Carb Cycling for beginners

I am in the same boat,.. have read about it and thinking i want to try it but everything i read is very vague when i'm so used to weighing and measuring food to get exact calories/carbs/macros.. etc.... hoping to find some answers. I think it could definitely help me,.. or maybe it's just like calories,.. you just have to play around with it till it works for you...? I'm not sure,.. I think that for high carb days i will just eat portion sizes according to a book I've read and on low carb days aim to keep carbs under 50 (NET carbs)...

If you learn any more - i'm following! Or if you'd like to be friends and we can figure this out together that works too

Hello!

I joined MFP recently. Its been 3 weeks on the weight loss regime.
I am 6' 0" and weight 220 lb. My GW is 180lb. I am on a 1500 calorie / day diet.

I read few articles about carb cycling and I was wondering if I should change my diet to suit it.
I am just a beginner and I need to loose about 40 lb's.
Should I concentrate more on keeping the diet at a constant calories per day or change it for carb cycling?
Carb cycling seems a lot confusing method to adopt. Do others find it difficult as well?

Any advise would be appreciated!

There are a lot of reasons to carb cycle. For some it can blast a stall, for others like myself I do it to fuel my workouts. I found that 50 carbs a day was KILLING my cardio endurance. So I upped it to 125 and viola, I now can spin for one solid hour without getting fatigued, then I can go to the pool and swim for another 30-45 minutes. The 90-105 minutes of cardio puts me in a major calorie deficit for the day, even with higher carb intake. I am almost always usually some where between 500-1000 calories on cardio days.

Strength training days though I don't need all those carbs so on those days I shoot for under a hundred carbs with at least one third of those carbs being fiber, slow digesting or no digesting carbs. I actually eat a few more calories (more fat) on strength days than what MFP recommends and on cardio days I only eat back about half my exercise calories, if that. So in the end I do have an over all calorie deficit for the week, but this way I am fueling my work outs with carbs on cardio but protecting my muscle tissue on strength days with protein and fat (I actually eat a lot of protein every day, but cycle fat and carbs). By cycling there are days I can enjoy a treat and not be a crazy OCD person with my food every day. I find eating 1400 cals every day nearly impossible to do. Cycling gives you some flexibility.

So if I want ice cream, or some other treat. I can do this on certain workout days, and I don't worry too much about the carbs as long as I am in a calorie deficit for the week.

I would suggest you investigate intermittent fasting (16:8 or 5:2). It gives you all the benefits of carb cycling without all the carb counting. Start with Leangains, and Eat Stop Eat (its an e-book). Check our group out here on MFP. There are a lot of people on it with success blasting through plateaus, myself included.