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I get tons of questions about carb cycling for fat loss. Carb cycling for muscle gain or body recomposition are different, so in this post we’ll stick to fat loss.
Three of the most common questions I get about carb cycling are:
- Do you need to carb cycle in the first place (is it mandatory?)
- If you’re a good candidate for carb cycling, how often should you raise your carbs?
- How many carbs should you eat on the high carb days?
To answer these questions properly, let me briefly review the basics.
Carb Cycling 101
Carb cycling for fat loss simply means that instead of staying in a calorie deficit 7 days a week, you occasionally increase your calories, mostly in the form of carbohydrate.
Usually, the carb calories are raised once or twice a week for a full day. This means you eat up to your maintenance level or only slightly higher. These higher-calorie spikes are known as re-feed days (some people just call them “high carb days”).
Because calories (and carbs) go up and down, that’s why this is known as a “cyclical” dieting technique, as opposed to calories staying level, which is known as “linear” dieting. In the science papers lately, you sometimes see this referred to as “intermittent energy restriction” but I don’t like that name because it confuses people who think that’s referring to intermittent fasting (which is a different subject).
We’ll stick to the classic bodybuilding diet term, carb cycling (this technique originated in the body-building world).
How Does Carb Cycling Work?
The theory supporting carb cycling is based on the fact that it’s not good for the health of your metabolism or your mental state (including your motivation) to be dieting in a calorie deficit for a long period of time, especially an aggressive deficit. If your calories are too low for too long, adaptive thermogenesis occurs, which means there is a small but significant decrease in your metabolic rate, so you don’t actually burn as many calories each day as you would predict on paper.
The hormones that regulate feelings of hunger and fullness are also impacted by caloric restriction, and the urge to eat more increases. Abnormally high levels of hunger and strong cravings make it more difficult to stay on the diet and continue to lose weight. Even if you’re disciplined and avoid giving in to binges, continuous hunger can be unpleasant. Low energy is also a common problem with low calories and if your energy is down, your training can suffer and your calories burned from N.E.A.T. can drop.
These negative side effects of dieting become more severe the leaner you get. A person who has been on very low calories for a long time, has already lost a lot of fat, and wants to get even leaner, is likely to experience the most severe effects of all if they keep going with even more low-calorie, linear dieting.
That’s where carb cycling comes in. Instead of continuing to diet on low calories 7 days a week, you increase the calories periodically to give your body a break from continuous energy deprivation. Raising calories to maintenance level at least once a week has physical and mental benefits. Physically, you re-stimulate your metabolism-boosting hormones (such as leptin and thyroid), you increase your energy and reduce hunger levels. Mentally you get a break from calorie restriction which helps improve your long-term compliance.
When carb cycling for fat loss, you’re still in a deficit most days of the week, so you continue to lose fat, but you’ve now hopefully mitigated many of the negative effects that would occur if you stayed on low calories every day, week after week.
Who Should Use Carb Cycling? Is It Mandatory For Everyone?
When you understand the rationale behind it, you can see that not everyone needs to carb cycle. Carb cycling is most beneficial for people who are already dieted down. As you start to cut back on calories for fat loss, you may start to feel a little hungry right from the first week, but most of the major negative hormonal and metabolic effects of calorie restriction don’t kick in until you’ve been dieting for two or three months. In the early stages of a diet (the first month or two), it’s simpler and easier to establish a reasonable calorie deficit and stay at that level every day.
Some dieters choose to use carb cycling from the start anyways as a pre-emptive strategy, hoping to sidestep as much metabolic adaptation as possible before it happens. Others might do it to keep energy levels up, to keep hunger in check, and to make compliance to the diet easier and more enjoyable. Carb cycling is also sometimes used in hopes of preventing muscle loss, or even achieving body recomposition and gaining a little muscle while also losing fat.
