Carb cycling is a diet strategy that has you fluctuating your consumption of carbohydrates. There are many strategies to carb cycling: the number of carb, protein and fat grams fluctuate based on a high, low or no carb day, as well plans often have guidelines for number of high vs low days. I have read and tried for myself as well with many of my patients different carbohydrate strategies, and the one used during the MCC LADS CHALLENGE seems to be the most effective. Its a simple process that requires no calculations and the meal plans are doable!
WHY IS CARB CYCLING EFFECTIVE
Carb cycling has been a very popular diet strategy due to it’s effectiveness. The reason it is effective for weight loss include
THE HORMONAL GAME: By having the high carbohydrate day, you are allowing a short insulin spike and this helps you hold your lean muscle tissue. By having the low carbohydrate day, you are pushing insulin to burn fat. In addition to insulin, carb cycling keeps your leptin hormone high, this hormone is responsible for helping you feel full. We are not done…there is a neurotransmitter call serotonin, this chemical is responsible for helping you feel good. Serotonin is spiked with carb consumption, thus if all you do is avoid carbs, than you are bound to drop this chemical and start feeling awful…FYI this chemical drops are you age, and thus many middle aged women find carbs to be a safe haven for feeling good. Lastly, the hormone that most of us know well: cortisol…this hormone wreaks havoc on the system, it causes water retention, fat gain and muscle loss. A high carbohydrate diet does spike cortisol, thus the addition of low carb days will reduce your cortisol product.
Burning fat, building muscle and controlling your fullness and feeling less stress and more happy are fundamental keys to weight success!
BRACE YOURSELF…THERE ARE SOME THINGS TO WATCH FOR
- First and foremost, you are going to feel more energy on high carb days, so use it! Make sure that you exercise during the high carb days.
- If you are a scale watcher, don’t panic! On high carb days your body will hold onto water, and infact the more lean muscle you are the more water you will hold, this however is not fat gain, it is water and it will go down.
- Make sure that you adjust your fat on low and high carb days…on high carb days reduce the fat and vs on low carb days. Weather it is a high or low carb day your overall calories should be the same.
To learn how to carb cycle successfully, speak to one of our nutritionists and receive a diet strategy!
