Need Carb Cycling Advice

[grandcru2003]

Hi all - Newbie here! I am looking to lose about 10 pounds and get more lean and am hoping that Carbohydrate Cycling will work for me. I am 35 yo, 5'2", 120 lbs - don't know body fat %. I work out 5 - 6 days per week with mix of HIIT cardio and LIT cardio and weights on alternate days. (Btw my profile pic is me 2 years ago at my ideal weight!)

My biggest question is: how many days should I do Low Carb and how many High Carb in a week?

I just got Jay Robb's book - The Fat Burning Diet - and he suggests alternating 1 day Low-Carb and the next day High Carb and then alternating that the rest of the week with 1 splurge meal on Sat nite.

Is this the most effective method? Or should I try doing Low Carb for a few days and then High Carb just for a day or two?

Anyone have any experience with Carb Cycling and have any advice I greatly appreciate it!

[kait123]

When I carb cycle I generally do high carb days on Wednesday and Saturday, the rest low carb, no higher than 70g a day for me. On higher carb days I shoot for 180g.
Be careful with the carb cycle diet, it makes me crave a lot more things than I should. But it is effective. You just have to really stick with it and stay within your macros.

Honestly though, IMO, if your new to this I wouldn't suggest it. A lot of experiened dieters usually do the carb cycling diet.
I would first try figuring out your macro's and eating within those.
By the sounds of things on your end it just seems like you need a diet check. Get things in order and such.
Figure out your macros and go from there, make a meal plan and stick with it.
You can train all you like, but if your diets off you'll get no where.

[kimm4]

Honestly though, IMO, if your new to this I wouldn't suggest it. A lot of experiened dieters usually do the carb cycling diet.
I would first try figuring out your macro's and eating within those.
By the sounds of things on your end it just seems like you need a diet check. Get things in order and such.
Figure out your macros and go from there, make a meal plan and stick with it.
You can train all you like, but if your diets off you'll get no where.

Exactly this.^^

There is no need to carb cycle at this point. Figure out the calories you will need based on your goals. Once you been dieting for long periods of time and plateaus/stalls start to happen, that's when you start some type of calorie/carb cycling approach.

[grandcru2003]

Thanks for your responses. I have followed numerous low-carb diets in the past and most recently have been following the Paleo diet and reached a plateau, that's why I wanted to try to change it up and try something different, hoping to jumpstart my metabolism. I'm 35 and find it very difficult to lose weight when I put it on.

I use portion control when eating but not necessarily calorie counting. But at this point, I'm sure that would help so I'll look into learning about it.