What is Carb Cycling?
Learn how to create a Carb Cycling Diet Plan. Carb cycling is an amazing way to lean out or shed unwanted fat. Find out how Dr. Chelsea Axe went from the ketogenic diet to what she calls keto cycling!
The most important thing to understand about carb cycling is that it isn’t simply “eat low carb, then eat higher carb.” It is possible to do that, but the carb cycling diet will be more effective if you structure your lower carb days and higher carb days with different goals in mind. For example, on your lower carb days, you might try to stay below your baseline calories for the day, while on your higher carb days you might aim to eat above your baseline calories for the day.
If you are planning on losing weight in a healthy and lasting way, you need to burn more calories than you consume. With this in mind, you are probably well informed about the importance of eating a balanced diet and getting plenty of exercise. You may also know about the importance of avoiding crash diets and eating lots of fruits and vegetables. While all of these tips have their place in a healthy lifestyle, there is an additional factor that can help you lose weight and keep it off, and that is carb cycling.
Carb Cycling Benefits
While the idea of eating carbs on one day and cutting them out the next may seem a little scary, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the practice of carb cycling may be a healthy way to lose weight and reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer. Indeed, there are a number of benefits of carb cycling, including that it can help you keep your weight in check and optimize your health.
Carb cycling may not be for everyone, but it may be a more healthy option for those who are interested in trying it. Carb cycling is not a diet, but a way of eating. The theory behind it is that you can eat more or less carbs based on your activity level.
Carbs have a bad reputation when it comes to weight loss, but that’s only partly true. It’s true that eating too many carbs can contribute to weight gain, but some carbs—especially complex carbs such as whole grains, beans, starchy vegetables, and fruits—have benefits that can actually help you lose weight and keep the pounds off. In contrast, simple carbs like white bread, white rice, and sweets are usually high in calories, yet have little to no nutritional benefits. Carb cycling, also known as carb rotation, is a dietary technique in which you alternate between high-carb days and low-carb days, or periods of high-carb and low-carb eating.
How to Carb Cycle
A carb is a carb, right? Not exactly. Not when you’re trying to lose weight, anyway. Carbohydrates are divided into simple and complex—the difference being whether or not they can be broken down into sugar in the body. Simple carbs (or simple sugars) are quickly digested, which spikes blood sugar, leading to insulin release in the body. Insulin helps the carbohydrate enter the body’s cells. Complex carbs are digested more slowly, and the body is able to use it for energy, rather than storing it as fat. So when you’re trying to lose weight, it’s all about how to carb cycle.
Carb-cycling has long been a favorite of health experts looking to help their clients lose weight. It involves alternating between low-carb days and high-carb days, with the goal being to burn fat on the low-carb days and maintain muscle on the high-carb days. But for those who are new to carb-cycling, it isn’t always easy to figure out how to actually do it—especially if you’re trying to maintain your current weight.
Carb Cycling Diet Plan
Whether you’re a vegetarian or not, chances are good that you’ve heard of the carb cycling diet. In fact, with the rise of the Paleo diet and other high-protein, low-carb diets in recent years, carb cycling has become one of the most popular ways to drop a few (or a lot of) pounds. So, what makes carb cycling different from other diet plans? It’s all about timing.
The idea of eating low carb, high fat and exercising often is a lot more fun when you are looking to build muscle or lose weight. But what about the rest of us? The majority of us who aren’t looking to lose weight, but just want to eat healthy without feeling like we are depriving ourselves are the ones incorporating this lifestyle the most. Carb cycling is a terrific way to keep your diet on track while still allowing yourself the flexibility to enjoy your favorite foods.
Carb cycling is one of the most popular diets of the past decade, and for good reason: not only does it mimic the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, but it’s also a time-friendly, flexible way to shed fat and gain muscle. The goal of carb cycling is to trick your body into burning more fat throughout the day. It’s not unlike intermittent fasting, which was popular in the Paleolithic era as well. (Yes, dieting has been around for a while!)
Carb Cycling Foods
High carb cycling is a style of eating that many people find to be an excellent way to lose fat and build muscle. In a high carb diet, around 60 to 70% of your daily calories come from carbs, while in the low carb diet, only 30 percent of the calories come from carbs. People who are looking to lose weight usually turn to high carb diets. Low carb diets are often advised for people in the bodybuilding community, since they often do not aim to lose weight.
For people with busy lifestyles, carb cycling is a great way to get an energy boost while eating fewer total calories. It is not a way to cut out carbs entirely, but a way to eat an optimal amount of carbs for your body.
What to Eat on a Carb Cycling Diet?
There are several ways to approach the carb cycling diet, with the general idea of cycling between high carb, high protein and high fat days. The exact ratios depend on the specific diet you choose, but most of them provide you with a list of foods to eat on each day. For example, the Atkins diet tells you that on high carb days, to eat plenty of meat, cheese, eggs and nuts, while on high fat days, you can eat butter, mayonnaise, oil, nuts and avocados.
