What is Carb Cycling?
Carb cycling is when you alternate the amount of carbs you consume on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Disclosure: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, MEANING I RECEIVE A COMMISSION IF YOU DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE THROUGH MY LINKS, AT NO COST TO YOU. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.
I have to be honest, I was not aware of carb cycling. It wasn’t until recently after reading an article about carb cycling on MyFitnessPal blog last month.
But after reading the article by Julia Lalacoff I realized I’ve been practicing a hybrid of Carb Cycling for the last 6 months.
If you’re looking for an eating program that can help you lose weight, carb cycling might be a good choice for you. But what is carb cycling? Carb cycling is the idea that you have some days with many carbohydrates and some days with few or none. Today I’m focused on very few carbs as yesterday was a One-Meal Fasting Day with complex carbs making up the bulk of what I ate.
Carbohydrates are foods that contain sugars and provide the body with usable energy. In recent years there have been many diets that encourage people not to eat any carbohydrates or to eat few of them.
While this can help you to lose weight, it’s not a lifestyle many people can live with forever. And it’s not a healthy way to eat. The body needs carbohydrates in order for you to move, think, and function properly.
“Carb cycling is often used among bodybuilders/physique competitors and high-performing athletes,” notes Lauren Manganiello, a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer.
But there are some general guidelines you can use to figure out a starting point. “On high-carbohydrate days, individuals often consume about 60 percent of their calories from complex carbs. On low-carbohydrate days, individuals will switch out some of their carbohydrates for healthy fats.
“You don’t have to be eating a high-fat diet to benefit from carb cycling. “You can absolutely cycle your carbs with any kind of diet,” says Shoshana Pritzker, a sports nutritionist and registered dietitian.
I really started with my carb cycling early in my weight loss when I decided to get all carbs on my morning routine. In my post “3 Ways to Lose Weight Drinking coffee,” I talk about taking something small and manageable and making it work for you. There is not a magic bullet. It takes knowledge, inspiration and determination to reach your goals. And when you reach a milestone you’ll soon realize your relationship with food has been key all along.
Another option is to use your low-carb days as a starting point to calculate your medium and high carb days. “If you consider that 50 grams of carbs per day is what is generally needed to reach ketosis, you could start there as your low-carb day,” Pritzker says. “Work your way up from there and max out at 200 grams of carbs per day.”
So your week might look like this:
Day 1: 50 grams carbs
Day 2: 100 grams carbs
Day 3: 150 grams carbs
Day 4: 200 grams carbs
Day 5: 125 grams carbs
Day 4 would be your most intense training day (heavy weightlifting, HIIT, or a long run), and day 1 would be your least intense (light cardio, mobility work, or a rest day). Then, you’d cycle back to day 1.
There are different methods of carb cycling and many different experts who have opinions about the best way for it to be done. You’ll need to look for a version of the plan that looks like it will work for you.
Some health and fitness experts advise you to alternative your carb use daily. One day would be a day with high carbs and one day with low carbs. In some of these plans you have free days when you can eat whatever you want and not watch the carb count so closely.
Other carb cycling plans have you eat no carbohydrates for one week and higher carbohydrates another week. There are even plans that are more complicated and have you cycle through several different levels of carbohydrate intake.
See my post “Plant Based Eating” for some thoughts on good carbs
The idea behind carb cycling is that carbohydrates are needed by the body, but if you eat too many of them all the time they encourage you to gain weight. However, by completely eliminating carbohydrates your calories will be lower and your body will start to go into starvation mode.
My good friend Scott, who’s been on the Keto journey for two years, was telling me earlier this week his frustration with hitting a plateau and not seeing the results he’d like. I had shared this concept of carb cycling with him. More as a way to practice the art of eating for weight management more than a diet.
But by having a balance of high carb days and low carb days your body is able to burn fat without slowing down and feeling deprived. This is the best of both worlds when it comes to eating and can naturally boost your metabolism.
If you’re looking for a way to speed up your fat burning and feel more energetic without giving up all of your favorite foods, carb cycling is the answer for you. There are different ways to use this approach and you’ll be able to find one that works for you.
Carb cycling may seem like a trendy way to eat, however when you really start to study it you’ll find that it’s a balanced eating plan that can work for real life.
5 Reasons Why Carb Cycling Works
If you want to boost your metabolism and lose fat, carb cycling is a plan that will work for you. Here are five reasons why carb cycling works when other diets may have failed you in the past. Understanding how this is different can help you to make a good choice.
Reason #1: Carb cycling allows you to enjoy variety. While some days you will eat a low carb diet or a no carb diet, many days you’ll be able to eat more carbohydrates. This plan allows you to have variety in your meals.
Many people get bored with traditional diets. In the past you may have felt like you were just eating the same boring thing every day. But with this plan, you’ll be able to eat a wide variety of the foods you enjoy while still losing weight. My post “5 Things You can do to Adopt Plant-Based Nutrition” speaks to this.
My post “5 Things You can do to Adopt Plant-Based Nutrition” speaks to this”
Reason #2: It prevents your body from going into starvation mode. When you start to lower the number of calories you eat you might lose weight at first. But eventually your body realizes you’re not going to be feeding it much and it begins to hold on to every calorie it can.
Don’t be upset with your body – this is a great survival mechanism. But if you’re overweight this can get in the way of your progress. With carb cycling, you’ll have some high calorie days and some low calorie days so your body won’t think it’s being deprived.
Reason #3: It allows you to have more energy. When you’re on a low carb or no carb diet all the time, your body is deprived of its most important source of energy. You need carbohydrates for your brain to work properly and to have access to quick energy.
