Carb Cycling?

My only thought is that you might feel like crap the next day. When I was following the South Beach Diet strictly, I would feel almost hung over if I had a major cheat day (i.e., pizza and beer, party with chips/cake/coke/etc). You could always try it for 2 weeks or so and see if you get results. If it doesn't work for you, then go back to what you're doing now.

I do it and love it. That said, I still try to keep the carbs healthy-- fruit, yogurt, sweet potatoes, light bread...

I never eat pasta, white bread, potatoes or rice, no matter the color. i just don't miss it enough to warrant it. That said, I do occasionally treat myself to ice cream and a cupcake here and there.

I usually cycle between 20 net carbs/day and 100 net carbs/day.

may I ask what Carb cycling is?

I am on a low carb, but I pretty much stick to around 20 carbs. I notice tho if I eat the bad carbs, I gain, so I don't respond well to them....

Well yeah, you'll definitely be out of ketosis after eating a bunch of carbs. But the purpose of the cycling is to restock your glycogen stores so you have enough energy to exercise the rest of the week. That's MY reason for cycling, anyway. There could be other reasons but I don't know what they are. I've been cycling between 60g nc 6 days a week & close to 500g nc one day a week for close to a year now & I've never felt better. I've lost fat & created visible muscle definition even though I still have quite a bit of fat to lose. According to the scale I've dropped close to 25 lbs while doing it which is a little slower than the rate I was losing at before, but I honestly don't care. The strength training & carb cycling together are reshaping my body the way I want & I foresee myself continuing with it even in maintenance, with the only difference being carb-up weekend vs. carb-up day.

If you are the type to freak out over an increase on the scale then cycling is not for you. I've taken vacations & gone off-plan for 4-5 days & gained as much as 10 lbs. After getting back to the carb cycling it was back off in just over a week.

After a carb-up I'll gain 4-5 lbs overnight, but it's water retention because of the carbs. It's impossible to gain that much fat overnight. Then as I follow my low carb plan & execute my workouts it comes off steadily through the week & next thing you know I'm a half pound or a full pound lighter than the previous week. Personally I'm ok with losing at this rate because I like the way I eat & don't want to reduce my fat grams right now. But a significant benefit of managing my macros so specifically is that I have a great deal of control over my rate of loss. Since I've been losing 1/2-1 lb a week for several weeks at 100g fat, if I want to lose faster I can drop it to 90g to speed it up. Or I can thrown in some HIIT workouts on the elliptical.

Interesting

When you do carb cycling you shouldn't be doing it long term usually between 1-3 weeks. Then you will go back to what you usually eat but healthy...

What's the point of only doing it for 1-3 weeks?

Right now I am sticking to a low carb diet and eating mostly all natural foods... Once I get to my goal weight, I will up my carbs to include the healthier carbs such as steel oatmeal, whole wheat bread and pasta, brown rice and so on...

But for right now while I am trying to lose weight, has anyone ever heard of Carb Cycling or actually do it? What is your experience with it? I am a little nervous that if I have one day a week with much higher than usual carbs, that I will screw up ketosis.

Any thoughts? :happy:

If you gained weight on those "healthy carbs" in the first place, they are likely not healthy carbs for you.

I train hard, I train often, I log my cardio but not my strength and conditioning.

After a VERY VERY hard workout (over an hour of intervals, sprint work, conditioning drills, etc..), I will take 2 glucose tabs, that is 4 grams of pure glucose. It is more than enough. And even then, that's maybe 2x a week.

That is it. Its enough. Unless you are a pro body builder (already lean , wanting to stay lean while building muscle) carb cycling is likely not an ideal approach. It is a highly exact thing.

Your muscles recharge on glucose just fine, amino acids in your diet (which is why you need protein) will help build muscle, but excess will be broken down into glucose. It is slower than when you eat pure carbs, but it still happens.

Today I am doing a 2 mile walk, carrying a 100 pound sandbag, as my week-ender workout. I can deadlift over 440 pounds, and didn't start weight lifting until age 40, 2 years ago, and even then only 2x a week. Obviously you do not need carb cycling to maintain or even build strength.

Hi, I'm going to try it for my last 3 weeks of LiveFit. I'm new to this too, but excited. Here's a great article I found. After reading it I felt well informed.
As with anything, if you do it right, I'm sure there's nothing to fear but great results. Wish you and me luck both! Feel free to add me so we can help each other out.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wescott4.htm

I can't even begin to comprehend how people do a low carb diet--how low do you go, someone mentioned 20?! Even something healthy, like a squash, just for an example, has a ton of carbs in it, and fruit.... what do you eat?! Salad does too... I only started noticing the amount of carbs in things since I started on here. I lost my weight before I started on MFP. So it's shocking to see how many carbs are in healthy foods too. I can't imagine what you get to eat... I guess I'll go do some research now..

Oh, and this is honest curiosity... and not at all a criticism, I started to wonder when I asked a friend (who is a body builder) how to get leaner, and she told me not to eat carbs at dinner... and that's when I eat the majority of them!! I also was a long distance runner so I lived on carbs prior to long runs... I eat a pretty healthy diet, but it seems carb-heavy. Surprises me...

Good post! my personal trainer who looks like hulk hogan but can run... hahaha he front loads his carbs. So first thing when he wakes up he slams a protien shakes and waits 2hrs then chows down on 4 eggs 2 cups of rice and 1 apple 1 orange, then for snack time 2 hrs later he loads on oatmeals (cold) yuks! and then nitro tech to trans port the carbs with protien. then lunch its chicken and pastas...

After lunch very small amounts of protien are consumed like 110 or something lower then that, before bed cottage cheese, yogurt ad 1 nitro tech scoop choco milkeshake... He's big has lots of energy, he claims his day starts early morning and then ends around 2 or 3pm for work so easy for him to be low on energy into the late afternoon evening just as long as he keeps it in check.