Two low carb days per week

mamayoga

I recently read an article that having two low-carb days per week can spur your body into burning fat. Has anyone tried this? I'm planning to have 2 days in a row with a carb level of 50g, and then go back to "regular" the other days. Friend me if you're trying this and we can compare results.

Sidesteal

It doens't actually give you any metabolic or "fat burning" advantage. It will cause you to have two days that end up quite a bit lower in calories from the carb restriction. The calorie deficit would then cause weight loss.

_Bro

Assuming that you are exercising, you would deplete glycogen stores a bit faster (stored carbohydrates).
The lowering of calories would provide an enhanced effect on fat loss. A longer duration would be required to enter ketosis but that is really tangential as the main benefit, which IMHO, comes from lower calories and thus increased fat oxidation.

If you up this the duration of carbohydrate restriction it's beneficial to reload / refeed to prevent hormonal responses that will effectively start working agianst your fat loss goals.

Personally, I don't think that this approach is beneficial in the initial dieting stages.

RonSwanson66

It doens't actually give you any metabolic or "fat burning" advantage. It will cause you to have two days that end up quite a bit lower in calories from the carb restriction. The calorie deficit would then cause weight loss.

Pretty much this. Although there may also be some advantage to the extremely low carb/low cal days in terms of insulin sensitivity. (of course this pales in comparison to the caloric deficit). This is pretty much the premise behind many CKD's and IF approaches as well.

A good analysis of the study here:

http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2011/12/latest-lc-beats-other-diets-study.html

"I think this study is ultimately a feather in the cap for the intermittent fasters. Coupled with other "crash diet" results, it seems to me that IR in the overweight/obese is a product of overnutrition. Merely draining the tanks occasionally seems to produce marked improvements. Since non-oxidative glucose disposal is the pathway most often identified "defective" for those with IR (as measured by impaired clearance of glucose from circulation), periodically draining not only the general fuel tank, but specifically the glycogen storage tank makes sense -- common sense -- to me as a strategy for metabolic health. "