With carb cycling you’ll be able to have the carbohydrates your body needs so that you don’t feel cranky, tired, and deprived of energy. You won’t have carbohydrate cravings because you’ll be getting what you need.
Reason #4: It boosts your metabolism. With carb cycling you’ll actually begin to burn more calories each day without increasing your activity. Adding exercise to it can boost your metabolism even more.
But even without exercise, your body will begin to burn more calories at rest than it once did. This means that you’ll be able to burn fat and lose weight more easily than if you were just restricting calories.
Reason #5: Carb cycling helps you to lose fat and preserve lean muscle. Many diets cause your body to start taking energy from your muscle cells. As a result, you lose lean muscle and this slows your metabolism even more.
But with carb cycling you have some days when you eat a lot of carbs and others when you eat a lot of protein. This balance helps you to lose fat while keeping lean muscle tissue intact and even helps build a more muscular physique.
When it comes to losing weight, there’s nothing better than your metabolism naturally burning fat. Many diet programs cause you to actually slow down your metabolism. That makes it even harder to lose weight – and it leaves you feeling deprived.
Your body is designed so well that it can withstand conditions of famine. When your body starts to sense that food is scarce, it begins to hold onto as many calories as it can so that you don’t starve to death. We’re just programmed that way. No way around it.
This served your ancestors very well. Typically, if you were to live off the land, foods high in fat, salt, and sugar would be quite scarce. Your body is designed to crave these things so that when they’re available, you’ll take advantage of them.
Living off of the land also meant that sometimes food was plentiful and at other times it was not. When food is plentiful, your body has a storage system to save for leaner times. Your body fat is actually a finely tuned way to store the extra calories you consume.
However, in the modern world we don’t have as many problems with famine. Instead, we have too much access to delicious foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. And modern technology has made life much more sedentary.
As a result, we move less and consume many more calories than we need. But when you start to lower your calorie consumption your body believes that there’s going to be a famine on the horizon. It then slows down its processes and begins to take advantage of every calorie that comes along.
This causes your metabolism to become sluggish and it makes it difficult to lose weight. The trick to losing weight is to trick your body. You need to lower your consumption of calories, but not so much that it begins to slow down your metabolism.
Carb cycling has become a popular way to boost your metabolism to burn fat. With this type of eating you’ll have some days when you eat plenty of calories and carbohydrates. This signals to your body that there’s plenty of food so it should keep burning calories.
If you’ve not seen “High Carb Hannah” on youtube…Please do. I think she’s done an amazing job cracking this code and keeping food interesting along the way.
Through diet it is possible to boost your metabolism to burn fat. The trick is to cycle through carbohydrates so that you don’t send your body into a state of deprivation that will cause it to slow down.
4 Tips for How to Choose a Carb Cycling Diet Plan
If you’re interested in losing weight, a carb cycling diet is one of the best ways to do it. This type of eating allows you to have the foods you love and still speed up your metabolism to lose weight.
But if you’re new to dieting or you’re just new to carb cycling, you may not know the best way to choose a plan. Here are a few tips to help you choose a diet plan that will work best for you and give you the success you crave.
Tip 1: Study several options. There are many different ways to apply carb cycling to your daily diet. Many different experts use various methods for helping you to have some days that are high in carbohydrates and some that are low.
The more you read about different diet plans and study them, the easier it will be to tell if the carb cycling diet plan is right for you. Hold on to the ones that seem right for you and let go of the things that don’t work for you.
Tip 2: Look for a plan that includes your favorite foods. If there’s a plan that will never allow you to have your favorite comfort foods, it’s not likely to last long-term. Look for a diet plan that includes many if not all of your favorite foods (in moderation, of course).
Tip 3: Keep it simple. Some carb cycling programs are very complicated. If you have to keep a complicated calendar of days or weeks when you can have specific amounts of carbohydrates, it might be too confusing to keep up with.
Tip 4: Think of carb cycling as a lifestyle not a “diet”. When you think of going on a diet, you think about making a temporary change. But in reality you need to make a lifestyle change to have the results you want now and in the future.
Choose a plan that you can see yourself following for life. As you follow a carb cycling program, you’ll find that if you’re feeling deprived of carbohydrates you only have a day or a few days to wait before you can eat them again.
With a carb cycling diet plan, you’ll be able to lose weight without having to give up your favorite foods. Your metabolism will naturally get faster and you’ll burn more fat and be able to hold onto and build muscle.
You can program your carb intake based on a variety of factors, including:
- Body Composition Goals: Some will reduce carbs during a diet, then add them back during a “muscle building” or performance phase.
- Training and Rest Days: One popular approach is a higher carb intake on training days and a lower carb intake on rest days.
- Scheduled Refeeds: Another popular approach is to do 1 or several days at a very high-carb intake to act as a “refeed” during a prolonged diet.
- Special Events or Competitions: Athletes will often “carb load” prior to an event, and many physique competitors will do the same before a bodybuilding show or photoshoot.
- Type of Training: Individuals will tailor carb intake depending on the intensity and duration of a particular training session; the longer or more intense the training is, the more carbs they will consume and vice versa.
- Body Fat Levels: Many individuals will cycle their carbohydrates based on their level of body fat. The leaner they become, the more high-carb days or blocks they include.
Summary
If the goal is to lose weight, consistent calorie deficiency needs to happen. While there’s no harm in trying carb cycling (provided you check with your doctor first), it doesn’t necessarily have an advantage over other weight-loss methods. Ultimately, you should choose an eating plan that fits your lifestyle and is sustainable long-term. Carb cycling has been working for me the last six months as a weight management tool. And when combined with fasting an instrument of weigh loss when i needed it.
