Carb Cycling...

Hmmm I just looked at my sugar averages for last 3 months and
I am usually sitting between 58 and 7g5 max. It was high yesterday as
I had both honey with my oats on am and as a treat I made my
High Protein Pancakes with side of eggs. I had maple syrup with
them hence so high yesterday.

Currently using AllMax AllWhey Protein Powder which for two
scoops has 14g. I also usually have blueberries daily at about
3/4 - 1 Cup which is 13.5-18g of sugar and I have 1 tbsp of
unpasteurized honey usually with oats which is also 16g...

That equates to just under 50g daily and rest any other sugars
are very small minute in anything else eaten on the daily.

JohnyB
Your usual sugar intake is just fine, IMO. Nothing wrong with blueberries and some honey.

Your usual sugar intake is just fine, IMO. Nothing wrong with blueberries and some honey.

Cool thanks brotha 🙂

No problem! I'm sure Goatfish will answer the other questions, he's quite good with this area!

What do you know about leptin? I've read a lot about carb cycling through plateaus in order to raise leptin, but I've never hit a plateau as long as I hit my macros on a low carb diet. If I cheat, skip workouts, that will definately effect me. But I'm not sure how I feel about low leptin putting your body in starvation mode. Is that something that is supposed to happen over time, happen in short period of time, or something that happens on extremely low cal diets, or what?

This doesn't seem to be something that has effected. I've never done a cut for over 3 months, so I'm wondering if it's something that happens over time.

Probably more than I care to admit..

Although I feel there is a lot of gray area when it comes to the whole concept of starvation mode I can say this. Generally speaking when people refer to starvation mode they're almost always referring to the point when you have stopped producing glucagon from the stored glycogen in your liver because a glucose refeed has not occurred in x amount of hours (it will vary from person to person based on multiple factors). This is when your body will begin to search for alternative fuel sources and your resting metabolic rate gets lower, your body temperature gets lower.. so on and so forth. This is called a metabolic shift. (Metabolic cellular processes SHIFTING to another source of ATP for cell work)

Here's my take on it. Obviously it's not conclusive because I cannot allude to any studies nor have I done any myself. I feel that as long as you are on a low carbohydrate diet, ensure satiation, and get sufficient protein (since you lift I'd say is about 1.2g per pound) your body will not go into starvation mode because once glycogen from the liver has been depleted you have induced your metabolic shift and your body will begin to prefer fat over glucose. This will also preserve muscle mass because gluconeogenesis will be avoided. The most important component here is ensuring satiation. Proteins and fats keep us satisfied much longer than carbohydrates do so staying full is significantly easier.

I know it's difficult to get a straight solution on this subject but I hope I've shed some light.

Thanks. There is a lot out there to read on it, but like you said, no studies.

Here is another question I've always had:

Ive read a lot of articles that say it takes about 10-14 days for the low carb diet to kick in. I'm assuming that's because it takes around that amount of time to deplete glycogen stores. But my question is, if it takes that long for the low card diet to deplete glycogen and look for alternative sources of energy, doesn't the carb refeed completely defeat the purpose of the low carb diet? Now that the body has refilled glycogen stores after a refeed, are you all the way back to point "A" where it takes 10-14 days to deplete glycogen stores?

Like I've said before, even one refeed every 6 days can really slow progress for me in a cut. And the way I see it, I'd rather hit my target goal sooner so that I have a more flexible meal plan.

My wife is trying to cut right now and has been trying to dump as many grains outta her diet as possible. She
eats very clean on the daily but she still wants to get those abs popping more. She has been at a deficient
for awhile but I told her she needs to change her ratios. She is Type 1 diabetic so she needs cards throughout
the day... currently she is eating 40/40/20 on average. Do you think if she pushed for 45/30 /25 that would
help her reach her goal faster. She is worried bout removing to many carbs or two reason... 1) she needs them
for her insulin and 2) Her doc told her going below 40% carbs was bad... I honestly don't think docs are in the
complete know when it comes to diabetes and fitness. I asked what did these docs look whom told you this...
Reply they are all fat asses... end point lol.

