An adaptive multicarrier wireless communication system, apparatus and associated methods are generally disclosed herein. In at least one embodiment, channel state information is used to perform bit loading and power allocation within a multicarrier system. In an example technique, after active subcarriers have been identified for a multicarrier channel and an initial power distribution has been made, a subset of active subcarriers may be found that exceed a channel quality performance threshold. Excess power may then be identified by determining how much power could be reduced in the identified subcarriers so that they still meet, but do not exceed the channel quality performance threshold. In one possible approach, the excess power may be re-allocated to other subcarrier subsets.