Fact Check: Does Carb Cycling Work as an Effective Eating Strategy?

Carb cycling is something that many have wondered about during their weight loss journey. As carbohydrates are an essential part of macronutrients, it’s not ideal to completely cut out carbs or have your entire diet revolve around carbs.

Every diet needs to have a balance between the three macronutrients - carbohydrates, protein and fat. If you constantly change the amount of carbs you’re consuming, can that be an effective strategy? Let’s find out.

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Here’s why carb cycling works as an effective strategy

Our body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is used to generate energy. When you take away carbs, the body turns towards the stored fat for energy. It burns the stored fat to produce the excess energy required.

Carb cycling is when the diet switches between high intake and low intake. Some factors are taken into consideration such as age, height, weight, macronutrients breakdown and activity level before carb cycling is recommended.

When you decide to have a low carb day, the body uses a similar process as it does during the keto diet, burning the stored fat or stored glycogen.

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Two forms of carb cycling

Ideally, there are two ways you can incorporate carb cycling into your diet:

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1) Re-feed your body every two weeks

You re-feed your body every 14 days with a significant amount of carbohydrates after following a low carb diet for two weeks.

You can increase your level of exercise on the days you re-feed yourself. That’ll help you strike a balance between the number of calories consumed and the number of calories burned.

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2) Re-feed yourself in moderation

You can re-feed yourself every four or five days. However, you can also choose to do low carb and high carb days alternatively.

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Tips to keep in mind when implementing carb cycling

While it’s an effective strategy, there are a few pointers to keep in mind:

This is not a long-term strategy: When you’re carb cycling, it’s something that will affect your energy levels and strength. It’s wise to use this strategy to boost fat loss, but it's unwise to do so for a prolonged period of time.

If your plan is to cut out carbs for a longer period of time, it’s better to follow a Keto diet instead.

Adjust your carbs based on your requirements: Not everyone will follow the same high or low carb days during this cycle. Ideally, you should understand how much intake works for you. If you’re a runner or you need more energy throughout the day, you should try low carb to medium carb.

On the other hand, if you’re an average exerciser, you can try medium carb to low carb cycles.

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Benefits of carb cycling

As it’s an effective strategy, here are the benefits you should be aware of.

Boosts fat loss

Carb cycling boosts fat loss is by forcing the body to burn fat for fuel when it’s low on carbs.

Boosts metabolism

During high carb days, your metabolism and athletic performance gets a boost from re-feeding.

Promotes water weight loss

When you’re cutting carbs, the glycogen’s water levels drop, helping in making the body appear muscular with a drop in water weight. That is especially helpful for body-building competitors who want to appear as lean and ripped as possible .

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Helps with mental health

On re-feed days, you’ll feel especially better because of allowing yourself to consume carbs after restricting them for days at a stretch. That is something which is evident during alternate high carb and low carb days.

Better food choice

Cutting out carbs can help you pick better food, as you’ll look to replace carbs with something healthier.

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Bottom line

Carb cycling is an effective strategy if done for short periods of time and in moderation. It cna promote weight loss and fat loss by forcing your body to burn stored fat, which is what you eventually want.

You may feel the need to constantly restrict yourself when you first start carb cycling. However, with time it become easier. Remember to keep up with cardio and resistance training as well.