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  #1   ^
Old Thu, Jul-27-06, 07:15
seasoul seasoul is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 177
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 231/194/150 Female 5'2"
BF:
Progress: 46%
Location: coastal Virginia
Default Carb Cycling Part II

Thanks to the few of you who wrote to explain what carb cycling is. Now I'd like to hear from those of you out there who have actually tried it and if you were successful. What regime did you employ? Btw, I am not into weight lifting. One poster suggested that carb cycling is really meant for those who lift weights. What did you eat during the cycle? How long? I'd like to know.

I may want to try carb cycling as on this Saturday, it will be two weeks with no change in weight or inches. I think this might be considered a stall? I've been on Atkins for two months now and have lost 11.4 pounds. Not much. But I'm more concerned about what I believe is now a stall.
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  #2   ^
Old Thu, Jul-27-06, 08:22
Jenn123's Avatar
Jenn123 Jenn123 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 374
 
Plan: Reduced Calorie LC w/ IF
Stats: 190/130/115 Female 5'6"
BF:Still Too High!
Progress: 80%
Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Default

Not sure about carb cycling, but if I am ever in a stall I go ahead and have one meal of whatever carby food I want. It's usually pasta. That tends to break the stall. You can also try fasting for a day which will also work, or having a day of only fruit. Just some suggestions.
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  #3   ^
Old Thu, Jul-27-06, 08:35
CrysAnne's Avatar
CrysAnne CrysAnne is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 280
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress:
Default

A stall is technically losing no weight or inches for four weeks. But if you feel you're stalled, hey, go with it. I know if I didn't see any change in results in two weeks, I'd be switching it up. As I said in that other thread, the originator of this idea (on this board) said she'd wait 'til she saw the same number on the scale every day for three days, then she'd start a carb up cycle.

I have tried this and it's worked for me. When I did it I didn't carb up for as long, but that's because I was doing it more intuitively and not according to any sort of plan. On Friday morning I'd start my carb up by making sure to add calories and mainly good carbs (though this didn't always work, sometimes I was REALLY liberal with what I ate) and maintained this until Sunday evening. On Saturday night I'd usually go out, have a regular meal (i.e., with whatever incidental carbs came with my meal) and some cocktails. I usually gained about one or two pounds during carb up, but if I kept my carbs healthful and contained, sometimes I'd even lose. Go figure!

On Monday I'd carb down by going to strict induction and stay on it until the next Friday, when I'd carb up again. Once I was doing this regularly, usually by Tuesday any weight I'd gained over the weekend was long gone (then again, I tend to get into ketosis with 24 hrs). By Friday, if I needed to lose (as opposed to maintain, which cycling is good for, as well), I'd be down a fresh pound or two. Initially I'd weigh constantly to see precisely what my body was doing during carb up and carb down, but after awhile I stopped weighing generally, except for Fridays. It always worked for me; I should have stuck to it!

But then, you know, LIFE happens. So here I am, back again. I'm going to start cycling too as soon as the weight stops dropping, but when I do I'll be carb "upping" for four days, not three. FWIW, I've been doing meat and egg for a week and I've lost six pounds, so I'm pretty thrilled with that. When the weight stalls, though, I'm cycling. Also, when I feel more comfortable with my weight and can either take it slower or simply need to maintain, I'm cycling.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by CrysAnne : Thu, Jul-27-06 at 08:45.
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  #4   ^
Old Thu, Jul-27-06, 08:50
CrysAnne's Avatar
CrysAnne CrysAnne is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 280
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress:
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Oh, one last thing: many, MANY people who do not lift weights DO carb cycle, and with success. Please check out that thread I recommended in Tips & Stalls; there were a few people there having success with it. I don't lift weights either, unfortunately, but I still lost. (I really should though; Amory is my hero!)

If you want to try it, do it for one or two weeks and heavily monitor both what you're eating and what you're weighing, that way you will know if you're going off the deep end with carbs or gain. In your mind, determine what the "top end" to gain during carb up is, and don't exceed it. When you hit that number, go immediately to carb down. As I said before, many people won't allow themselves to gain more than two pounds. For me, it's about five, because I can gain those first five just looking at a piece of chocolate.

On the other hand, instead of cycling (which is not guaranteed to work for everybody) you can just try switching up your 20 carbs a day by doing more veggies/less veggies, more fat/less fat, more calories/less calories---and see if that is enough to break your stall, without cycling. The same theory could apply to exercising, too.

Hope this helps.
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  #5   ^
Old Thu, Jul-27-06, 09:10
Earthgirl's Avatar
Earthgirl Earthgirl is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 492
 
Plan: Low Carb WOE
Stats: 156/135/135 Female 66 inches
BF:28/17%/19%
Progress: 100%
Location: Oklahoma USA
Default

I have been carb cycling for about a month now, and follow the parameters I found here http://low-carb.org/faq/#Q2_35 and here http://web.mit.edu/rsw/Public/ckdcalc.html fairly closely.

