annieb123
Written on Nov 16, 2019
Carb Cycling for Beginners is a combination training and diet advice manual by personal trainer Andy Keller. Released 15th Oct 2019 by Rockridge Press, it's 178 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.
This book seems to be aimed at readers who are more or less actively engaged in training and aware of their diet already and want to fine tune their regimen to increase their efficiency and results. There are takeaways for complete beginners and the book is full of appealing (and sensible) recipes which anyone can incorporate into their daily routines.
The book has three main sections composed of sub-chapters, so the layout is logical and easily accessible. It begins with a good basic definition of carb cycling (alternating high- and low-carb food days depending on the type of exercise activity planned for the day). From the book's introduction:
By varying between high- and low-carb days, you cut your body fat and promote lean muscle growth. On low-carb days, you do cardio exercise to burn through that stubborn body fat; on high-carb days, you focus more on strength training to build muscle.
The second section covers meal planning and exercise/workout plans. This includes well organized jump-start meal and exercise plans for the first week and suggestions for the weeks after as well as incorporating the whole into the reader's lifestyle for long term change.
Part three includes a boatload of recipes with specific tips for adjusting them to high- or low-carb days. Each recipe includes prep time and yields in the header, ingredients (in US standard measurements) in a bullet list on a sidebar, step by step preparation instructions, and nutritional info in the footer. The nutritional info includes calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein content per serving. There are very few photographs included in the collection, but the ones which are provided are clear and appealing. The recipe ingredients are mostly easily sourced from any average grocery store. The recipes are varied and really tasty: Korean ribs, chicken fried (brown) rice, huevos rancheros, and lots more. All meals from breakfast through dinner including snacks are represented.
The book includes metric conversion tables and a short author bio, but no index or links/bibliography for further reading.
It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the final release version.
Four stars, for readers who are committed to making lifestyle and training changes.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.