Is Carb Cycling Good for Weight Loss?‍

The reason most people shouldn’t carb cycle.

If you became interested in starting the keto diet, or if you were just searching the internet, you may have seen articles talking about the benefits of carb cycling.

But, is carb cycling good for weight loss?

In this article, we’ll explain what carb cycling is and detail the pros, cons, who shouldn’t do it, who could benefit from it, & how to do it.

Firstly, What is Keto?

The ketogenic diet is a very low carbohydrate, high fat diet designed to help you lose weight. By reducing carbs, you cleanse your blood of sugar & start getting into ketosis, a state where you can use your own fat for fuel.

Ketogenic diets are known for having very positive effects on health and fitness. Adopting a low carbohydrate diet can drastically reduce blood sugar levels, putting you into a state of ketosis. This leads to weight loss, improved energy levels and even better mental clarity and focus.

However, to reach ketosis, you must eat under 40 grams of net carbs per day so your insulin can lower.

Net carbs are the amount of total carbs in a food excluding fiber & artificial sweeteners, which don’t raise insulin.

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is an eating strategy where you cycle between periods of high-carb intake and low-carb intake. The aim with carb cycling is to get the most out of the diet by eating high-carb foods around training times, so you can train harder before your workouts whilst still staying in ketosis most of the time.

This could look like a ketogenic diet with periods of high-carb refeeds, a ketogenic diet with higher carbs around training times, or something similar.

However, there are some drawbacks to carb cycling.

Is Carb Cycling Good for Weight Loss?

Carb cycling is not good for weight loss because it forces your body to go in and out of ketosis, meaning you won’t be able to lose weight. Also, its biggest benefit, which is increased workout performance after eating carbs, doesn’t work if you’re doing a keto diet because your body cannot use carbs efficiently on keto.

Basically, carb cycling’s biggest issue is that you go in & out of keto way too often.

When you start the keto diet, it takes around 6 weeks for all of your mitochondria to go through their life cycle.

After those 6 weeks, your mitochondria are going to be adjusted to using fat.

However, if you add carbs into the mix through carb cycling, you will not see the benefits of eating carbs since your body cannot use them as efficiently as they once could.

That’s why, for most people, it’s better to do strict keto instead of carb cycle, especially if they’re looking for better sports performance.

Who Shouldn’t Carb Cycle?

Most people shouldn’t do traditional carb cycling to lose weight on keto. The reasoning is that you’re going to be kicked out of ketosis too often, & its biggest benefit of increased fitness performance doesn’t even work if you do a keto diet.

This is especially true for beginners to the keto diet since they need to further adapt to keto instead of staying stagnant with carb cycling.

Are There Any Benefits to Carb Cycling?

Yes, there are benefits to carb cycling — only if it’s done right. If you’re experienced at the keto diet, & you want your body to still be able to metabolize carbs, you can carb cycle for 2 months of the year, each year.

If you carb cycled for around 2 months of the year, that would give your mitochondria enough time to adapt to carbs. This would mean that you would be able to fully metabolize carbs, not just fats, making your body more resilient.

Carb cycling in a long-term approach, like 2 months of the year, can be a great way to get your body to still be used to metabolizing carbs, but without kicking you in & out of keto.

Who Should Carb Cycle?

If you have done the keto diet correctly for more than a year, you can consider doing long-term carb cycling, like 2 months out of the year, so your body can still be used to metabolizing carbs.

If your body was used to using carbs, at least one time of the year, then it would make your body more of a “hybrid” type machine — able to run off of fats or sugars.

However, since carbs can increase mTOR (aging pathway,) it’s more important to eat a keto diet for most of the year.

I personally carb cycle for two months of the year during summer so I can eat more types of foods if I go on a summer vacation.

Conclusion

Carb cycling is a ketogenic diet strategy that involves alternating periods of high-carb intake and low-carb intake. For most people, it’s more important to eat a strict ketogenic diet until you reach your weight loss goal. Once you reached your weight loss goal, or have been doing keto for longer than a year, then you can start doing long-term carb cycling to make your body more resilient.

If you’re interested in starting a keto diet, here’s my article detailing the benefits of keto & how to start.