Sometimes it's hard to do, though. I do lift weights, and so I time my carb up to start after I do the Glycogen Depletion workout.

I personally think that if you do not lift weights, you miss out on part of the benefit of CKD, but to each his and her own. On the other hand, it suggests to me that I might be able to relaxe a little and not be so anal if cycling is working well for those who do not lift...

But generally what I do is eat induction level (or close to it) carbs Sunday through Friday. I start carbing up after my total body lift workout, whether I do it in the morning or evening, my following meal is carby.

I haven't been too careful about including only veggie carbs-I do eat some breads and sugars. I think what I need to be more careful about is the "rule" of making sure the carbs you (I) eat on carb up days are virtually nonfat. Don't know if that is much of an answer, but hopefully it helps.
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Jul-31-06, 10:39
nawchem's Avatar
nawchem nawchem is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 8,701
 
Plan: No gluten, CAD
Stats: 196.0/158.5/149.0 Female 62
BF:36/29.0/27.3
Progress: 80%
Default

The only wt I have lost has been when I had a weekly carbup of 300 carbs. I lost 25lbs pretty easily. Then I decided to do straight lowcarb and my weight hasn't changed in 9 months. When I tried meat and egg I gained weight! WTH? I recently was on a lifting website www.bodyrecomposition.com they recommended that I eat more. I eat 100 carbs/day and carbup 150carbs and have lost the 9lbs I gained trying to do strict lowcarbing. I exercise about 2 hours/day, but I don't care about muscles either, I just want the fat gone.

Hopefully carb cycling will be the thing that works for me.

seasoul I love Lyle McDonalds book on Flexible Dieting. He is a physiologist, he goes into the biological stuff that happens dieting and carbups. He only recommends carbups (big ones) if your %bodyfat is less then 35%. He also recommends everyone have 2 free meals a week, I live for the free meals! You can get his books at the body recomposition site. He also wrote the PSMF diet.
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  #7   ^
Old Thu, Oct-12-06, 10:10
Jen114114's Avatar
Jen114114 Jen114114 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 63
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 170/156/145 Female 5 ft. 8 in.
BF:
Progress: 56%
Default

Hi I'm new and having technical difficulties. Need to post to get some kind of page toolbar. I can't get past the first page.
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  #8   ^
Old Thu, Oct-12-06, 10:13
Jen114114's Avatar
Jen114114 Jen114114 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 63
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 170/156/145 Female 5 ft. 8 in.
BF:
Progress: 56%
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Now I'm on the last page, but still no page toolbar. Last time I was here it came right up. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
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  #9   ^
Old Sat, Oct-14-06, 07:59
Jen114114's Avatar
Jen114114 Jen114114 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 63
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 170/156/145 Female 5 ft. 8 in.
BF:
Progress: 56%
Default

I am still trying to get into this thread. I can't get the lpages to come up so I can't get past the first page.
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  #10   ^
Old Sat, Oct-14-06, 23:41
LattéLover's Avatar
LattéLover LattéLover is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,510
 
Plan: Pregnant-Moderation
Stats: 157/195/000 Female 5 foot 4 inches
BF:
Progress: -24%
Location: Canada
Default

Just to add to the knowledge about carb-cycling, I guess that is what is described in the Curves low carb diet without using that term. They describe it as a strategy for maintenance or a metabolic boost of you're stalling or want to take a break from the diet. Reading it 6 months ago, contributed to my motivation to start my weight loss efforts bc it sounded so easy......almost too easy, always wonder if it's too good to be true, but I'm learning here that it may work. Also, I guess I've done it, in my own way, durign the whole 6 months, as a way to counterbalance splurges.

Basically Curves suggests you start at the weight (ex 150 lbs) and weigh yourself daily as you start to eat "normally" (unfortunately, normal is never defined but it's clear that it's eating more than low-carb). They say that when you gain 5 lbs (probably in 3-5 days), then you stop and do their Phase 1 (no starchy carbs but still some fruit and dairy - can't remember how much....maybe 2 per day each?). THen keep weighing until lose the 5 lbs and go back to eating normally, and cycle back etc. The part I find too good to be true (and, of course, hope so much is true), is that they say that bc you are increasing calories, you will increase your metabolism and each time you cycle into eating normally, it will take longer to gain back the 5 lbs.........even to the point of saying that people can end up eating "normally" for a whole month and only do the strict phase for 2 days a month!!!! I could live with 2 days per week!

