Carb cycling/cyclical ketogenic diet

laurenj915

Does anyone do this? I don't think I really understand it. Do normal people use carb cycling to keep their metabolism up? Is this just a body builder thing? It seems like those are the site that come up when I look for info on it. Is it a tool for weight loss? Muscle building? Maintaing weight?

Thanks!

Sunny_Bunny_

Eating to satisfy hunger will keep metabolism up. You don't need carbs for it. That would assume eating keto slows metabolism....
As far as I know it's an athletic performance thing. OR a thing to do to keep carbs in your life if you have no performance specific application for them.

tcunbeliever

I started Leangains this month, planning to stick with it through the end of June - it's a carb and calorie cycling program. The purpose is to build muscle and shed fat simultaneously by creating a short term calorie surplus on strength training days and a short term calorie deficit on other days. Overall the weekly total is still a calorie deficit. For me, anyway, it can be used for maintenance too or for bulking just depending on how you do the math, I figured out my goal calories using this site as a guideline if you want to explore it yourself:

https://rippedbody.com/how-to-calculate-leangains-macros/

Jan-Mar I was doing 6 weeks of deficit calories followed by 2 weeks of maintenance calories. I was totally living for the maintenance weeks, I am terrible at dieting and I really love food. Maybe if I were a crappy cook it would be easier. I've been losing and gaining the same 5 lbs since January - and to be fair I was holding pretty steady since October of last year which is why I had switched to the 6/2 in Jan.

Anyway, 6/2 wasn't changing anything. I had tried carb cycling before with no success because it just caused me major cravings. Leangains is carb and calorie cycling, so it's a bit of a tweak over what I tried before. Plus, it really stresses protein, which is an area of weakness for me, I'm terrible at eating enough. I'm always super hungry the day after strength training, which makes those days hard to stick to a deficit, so I was also hoping maybe the boost in calories on strength days would help offset the subsequent hunger. And to be fair I'll try anything for 90 days assuming it isn't something that can potentially compromise my health and there doesn't seem to be anything that would be dangerous to me in this plan.

Results so far - the cravings were horrible week 1, less in week 2, and pretty much gone in week 3. I still struggle to hit protein goals. My week 2 measurements showed a decrease on the belly and low belly - always a problem area for me - and a very small 1/8" increase in my arm measurements...so, for very early results it appears to be working, I can't even remember the last time I was able to build any kind of muscle size. I totally enjoy being able to eat carby foods again, and it is easier to avoid them on the low carb days because I know I can eat them the next day. I'm still getting the hang of menu planning with the high/low switching, but it's getting easier over time. Next set of measurements is tomorrow, hoping for more belly reduction since the last set was PMS time and probably a bit inflated as a result.

For me it's still early in this experiment, but I'll keep tracking and see what happens.

laurenj915

Thanks for the replys.

I was thinking that cutting calories was what would slow my metabolism. Maybe not.

I would love to hear how it goes on Leangains.

ccrdragon

Cutting calories usually only leads to metabolic issues if you cut them drastically for an extended period of time - one of the main reasons that this site only recommends a max of 2 lbs a week for weight lose.

laurenj915

Ok, good to know! Thanks!