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What is Carb Cycling, and Should You Do It?
Health | December 20, 2019
There are more ways to manage carbs than one. Some people prefer going keto, others take things a step further and eliminate them on a carnivore diet. For me, I have two approaches. Either I go keto, which naturally puts a limit, or, I earn my carbs. Both of these allow me to enjoy carbs without going overboard and suffering the consequences. However, there is another method called carb cycling, which is what we’ll be exploring today. Are you ready? Then let’s get to it!
Carb Cycling 101
Carb cycling is more of a practice rather than a diet. It doesn’t tell you to go vegan or keto. The idea is to “cycle” carbs either every day, week, or so often.
There’s no one way to carb cycle:
- Alternating between high carb and low carb days; Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sun are low carb, Tue, Thur, and Sat are high carb
- Lowering carbs for losing weight, increasing carbs for gaining weight
- “Carb Loading” (i.e., increasing carbs) before athletic events or activities (marathons, powerlifting, cycling, sports, etc.)
- “Re-feeds,” when you eat either a meal or full day of high carb every few days or weeks before returning to low carb the rest of the time (also practiced as “Cyclical Keto”)
- Activity levels- some people eat most of their carbs around their workouts or days when you’re most active; similar to my “earn your carbs” principle; rest or low activity days are for low carbs
An important thing to note about carb cycling is that the other macros- protein and fats- should, for the most, stay the same. While fat can be tweaked a bit, experts recommend you consistently eat the same amount of protein.
The Pros and Cons
Let’s start with the benefits, or pros, of carb cycling:
- Creates a caloric deficit without counting calories: In other words, you’re naturally cutting back on calories by lowering high carb foods like pasta, cereal, bread, rice, and dessert. Over time, this results in weight loss. I’m not a fan of counting calories; I think it’s unnecessary and open to becoming an obsession. However, I do believe in portion control and other habits that naturally control calories without needing you to count them.
- Fuels Workouts and Supports Recovery: Unless your metabolism has switched over to burning fat for fuel, you’re going to need some carbs to help you exercise. You’ll also need to pair them with protein for recovery.
- Creates Metabolic Flexibility: Speaking of your metabolism, you can teach it to swing between burning mostly fat and back to mostly carbs with carb cycling. On your low carb days, your primary energy source becomes fat. And on high carb days (you guessed it!), you mostly burn carbs. Metabolic flexibility gives you the advantage of “adapting” to different diets and eating styles. What happens if you’re on vacation and, try as you might, you end up eating a load of carbs? Instead of dealing with blood sugar swings and weight gain (provided you don’t overeat), your body can efficiently use the extra carbs as fuel. And the same works on the opposite side with fat. All in all, you’re increasing your sensitivity to insulin and keeping blood sugar from going unstable.
- Hormones: There are three hormones that I need you to focus on- thyroid, testosterone, ghrelin, and leptin. All four play huge roles in metabolism, exercise performance, hunger, weight maintenance, and well-being. If any of these starts getting imbalanced, a whole host of problems may occur. Problems that, in some cases, can cause serious damage. The days you “refeed” or “increase” your carbs may help to keep these hormones in check, acting as a sort of “reset.” However, I should point out that not everyone needs a refeed day, and not everyone’s hormones do well on higher carbs. But some people do and are worth mentioning.
Now onto the cons, or drawbacks, of carb cycling. Because there’s no such thing as a perfect “practice,” even in the dieting world.
- Zero Research: Unfortunately, there’s no research on carb cycling. There is on low carb diets and carb “loading” in athletes, but nothing specifically on the practice of cycling carbs itself.
- Maintenance: For some people, following “rules” or “protocols” with their diet may not be sustainable. If you’re least concerned about performance or weight and would rather eat intuitively, then skip carb cycling.
- Carb Binges: In the wrong hands, carb cycling may be used as an excuse to binge on empty carbs from junk food (cookies, ice cream, soda, juice, etc.). Even though you’re eating more carbs, they should be coming from whole foods such as fruit, sweet potatoes, squash, whole grains, and legumes.