What I've done along the way during weight loss, is let myself have splurges (starchy carbs when I wasn't planning to, or larger portions that weren't planned or outright sugary real treats like regular cake etc.) then estimate how many portions of carbs were in the treat, then counter it by not having starchy carbs for those number of days since my baseline plan has been to have 1 portion of starchy carb per day. Ex: if I had fries and bread and considered it 3 portions, then would not have starchy carbs for 3 days (but lots of the rest). This has really helped me, psychologically, stay motivated bc it has given regular freedom to have treats, so not to get into the depressing cycle of deprivation, frustration, guilty, giving up ,etc. And the weight came off. We'll see now that I'm gettign near the end if it will still work bc I read in a magazine that, as we get smaller, our metabolism slows.....I guess obviosuly dependign the our amount of exercise, which I'm convinced is so vital to weight loss with splurges (after 2 vacations wherein I had higher carb several days but kept up exercise 3-4x per week and the weight came off after a few days strict on starchy carbs)!

Hope this was helpful. Hope to be in maintenance soon, so will give this a try for that and right back to let you know. And I generally do muscle toning with free weights for upper body and simple leg exercises for lower (squats, lunges, abs) 2x per week (most of the 6 months, I focused on upper body bc of recovery from knee surgery sicne had lots of rehab exercises on leg but not like weight training).

Latte Lover
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  #11   ^
Old Mon, Oct-16-06, 15:27
Jen114114's Avatar
Jen114114 Jen114114 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 63
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 170/156/145 Female 5 ft. 8 in.
BF:
Progress: 56%
Default

OK all better. Sorry, I'm computerly challenged. Anyway, I was reading the thread in tips and stalls and I decided to try the carb up thing. I planned on doing it until I gained a few pounds, then carbing back down. The first day I tried it I lost 4 lbs when I stepped on the scale the next morning. Then I wasn't sure what to do, so I carbed back down to my safety net. 2 days of low carbing made me gain a lb. Hmmm?
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  #12   ^
Old Mon, Oct-16-06, 15:34
Jen114114's Avatar
Jen114114 Jen114114 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 63
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 170/156/145 Female 5 ft. 8 in.
BF:
Progress: 56%
Default

By the way, when I carbed up, I just ate fruits, veggies, low fat meat, yogurt, and nuts. When I carb down, I do Atkins induction.
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  #13   ^
Old Wed, Oct-18-06, 09:55
Pointcove Pointcove is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 47
 
Plan: CKD
Stats: 310/240/210 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 70%
Location: Georgia
Default I Low Carbed For a Week

I was stuck for almost a year and tried various measures to no avail. This was after I lost a lot doing low carb. I read the earlier parts of the thread and was already familiar with cyclical ketogenic diets for body building.

Anyway, I decided to carb up for 5 days. I ate lots of oatmeal, rice, noodles and all the other things I had foresaken for a long time. I ate absoultely no protein and no fat other than what is in the food. I did keep calories below 1800 by not eating fats and protein. At the end of the week my weight was the same. Then I went 0 carb, meat, eggs and chicken and the weight fell off rapidly. It is one week tomorrow and I am down 10 lbs.

I may go back high carb in a few more days if the weight loss stalls. There is something to this resetting your metabolism. It is logical and I can verify it works.

Last edited by Pointcove : Wed, Oct-18-06 at 10:04.
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  #14   ^
Old Wed, Oct-18-06, 12:37
Jen114114's Avatar
Jen114114 Jen114114 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 63
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 170/156/145 Female 5 ft. 8 in.
BF:
Progress: 56%
Default

Pointcove,

Wow! Good for you. I stuck to the low carb and have been losing again now, but it's nice to hear that it is working since I know I'll get stuck again here.

When I carb up again, I think I will still eat protein, but I will keep the fat to a minimum. I think the trick is that not only does it reset your metabolism, but as long as you don't eat the carbs and the fat together (and keep the calories somewhat under control) you won't gain a bunch of lbs. on the up cycle either.
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  #15   ^
Old Wed, Oct-18-06, 19:14
Pointcove Pointcove is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 47
 
Plan: CKD
Stats: 310/240/210 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 70%
Location: Georgia
Default

Jen, thanks. Yes, I've heard about not combining carbs and protein at the same meal, but I wanted to do something drastic and cut out all protein and fats for the 5 days. I'm really not sure why I decided to eliminate all protein, but looking back at it, my calorie count was much easier to keep down this way.

I know a lot of the weight was water because I started peeing like crazy the very first day I went back all meat and eggs. It was strange the way the weight began coming off the very first day back on low carb. My plan is to do the carb up again when things stop in a week or so if not sooner. It does make sense that your body adjusts to making fat even with 0 carbs eventually. This shock therapy fixes that problem.
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