Carb cycling allows you to still eat carbs without adding body fat, and it helps you burn fat as fuel. Here's how to do it.
What Is Carb Cycling?
Carb cycling, also known as the intermittent low-carb diet, is a method of eating carbohydrates in which you alternate how many carbs you eat each day—high, moderate or low—based on your workouts and long-term goals. The thinking is that your low-carb days put you in a fat-burning state and eating high-carb boosts your metabolism.
Carbohydrates are the body's main and preferred source of energy. Low-carb diets have long been followed for weight loss, and research shows that compared to low-fat diets, low-carbohydrate diets can lead to greater weight loss in the short term. The caveat is that low-carb diets are difficult for most people to follow long-term.
It's also tough to eat low-carb if you exercise frequently, and low-carb diets are difficult for endurance athletes and bodybuilders who rely on carbohydrates to fuel their workouts. Carb cycling may be a solution for elite athletes where they can alternate carbs based on their training schedule. It's also becoming a popular strategy for those trying to lose fat or get past a weight-loss plateau while still staying active.
What Does the Science Say About Carb Cycling?
Unfortunately, not much. There aren't many controlled studies directly investigating carb cycling. The thinking behind carb cycling comes from other weight-loss approaches—like calorie restriction and the ketogenic diet—combined with the science around fueling workouts and burning fat.
Carb cycling tries to match the body's need for glucose. If you've got a longer, more intense workout or race, you need more carbs beforehand (i.e., "carb loading"). If it's a rest day, then not so much. The rationale behind carb cycling is that you don't need as many carbohydrates on the days you aren't racing or doing an intense workout, so you can cut back on carbs on these days while keeping protein and fat about the same or eating a little more fat.
Benefits of Carb Cycling
1. Improved Fat Burning
As with any diet restricting calories, you may notice weight loss in the short term but little to no progress as time passes, citing that you may have hit the plateau in your weight loss journey. The thought is that when you are in a calorie-deficit state, the hormones in your body signal your body to find new ways to minimize weight loss. Specifically, leptin, the hormone that regulates appetite and calorie expenditure, comes into play. When low levels of leptin are present, this signals to the brain that you are not getting enough calories, resulting in a chain of physiological changes, such as eating more food and burning fewer calories. This new metabolic state is known as adaptive thermogenesis.
The thought is that carb cycling prevents the body from adapting to this new metabolic state. In other words, the leptin levels are increased temporarily on days when you have a larger intake of carbs, which may improve metabolism and the body's ability to burn fat as fuel in the long term. However, more research is needed to further investigate the relationship between carb cycling and leptin levels.
2. Stronger Muscles
Glycogen, the storage form of carbs, is stored in the muscles and the liver as the quick form of energy when needed. When you are on low-carb days during the carb cycling, there is limited storage of glycogen. So, the high-carb days (also called "re-feeding") are in place to refuel muscle glycogen, which may improve performance and reduce muscle breakdown.
3. Better Blood Sugar
Another big component of carb cycling is how it affects insulin. A high-carb diet may lead to more spikes in blood sugar levels, so having low-carb days and targeting carbs around the workout may improve insulin sensitivity. This approach may help maximize the benefits that carbohydrates provide.
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What Kind Of Carbs Should You Eat When Carb Cycling?
Always use carbs from clean foods, not junk foods. Eat the majority of your carbs early in the day and at the post-workout meal, tapering off as the day goes on. Don't worry about the glycemic index of the foods, just focus on keeping total carb intake for the day at your target level.
Sources Of Clean Carbs
These are the best sources of clean carbs to include in your meal plan when dieting in general, and when you carb cycle:
- Baked potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Rice
- Oatmeal
- Cream of wheat
- Grits
- Squash
- Apples
- Peas
- Corn
- Bananas
- Rice cakes
- Beans
- Quinoa
- Berries
Simple Carbs
The only time to eat simple carbs is at the post-workout meal, when you should take in 50 grams of dextrose with a whey protein shake immediately after training. Add these carbs into your daily total, because even though they're utilized efficiently by the body at the post-workout feeding, they're still carbs.[1]
Junk Carbs
Sugar-laden junk foods are always bad and should have no place in your diet, not even if you're carb cycling. Quitting junk food altogether can be a lot to ask, but the more you cut down, the more you'll lose body fat.
Try to cut back on junk food gradually until it is totally eliminated from your diet, except for the rare treat. You'll probably find that once you stop eating it you won't miss it as much as you'd expect.
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