Final Thoughts
Just to be clear, I’m not demonizing carbs. I still eat them! But my body thrives on being mostly low carb. If your body does better on higher carbs, awesome. This post is for those of you similar to me or that are trying to manage their carb intake.
As you can see, there’s more than one way to do so. You can still enjoy carbs with the right planning. If keto or earning your carbs hasn’t worked out for you, then consider cycling them in every few days or around your training. To see if you’re addicted to carbs (and what to do about), check out this post here.
Let me know what you think down below. Have you ever done carb cycling? Why or why not? Are there better ways? If so, what’s worked for you?
Private Member |
tx
I’m not sure where to leave comments or suggestions about site content (particularly for subscribers), but since I’ve come back recently after a year and half hiatus, the major difference of this site content is the explosion of informative articles. I appreciate the topics and the research that goes into them (I do research for a living), but what also changed is the style in which they are written. It used to sound like Zuzka’s voice, but now they sound like a chatty blog machine wrote them. I guess there’s a formula attempted here, but I have followed Zu since 2010 because I appreciated the realness of the content, the true person that always shone through. Now, I see very little of that personality any more. I love the workouts, I love the community, and I like the focus of the extra content, but I can’t generate any interest in the rest of the content because it’s lost its soul, and that makes me sad because I know how much work Zu puts into everything that appears on this site. But I wish for the old Zu to let herself show more and to not use this formulaic fake chatty fluff talk. Also, the content of these insight articles isn’t anything more than what I could read a thousand times over on other health or medicine blogs. I miss the personal aspect, even if anecdotal, just the hint of a personal account is far more compelling and interesting than a litany of equivocating over pubmed articles. I’m sorry this sounds like a rant, it’s not, I truly love this site, so just providing some feedback, as a long-time follower/subscriber (and I can’t find any other place to provide such feedback).
Private Member |
i think i know where you are coming from Stephanie, i was recently thinking that perhaps Zuzka got someone in her team that has taken over articles writing, I personally like them a lot, they are just deep enough to give the push to do more researches yourself 😉
Private Member |
tx
Thanks Asia, yes the articles are often interesting topics!
Private Member |
shalimar, florida, united states
Hi Stephanie! I enjoy hearing directly from Zuzka too. I binge watch her old coffee talks and other vlogs on YouTube. I do look forward to her quick vlogs on FB. OK so to be fair most people write “academically” especially if it’s published. I read things I wrote and they sound nothing like the good ole country girl that I am. When writing it’s the “frozen word”. Zuzka is writing to so many of us with diverse opinions and preferences I suppose it’s best for her sanity and stress that she keep it general.
Do you think it would be nice if there were vlogs here? Maybe one a week. She could talk in her pjs with her dogs crawling all over the place. That would be great. Happy Holidays ~Christi 🙂
Private Member |
tx
Hi Christi, yea the coffee chats were always so nice, I would savor them! I also miss her fashion posts and occasional life/blog moments. I wish to see a tour of the new house or studio like she used to do! But I can understand if the community changes or gets so big, maybe that can be too intrusive. Well, I just wish there was more of the Zu personality on this site again, and less of the generic health coaching stuff that I see everywhere now. Don’t get me wrong, I love learning about health, but I appreciate it more when she has a reason to talk about it, like a personal experience or when she tries something on herself and wants to share the journey. There’s very little to draw me to the site any more except to check out new workouts.
Private Member |
I know what you mean. I’ve done a bit of health writing for third party websites, and there are always rules about what type of research I can cite, themes or products I have to try to promote alongside for them, restrictions on what I can say as ‘my opinion’. It’s very easy to lose your voice in all that, and things can quickly start to feel quite generic and bland. The coffee talks were great. I’ve always thought a forum on here would be brilliant too!
Private Member |
shalimar, florida, united states
Hi Stephanie. Yes I too miss the fashion videos❤️ and I do think a lot might have to do with privacy. In the past I’ve seen crude sex related comments posted to Zuzka. Let’s face it. She is a hot babe so lots of stalkers and trolls out there. I do find a lot of good posts and new vlog videos on her FB page. I just started receiving a Friday email from Zuzka too. Have you been getting one? It looks like it is intended for members.