Carb Cycling: burn more fat, increase energy, and live with more vitality.

Is carb cycling for you?


DISCLAIMER: The following is not intended as health or nutrition advice. This is purely informative. It is up to you to decide what is best for you and your body. 

Carb cycling is a dietary approach that I’ve found quite a bit of success with. 

Now, we all define “success” differently, and a successful dietary approach can mean different things to different people, so I’ll more clearly define what I mean when I say I’ve had “quite a bit of success with carb cycling”. 

My main goals from my diet are to aid in keeping body fat low, but to also provide enough energy to perform at a high cognitive level amidst a demanding work schedule, and to fuel some pretty gnarly workouts where I also look to perform at or near my best. 

I find that most dietary approaches, or “diets”, that are solely focused on improved body composition, are too restrictive, and aren’t sustainable. 

Especially as many of them leave you zapped of energy, and I pack way too much into a day to be zapped of energy from a highly restrictive diet, purely for the sake of a couple less percent body fat. 

In general, my diet typically includes lots of grass fed, pasture raised meat, organic fruit, raw honey, raw cheeses, and full fat, grass fed and/or fermented dairy. I find with these foods, I get the best balance of optimal benefits: burning body fat/keeping it low, coupled with high performance and function. 

I’ve also been known to indulge on the weekends, or at special events, and will include potatoes and maybe a small amount of grains on high carb days, which we’ll understand more about as we read on. 

Let’s learn more about this approach to eating, and arm you with more information to see if carb cycling is something you want to give a try. 

Introduction to Carb Cycling

Carb cycling is a dietary approach in which you alternate your carbohydrate intake on a daily, weekly, or even monthly or yearly basis.

Carb Cycling is commonly used to help burn excessive stored body fat, optimize hormone balance & response, improve physical performance, and to shake things up when trying to bust through a plateau, whether with weight loss and/or physical performance.

**I will note that very little research has been done on carb cycling, so much of these potential benefits or use cases are anecdotal, including my own. That said, a quick YouTube search on carb cycling, uses, and benefits, will yield a lot of potentially useful results.** 

Carbohydrate intake, when carb cycling, can be extremely variable, and is something that can be tweaked and adjusted to see what yields the best response for you personally. 

So don't be afraid to experiment a little, but also remember that you need to stick with a specific regimen for some time (at least 4 weeks) to have a true idea of what's working, and what could be tweaked and adjusted.

How Does Carb Cycling Work

Carbs are your body’s primary fast burning fuel source. In the presence of carbs (glucose) in your system, your body won’t lean on its slower burning fuel source, fat. 

If cutting out carbs allows your body to then burn fat, why not just cut carbs out entirely?

This can definitely work for a while, however, over time, is also often times where low energy and thus, unsustainability come into play. 

As mentioned above, one of my goals from my diet is to also have energy for cognitive function and to get lots of stuff done in a day, both mentally and physically. 

Oftentimes, this calls for a faster burning, more readily available energy source, (glucose) which is what our body yields from carbs. 

However, too many carbs results in too much stored energy, and thus, weight gain, and the accumulation of body fat. 

This is where the magic is in carb cycling. 

Variability.

The idea behind carb cycling is that there is variability in your carbohydrate intake, which leaves room to be in states where carbs (glucose) aren’t present, and thus, you are more likely to burn fat, and then also provide bursts of quicker burning energy in the form of glucose from carbs from time to time. 

Anecdotally, I, and many others have found this to be the sweet spot for burning more fat, and helping to keep body fat lower, but also having the mental and physical energy to get stuff done throughout the day, and to crush your workouts if you so desire. 

It’s in this variability where you can have some fun, playing around, experimenting with, and tweaking actual carb cycling schedules. 

Types of Carb Cycling Schedules

I’ve personally played around most with daily, weekly, and what I would call a feast/famine schedule, all of which I’ll walk you through briefly. 

Once you understand carb cycling conceptually, and how to create your own schedule, you can create any kind of schedule you’d like. 

Daily

This would be a schedule for carb cycling based on a 24 hour period. Typically, you would do a combination of intermittent fasting, then eating low to no carb for the majority of the day, and eat all your carbs essentially in one meal for dinner. 

Carb Myth Buster: If you’ve ever heard that you should avoid carbs in the evening as you’re more likely to store that glucose as body fat, that is just plain wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. In the AM, you naturally produce a lot more cortisol, as this is the hormone your body pulses to better help you combat stress in the day. The more cortisol you have in your bloodstream, which you will naturally have in the AM, also makes your insulin far more susceptible to spiking due to carbohydrate intake, which also makes it more likely you’ll store glucose as body fat. Eating your carbs in the evening actually helps with serotonin production, which can lead to improved sleep quality. 

So, if doing a daily carb cycle, it is most ideal to hold off on carbs for the day and then eat them all at dinner, rather than breakfast or lunch. Going carb free for the better part of the work day will result in more sustained energy (as long as you’re eating higher protein, moderate fat foods in lieu of carbs), and a greater propensity to burn more fat. 

I’ve had a lot of success with this approach by implementing an intermittent fasting schedule, where I don’t eat for 14-16 hours, starting with my final meal of the evening, and into the next day. Then, when I’ve broken my fast for the day, I would eat high protein, moderate fat foods devoid of carbs, then workout/train, and finish the day with a higher carbohydrate meal containing around 100g of carbs.

By beginning your day with intermittent fasting, and then a low to no carb approach for the majority of the day, you are making it a lot more likely that your body will be burning fat as its primary fuel source. 

