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Carbs have seemed like the enemy of dieters for decades now: the Atkins diet, South Beach, Whole30, paleo, and now keto. But not only can you still eat carbs and lose weight [3], but there's a way you can boost your carb intake for fat loss: carb cycling [4].
Carb cycling is a way of eating carbs by alternating days on which you eat more carbs or fewer carbs. Confused as to what that might look like? Personal trainer Max Weber, NASM, ACE, showed what a week's worth of carb cycling would look like if you worked out three times a week and if you worked out four times a week.
To put it simply, he recommends eating higher carb on the days you work out and low-carb on the days you don't: on the days you exercise, eat more calories and carbs to support your training, hunger, and recovery. On your rest days, eat fewer calories and carbs to stay in a calorie deficit [5]. To do this, Max says to increase your calories by 200 and carbs by 50 grams on training days and decrease calories by 200 and carbs by 50 grams on rest days.
If you're confused about carb cycling but want to give it a try, Max's method could be a simple strategy to get started and start to see some weight-loss results [6].
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