I Tried Carb Cycling for Two Weeks -- Here's What Happened.

Varying carb intake, or carb cycling, is a way of eating that athletes and bodybuilders have long followed to enhance performance. This eating plan may sound a bit extreme, but it’s quickly catching on as way to lose weight without sacrificing your favorite carb-rich foods.

Carb cycling has now gone mainstream, but is it really a good way to lose weight? Better yet, is it healthy? To better understand and evaluate carb cycling from a nutrition perspective, I followed a cycling plan for two weeks.

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is an eating approach where carbohydrate consumption varies between low and high intakes. This can be done either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, but alternating every other day (or every two days for for some plans) seems to be the most popular format.

An example of a carb cycling plan would be eating a “low-carb” diet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and eating a higher carb diet on Tuesday and Thursday. Keep in mind that “high-carb” doesn’t necessarily mean nothing but pasta and bread. Think of it as essentially a healthier version of how you normally eat.

While athletes have followed forms of carb cycling for years, the trend has quickly become a way for carb lovers to lose weight (while having energy and eating the foods they love periodically during the week). It’s also a popular eating strategy among intermittent fasting devotees as a way to stimulate weight loss and health outcomes.

Is Carb Cycling Right for You?

Click here to find out more in my feature in Cooking Light, where I share everything you need to know about carb cycling, so you can decide if this eating plan is right for you.