Then, only at the end of the day, after you’ve worked out, and further expending my body’s fuel reserves, I’ll “re-feed” with a higher carbohydrate meal to aid in recovery and get me going the next morning strong. 

Weekly

This schedule is based on our 7 days in a week calendar cycle. 

In this schedule, you have low, moderate, and high carb days, thus cycling your carbs from day to day across the span of a calendar week, rather than over a 24 hour period as in the above schedule. 

A typical week for me in this schedule will look like the following starting with Monday and ending with Sunday:

Low – Moderate – Low – High – Low –Moderate – High (Note how I make room for more carbs on the weekends) 

Feast/Famine

A Feast/Famine schedule is going to implement a one day a week “re-feed”, and is typically for someone trying to focus more heavily on lowering systemic inflammation and/or reducing body fat.

In a Feast/Famine approach to carb cycling, you would typically have 6 days of low to very low carbohydrate intake (usually 25-75g per day depending on body weight) capped off with a higher calorie, high carbohydrate day on a Sunday to “re-feed”. 

In many circles this is known as a “cheat day”. 

Oftentimes this is called a “cheat day” because it’s the day where you eat everything you couldn’t eat during the week and want to eat, or are craving. 

And this is true, however, I like to call it a “refeed” day, because you should also focus on getting higher quality foods in that your body can use, and truly refuel the reserves you spent all week, rather than a bunch of empty calories. 

In short, try to combine eating some of the junk foods you want in moderation on your “re-feed” day, with higher quality carbohydrate choices like fruit, potatoes, and whole grains. 

My Current Diet

As for me, I’m currently participating in “National Carnivore Month” for the month of January, so I am on a strict carnivore diet all month, and then will be switching over to a “Modified” Carnivore diet, where I will do a weekly carb cycling approach. 

“Modified” Carnivore consists of all Carnivore diet approved foods, essentially anything animal based, and then fruit and honey. 

My weekly carb cycling approach will be the one I outlined above: Low-Moderate-Low-High-Low-Moderate-High.

On my low carb days I will eat strict carnivore, so zero carbs essentially, on my moderate days I will eat a combination of 3 servings of fruit and/or honey, and then on high carb days, I will eat a combination of 6 servings of fruit and/or honey. 

This will be a high performance, fat burning, and highly sustainable approach I will continue for a while. 

The Complete Guide to Carb Cycling

As mentioned above, I’ve actually been working on a digital guide to carb cycling that will help you create a schedule based on sex, body type, and weight. It’s complete with a recommended foods list, recommended supplements for weight loss, and other useful information. 

This guide, available on our website, is fully interactive, so you can zoom in on it with a touch screen and even click on supplements to view them online. 


Click to view

To watch a really solid 5 minute primer on the various types of carb cycling and potential use cases CLICK HERE

Greenlights (audio)

by Matthew McConaughey



I begin every year by re-listening (I get a lot more books in throughout the year if I listen to them) to a collection of my favorite books, as I find I get far more out of consuming a book a second, third, fourth, or more time that I am familiar with and I know is impactful for me, than most new books I listen to. 

The book I begin every year with is Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. In fact, I was so chomping at the bit this year to listen to it for the fifth consecutive year that I began with a few days left in 2024. 

I consume a lot of books throughout the year, and I rarely recommend them here, as I know something that hits for me, may not necessarily hit the same for someone else. It’s subjective, just like musical tastes, and more. 

When I do make a recommendation, it is genuinely with the perspective that I think everyone (or almost everyone) would enjoy and find value in the recommended title.

This title is one you definitely want to do on audio. Even if you prefer to read your books, this is one where you want to make an exception, as McConaughey reads it himself, and delivers it in a way that I think makes it so much more impactful and entertaining than the written word ever could be. 

And if you’ve already read it. I recommend listening to it. If you’ve already listened to it, I recommend listening to it again. 

This book is filled with more useful, relatable bits of wisdom that it is a true modern philosophical classic, and a book that you will walk away from feeling energized and just plain better about life in general. 

And this compounds with each and every listen I find. 

Every year, due to my familiarity with the book, I find myself picking up on more and more bits of wisdom, thinking more deeply about certain parts that I previously haven't, and heck, you grow as a person throughout the year(s), and you are then listening as a different, more evolved person with a different lens and perspective as well. 

Of all books I’ve ever read and/or listened to, I simply cannot recommend listening to this one enough. 

On the topic of the wisdom of “Greenlights”, I found myself writing more bits of wisdom down and thinking more deeply about them this year, than any year prior. 

For the next 4-6 weeks, I will be dedicating this segment to some of the most noteworthy quotes and bits of wisdom I pondered on more deeply from “Greenlights”. 

The road less traveled, doesn’t always mean less traffic.”

-Matthew McConaughey, “Greenlights”


Oftentimes when we think of the road less traveled, we associate it mentally with less traffic, or getting off the beaten path. 

For some of us, this may be the case. 

However, the road less traveled really is a metaphor for getting out of your comfort zone. 

If you are a quiet, shy, introverted person, there might be something you really want to do, or accomplish this year, or in life in general, and could be held back because it requires you to get out of your comfort zone, and be a little more extroverted. 

In this case, the road less traveled actually means jumping on the autobahn of life and mixing it up. 

If you live a busy, high speed, and often anxious and high stress life, you may find it difficult to just sit with yourself, alone for an hour. 

In fact, many surveys now show spending time entirely alone with one’s self and one’s thoughts is now our biggest fear. 

If this is you, the road less traveled definitely means less traffic. 

Whether it’s high traffic, or no traffic at all, get out of your comfort zone and make a point to take the road less traveled this year.