Sounds like a great idea. I'm restarting induction for my second week and I'm doing good so far. But I just wanted to keep this in mind if things stop. So I'm basically posting here so Ic an get subscribed to this post. LOL
I wish all of you well and I'm going to keep following progress.

Deana

HI Anita,
I read with great interest your concept of carb cycling. I've been on Atkins since July 5th. I lost about 5 kilos (11 pounds) upto the middle of the third week and none thereafter. I HAd heard about the concept before, but I thought one could up the carbs for a day max. I see from your signature line that you are upping and downing for 6-8 days at a strech. Maybe I'll try that and see if I can give myself a boost. Wish me luck!!
All the best to you too.
Anu (India)

Anu, welcome to carb cycling!

Post to my journal and let us know how it's going. We are all experimenting with this to see how best to accomplish our goals. We can all learn from each other.

Good luck!

I'm going to try this. I'm going to start with the carb up tomorrow for a week.

edit*
well maybe not for a week, i've been reading around and some are saying maybe 3-4 days up.

since i'm the weight anita is at i may try her same calorie levels.

Good luck Nepeta!

Through four completed cycles, I've lost an average of 1.5 pounds a week. During that time I was Carb Up more than I was Carb Down!

I am trying to shorten the carb up to increase my rate of loss slightly. If, over this next carb down I lose the same way I have over the past 4 cycles, I'll up my rate to about 1.75 average loss per week. That is truly outstanding for someone my size!! That's better than 1% a week. I really shouldn't go much faster, in fact, in about another 10 pounds I probably should start slowing down. Imagine that!!

Yes, you could probably use approximately my calorie levels. I exercise 3x a week at Curves, a total of 1.5 hours a week. If you do a lot more exercise than that you might be able to up the calories some, but I wouldn't up the carbs.

Post to my journal if you would like and let us know your results. We're all trying to help each other in this.

:rheart: Anita

FINALLY! Some RESULTS!

I did 6 days on the UP cycle, and today will be Day 4 on the DOWN cycle. I went up 2 pounds on the UP cycle, and finally today dropped 3 pounds for a net loss of 1 pound!!! Doesn't sound like much, but I was on the "light" side of 152 this morning!

Certainly worth continuing. Today and tomorrow will still be DOWN days, but then Monday is another UP day.

Or, should I wait until I see 152 for three days in a row?

(I posted this is Anita's journal also.)

Hi Wench and interested others! :)

Thought I would reply here so others would see my answer.

Well, I don't know. I've been using the three day rule (which is just a rule I made up for myself :lol: ) which is that when I'm at the same weight for three days in a row on carb down, I start carb up. BUT, I've also noticed that I average a 3 pounds net loss every carb down. So, the other thing I could do is stay on Carb Down until I lose 3 pounds, and then go to carb up. I really don't know.

I do know that usually the first two days on carb down, like you Wench, I don't see much result (this time is different, as I've lost 1 pound each day in 3 days on carb down, 2 that I gained on carb up and 1 virgin pound as of this morning :) )but days 3-5 on Carb down the weight falls off. So, if it works the same for you as for me, the next couple of days should really see some weight loss. I sure hope so. However, I have some other friends trying this and it doesn't seem to be working quite as well for them, but they are lifting heavy weights, so I think maybe they are building muscle as fast as they are losing fat, and therefore the scale does not go down. But, I don't know... There are others who could speak better to that.

So, Wench, definitely keep this working. Be sure to keep your carbs very low, and AT LEAST stay on this for 5 full days. I've gone as long as 10 with good results, but think that 5-7 is about right on carb down. I don't think I got enough benefit out of the 10 days as I would have had I gone back to carb up more quickly. You can examine my results in my sig line to see what I'm talking about.

Also - notice that it doesn't seem to matter whether or not I gain weight on carb up, I still lose a net of about 3 pounds for the full cycle! Of course, remember that my carb ups are only about 60-70 carbs, so I believe I'm just retaining a little water which falls off quickly when I go back to carb down.

On my next cycle I'm planning on a 4 day carb up. Problem is, right now I'm losing so quickly that I need to be careful I'm not burning muscle. What an incredibly good problem to have!!!

