Thoughts on carb cycling?

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coltonweisbrod
coltonweisbrod Posts: 32 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hey everybody, I've heard so many different versions of carb cycling that it's almost confusing lol. Just wanted to get y'all's input on it. My results seem like they've been mediocre at best. Maybe it's because I haven't got the full effect cause I haven't raised my carbs high enough on those high carb days. I'm probably a little under 20% body fat, 6"5, 210lbs. I have used the low,medium, high approach.
With my low being either no carbs besides veggies, or just around 60-70g. My medium days is roughly 150-160g of carbs, and my high days consists of about 315g of carbs. What are you guys take. Usually try to take in about 2800 calories.

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  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    There is virtually no evidence that carb cycling does anything at all. It certainly doesn't cause faster fat loss...
  • Ironmaiden4life
    Ironmaiden4life Posts: 422 Member
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    vismal wrote: »
    There is virtually no evidence that carb cycling does anything at all. It certainly doesn't cause faster fat loss...

    True but it can help get rid of that last little bit of stubborn body fat when you want to get in very low levels of body fat.

    OP carb cycling really isn't necessary with your current body fat. 20% is on the higher end for males so you may want to consider a simple calorie deficit for a little while longer.
  • stevenjouweng
    stevenjouweng Posts: 8 Member
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    I agree with ironmaiden on this! 20% bf can drop pretty fast on a regular deficit. I started doing carb cycling when dieting and I hit a brick wall on my workouts. Went back to carbing all week and stil lost weight. Caliper test placed me approx. at roughly 10% bf. When I drop another 8lbs.... I do plan to carb cycle of and when I stall for that week :|
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
    edited July 2015
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    Ironmaiden4life wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    There is virtually no evidence that carb cycling does anything at all. It certainly doesn't cause faster fat loss...

    True but it can help get rid of that last little bit of stubborn body fat when you want to get in very low levels of body fat.

    OP carb cycling really isn't necessary with your current body fat. 20% is on the higher end for males so you may want to consider a simple calorie deficit for a little while longer.

    I don't understand how you can say you agree that there is no science around carb cycling and that it doesn't help with fat loss but then follow it with, it can help with getting rid of the last bit of fat. Your deficit will control that last bit of body fat loss. How you achieve it is personal. If you find it works well for you great, but if your calories are the same through the week, your fat loss will be the same. Where carb cycling can be very effective is when people align to carb heavy days with their lifting days.

    OP, carb cycling is truly an individual thing. Some prefer high carb on lifting days, some prefer the same amount of carbs every day. In the end, it's personal preference.

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