If you want to start taking re-feed days right from day one, you certainly can, but they are not mandatory at the start of a diet. If you’ve been dieting for two to three months or longer with a continuous calorie deficit, especially if the deficit was aggressive, that is a good time to start carb cycling.
When you’ve been dieting a long time and you feel tired, weak and hungry, if you’re having trouble sticking with your diet, if you’re struggling to maintain your lean body mass or if your fat loss seems slower than it should be (according to the on-paper calculations), then those are all signs that including higher calorie days via carb cycling will be very beneficial.
If you’ve been dieting a long time and you’re extremely depleted, it’s also a good idea to take a diet break for one or two full weeks at maintenance calories, and then when you go back to the fat loss phase, re-start with carb cycling.
When Carb Cycling, How Often Should You Raise Your Carb Calories?
If you’ve decided to try carb cycling the next question is how often should you do it? If the primary goal is fat loss, then most people take a re-feed day once or twice a week. This means that 5 or 6 days a week, you are still in a deficit. If you decided to take high calorie days more often than twice a week, then you would start cutting into your weekly deficit too much. Eating more on occasion can help the fat loss process over the long run, but if you spike your calories too often, you will actually slow down your rate of fat loss.
Some people who have the concurrent goal to gain muscle as well (aka body recomposition), may use a carb cycling strategy and refeed more often – up to half the week at maintenance calories or a small surplus. This may sound ideal – gaining muscle and losing fat at same time – but keep in mind if you’re only in a deficit half of the week, then reaching your fat loss goal takes twice as long.
Body recomposition takes a lot of time and is a patient person’s strategy, but most people pursuing muscle gain as one of their goals come to understand and accept that. If you have a lot of body fat to lose, your best bet is stay focused on fat loss as your primary goal until you reach the “lean” category for body composition. Then shift gears and pursue a muscle gain program, if you choose.
There is a difference between carb cycling for fat loss and cyclical dieting for body recomposition. For body recomposition, the low carb days have a small to moderate deficit, the high carb days have a small surplus, and about 50% of your time is spend in a deficit. When carb cycling for fat loss, the low carb days have a moderate or aggressive calorie deficit, your refeed days are usually taken only up to maintenance level, and you take refeed days only once or twice a week.
When carb cycling for fat loss, you have some room to customize the frequency of your high carb days. You can do it as often as once every 4 days (3 days low, 1 day high), or just once a week (6 days low, 1 day high). You could refeed even less often if you’re in the early months of a fat loss phase, if you feel good and you don’t think you need the extra calories.
Keep in mind that one of the reasons people use carb cycling is that being on reduced calories every day eventually catches up to you and makes most people feel more drained, tired and hungry. A few days or even a week of reduced calories can be tolerated by anyone, knowing that more food is coming soon, but the mental and physical fatigue may seem to increase with each passing day if the calorie deficit is aggressive.
That is probably one reason so many people like the 3 days low 1 day high carb cycle system – by the fourth day, they’re already starting to feel a little tired and hungry and the extra food is coming just in time to rejuvenate them. Going on to a fifth or sixth day on low calories, while simultaneously training hard, can be more difficult. And going weeks on end with low calories and hard training, with no cyclical approach to diet (and training intensity and volume as well), that probably explains the high failure rate of so many diets because at that point it’s miserable and continuing on is just a battle of pure will.
Also, you do not have to do carb cycling in a specific, fixed rotation like 3 days low, 1 day high, or 6 days low 1 day high, and you do not have to try to make your carb cycling schedule fit neatly into a 7 day week either (though some people prefer it that way).
When carb cycling for recomposition, the high carb days are taken on the most intense, high-volume or metabolically demanding weight training days (legs, back and heavy compound exercise days). Even if your primary goal is fat loss, you can synchronize your higher-calorie, higher-carb refeed days on your intense training days if you choose, and this may help with muscle retention. Simply aim for one or two re-feed days per week on average and don’t worry if it doesn’t land on the same day every time.
