You have probably heard of low-carb diets like Keto, South Beach, or Atkins, but have you heard of carb cycling? This is something that I started learning about in recent years and it can be a great way to get yourself unstuck and moving forward toward your weight loss goals. It has become one of my favorite nutrition approaches and I’ve gotten great results from this. So, I thought, why not dive into carb cycling and give you the basics so you can try it too? So, today, I’m discussing:
- What are carbohydrates?
- What is carb cycling?
- Benefits of carb cycling.
- How to carb cycle.
As you may know, if you’ve been listening to my podcast for a while, I have tried all the things when it comes to weight loss. I have always had a harder time losing weight and have run into plateaus many times over the course of my weight loss journey. When I started researching more about why this is, I learned that some of our bodies can be hard wired to resist diet and exercise, or, more specifically, letting go of fat. Naturally, I started researching ways to overcome this and that is when I came across carb cycling. So, let’s get into it.
- What are carbohydrates?
Before we can discuss carb cycling, first we need to be clear on what carbohydrates are. Carbohydrates are one of the three main macronutrients. There are complex and simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates enter the blood stream faster and tend to have a higher glycemic index, meaning they raise your blood sugar faster. In contrast, complex carbohydrates generally have a bit of a lower glycemic index, which is due to the higher fiber content.
Many types of simple carbohydrates are empty calories, meaning they offer little to no nutritional value, yet contain a moderate to high amount of calories. Some examples of this are candy, soda or pop, certain types of coffee beverages, and even some breads and pastas. It’s not to say all simple carbohydrates are “bad,” but many carbs that fall in this category are empty calories and don’t serve you well if you are trying to lose weight or improve health. - What is carb cycling?
Carb cycling is an eating method where you eat different amounts of carbohydrates each day. The idea is to optimize energy levels, fat loss, and muscle growth. It involves alternating between high-, moderate-, and low-carb days. The amounts for each of these will vary from person to person and you can find calculators online to determine your carb cycling scheduled based on your personal goals.
In general, low-carb days will still include carbohydrates, just the lowest amount compared to the moderate- and high-carb days. The low-carb days will have high protein amounts and the highest fat amount compared to the other cycle days. The moderate-carb days will usually have a higher amount of carbohydrates, lower amount of fat, and also still have a high amount of protein. High-carb days will usually have a very high amount of carbohydrates, very low amount of fat, and lower protein amounts compared to the other two days. So, basically as the carb amount goes up or down, the fat amount will go or up or down in the opposite direction of the carbohydrates. You’ll notice the protein remains on the higher side regardless. - Benefits of carb cycling.
Benefits of carb cycling include fat loss, muscle retention, improved efficiency of the metabolism, and hormone regulation. Interestingly, some of the very issues that can make it difficult for many of us to lose weight can be helped with carb cycling. I mentioned earlier that certain bodies are hard-wired to hold onto fat. Carb cycling helps overcome this by sort of tricking the metabolism and helping the body use both food intake and stored body fat for fuel or energy through the day. Hormones are another major factor that can inhibit weight loss. Ironically, when we go to extremes trying to overcome our bodies’ resistance by increasing cardio, upping intensity in workouts, and further restricting calories, we create a hormonal mess for ourselves, which slows the metabolism down. Carb cycling also helps this by helping the body regulate hormone. - How to carb cycle.
As I mentioned before, there are tons of free resources available on the internet to help with this. You’ll first need to find a carb cycling macro calculator to determine your own unique schedule. Once you have that, you want to follow it at least 90%, ideally perfectly. This means weight, measure, and track your food every day so you know you are hitting your macro targets. Check out my post, How to Get Started with Macro Tracking if you need help with how to do this, it’s called You want to check your progress every two weeks, so you know if you need to make any adjustments. If you are losing weight, stick with your macros and cycle schedule. If you stop losing or aren’t losing then adjust your levels and schedule.
So, that is all about carb cycling and how you can get started with it yourself. As always, I hope you find this helpful! Please share your thoughts or results in the comments as I’d love to hear about your wins or what you found helpful. If you find this helpful and want to continue the pursuit of faith, fitness, and joy with me, please like and subscribe. You can also find all things mind, body, and soul health on my Faith Fitness Joy Podcast. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you in the comments and on the socials!