Carb Cycling
danimalkeys
Posts: 982 Member
Anyone doing this? I was reading a book a friend lent me called "The Carb Nite Solution" and it gave some very compelling information on using a very low carb (under 30 per day net) plan and then doing a full on carb fest once a week or so. The basic idea is to start, you do 9 days of 30 carbs, then the afternoon of the 9th day, eat as much carbs as you want for the rest of the day. The next day, back to 30 carbs. After that you can do a regular carb up, not less than 5 days apart.
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I haven't heard of that but it sounds interesting. I do my own carb cycling. I will do under 25 for about a week and then I will go a day and not count carbs. Works for me.0
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I was doing this. I still do something like this, only I try not to go super-low-carb, and I never super over-load on carbs.
I eat low carb all week, avoiding ketosis, and then carb up every Friday night and Saturday, eating around 150-200 carbs.
I was finding that I had keto-moodiness every.single.week from going in and out of keto. It just got to me, so now I stay low carb but try not to go into keto. I eat a lot of salads to stay out of keto.
The only way you'll know whether or not it's for you, is if you try it. Just fyi, I get such a stomach ache from eating all the starchy carbs. I have to take a walk after every meal to digest it. So you might want to take it easy, and drink a lot of water!0 -
I'm going to give it a shot. I miss pasta. 9 days of counting under 30 net puts me right at Thanksgiving for the carb up, couldn't have better timing! Now I can eat some of the home made mashed taters I was going to make for everyone else!0
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Enjoy your mashed potatoes!!
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I'm going to give it a shot. I miss pasta. 9 days of counting under 30 net puts me right at Thanksgiving for the carb up, couldn't have better timing! Now I can eat some of the home made mashed taters I was going to make for everyone else!
I actually started something similar about 3 weeks ago. I mainly tried it because I felt I was missing out on a social life and if I'm going to do this I have to work it into my life. So I planned a day of eating whatever the heck I wanted-it was a saturday. Then I went low carb for 6 more days (25g or less) and only did 1 meal the following saturday. I had pasta, which I missed very much. Unfortunately I became very ill from the meal-not sure if it was caused by the indigestion or what but as soon as I threw it up (sorry for the TMI) I felt a hundred times better. So I decided to try an approach similar to yours and go about 9 days in between. While doing this I have still been able to lose about 1.5 pounds each week.0 -
sounds good i am going to give this a try0
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I'm hopefully confusing my body at the moment... I've been following a LCHF diet for about a month, sticking to around 50-60 net carbs a day because I run so I didn't want to go too low. Yesterday had a higher carb day and today I've fasted..... let's see what the results are of THAT little change-up! lol Will let you know what the scales say in due course.....0
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What is the theory behind doing this? What does it help?0
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What is the theory behind doing this? What does it help?
"So why do we alternate high-carb and low-carb days in carb cycling? On high-carb days you’re stocking your calorie-burning furnace so that on low-carb days your furnace burns fat, and lots of it! This pattern tricks your metabolism into burning a lot of calories, even on those low-carb days. It’s an amazing and well-proven process."0 -
I am doing a very similar version , saturday being my cheat day (eat just about anything I crave during the week but never over do it-keep my portions small)and 6 days very low carb /high fat days, no cheese,fruits,milk,nuts,breads, I stick to green leafy veggies, avocado, cucumber,mushroom, just to name a few of the veggies.0
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What is the theory behind doing this? What does it help?
It will help glycogen replenishment.
It may help gym performance.
It may help dietary adherence.
Theoretically, it could potentially upregulate hormones that may drop through prolonged calorie restriction.0 -
Well, I was a glutton on Thanksgiving and ate 460 grams of carbs and something like 4400 total calories. My weight is up 5lbs this morning, surely from water retention. Back to 30g of carbs, well see how the next few days go.
My wife and I decided that Sunday will be our carb up night, since we're always home and will have time to prepare carby stuff that we don't normally keep in the house.0 -
Well, I was a glutton on Thanksgiving and ate 460 grams of carbs and something like 4400 total calories. My weight is up 5lbs this morning, surely from water retention. Back to 30g of carbs, well see how the next few days go.
My wife and I decided that Sunday will be our carb up night, since we're always home and will have time to prepare carby stuff that we don't normally keep in the house.
Sounds like a great plan! I did notice the first time I did this like I might have experienced a little carb flu--so don't forget your sodium for the next few days
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I'll keep an eye out for that. I had something along the lines of 7000mg of sodium on Thanksgiving day. Horrible! I'm still up 4lbs this morning.0
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I normally have my carb up day on Saturday but since I went slightly higher carb on Thanksgiving I think I should skip my carb up today and wait to carb up next Saturday ? or is that to long a wait for carb up? I am so confused
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I'd skip it and wait til next Saturday. I'm not carbing up again til next Sunday. In the book it says wait at least 5 days between carb ups.0
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Thats what I figured easy enough to wait ! 0
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I normally have my carb up day on Saturday but since I went slightly higher carb on Thanksgiving I think I should skip my carb up today and wait to carb up next Saturday ? or is that to long a wait for carb up? I am so confused
I'm trying to go about 9 days in between, it seemed to be too stressful doing it once a week because I was worried I wouldn't lose, I'm enjoying the every other Saturday for now. I would wait in between carb cycles, or at least 5 days0 -
I did my 2nd carb up yesterday. Had some bread in the afternoon, half a medium pizza for dinner with a couple beers, some applecake and a big glass of milk for dessert. About 350 net carbs and 3500 cals which is about 400 over my TDEE.
I'm up 3lbs this morning- not nearly as bad as the 6-7lbs I gained on my Thanksgiving carb up. As of yesterday morning I still hadn't taken off all the weight from Thanksgiving, I was up 1.5lbs.Hopefully this week I'll get back down and maybe even lose some.0 -
I've seen a bit about this - the only thing that would concern me personally is that the one day of carbs would launch me into massive sugar and carb cravings for the next day. So if I may ask - apart from a slight weight gain - how do you feel the next day? Any cravings - I'm simply curious.0
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I've seen a bit about this - the only thing that would concern me personally is that the one day of carbs would launch me into massive sugar and carb cravings for the next day. So if I may ask - apart from a slight weight gain - how do you feel the next day? Any cravings - I'm simply curious.
No cravings at all really, I'm not looking at that other half of a pizza from yesterday and yearning for it- I'm more bummed that it'll go to waste.
Today I had my coffee with cream, 3 eggs, and 2 turkey sausage patties for breakfast, some leftover Italian sausage and peppers for lunch, and I have a London broil and sautéed cauliflower ready for dinner. 8 net carbs for the day so far, dinner won't be much more with the steak and cauliflower since the cauliflower is high in fiber. I'll have room for a snack later.0 -
Thank you for answering that for me. Much Appreciated.0
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I gave the pizza to my daughter's boyfriend. Problem solved! 0
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I do not have any cravings the next day at all. I have pizza on my list for next carb up 0
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So I guess I can just put down days like yesterday (I travel to the nearest town once a fortnight to do my shopping) as my carb cycling days then (There aren't very many cheap food choices so am left with McDonalds etc) and not feel guilty that I exceeded my personal carb goals for the day - which I did yesterday.0