How To Customize Your Carb Cycling Strategy
One way to help you decide how often to refeed is based on how dieted down you are. The less dieted down you are, the less often you refeed. The longer you’ve been dieting, the more aggressive your deficit has been, the lower your body fat is now, and the greater the amount of fat you’ve already lost, the more often you should refeed. So if you’re months into your diet, you’re depleted and already pretty lean, refeed more often – I recommend 3 days low, 1 day high. If you haven’t been dieting that long, and you feel good, then you could refeed only once every 5, 6 or 7 days.
It’s up to you if you want to customize the frequency of the re-feed days and make it 4 days low 1 day high, or 5 days low 1 day high, or 6 days low and 1 day high. It’s a judgement call. I simply would not recommend staying in a deficit for more than a week after you’ve been dieting for months.
It’s a best practice to take at least one refeed day per week. I also don’t recommend taking more than 3 refeed days a week if your primary goal is fat loss. Remember, you still need a calorie deficit to lose fat, and carb cycling does not necessarily make you lose fat faster in the short term, it’s designed to help make dieting easier and prevent negative side effects so you can make it through the long term.
You can make decisions about changing your high carb day frequency by paying attention to how you feel, including your energy during workouts and throughout the day, your level of hunger, whether you feel a lot of cravings after a long time in a deficit and your general level of hunger. If energy is low, hunger is high and progress is slow, that’s a sign to indicate more frequent re-feeding.
Another indicator for more frequent refeeds is if you have lost or are currently losing lean body mass. If LBM is dropping, that would be a sign to take more frequent high-calorie/ high-carb days. If your LBM and strength are maintaining just fine, you don’t need as many re-feeds. Once you’ve established your high and low day calorie and carb amounts, then keep in mind they are not set in stone – you can increase or decrease the calories on either day (high or low) and change the frequency of re-feed days as well.
On the re-feed days, be sure to bring calories at least up to maintenance level. Do it even if it seems like a lot of food. I find it humorous how many people complain for weeks about being deprived and hungry on a diet, then when I suggest to eat more (on high days when carb cycling), suddenly they’re afraid to do it, or it’s “too much food!” Most people find themselves surprised that they can eat a lot more one or two days a week – sometimes to the point of feeling completely full and satisfied – and still keep losing fat weekly, and enjoying more energy at the same time.
Final Tips And Closing Thoughts
Researchers are still debating how much you can re-stimulate metabolism when you raise calories for only one day. It’s probably not even close to enough to restore a suppressed metabolism to normal because the boost in carbs is brief, so the boost in metabolism-regulating hormones is also brief.
Full diet breaks of one or two weeks are often prescribed by coaches after long stretches of dieting to more fully restore metabolism, and in some cases, for example when someone has been starvation dieting for years, it could take a whole season of maintenance eating (or a muscle gain phase) for all body systems to recover.
However, the benefits of carb cycling are not just physical and that’s why so many people use the technique, even if they think their metabolic health is in good shape. Mentally, it is a lot easier to keep dieting when you know a high carb day is right around the corner, where you get to eat a lot more. That makes it infinitely easier to stick it out for a few days of deficit eating, compared to thinking about being deprived nonstop for week after week.
One last note: It may be helpful when planning carb cycling diets to think in terms of weekly deficits (not just daily deficits), and think about your progress in one week blocks as well. Adjust your diet strategy based on your weekly results. If it’s going well, you should notice an improvement in body composition and how you look every week. If two weeks go by and you don’t see an improvement in how you look (or if you don’t feel good), that’s your indication to adjust your nutrition plan for the next week ahead.
I hope this helped to clarify some of the finer points of carb cycling and how to customize your own carb cycling plan. If you have any other questions, post in the comments below and I’ll be happy to answer.
If you want to see a complete bodybuilding-style diet program that includes carb cycling be sure to read (or listen to) Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle – the Bible of Fat loss
-Tom Venuto,
Founder, Burn the Fat Inner Circle
Author, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
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