Is Carb Cycling Effective?

In general, though carb cycling may help you to stick to your diet, it may actually slow your weight loss efforts.

But, if you’ve read or watched videos about the keto diet online, then you’ve probably stumbled across the eating method known as carb cycling.

However, you may be wondering if carb cycling is effective, specifically for long-term weight loss.

In this article, I’ll discuss whether or not carb cycling is an effective eating strategy to help you lose weight on the keto diet.

What Is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is a type of diet where you follow a cyclic pattern of eating low-carb, and then high-carb. This is a common strategy used by many people who want to lose weight, but don’t want to carbs completely.

There are two big types of carb cycling:

• Short-term carb cycling — In short-term carb cycling, you may eat carbs for let’s say two days of the week, and then eat a keto diet for the other five days of the week. This is an easier option compared to a strict keto diet.
• Long-term carb cycling — In long-term carb cycling, you may eat carbs for let’s say two months of the year, and then eat a keto diet for the other ten months of the year. This may be slightly harder compared to short-term carbs cycling, but it is much more beneficial for your overall health. We’ll discuss why it is better later on in this article.

Now, let’s talk about the pros of carb cycling so you can get a better picture.

Pros of Carb Cycling

The benefits of carb cycling are that it’s easier to follow than a strict keto diet, and it may improve your gut health because you are eating a wider range of foods.

• Easier Than Strict Keto — Carb cycling is easier than a strict keto diet. This is because you get to take a break from keto during certain periods of your diet. So, you still get to enjoy some of the old foods you used to eat. This can definitely be helpful whenever you are eating out or whenever you’re on vacation.
• May Improve Gut Health — Carb cycling may improve your gut health. This is especially true if you are eating healthy carbs, like beans, peas, corn, potatoes, etc. This is because healthy carbs have a lot of fiber and nutrients, feeding your gut’s good bacteria. However, if you eat unhealthy carbs, the opposite would happen — your bad gut bacteria would grow.

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

Cons of Carb Cycling

The biggest cons of carb cycling are that you’ll stop losing weight, your energy levels will decrease, & you will be more hungry. This is because your body cannot use both fats & carbs as fuel at the same time.

• Less Weight Loss — If you carb cycle, then you will stop losing weight. This is because you get kicked out of ketosis, and you will stop burning your own fat. If you haven’t lost all the weight you wanted to lose, then you should not carb cycle.
• Decreased Energy — If you carb cycle, then your energy levels will decrease. This is because as you get kicked off ketosis, you won’t be able to use your own fat as energy. When your insulin increases, your body is forced to use carbs as fuel. But, then on your low-carb days, you will be tired. Also, on your low on your high-carb days, you would also be tired because your body wouldn’t be fully adjusted to using carbs as fuel. That is why doing long-term carb cycling is better than short-term carb cycling.
• Increased Hunger — When you are carb cycling, you may experience increased hunger, which could make it difficult to stick to a healthy eating pattern.
• Increased Oxidation — When you are carb cycling, you will increase the risk of oxidative stress on your cells and tissues due to the fact that you were eating carbs, which may lead to premature aging.
• Increased Insulin Resistance — When you are carb cycling, you may increase insulin resistance, which could increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is because carbs are insulinogenic.

Basically, if you haven’t lost all the weight you wanted to lose on a keto diet, then you should not carb cycle.

Is Carb Cycling Effective?

No, carb cycling is not effective for losing weight. This is because your body will get kicked out of ketosis too often, leading you to not be able to use either fats or carbs fully. It would be much more effective to just do a strict keto diet.

So, if you want to lose weight, I do not recommend carb cycling.

This is because you get kicked out of ketosis too often.

This would make your body not able to metabolize either fats or carbs as fuel 100%.

If you want to lose weight, then you should just follow a strict ketogenic diet.

Who Should Carb Cycle?

If you lost all the weight you wanted to lose, and you want to benefit from more dietary freedom and better health overall, then you should consider carb cycling.

However, the type of carb cycling you choose is very important.

How to Carb Cycle

To carb cycle, you must eat low carb for certain periods of your diet, & high carb for other periods.

There are two types of carb cycling you can do:

• Short-term carb cycling — With short-term carb cycling, you may do something that looks like eating low-carb for five days of the week and eating high-carb for the other two days of the week. This is the most common approach to carb cycling, but it is the worst approach to carb cycling.
• Long-term carb cycling — With long-term carb cycling, you may do something that looks like eating low carb for ten months of the year, and eating high carb for the other two months of the year. This is the less common approach to carb cycling, but it is much more beneficial.

Long-term carb cycling is much better than short-term carb cycling because it gives your body much more time to adjust to eating carbs.

It takes around six weeks for your mitochondria to go through their lifecycle.

However, if you keep switching between carbs and fats, like with short-term carb cycling, then your body & mitochondria don’t get enough time to fully adjust to either fuel source.

That is why long-term carb cycling is much better than short-term carb cycling.

However, you must remember that if you haven’t lost all the way you wanted to lose, then you shouldn’t carb cycle since it would just slow down your weight loss.

Long-term carb cycling should only be done by people who have lost the weight they wanted to lose on a low-carb or keto diet.

The biggest benefits of long-term carb cycling are that you get much more dietary freedom during the two months of your carb cycle.

That can make you more satisfied with your diet overall.

Most people, including me, who do long-term carb cycling, place their carb cycle near their longest vacation.

For me, and many other people, that is their summer break. But, for a lot of other people, that is their winter break.

The reason a lot of people place their carb cycle near their vacation, is well, obvious. It lets you enjoy your break with much less restriction!

Conclusion

No, carb cycling is not practical for losing weight because it kicks you out of keto too often. However, if you’ve lost all the way you wanted to lose on a keto diet, then carb cycling can give you more freedom with your diet.

If you have other questions about the keto diet, especially relating to the benefits of the keto diet, then you can read my article here detailing the benefits of keto and how to start today.