You may have heard the buzz about carb cycling. It has been talked about a lot in the nutrition and weight loss world along with intermittent fasting. Carb cycling is used in the Keto diet to help regulate hormones and a variety of other reasons.
Carb cycling is an intentional variation of carbohydrate intake each week. Most carb cycling plans consist of low carb days and high carb days. This pattern can restart your metabolism and make your body begin using fat as fuel as opposed to stored up glycogen. You start seeing more energy and control hunger.
Long-term restriction of carbohydrates and calories can lower your metabolic rate and negatively affect your hormone levels. This is a big reason women find themselves at one of those weight loss plateaus. For a short period of time, a significantly restrictive diet will bring you results. However, over time it will cause your metabolic rate to decrease. Once that happens you will see your weight loss stop and will need to restrict calories even further to lose more weight, thus lowering your metabolic rate once again. Not only is this a terribly unhealthy way to live, but it is also incredibly frustrating.
I tried the Keto diet and I did lose weight. You can check out my post here. However, it was hard for me to sustain this lifestyle. That is where carb cycling is good and works for me. Let’s face it, restricting your carbs can be unrealistic for most of us.
I do still believe in a Keto diet for some people. In fact, it has great results for some and it has numerous health benefits. We are all bio-individuals and need to find what works for our unique bodies.
For me that means sometime eating low carbs and Intermittent Fasting. What is working for you?
