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What Is Carb Cycling? Can It Work For Fat Loss? | Nutritionist Explains | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
What is carb cycling and how can it be used for fat loss? Expert nutritionist explains everything you need to know.
If you're trying to lose weight, you may have been recommended 'carb cycling' which is a common dieting technique where you stagger or restrict the amount of carbohydrates you eat at certain points in the day, week or even year.
If you're not sure where to begin or it seems a little complicated, don't worry, our nutrition expert Richie Kirwan is on hand to explain exactly how carb cycling works and why it might benefit your training goals.
Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition
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0:00
ever heard of carb cycling
0:02
this
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isn't it
0:07
[Music]
0:10
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:11
kirwan and today we're going to talk all
0:13
about carbohydrate or carb cycling what
0:15
it is how it works and whether it can
0:17
benefit you in the gym or on the playing
0:20
field let's get started so as much as
0:22
some people like to make carb cycling
0:24
sound as complicated as possible to make
0:26
it seem like a very advanced technique
0:28
in reality the idea behind it is super
0:31
simple in its simplest form carb cycling
0:33
means eating different amounts of carbs
0:35
at different times of the day
0:37
week or even year in order to get some
0:40
sort of benefit for performance or body
0:42
composition the best way to explain this
0:44
would be to give some extreme examples
0:45
and then to explain how you might be
0:47
able to use it yourself and before we go
0:49
any further i'm just using these
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examples to explain the concept i'm not
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suggesting that you should do this or
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even that any of these techniques are a
0:56
good idea now let's take a look firstly
0:58
let's imagine someone who's dieting
1:00
trying to keep calories low to lose some
1:02
body fat they're also training regularly
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let's say five days a week because they
1:06
want to retain as much muscle and
1:08
strength as possible and resistance
1:10
exercise is the best way to do that
1:12
because they're following a plan and
1:13
have been dieting for a while they don't
1:14
have many calories to play with they
1:16
have a certain amount of protein and fat
1:17
that they need as a minimum which leaves
1:19
them with let's say 100 grams of carbs a
1:21
day the workouts are in the mornings and
1:23
are really hard because the diet has
1:24
been so long you with me so far instead
1:26
of spreading their 100 grams of carbs
1:28
evenly amongst their three meals which
1:30
would give them a really small portion
1:32
of carbs each time they decide to have
1:34
all of their carbs together for
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breakfast a couple of hours before they
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work out they enjoy breakfast and always
1:40
feel that they train better after eating
1:42
a large dose of carbs some people do
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some people don't so they have their
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really carby breakfast enjoy a great
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training session and then eat some
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really low carb meals during the rest of
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the day that's an example of carb
1:54
cycling let's look at another example
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someone who wants to bulk but wants to
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do it as a lean bulk so she gains as
2:00
little body fat as possible she's
2:02
training four days a week and her
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sessions are super heavy and really take
2:06
it out of her and she knows she
2:07
struggles to recover from them sometimes
2:09
so instead of having the same amount of
2:11
carbs every day she decides to change
2:13
her macros based on training days and
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rest days she reduces the amount of
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carbs on rest days because she's pretty
2:18
inactive and feels she doesn't need them
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all that much she then divides those
2:22
carbs pretty evenly amongst her meals on
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her training days that means on training
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days she has more carbs than on rest
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days she has more carbs for her
2:30
breakfast before she trains which helps
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her train harder and she has more carbs
2:34
in the meals after her training which
2:35
she feels helps her recover better then
2:38
on rest days she doesn't have as many
2:40
carbs but she's okay with that this is
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not only carb cycling but also calorie
2:44
cycling because she ends up eating more
2:46
calories on training days than on rest
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days now there's not much evidence to
2:50
suggest that carb cycling like this is
2:51
better for lean gains than having the
2:53
same amount of carbs and calories every
2:54
day but and it's an important part if
2:57
she enjoys it and it makes her feel
2:59
better on her training days it's a
3:01
perfectly reasonable nutrition plan
3:03
remember nutrition doesn't always need
3:05
to have an actual effect on your body
3:08
enjoying one way of eating more than
3:10
another is a perfectly legitimate reason
3:12
to choose it okay let's look at another
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example one a little bit more aimed at
3:16
performance in endurance sports like
3:19
long distance running or cycling there
3:20
are training techniques called train low
3:22
sleep low and recover low
3:25
basically the idea is to train on a low
3:27
carbohydrate diet recover on low carbs
3:30
or do both when your body is forced to
3:32
train with low carbohydrate availability
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it's forced to burn more fat instead
3:37
to do this your body starts
3:38
manufacturing more mitochondria in your
3:40
muscles these are the little energy
3:42
generating organelles in your cells that
3:44
can burn both carbs and fat like i said
3:46
when you train with low carbs on a
3:48
regular basis your body produces more
3:50
mitochondria a process called
3:52
mitochondrial biogenesis remember that
3:54
and it also makes more enzymes and
3:56
proteins needed for burning more fat but
3:59
and again it's another important but
4:01
most of the time an athlete will train
4:03
with much higher carbs because carbs
4:05
improve performance and help people
4:07
train harder athletes also compete with
4:09
very high carbohydrate intakes that
4:11
means when it comes to the race they can
4:13
effectively use both fat and carbs as
4:16
fuel so this is yet another example of
4:18
carb cycling okay how about this one
4:20
someone is trying to diet and finds a
4:22
lower carb diet is pretty easy for them
4:24
during the week but on the weekend let's
4:26
say saturday they want to eat more carbs
4:28
just to help them enjoy the weekend a
4:30
little bit more the carbs make them feel
4:32
better and might also help improve
4:33
training for a few days after eating
4:35
them too if this sounds familiar that's
4:37
because this approach can also be called
4:39
a diet refeed
4:41
but it's also an example of carb cycling
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finally just to give a very very broad
4:45
example bodybuilders often do bulking
4:47
and cutting cycles where they try to
4:49
gain muscle or lose body fat
4:50
respectively if you think about it
4:52
bulking diets are much higher in
4:53
calories and a lot of those calories
4:55
come from carbs and some fat obviously
4:57
on the other hand when trying to cut
4:58
athletes reduce their calories and they
5:00
do that by reducing their carbs and
5:02
again some fat for a few months while it
5:04
doesn't seem obvious
5:06
this is also an example of carb cycling
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so i hope this video has helped you see
5:11
that carb cycling is nothing fancy at
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all it's just choosing to eat more or
5:16
fewer carbs at specific times with a
5:18
specific goal in mind so whether it can
5:20
help you or not depends entirely on your
5:22
goals and on your food preferences did
5:24
this answer your questions about carb
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cycling as always if you have any more
5:27
let me know in the comments below and
5:28
remember to like and subscribe to the my
5:30
protein youtube channel for more great
5:32
evidence-based nutrition information
5:37
oh hello there
5:38
i don't have any there's nothing on
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screen i can't see anything
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[Music]
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you
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