Carb Cycling for Weight Loss (Beginner’s Guide)

In this beginner’s guide I’ll show you how you can use carb cycling for weight loss to lose weight fast while still being able to eat your favorite carbs like pizza.

Carb cycling isn’t another fad diet but it’s a science-backed nutrition strategy proven over the years to elevate your metabolism, enhance fat burning, and optimize energy levels. By strategically alternating your carb intake you’ll be able to quickly drop stubborn pounds while still having the freedom to enjoy your carbs… guilt free!

But it can be confusing to know how many carbs you can have on which day. And what kind of carbs are best to eat at certain times to get the best results. The last thing you’ll want is to unknowingly follow the wrong carb cycling plan and end up gaining weight.

The good news is you’ll uncover all the basics of carb cycling for weight loss here in this easy to follow beginner’s guide. You’ll discover how to structure your carb cycling week, what carbs to eat, and some tricks to guarantee your success.

Keep going to start using the carb cycling diet to ignite your weight loss results.

What is Carb Cycling?

The carb cycling diet is strategically manipulating your carbohydrate intake on certain days ot the week to so you can maximize the fat burning effect. It puts your body into a light state of keto that promotes the burning of fat for fuel.

Eating carbs causes your body to release insulin, and when insulin levels are high it’s very hard (nearly impossible) for your body to burn body fat. This is why going on a low-carb diet can be very beneficial for weight loss.

But going on an extreme low-carb diet for an extended period of time can also have negative side effects. Carbs can be very anti-catabolic (help prevent muscle breakdown) and can actually increase your metabolism.

Keeping your muscle mass while losing weight is crucial for toning your body. About 30% of weight loss is from muscle mass. Your body will have a better shape with muscle, your metabolism will be higher, and you’ll be physically stronger.

What Happens to Your Body When You Carb Cycle

So what carb cycling does is strategically manipulating your carbohydrate intake to get their advantages at certain times. Decreasing your carb intake with low-carb days will maximize the fat-burning effect.

But eating too low-carb all the time can cause thyroid downregulation, which slows your metabolism. Very low-carb diets can trigger higher cortisol (the stress hormone), which can cause weight gain especially in the belly.

Prolonged low-carb intake also lowers leptin levels (the “fat controller” hormone), causing your thyroid to lower its output.

A high-carb day spikes back up your leptin levels, signaling to your body it’s not in a starvation mode. This helps keep muscle mass while elevating your fat-burning metabolism.

You can also work out harder on these high-carb days with all the extra energy. While you can still get weight loss results without working out, you’ll burn fat faster by also working out while following a carb cycling plan. You’ll also preserve more muscle mass by replenishing your muscle glycogen stores.

It’s also very refreshing having these high carb days as a break from eating low carb. This freedom not only let’s you eat pizza but also helps with the sustainability of keeping up with carb cycling long term.

If you’ve struggled with eating in a deficit then these high carb days are a game changer. Many prefer carb cycling to full keto all the time. But one disadvantage with carb cycling is having to know the macro count of your foods.

Why Carb Cycling Is Good for Weight Loss (+ Fat Loss)

One of the most efficient ways to lose weight is to lower your insulin levels. Insulin is a storage hormone with its primary job is to move carbs and sugars from your bloodstream into cells for storage.

This causes you to gain more fat unless you immediately use these carbs in your bloodstream for energy. So with high insulin levels your body will prioritize storing energy as fat rather than burning it off.

Lower Carbs = Lower Blood Sugar = Lower Insulin

Lowering your insulin levels by reducing your carb intake signals for your body to switch to fat burning for fuel. When your insulin levels were high, fat burning is turned off because your body wants to use all the carbs/sugars for energy instead.

So lowering your carb and sugar intake for multiple days will put your body into a low insulin state. This is when your body is in prime fat burning state.

But after a few days your body can enter a “starvation mode.”

Your thyroid hormones can lessen such as T3 and T4 that cause an elevated metabolism. Stress levels can increase causing additional weight gain and causing you to become hungrier.

Strategically having a single high-carb day tells your metabolism to spike back up right when it was about to start slowing down. Then the following day, you’ll go back into a low-carb day with an elevated metabolism and a refreshing break from the low carb days.

The Rules of Carb Cycling

The biggest and most important rule of carb cycling is to not have multiple high carb days in a row. You must spread the high carb days apart otherwise your insulin and glycogen replenishment will be too high.

But you need to have 1-2 high carb days every 7 days for carb cycling to work properly. High carb days are needed because it’ll stress your body and metabolism trying to do low carb days forever. Weight training needs these carbs to prevent muscle breakdown and to keep working out hard.

I always follow a high carb day with a low carb days.

You’ll replenish glycogen stores with the high carb day, so the next day you’ll need to then have a low carb day. This is to burn off the glycogen (stored carbs in your muscles and liver) so you can start burning fat fast again.

With low carb days you’ll try to keep your carb intake as low as possible. Usually 50g of carbs at most on your low carb days that follow a high carb day.

On your low carb days, try to time your carb intake to your first meal of the day and your post-workout meal.

This carb timing helps to prevent fat gain while maximizing muscle recovery. Your insulin sensitivity is higher for the first meal, so your body will process the carbs more efficiently.

After weight lifting, your muscles are more insulin-sensitive so they’ll soak up the carbs for glycogen replenishment, rather than storing them as fat. This helps to maintain lean muscle mass, keeping your metabolism high and enhancing fat loss.

