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carb shock?

foochick

I'm interested in knowing if this is something any of you do. I know my body acclimates to any diet changes I make in an attempt to lose weight....low carbing has been most successful for me, yet I've slowed down to a snails pace. It seems I need very little food to actually survive...who knew...lol. Here's a link to a blog post describing a mixture of low/high carb diet days. Anyone have any experience or knowledge about this? http://lowcarbohydrate.blogspot.com/2007/06/carb-cycling-re-feed-vs-carb-shock.html

Replies

miracle4me

Thanks for the link I am going to check it out now.

LowcarbNY

From the link

The theory is that while on a low-carb diet that mixing in days of high carb intake will prevent the body from adjusting and becoming accustomed to a steady low input of carbohydrates.

No this is not something that I do. I don't subscribe to the hypothesis. In fact, I want the opposite. I want my body to be comfortable with burning fat for energy and with being able to manufacture glucose from protein.

I well remember the 4th day of the first time I went on low carb. The headache, the blahs. I was tapping out my stored sources of glucose but my body was not yet comfortable with or ready to use fat for most of my energy needs needs. Why would I want to "keep my body guessing" as the blog post suggests? I'm telling it right now. You are not getting easy to use sources of sugar. You will have to burn fat.

mstorvik

I well remember the 4th day of the first time I went on low carb. The headache, the blahs. I was tapping out my stored sources of glucose but my body was not yet comfortable with or ready to use fat for most of my energy needs needs. Why would I want to "keep my body guessing" as the blog post suggests? I'm telling it right now. You are not getting easy to use sources of sugar. You will have to burn fat.

Well said. I keep hearing about slow carb a lot... similar to this. I know from my own body that when I go "off" low carb I am sick. I am in the bathroom with diarrhea... I am bloated. I am sick. And then I have to wait 3-4 days after that to get back to ketosis to start burning fat again and I feel tired and run down. For my body, I can't do it. It's all or nothing.

miracle4me

From the link

The theory is that while on a low-carb diet that mixing in days of high carb intake will prevent the body from adjusting and becoming accustomed to a steady low input of carbohydrates.

No this is not something that I do. I don't subscribe to the hypothesis. In fact, I want the opposite. I want my body to be comfortable with burning fat for energy and with being able to manufacture glucose from protein.

I well remember the 4th day of the first time I went on low carb. The headache, the blahs. I was tapping out my stored sources of glucose but my body was not yet comfortable with or ready to use fat for most of my energy needs needs. Why would I want to "keep my body guessing" as the blog post suggests? I'm telling it right now. You are not getting easy to use sources of sugar. You will have to burn fat.

This ^^^^^^
I agree I never want to go through the carb flu again. I had it for 3 weeks but the good part is I forever kicked the sugar addiction and glutton. What is written above I agree with the words you wrote. I am determined my body will not get any source of sugar other than low glycemic fruit. For the rest of my life I will track my carb intake. I use to struggle with hypoglycemia but not anymore as long as I eat every 3 hours and track the carbs.

caraiselite

the good part about carb flu, is (for me anyway) the more times i leave/enter ketosis, the easier and faster i can get back into it. i have a lot less symptoms as well, so even tho i cheated a whole bunch lately, i'll get back into ketosis without even getting b!tchy, haha.

on the other hand, there have been days where i ate off plan, and then lost an extra few pounds in the following days.

ZipperJJ

What is "a snail's pace" of weight loss? Is it still 1lb a week? That's not bad and totally normal. If you have less to lose then less than 1 lb a week is not bad either.

Read LowcarbNY's excellent post about the rate of loss here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/684525-why-the-rapid-weight-loss-on-low-carb-induction-stops

Hudderstub

Have you looked at the 'active passive' diet? That gives an interesting take on low carb dieting.

shar140

I do carb-cycle some, but not to the extreme that bodybuilders do (they can store way more glycogen than me anyway, as they have more muscle). I'll do lower to moderate-carb cycling based on my activity level (so anywhere from 30-80, sometimes up to 100). It's not to keep my body guessing; it really is to re-feed my muscles with glycogen. I don't really structure it like they do; I'll eat a banana or sweet potato or some rice (I stay away from gluten) once a day, a couple times a week during rugby season when I'm training harder than off-season. Burning fat is of course preferred for energy, but the demands of the sport require short bursts of power & speed repeatedly, that can only come from stored glycogen. Well it could come from fat oxidation, but I don't have time to wait for it to re-synthesize each time I'd need it!

Basically I try to keep the bare minimum amount stored in my muscles that I think I'll need, but without thinking about it too much (which is, of course, still a work in progress). Trying to train my body to primarily use fat for energy means I'd need less glycogen (or, can go longer before I'd need to use it).