Thanks. There is a lot out there to read on it, but like you said, no studies.

Here is another question I've always had:

Ive read a lot of articles that say it takes about 10-14 days for the low carb diet to kick in. I'm assuming that's because it takes around that amount of time to deplete glycogen stores. But my question is, if it takes that long for the low card diet to deplete glycogen and look for alternative sources of energy, doesn't the carb refeed completely defeat the purpose of the low carb diet? Now that the body has refilled glycogen stores after a refeed, are you all the way back to point "A" where it takes 10-14 days to deplete glycogen stores?

Like I've said before, even one refeed every 6 days can really slow progress for me in a cut. And the way I see it, I'd rather hit my target goal sooner so that I have a more flexible meal plan.

A long time ago when I began to educate myself about ketogenic diets and how they worked I read that everywhere too and I believed it. But then I actually did the diet and after doing it several times for cutting I have to stand up and contest that notion and don't worry I'll put science behind it too.

When running a low carb diet it is important to have ketostix on hand so that you can regularly monitor your urine for the presence of ketones. When ketones are present in the urine that's how you know that your liver glycogen has been depleted and you are officially in ketosis. Three days into my ketogenic diet I was already showing trace amounts of ketones. Five days in and I was showing moderate levels of ketones. Clearly, it didn't take me very long to undergo a metabolic shift and begin ketosis. Trust me, when you're shifting, you know it. You feel like a truck hit you. You're tired, irritable, and have the worst headaches I believe I've ever experienced. But then suddenly one day you wake up and you feel amazing. That's when you've done it.

I say all of that to say this, just like everything in the world of nutrition and bodybuilding, results will vary from person to person. This is my hypothesis. If you workout at a high intensity on and empty stomach and force your body to release glucagon, you will achieve ketosis much faster than if you do not. When you are running on an empty stomach you are literally running on stored sugar from your liver. When you exercise at a high intensity on an empty stomach you exponentially increase the amount of glycogen retrieved from the liver and from your muscles. Your glycogen de-branching enzyme goes to work significantly harder than if you weren't doing much. If we use this method to induce the metabolic shift I can say with almost absolute certainty that it will be achieved much faster.

On the subject of the refeed. I'm still on the fence about whether or not its actually necessary. When you have a carbohydrate refeed you bring all lipolysis to a complete hault and your body goes to work storing all the carbohydrates you ingested as either fat or glycogen. Because glycogen stores are empty it is a commonly held belief that you will not store any of these nutrients as fat. I contest that because each time I had a refeed, I gained fat. Insulin is not a hormone with a one track system of operations. It WILL store glycogen and it WILL store carbohydrates as fat because that's what it is there to do. It also will cause you to retain water for the next several days and it COULD potentially be harder to get into ketosis than it was originally. I wouldn't recommend the refeed to anyone. Your muscle tissue becomes efficient at using fatty acids as fuel and once you reach that point I'm not sure how necessary glycogen really is to a productive workout.

^^^^

Thats reassuring. It goes to show you that it a lot of diet, exercise, and lifestyle is subjective to the individual. There is a lot of studies backed by science, and I think if you are new to the lifestyle the best approach is to try the pathways backed by science until you find what works for you. I

Then at that point, you can refine your process. But genetics are the biggest mystery of all. Some guys on here blast carbs to put on mass and still struggle w it. Other guys like me get chubby and bloated from eating carbs. I eat a couple slices of pizza and I can feel it in the morning for sure. I've tried to force myself to do carb refeeds because of all the literature out there proclaiming the benefits. But carb refeeds halt progress for me. So I don't do them. Was definately concerned about all of the talk about leptin and starvation mode though.

Also, I've never really felt that energy kick from a carb load anyway. I think I'm so used to training low carb, that it doesn't effect me.

Another positive of low carb for me is I hit a wall at around 3-4 pm and want to do nothing but sleep if I'm eating a lot of carbs. I find I have a lot more energy and don't hit that wall w/out carbs.