Is Carb Cycling Better Than Keto?

‍Which one is better for weight loss?

If you’ve ever read about losing weight or becoming healthier, you’ve likely heard about the keto diet.

But, a lot of people, understandably so, don’t want to fully eliminate carbs from their diet.

That’s why some people have started carb cycling on keto. In carb cycling, you eat carbs for a certain time period of your diet and then go back to keto.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what carb cycling is and whether it’s better than keto.

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is a method of eating where you alternate periods of high-carb and low-carb consumption. As the name suggests, it is a cyclical approach to low-carb dieting.

Most people looked to other forms of low-carb dieting, like carb cycling, because completely eliminating carbs can be difficult mentally.

Also, there are two types of carb cycling:

• Short-Term Carb Cycling: In short-term carb cycling, you may eat carbs two days of the week & eat low-carb for the other two days. It’s a more constant approach compared to long-term carb cycling.
• Long-Term Carb Cycling: In long-term carb cycling, you may eat carbs for around two months of the year, giving your body more time to get used to using carbs as fuel instead of fats.

Later on in this article we’ll discuss which one you should choose based on your goals.

Now, we’ll discuss the pros & cons of carb cycling so you can get a better picture.

Pros of Carb Cycling on Keto

The biggest pros of carb cycling on a keto diet are that it’s easier to follow & that it may improve your gut health. It’s easier to follow because you get to eat the carbs you used to eat. It also may improve your gut health if you eat a bigger variety of vegetables.

• Easier to Follow — If you eat more carbs on certain days of your keto diet, then it’d undoubtedly be easier to follow since you get to eat more of the foods you used to enjoy.
• May Improve Gut Health — With carb cycling, if you’re eating a lot of healthy carbs, like beans, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc, then your gut bacteria’s biodiversity would definitely increase. This could lead to better gut health.

Now let’s talk about the cons of carb cycling on keto.

Cons of Carb Cycling on Keto

The biggest con of carb cycling on a keto diet is that it stops you from losing weight by kicking you out of ketosis. It also can lead to a binge eating of carbs, leading to weight gain. For those two reasons, carb cycling isn’t good for overweight people on the keto diet.

• Stops You From Losing Weight — If you stop eating a keto diet, especially in the short-term carb cycling approach, you will stop losing weight. It will kick you out of ketosis, so you’ll just be back to your old way of eating.
• Can Lead to Overeating of Carbs — If you gained weight by eating processed carbs (like me), then you know how hard it is to resist carbs. However, if you carb cycle, especially with a short-term approach, you may binge eat carbs since you didn’t eat them during your keto diet.
• Not Good for Overweight People — Carb cycling is not good for overweight people since it stops you from losing weight. If you still have weight to lose, it would be much better just to continue a strict keto diet.

As a general guideline, if you haven’t lost all the weight you wanted to lose on keto, don’t carb cycle as you may gain the weight back & leave keto all-together.

Is Carb Cycling Better Than Keto?

No, carb cycling isn’t better than keto since it can kick you out of keto too often, meaning you’ll stop losing weight. But don’t worry; once you get the hang of a strict keto diet, you may find that it’s easier to follow than carb cycling because there are fewer temptations.

Who Should Carb Cycle?

If you’ve lost all the weight you wanted to on a keto diet, then you can consider long-term carb cycling, like eating carbs two months of the year so you can get some of the benefits of carb cycling.

But why should I do long-term carb cycling instead of short-term carb cycling?

You should do long-term carb cycling instead of short-term carb cycling because it takes time for your body to adjust to using either carbs or fats as fuel, so you must give it time.

For example, if you ate carbs twice a week & ate keto for the other days of the week, the days that you eat keto, you wouldn’t even reach ketosis until like the 3rd day of eating keto. Also, the days you eat carbs, your body wouldn’t be able to fully utilize them because your mitochondria would be used to using fats for fuel.

This is because it takes around six weeks for your mitochondria to go through their life cycle. So, if you ate a keto diet for a long time, then ate carbs, you’d feel really tired & groggy until weeks go by.

That’s why long-term carb cycling, like eating carbs two months of the year, is a better approach.

Benefits of Long-Term Carb Cycling

Long-term carb cycling can help you to:

• Stick to Keto for Longer — Doing long-term carb cycling, you can eat different types of foods. This can help you to enjoy different types of foods that you may have missed on keto, which can just make your life a little easier.
• Make Your Body “Dual-Fueled” — If you eat both fats & carbs as energy, then your body defaults to using carbs. But, if you eat keto for ten months of the year & eat carbs for two months of the year, then your body has enough time to use both types of fuel as the main fuel source. There is no evidence that being “dual-fueled” is good for you, but being able to use both types of fuel sources means that your body can work the way it was intended to work, in seasons of different fuel types.

Basically, if you’ve lost all the weight you’ve wanted to lose on keto, then you can consider doing long-term carb cycling, like 2 months of the year, so you can stick to keto for longer & make your body “dual-fueled.”

Conclusion

Carb cycling is a popular way of alternating periods of high-carb and low-carb eating. However, since it kicks you out of ketosis, if you still have weight to lose on keto, you shouldn’t carb cycle. But, if you’ve lost all the weight you wanted to on keto, then you may consider doing long-term carb cycling.

If you’re interested in starting OMAD fasting to boost the affects of keto, then you can read my article here going in depth on the benefits of OMAD & how to start. *It helped me lose 40 pounds*