Carb cyling

jme260

Has anyone tried carb cycling? I have 10lbs to lose and am at a plateau.. I was researching carb cycling and was wondering if it would boost my metabolism without going over calories to help drop the last 10lbs.

endermako

It's about the calories, carbs can fluctuate your water weight but that's not going to help in an overall loss unless you eat below what you burn in a day. How long have you not lost anything?

RoxieDawn

How long have you been stalled? Have you taken any diet breaks?

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

How much have you lost so far and what rate of loss? Adjusted calorie goal at each 10-15 pounds?

Carb cycling still means you eat the same amount of calories each day to continue losing no matter how and when to eat your carbs.

kimny72

You can't really "boost" your metabolism in the short term enough to notice a difference in your calorie needs.

With only 10 lbs to lose, your weight loss is going to be really slow (0.5lbs per week) and can easily hide behind water weight fluctuations on the scale.

If it's been less than 4 weeks since you lost any weight at all, you just need to trust the process and be patient.

If it's been more than 4 weeks with 0 weight loss, try to tighten up your logging. A missed 50 cals here or there can do you in. Use a food scale for all solids, double check the entries you are using in the database reflect accurate calories, and make sure you're logging every single darn thing.

Good luck!

jme260

I lost 10 lbs in 6 weeks. The last 8 days I have been in the same routine and diet but gained a lb. I am lifting weights with a little bit of HIIIT 4 days a week which could be why also. I’ll just keep at it how I’m going and see if it helps. I was talking to a trainer who swears by carb cycling while you calorie count, so just started researching it a little.

I am just about 5 feet tall & at the end of my weight loss, which makes it so hard to lose. A few years ago, the only thing that got me down there was INSANITY and I don’t feel like doing it again quite yet.

SW 150
CW 121
GW 112

Fatty_Nuff

jme260 wrote: »

Has anyone tried carb cycling? I have 10lbs to lose and am at a plateau.. I was researching carb cycling and was wondering if it would boost my metabolism without going over calories to help drop the last 10lbs.

It doesn't work. I ate a bag of Doritos commuting home on my mountain bike, and gained two pounds.

RoxieDawn

jme260 wrote: »

I lost 10 lbs in 6 weeks. The last 8 days I have been in the same routine and diet but gained a lb. I am lifting weights with a little bit of HIIIT 4 days a week which could be why also. I’ll just keep at it how I’m going and see if it helps. I was talking to a trainer who swears by carb cycling while you calorie count, so just started researching it a little.

I am just about 5 feet tall & at the end of my weight loss, which makes it so hard to lose. A few years ago, the only thing that got me down there was INSANITY and I don’t feel like doing it again quite yet.

SW 150
CW 121
GW 112

8 days is not a plateau. You have gained a pound due to weight fluctuations that are normal especially with added/changed exercise, glycogen/muscle repair and being female you should add in hormonal fluctuations, etc.

The leaner you get this gets a little harder. More precision and consistency with your calorie intake (weighing and logging) and with exercise.

Also a 1lb loss a week on average is too much of a deficit now, lower your rate of loss to .5 per week and continue with what you are doing. No carb cycling is needed, BE PATIENT with the process and always give changes you make in diet and exercise 4-6 weeks before making any changes.

edited to add: A very useful tool is finding you a weight trending app like Libra, HappyScale, Trendweight to help weed out daily/weekly fluctuations as you get down to these last pounds.

tcunbeliever

I do sometimes Leangains which is carb and calorie cycling...so you get more carbs and calories on the strength training days, less on the non-strength training days. I found it to be very effective. Having the additional food on lifting days definitely improved performance and recovery. Anything that boosts performance is going to improve muscle growth. Additional muscle growth is going to boost metabolism.

Muscle growth is a slow process, you aren't going to grow enough muscle in 8 days to change your metabolism by any statistically significant value. It's a long term process, not a quick fix.

It also made adherence much easier, because sticking to the low calorie days is easier for me when I know a high calorie day is right around the corner.