Should You Carb Cycle On A Keto Diet?
The Ketogenic diet has consistently stayed in the spotlight, and for good reason! It’s a low carb, high fat diet that was originally used to epilepsy patients. However, more recently the diet has been raved about for it’s weight loss results among many other things.
Keto combined with carb cycling can produce amazing results and this method is used routinely by bodybuilders. So how exactly does the keto diet work? Additionally, what are the benefits of carb cycling?
1. How Keto Works
Before we get into carb cycling, let’s talk about the basics of keto. The basic goal of keto is to change your bodies energy source from glucose to fat. But why go through all the trouble to change your body’s energy source? Isn’t it efficient enough already?
The problem with using sugar as a primary energy source is that fats are not needed for energy
and therefore are stored. This really becomes a problem when you realize that your body can’t store much excess glucose. So this excess glucose gets converted into fat and stored, which is not good when you are trying to lose weight.
That’s where the ketogenic diet comes in. When you lower your intake of carbs, the body begins to look for an alternative energy source and your body enters a metabolic state known as ketosis. When your body is in a state of ketosis, it produces ketones. Ketones occur from the breakdown of fat in the liver. So when you lower you carb intake, fat cells release the water they are storing and head to the liver, which stimulates weight loss and improves your overall health.
2. Carb Cycling
The carb cycling method is used by body builders to achieve shredded conditioning while keeping muscle growth on the increase. This method (often referred to as the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet) involves entering ketosis, and then having high-carb days where you break ketosis and boost your metabolism.
The cyclical ketogenic diet devotes one to two full days of high carbohydrate consumption in order to fully refill muscle and liver glycogen stores. However, in order to achieve the best results you should have a proper workout schedule.
3. How To Do The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet
There are quite a few ways of tackling the cyclical keto diet, it’s all about what works best for you. One pretty simple version involves low carb days where protein, fats and only green vegetables are consumed , and high carb days where starchy carbs and fruit are included at every meal.
With this method, the carbs are clean and junk food is not involved. That means you can have:
- Brown Rice
- Oats
- Peas & Corn (high fiber carbs)
- Potato, Sweet Potato & Yams
- Green Vegetables
- Beans/Legumes
- Bran Cereals
- Whole Grain Pasta & Bread
Typically, carb cycling is employed for 8-10 weeks to achieve optimal conditioning, though some people go longer or shorter. It all depends on your goals and what you are hoping to achieve.
The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet Takeaway
All in all, the carb cycling and keto combo is great if you already have a proper workout routine in place. This method combines the benefits of ketosis and carbohydrates together in a way that allows regular high-intensity trainers to get the most out of their bodies and their training.
Want to learn more about the benefits of the Keto lifestyle? Then I encourage you to grab your Free Keto Quick Start Guide Today! My main goal is to take your personal health on a transformative journey from a place of lethargy and carb addiction to that of euphoria and fat-burning. My experience, training and passion are all about educating and empowering women to results; not just in terms of fat loss, but in improving their overall quality of life, and the lives of those around them. It is my pleasure to serve you and help you find a happy and healthy lifestyle with Ketogenic Living, so let’s connect!
