 40g about 60-90 minutes post-workout.

One scoop of Surge contains approximately 25 grams of carbs and 15 grams of protein.

The Food List

We've been talking about quantities for a while, but it's time now to talk about quality! To maximize your results, you need to put the right stuff into your body. Here's a quick list of good choices for each type of meal.

Breakfast: Carbs and protein

Protein sources: Egg whites, Metabolic Drive, tuna, chicken

Carb sources: Fruit (one or two pieces), oatmeal, grits, sweet potatoes, All-Bran cereal, buckwheat pancakes without syrup

Post-workout: Carbs and protein (Surge, plus rice to fill any remaining carb requirement)

60-90 minutes post-workout: Carbs and protein

Protein sources: Chicken, fish, shrimp, lean cuts of meat, Metabolic Drive

Carb sources: Sweet potatoes, brown rice, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, grits

Protein, fat, and veggie meals

Protein sources: All cuts of meat, fish, chicken, turkey, tuna, Metabolic Drive, whole eggs, ham, cottage cheese

Fat sources: Any protein foods above, fish oil, ground flax seeds

Green veggies: 100-200 grams (1-2 cups) of any green vegetable

Be keen on all things green.

Summary

This type of dieting has been proven effective in most individuals, including bodybuilders, athletes, and figure competitors. In the long run, it will definitely lead to a much more muscular and leaner physique. It takes work, and some planning, but your efforts will be rewarded!