Is Carb Cycling Good for Keto?

Should you carb cycle on keto?

The ketogenic diet is a low-carb plan that forces your body to burn fats instead of carbs for fuel. To achieve this, you need to restrict your intake of carbs to less than 50 grams per day.

However, if you’ve done the keto diet, you know that it’s definitely a hard diet to adjust to. That’s why some keto dieters have started carb cycling. 

However, is carb cycling good for keto? Will it harm your weight loss & keto goals?

In this article I’ll discuss whether or not carb cycling is good for you & who should carb cycle.

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is when you alternate between high and low carb days. You’ll still eat mainly fats, protein, and vegetables on your low-carb days. However, you’ll also consume carbs on your high-carb days.

There are also two types of carb cycling:

• Short-term carb cycling — In short-term carb cycling, you’d eat carbs one or two days of the week, & then eat low-carb the rest of the week.
• Long-term carb cycling — In long-term carb cycling, you’d eat carbs let’s say for two months of the year, & then eat keto for the rest of the year.

It may seem that short-term carb cycling is better for overall health, but long-term carb cycling is actually better. 

I’ll discuss later on who should do long-term carb cycling.

Benefits of Carb Cycling for Keto

The biggest benefits of carb cycling for keto are that it helps you stick to keto for longer & can help improve your gut health since you’re eating a more diverse range of foods.

• Longer Motivation — If you’re on keto for health or weight loss reasons, it can be hard to stay motivated when you’re not seeing the results you want. That’s why some people may carb cycle so they can stick to it for longer.
• Better Gut Health — A properly designed carb cycle can help improve your gut health by feeding your gut bacteria healthy carbs like potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.

Negatives of Carb Cycling for Keto

The drawbacks to carb cycling for keto are that it can kick you out of ketosis, it can lead to an overeating of carbs, & it’s not good for people who haven’t reached their keto weight loss goals.

• Excess Carb Cycling Can Lead to Slowing Ketosis — If you carb cycle constantly, like short-term carb cycling, than you’re going to go in & out of ketosis too often. This means your body would never be able to fully utilize fats for fuel.
• Can Lead to Overeating of Carbs — If you’re not careful, & have a bad habit of binge eating (like I used to,) carb cycling can lead to an overeating of carbs. This would make you gain weight.
• Not Ideal for People Who Are Overweight — If you’re overweight, that means you still need to keep doing keto to lose weight. I was overweight at one point too, & I just kept doing keto & fasting until I lost the weight. If you’re overweight, then you should just keep doing keto until you lose the weight since carb cycling will kick you out of keto.
• Lack of Science — There is no evidence to support carb cycling as a way to help you lose weight or help get you into ketosis faster.

If you want to do the keto diet to lose weight, don’t carb cycle as it’ll kick you out of keto & you’ll stop losing weight. However, if you’ve reached your goal weight & have been doing keto for more than a year, you can start considering long-term carb cycling, where you carb cycle for 2 months of the year.

Is Carb Cycling Good for Keto?

No, carb cycling isn’t good for most people on keto. It would kick you out of ketosis too often, slowing down your progress. However, if you’ve reached your weight loss goal on keto, you can do long-term carb cycling.

Who Should Carb Cycle on Keto?

If you’ve reached your weight loss goals on keto, & you’ve been doing it for longer than a year, than you should do long-term carb cycling.

Long-term carb cycling, for example eating carbs for two months of the year, is better than short-term carb cycling, for example eating high-carb two days of the week. 

This is because it takes your mitochondria around 6 weeks to go through their life cycle.

However, if you’re constantly going in & out of keto, your body & its mitochondria can’t get used to either source of fuel 100%. This means that when you eat carbs you’d be more tired because your body cannot use it.

That’s why long-term carb cycling is a better option compared to short-term carb cycling.

Long-term carb cycling can be beneficial if you’ve hit your weight loss goal because:

• It can improve your motivation with keto — If you carb cycle for two months of the year, your motivation to stick to keto can definitely increase. I do two months of carb cycling during the summer, usually near my vacation, so I can enjoy the foods on my vacation better.
• It can improve your gut health — Eating a variety of healthy foods can improve your gut health. Foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc, are all great ways to feed your gut’s bacteria different nutrients, making it healthier.
• It also doesn’t matter that you aren’t in ketosis for two months — If you still have weight to lose on keto, the pros are not worth the cons because you’ll stop losing weight. However, if you’ve reached your weight loss goal, carb cycling in the long-term won’t harm you.

Conclusion

For most people, they shouldn’t carb cycle on keto because it would kick them in & out of keto too often, causing them to stop losing weight. So, if you haven’t reached your weight loss goals on keto, don’t carb cycle. However, if you have reached your weight loss goals & have done keto for more than a year, long-term carb cycling at around two months of the year can be beneficial.

If you’re interested in boosting the benefits of keto with OMAD (one meal a day) fasting, you can read my article here. *It helped me lose 40 pounds*