Carbohydrates in regular diet have long been subjected to a lot of scrutiny and many people who consider dieting keep a strict check on their consumption of carbohydrates. This is why carb cycling has become a trend amongst the health conscious.

It is a kind of diet in which you use alternatives to carbohydrates. One thing to keep in mind is that carb cycling is an advanced form of dieting, as there is a lot of tweaking and programming in comparison to other forms of diet. It should, therefore, be done under a trained dietician’s supervision.

Here, a person may restrict carbs or completely exclude them of their normal diet. Depending on personal ability, an individual might do it for a week or for a complete month. This is done to maintain physical performance while going to the gym or even for reduction of body weight.

Keeping a track of goals is of utmost importance
Everything has a purpose and carb cycling is no different. If you have decided on adopting this kind of diet, it would be beneficial to keep the below-mentioned factors in mind:

• Tweaking carb intake when going to the gym – One approach is to take a higher carb intake during training days and reduce the carb intake or take a low carb intake during off days.
• Muscle on, muscle off – Another approach is to reduce carb intake when shedding muscles and increase the intake when putting muscles.
• Back to high carb intake – There are many who consume high amounts of carbohydrates after leaving carbohydrates for a particular amount of time. Do not fall into this bad habit.
• Special events need more carbs – Athletes who wish to gain a competitive advantage lead themselves with a high amount of carbohydrates. This is something which is very common amongst bodybuilders or models that are going for a photo shoot.

Other points to keep in mind
Many individuals during carb cycling allocate carbs in accordance with their body fat. The skinnier they wish to get, the more high carbs they may include in their diet.

• A very common carb cycling diet may have two moderate to high days and three low-carb days.
• On low carb days, a high amount of fat is consumed and on high carb days, low fat is consumed.
• The consumption of proteins remains the same between days, whereas the fat consumption keeps on varying.

Why is carb cycling considered important?

• Carb cycling is known for getting rid of all the bad sources of carbohydrates from the body and diet.
• Infrequent or brief restriction of carbohydrates may be beneficial for overall health and composition of the body.
• A recent study even mentioned that short bouts of carb fasting improve markers of cardiovascular diseases.
• Carb cycling may actually help in preserving lean muscle mass by cutting off body fat and ensuring that muscles don’t rupture.
• On low carb days, the body burns fat and as a weight loss regime, it is encouraged.