Also, I posted this is another thread and to my journal, but in a different format. Check out these stats:

First 2 weeks on low carb - I lost 7 pounds
Next 17 weeks (mostly induction levels, but did tweak some trying to get things moving) - I lost 11.5 pounds - so slow and frustrating
Last 9 weeks carb cycling - I've lost 13.5 pounds - YES!! An excellent rate for someone my size, 1.5 pound average per week

Since I've shortened the carb up my rate has picked up even more, so I'm actually thinking I'll need to go back to longer carb ups soon to slow things down a little. Imagine that! We'll see if I continue to lose at this fast rate. As I get lighter I would think it would slow down naturally, but we'll see.

Woe, that was a lot of information. I sure hope it helps everyone. :agree:

:rheart: Anita

Thanks, Anita. I plan on doing the current DOWN cycle through tomorrow at least, which will be 5 days. There's kind of a special occasion most of next week, which is why I wanted to be on the UP cycle then.

I might be able to sneak at least Monday into the DOWN cycle, but Tuesday is probably out.

I'm following your progress. Thanks for all the info. Ain't it great when things work?!?!?!?!

Yes, this is so much FUN. :lol:

I coordinate my cycles with events/vacations, etc. That's part of the reason that the # of days keep changing.

I'm anxious to see your results over the next several days.

:rheart: Anita

I'll be curious to know how it turns out bawdywench, good job.
Anita your results are encouraging.
I've got 3 days carb up under my belt, I think I may do 5 days of up and 5 days down. I hope I can do the carb down levels that low & still feel like i have enough energy. I figure if they are only 5 days I will probably be okay. Only way is to try it. I'll let you know my results after I finish a cycle.

Anita, actually I'm not sure I understood what you were saying about staying carb down for 3 days at same weight, then going carb up. Do you mean that if your weight on carb down doesn't go down to a set weight and it's on day 5 I would then want to continue carb down until I get three days at the same weight?

Well, I'm making this up as I go along! :lol:

What I was doing with carb down is staying down until I had the same morning weight for three days in a row. The idea being, if I'm not losing, my metabolism must have slowed (starvation mode), I need to go to carb up and rev the engine. It seems, FOR ME, after about 5-7 days I stop losing. YMMV!

You may want to have shorter carb downs, or longer. I've been doing this for 9+ weeks now and am STILL tweaking. Right now I'm working on shorter carb ups. I THINK my carb downs will still be 5-7 days. It takes me two full days to get into Ketosis, then I have three good weight loss days. I did have one long carb down (10 days) but I only lost one more pound on that carb down (4 as opposed to 3), so I don't think the extra carb down days were worth it FOR ME.

Does that help? :)

Also - I have plenty of energy on carb down, and actually have MORE cravings on carb up! But, I really don't have much problem at all sticking to plan. My results have been so good that I get daily encouragement from my scale! But, you're right, since carb down only lasts a few days, I always know that carb up is coming soon! AND I really enjoy carb up! :yum:

Hi LCanita:

Good for you! Experimentation is a wonderful thing.

Question, though. You mention that you have a slow metabolism, but I don't see it. You've hadn't stopped losing weight from what I could see. Do you know anyone who's done this after, say, a 10 week stall of no weight loss or body composition change and then lost fat?

I've been carb cycling in a different manner, but right now I'm taking a break so I don't get too frustrated with my lack of progress. I'm not tracking carb intake right now (part of my break), but I may try something like this after I get my head back into it.

Another thought. You may also want to add this thread to your signature (if you have enough space). From personal experience, it's easier to reference a link in your signature if you're discussing your carb cycling experiences on other threads. :)

Keep up the good work!

Wanda

anita, thanks for your help yes it does make a bit more sense now :lol:

I don't know that overall I have a slow metabolism. I just think that after being on induction levels for about a week my metabolism slows down. Yes, I was losing weight very slowly before I started this, but it was so frustrating and I was tired of depriving myself. But when I upped the carbs I stopped losing! So, going back and forth like this seems to really be the answer for me.

No, I don't know anyone else who is doing anything quite like this except for a couple members here on the forum who are just starting to try it. I think that some of them may be on long stalls, they will have to answer for themselves. We will have to wait for their results. I went through three complete cycles before I posted anything because I wanted to be sure it was working. It is!

I am running out of space in my sig line. I keep reworking the stats to show them all. Eventually I'll have to condense it more, but I want everyone to be able to see exactly what has been happenning. But, thanks, it's a great idea, and I may try to fit it in. :D