Carb Cycling

indeed it's a common thing for me to hear about carb cycling amongst my gym bros, the fact is they cycle carbs to suit their requirements and also that's throws off the metabolism into different gears. for example on gym off days they go for zero carb high protein and couple it with cardio or not. but I'm no expert in the matter however I've heard its effective

jjhotstuff wrote: »

has anyone heard of or tried this? I am starting today and i have fluctuated on and off of low card for years...However, I got frustrated as I would often stall after being strict for two weeks...only to find a day where I "cheated" would kick start things again. I am now ready this actually works for woman over 45?! There are so very many approaches and I am desperate to figure out how to tackle this for good!

Carb cycling isn't a magic weight loss bullet. It is a dietary approach that was popularized by athletes trying to cut weight for competition but wanting to maintain performance by timing and cycling high carbohydrate days around strenuous training bouts where glucose needs are high. It is a good approach for this particular purpose...unfortunately, this approach has also made it's way into dietary marketing woo for magical weight loss.

IMO, it makes things more complicated than need be for the average Joe unless it is truly something that results in better overall dietary and calorie deficit compliance. For some it can be discouraging to a degree because their exercise/training/workouts don't really require the carb load that comes with calorie cycling and thus they see a gain on the scales after high carbohydrate days due to water and increased glycogen stores from those carbs not being utilized in the training...not necessarily a bad thing...it's not fat...but it shows up on the scale none the less.

Weight management, including weight loss is about energy (calories) overall...consume less energy than your body requires and your body starts using fat stores to make up for the deficiency. Carbs in and of themselves have nothing to do with weight loss or weight management outside of water and glycogen storage and depletion.

For some, a low carb diet or reducing carbs is an easy way to cut calories and adhere to a calorie deficit...carbs are what I typically reduce when I'm trying to cut some weight simply because it's easy to cut out quite a few calories...but I don't really do low carb and certainly not keto...I just reduce portions and skip things like grains or starches with dinner, etc. I don't log, so for me this is just an easy approach to reducing calories...but that's all it really is...there's no more magic to it than it helps me keep my calories down.