TheVimFuego

I do carb-cycle some, but not to the extreme that bodybuilders do (they can store way more glycogen than me anyway, as they have more muscle). I'll do lower to moderate-carb cycling based on my activity level (so anywhere from 30-80, sometimes up to 100). It's not to keep my body guessing; it really is to re-feed my muscles with glycogen. I don't really structure it like they do; I'll eat a banana or sweet potato or some rice (I stay away from gluten) once a day, a couple times a week during rugby season when I'm training harder than off-season. Burning fat is of course preferred for energy, but the demands of the sport require short bursts of power & speed repeatedly, that can only come from stored glycogen. Well it could come from fat oxidation, but I don't have time to wait for it to re-synthesize each time I'd need it!

Basically I try to keep the bare minimum amount stored in my muscles that I think I'll need, but without thinking about it too much (which is, of course, still a work in progress). Trying to train my body to primarily use fat for energy means I'd need less glycogen (or, can go longer before I'd need to use it).

Sounds good to me ... tailor the carb intake to the activity level but only enough to keep the glycogen topped up

cramernh

Once in a blue-moon only because of how sick I get... physically sick, hormonally sick.... I allowed myself to have a serving of cork-screw pasta last night but it had quite a bit of fresh chicken, full fat cheese and a homemade marinara. There was good balance in the meal however, I still have a physical reaction of extreme water-retention, foggy head and joint paint.

Thankfully Im an excellent water-guzzler... especially working in a hot office.... Right now though, I am pushing more water to get rid of the bloat, head is like London on a foggy day and the joints are feeling blehhhhh... but thankfully it goes away after a day.

itsmarcel

I just started a ketogenic diet (5 carb/35 protein/60 fat) and I was planning to do it cyclically with a 24 hour refeed during the weekend. I feel so awesome right now without carbs that I may skip the refeed entirely.

The reason why I was going to do the refeed was because I primarily strength train and thought I might need to replenish glycogen stores. I don't know if this is the case. (I took this past week off to rest.) I'm trying to get leaner while also maintain (and hopefully gain) muscle.

Anyway, I'll skip the refeed this weekend and go back to weight lifting next week. I may do a carb-up mid-week if I'm really struggling in the gym, but I hope I don't have to. I must say that I'm really enjoying not having carbs and actually loving my high fat, mid/high protein meals.

LowcarbNY

How long are your workouts? You may not need to be pre-fueled and even if you feel a little flat I'll wager that over a course of weeks your body will get more efficient. If you have excess protein then your body can convert it to glucose, but I find that it takes some time to feel "normal" or better than normal.

MaraDiaz

I thought about trying this, but I don't want massive daily cravings back, much less carb flu. If during the Winter when I start my really hard workouts I feel like I need more energy, I could see myself eating carbs before a workout, but that's it.

Peg5678

Very interesting.... I just started this ketosis diet on Tuesday, and was planning on doing the cyclical version, eating carbs on the weekend, because I do strength training with a trainer 3x per week. But, based on what I'm reading here, maybe I shouldn't do the carbs on the weekend. It seems to me that I work out hard, but maybe it's for "real" athletes. I'm not even close to that!

busywaterbending

I've been full ketogenic for 10 months straight. Only in month 9 did I allow for "refeed" of carbs on weekends. I went as high as 80 g carbs in one day, careful to keep the glycemic index of the meals low to not suffer carb flu

The two times I mistakenly did not keep my carb intake during a meal low GI, I suffered horrible carb flu. The insulin spike to my blood stream was noticable, nauseated, and hot flashes!

Then the two days of tummy aches and cramping. Not fun. Just stay keto, and keep the carbs you eat very low GI.

No need to ReFeed if you feel great, btw.

Akimajuktuq

Because I struggle with food addiction, binging and overeating if I eat grains/high carb, I cannot have high carb days at all. One slip up and it is months (or years) before I get back on track. So not worth it for me.

TheVimFuego

Very interesting.... I just started this ketosis diet on Tuesday, and was planning on doing the cyclical version, eating carbs on the weekend, because I do strength training with a trainer 3x per week. But, based on what I'm reading here, maybe I shouldn't do the carbs on the weekend. It seems to me that I work out hard, but maybe it's for "real" athletes. I'm not even close to that!

You sound like you are pretty active so you could always introduce (or increase) something like sweet potato which nobody can deny is a good source of energy.

I eat carbs all day every day (I aim for 50g a day tops right now), I just make sure they come from (mostly leafy) veggies and the occasional bit of fruit.

We all react differently so it's a case of tracking, experimenting and listening to your body.

While having a day where I deliberately increase my carb intake sounds interesting my energy is good right now and progress is fine so I'll stick with the plan.

Having said that I am going to spend all day on a cricket pitch tomorrow so I may cut myself a bit of (healthy) slack.

mstorvik

Because I struggle with food addiction, binging and overeating if I eat grains/high carb, I cannot have high carb days at all. One slip up and it is months (or years) before I get back on track. So not worth it for me.

You and me both!!

shar140

Because I struggle with food addiction, binging and overeating if I eat grains/high carb, I cannot have high carb days at all. One slip up and it is months (or years) before I get back on track. So not worth it for me.

You and me both!!

I can do one meal or one day (as long as I avoid too much sugar or gluten), but this past weekend was bad, so now I am paying the price and keep craving carbs.