Carb Cycling

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Two days low, one day high?

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  • lc63
    lc63 Posts: 19 Member
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    Hi guys, just starting carb cycling this week after hitting a slump and my weight loss just stalled. Hopefully this will shake it up a bit! Just a couple of questions from a beginner -
    1. In general how long do people keep up carb cycling? I am under the impression its not a long term thing and
    2. On low carb days do you all avoid carbs (beit refined or complex carbs) completely and only use your carb allowance on non starchy foods? For example, my daily allowance on low carb day would be 50g but for that 50g I could fit in half a potato or something with dinner BUT am I better off using this allowance on veg and avoiding obvious carbs completely on low days?
  • mh_hall
    mh_hall Posts: 1 Member
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    Hi everyone, I just started to research carb cycling a few days ago. I've been on straight low carb, high fat, moderate protein for 3 weeks now. So far so good...down 12 lbs. Though I am pleased with my success, I have about 50lbs more to lose and I don't know that I can do LCHF for the rest of my life. Carb cycling sounded more "moderate" to me and I'm a moderate kind of girl.

    My plan is as follows:
    M, W and Sat will be my high carb, heavy workout days (40%c/40%p/20%f)
    T, Th, Fri will be my low carb, light workout days...45 mins walk (20%c/40%p/40%f)
    Sunday will be my day off, but I do plan to keep my carbs in check on that day. Maybe do more of a balanced day or maybe aim to keep my carbs around 90-100g. I'll play around with this and see how it works. (It's football season so Sundays will be tricky without some football snacks!)

    I think my LCHF days will be the easiest for me since I'm already conditioned to eating and meal planning for LCHF. I may struggle with HCLF days initially because I've not worried about lean protein for the last 3 weeks. I don't just love chicken or turkey, but I'm going to have to incorporate more of it on my HCLF days. Tuna is my best protein friend. ;) I am really looking forward to adding more fruit to my HCLF days. I've missed fruit...a lot. I think fruit will be my favorite thing about Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays!

    Exercise... I'm not a cardio lover. Never have been. I do enjoy brisk walks at the lake near my house, and I do plan to walk at least 45-60 minutes on my LCHF days. For my HCLF days, my workouts will be more intense but I'll still probably focus more on strength training. I enjoy kettlebell workouts, which are the best of both worlds for me...both cardio and strength training all at once and I can crank up my heart rate for 30 minutes and be done. I also have a vegetable garden and I tend to get quite a workout this time of year hauling out summer crop plants to plant fall/winter crops, turning the soil (I do this with a pitchfork...don't like tilling), and spreading mulch. I'll save the heavy gardening work for my HCLF days and the light gardening for the other days.

    I'm going to give carb cycling a go for 3-4 weeks and see how it goes. I think this may be the nutritional lifestyle that best suits my personalilty, especially since I hate feeling deprived of certain foods. Hopefully this nutritional lifestyle will help me find sustainable success in reaching my weight and health goals.

    Cheers!
  • amandacowan1978
    amandacowan1978 Posts: 50 Member
    edited September 2016
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    I've been playing it very loosy- goosy with my schedule. I'll do like 3 low carb high fat days (25% carbs) then 2-3 moderate (35% carbs) and then maybe the next week I do 4-5 LCHF before getting a high carb day in..

    I'm still new to the idea but I've lost about 6lbs (I'm on my last 10-ish pounds so I'm focusing mainly on muscle building, or trying too)

    I found a protein powder that I like and I don't feel has a ton of crazy ingredients so I'm finding the macros pretty easy to meet.

    I notice that if I try to drop below 25% carbs my stomach gets real upset.

    I also notice that while I can allocate some of my carbs to a splurge of some sort almost every day even if I want, (splurge meaning something with like 25-35 carbs) I have to make the rest are high fiber carbs like raspberries and whatnot. Otherwise my digestion is way off, and I also find I need a fiber supplement daily too.
  • sadinplaid
    sadinplaid Posts: 140 Member
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    @amandacowan1978 I'm just starting to try this. I've been stuck in the same 2-3 pound range for about 2 months. I have about 18 pounds left to lose (lost almost 40 this year so far), but I'm just trying to get into this groove of carb cycling. I didn't read any of the books about it - just internet research. I'd love to hear more about what you guys are doing as meals on the LC and HC days

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