How to Carb Cycle for Beginners

Now, let’s dig into exactly how to properly carb cycle for fat loss…

The best carb cycling schedule for beginners would be to have 2 high carb days, 3-4 low carb days, and 1-2 medium carb days. This schedule gives you quick results but also flexibility so you’re not going too extreme with the low carbs.

Day 1: Low carb day

Day 2: Low carb day

Day 3: Medium carb day

Day 4: Low carb Day

Day 5: Low carb day

Day 6: High carb day

Day 7: Low to Medium carb day

In the example carb cycling schedule above, you’ll be doing two low carb days to start, followed by a medium carb day, then two more low carb days. If this schedule is too hard for you, I’d change Day 5 into a Low to medium carb day.

The point of having the medium carb day in the middle is to give yourself a quick carb refeed. This gives you a quick break from the low carbs to semi-replenish glycogen stores and refuel your metabolism.

Then on Day 6 you’ll have a high carb refeed day. I schedule this on Saturday when most want more flexibility and freedom from the low carb days. This is the time for those cheat meals like pizza.

On Day 7, it’s best to cut down on carbs again. But I have this as a low to medium carb day. I also have a 7 day carb cycling plan you can check out.

So you don’t have to go on the extreme low end of carb intake, but it can be somewhere in the range between low to medium carb intake. I schedule this on Sundays when the weekend might call for more flexibility and freedom.

Low carb days are your “fat burning days.” Your insulin levels will be low enough to allow for the maximum amount of fat burning while keeping your muscle. You most likely won’t have a ton of energy for working out since your carb intake is low.

This is when doing more cardio workouts or light weight lifting workouts are best. Low carb days should be mostly low intensity cardio or days off from working out. Walking the dog, light jogging, bike riding, swimming, etc. or taking the day off completely from exercise.

How to Calculate Your Carb, Protein & Fat Amounts

Below is how to calculate your carb, fat, and protein intake amounts for each of the carb cycling days:

MEN	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat
Low Carb	0.25 grams per lb. of body weight	1.5 grams per lb. of body weight	0.35 grams per lb. of body weight
Medium Carb Day	0.5-1.0 grams per lb. of bodyweight	1.25 grams per lb. of body weight	0.15 grams per lb. of body weight
High Carb Day	1.5 grams per lb. of body weight	1.0 grams per lb. of body weight	0.08 grams per lb. of body weight

WOMEN	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat
Low Carb	0.2 grams per lb. of body weight	1.0 grams per lb. of body weight	0.1 grams per lb. of body weight
Medium Carb Day	0.5 grams per lb. of bodyweight	0.8 grams per lb. of body weight	0.15 grams per lb. of body weight
High Carb Day	0.75 grams per lb. of body weight	0.6 grams per lb. of body weight	0.15 grams per lb. of body weight

Keep in mind these are more ballpark macro estimates. You may have to tweak your macro numbers since individuals vary. This also doesn’t account for incidental calories like those from cooking oils/sprays, sauces, condiments, beverage add-ins, etc.

On your low carb days, you’ll be consuming a higher amount of protein.

This is to keep muscle breakdown at an absolute minimum. Your muscles need the amino acids from protein to repair and maintain muscle; this stops your body from breaking down muscle tissue for energy.

For low carb days, use the lower end of the range given for how much carbs you should have. On your medium carb days, you can go anywhere from in the middle to the high range.

But on your low carb days, use the upper amount for healthy fats. On your medium carb days, use the lower end range for healthy fats. This balances out your calorie intake so you don’t put your body into a calorie surplus.

For high carb days, it’s best to divide your carb and protein intake evenly in meals throughout the day. So you’ll try to eat each meal with an even amount of carbs and protein as determined by your total intake for that day.

On low and medium carb days, try to distribute your fat intake evenly throughout the day. While it helps to evenly distribute your food intake it’s not the biggest deal .

Women will need fewer calories than men since they have less metabolically active tissue. Since they have less muscle mass, they won’t need as many calories or protein.

Your Carb Cycling Results

It’s best to continually tweak and change your carb cycling diet to keep progressing towards your goals. The body adapts to any diet over time, and while you can maintain with a certain carb cycling schedule, you may need to change it to keep from plateauing.

Here’s an example: You started off with two high carb days per week, with two medium carb days and three low carb days. But your body is starting to adapt and results are slowing after a while. Then the first thing I’d have you do is drop down to 1 high carb day, with 3 medium carb days and 3 low carb days.

You can also increase your cardio exercise to increase fat burning. You can start doing cardio on all your low and medium carb days. Increase total cardio sessions from 3 or 4 per week, up to 4 to 5 per week. And on your high carb day just do weight lifting for your workout.

If you stop losing weight and start to plateau, you can also consider increasing each cardio workout session by 10 minutes. So if you’re doing 20 minutes of cardio, you could increase that to 30 minutes of cardio. By the end of the week you could get an extra 60 minutes of added cardio.

I usually recommend Zone 2 level cardio to efficiently burn fat for fuel. It’s also lower stress on your body which is important for low carb days.

Zone 2 cardio is usually between 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). To get an estimate of your Zone 2 cardio range, subtract your age from 220. Multiply that number by 0.6 and 0.7 to get your heart rate bpm range.

I personally use a combination of intermittent fasting and keto carb cycling. This combo is what has produced the best weight loss results as well as being sustainable long term.

Skip breakfast in the mornings and stay fasted for 16-18 hours to further put your body into a state of fat-burning ketosis. Add in C8-MCTs to your morning coffee (or beverage of choice) to kickstart this keto fat-burning process.