Often in our practice, we see clients who are in a caloric deficit for body composition change plateau on their progress.  While operating at a calorie deficit may be effective in the short term, it can be frustrating when calorie deficits do not yield the aspiring body composition results you are looking for.  In these cases, we often look to prevent metabolic adaptation in order to continue on the path to optimizing fat loss and maintaining or gaining lean muscle tissue.  We do this by systematically implementing an approach known as carb cycling . 

Simply put, carb cycling is an advanced nutrition strategy that involves planned increases and decreases in calories and carbohydrates throughout the week to manipulate weight and body composition over time. While there is limited research to support the benefits of carb cycling, there are many pros and cons associated with it that we have seen both personally and professionally in practice. 

Let’s dive a little bit deeper, shall we?

First and foremost, it is important to recognize that the research does support a calorie deficit to be superior for weight loss, regardless of the macronutrient composition of the diet. However, as you begin to lose weight, your metabolism is forced to adapt and become conservative with energy, thus continued fat loss efforts may be prevented or stalled during the process ( this is normal! ). 

However, when calories are dropped too low for too long, you may begin to find yourself hangry and irritable ( I think we’ve all experienced this at some point in our life ). This is because your body is forced to down regulate necessary metabolic functions which results in poor digestion, recovery, and difficulty sleeping, increased hunger and risk of injury, brain fog, fatigue, hormonal adaptations, weight gain and more. 

In efforts to prevent metabolic adaptation during a fat loss phase, carb cycling is an effective nutritional strategy that can be deployed. See below for a summary chart on the pros and cons of carb cycling.

As you can see, there are pro’s and con’s to every “diet.” Since carb cycling is a more advanced nutrition strategy, we recommend implementing it after being consistent and compliant with tracking calories and macronutrients on an app like MyFitnessPal for at least 1-2 months beforehand. Carb cycling is an effective way to manipulate body composition by expediting fat loss while preserving lean muscle tissue. 

At Prefusion Health, we are committed to helping you achieve your nutrition-related goals using the data we collect in-house. As a result, we are constantly looking for ways to help you overcome stubborn weight loss plateaus while preserving lean body mass at the same time.

If you’re interested in learning more about our nutrition program at Prefusion Health, click here to schedule a discovery call with one of our in-house Registered Dietitians today!