Calorie and Carbohydrate Cycling with Sample Menus

If you’ve been experimenting with low-carb, fasting, or both, and are feeling that you’re actually doing worse (despite what “they” say should happen) it may be time to cycle in more carbs and calories! This especially holds true to athletes or those working out 5-7 days week.

Low–carb nutrition, hypocaloric diets, and fasting or intermittent fasting (IF) boast scientifically-supported health, weight-loss and/or performance benefits for certain populations. For example, these techniques can help develop better rates of fat oxidation for athletes, aid in weight loss (and body-fat loss), promote longevity, and even boost certain hormones when executed properly. Routine periodic fasting is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease and increased lifespan, and nutritional ketosis can ameliorate symptoms associated with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Being carb conscious is also an effective approach to combat obesity. Athletes who are better “fat burners” can perform well on less fuel, avoid GI distress, and avoid the negative ramifications of unhealthy chronic carb-loading. You’ve probably heard the incredible stories of folks who’ve achieved weight loss, alleviated disease, enhanced athletic performance, and so on. Low carb and fasting sound alluring!

But as with anything, if it sounds too good to be true, there’s a chance it can be.

Long-term restriction of carbohydrate and/or long-term restriction of calories (fasting or hypocaloric diets)—especially in athletes who demand a lot from their bodies—present many risks ranging from declining health and poor hormone signaling to decreased metabolic function and poor athletic performance, and ultimately chronic fatigue, brain fog, impaired mood, or even development of an eating disorder (ED). Often these risks are not isolated. This article won’t go too deep into the science of why long-term restriction is detrimental; that will be addressed in a future piece. However, it is worth noting several detrimental effects.

Risks of Chronic Low-Carb or Low-Calorie Diets

Chronic low-carb dieting can deplete sex hormones. In women, sex hormones begin to tank under a low-carb regimen due to increase stress in particular stress on the adrenals. Eventually the HPA axis gets the message that it’s not a healthy environment for fertility, and functioning shuts down. Meanwhile, chronic low-carb diets have been shown to decease testosterone levels over time, and disrupt T-precursor hormones—which is not only detrimental for men, but women too who need a fair amount of T.
Chronic low-carb dieting can also prevent you from making fitness gains, including an inability to add or maintain lean muscle. Insulin, which is released when we eat carbs, is “anabolic”—meaning that it allows amino acids and glucose to enter the muscle cell for hypertrophy. Without elevating insulin every now and then you don’t get as effective of an anabolic effect. Granted, chronically elevating insulin to the point of insulin resistance is certainly not desired, but there’s a balance, and some insulin primes the system and is perfectly healthy for glucose regulation. In fact, you can even produce ketones (i.e. fat for fuel) while having glucose (carbs) in the diet.
Chronic hypocaloric diets can actually hinder weight-loss efforts and increase stress of all sorts, including making you more of a “crazy” person from lack of nourishment (i.e. tired but wired). This effect is even worse for women and can lead to menstrual dysregulation due to lack of energy availability.
Fasting—not just the 12-hour overnight fast but skipping meals and fasting for 24 or more hours—can lead to high cortisol levels. Cortisol is a catabolic stress hormone, and some cortisol is fine (no need to hate on it), but too high of levels, especially if it’s chronic, can be detrimental for our health. It can actually lead to elevated blood sugar levels (the opposite effect of why you were probably fasting in the first place), breakdown muscle, add all sorts of stress and have a trickle-down effect on other functions in the body.

So we know that these “diet” strategies can be playing with fire, but that doesn’t mean we go to the other end of the spectrum and get back on the high-carb or Western diet approach. There is a way to get the best of both worlds.

Before moving on, a caution to readers: If you are suffering from or healing a health issue such as hypothyroidism, adrenal insufficiency, HPA Axis Dysfunction, hormone depletion, overtraining syndrome, hypothalamic amenorrhea, an eating disorder, stress-related problems, or anything that can be further negatively affected by low carb or calorie restriction, now is not the time to begin a carb/calorie cycling routine—you don’t need the low–carb days! Rather, you should stick to a balanced approach to your macros (not too low on any one of the three), make sure your calories are high enough to allow for adequate energy availability*, eat all-natural whole foods (not refined carbs, sugars and junk), and maintain adequate calories (maybe even beyond what you think is “normal”) because you need all the energy and good carbs you can get to bounce back to awesome! For example, adequate carbs fuel our thyroid output, low carb doesn‘‘t. Overabundance of calories brings back a female’s menstruation, low calorie doesn’t.

*Energy availability (EA) = (Energy Intake – Exercise Energy Expenditure)/kgLBM

That said, let’s dig in…

Cycling: Carbs vs. Calories

Let’s first distinguish between carb cycling vs. calorie cycling and the benefits of each.

Carb Cycling

Carb cycling simply means adding more back in of this macronutrient on occasion while decreasing fats, and it complements an otherwise low-carb high-fat (LCHF) diet. How much and how often you add more carbs back in depends on your needs. So on certain days (or times of day) you maintain short-term restriction of carbs (not necessarily calorie restriction), and then schedule regular carb refeeds. A refeed is the time in which you increase carbs, usually a window of 3-12 hours, i.e. one meal or a dedicated carb-refeed day.

This approach can offset the negatives of being too low carb by allowing preventing all the risks from actually happening. It can allow for proper hormone signaling, nourishing the adrenals and thyroid, aiding in athletic performance, and can even boost metabolism to burn more calories. Meanwhile, you can still get the benefits of lower-carb nutrition such as low levels of inflammation, mitigating disease risk, maintaining a healthy body composition, maximizing fat-burning, fix insulin resistance, and so on. Carb refeeds can also keep you regular due to increased fiber consumption if constipation with low carb is a problem. Furthermore, carb refeeds can increase leptin signaling, which helps us feel satiated and we don’t need to eat more, and leptin can help get us to our ideal body composition and avoid weight-loss plateaus.

On those meals or days when you increase carbs significantly, it’s wise to actually decrease your fat intake. It’s somewhat of a myth that adding globs of fat to your higher carb meals is beneficial—the logic here being that adding the fats decreases the spike in glucose and insulin from the carbs. Fat does attenuate the glucose response, reducing the glycemic index; however, the insulin response is at best not changed. This goes down a rabbit hole, but basically it can lead to fat-induced insulin resistance (more insulin per glucose). The take-home is that if you’re having a high-carb day, don’t pile the fats on top of that.

Calorie Cycling

Calorie cycling is somewhat different. You may be on a hypocaloric diet—hopefully temporary—for weight loss or other reasons. Or you find benefits from frequent fasting or IF in your regular routine like Mark Mattson. (Quickly on hypocaloric diets: Despite heated debates on the matter, “calories in calories out” does have some merit when it comes to weight loss; however, I also believe that a calorie is not a calorie across the board—quality matters i.e. 100 calories of kale salad is not the same as 100 calories of pizza.)

Alternately, you may unknowingly be in a chronic caloric deficit—regardless of macros—due to a lot of physical training or not paying attention to the nitty–gritty of energy expenditure vs. energy intake (i.e. your EA). When analyzing total energy expenditure (TEE), I often see athletes unknowingly underfueling. A study by Praz et al showed 17% of 40 endurance athletes surveyed were underfueling on a regular basis. So, the theme is that sometimes we get ourselves into a negative energy balance, whether on purpose or not. But the bottom line is that a long-term low-calorie approach is not a long-term solution to anything. And meeting your basic calorie needs based on TEE may not be enough either! I’ll go as far as to say that scheduling those days or meals where you go above and beyond your baseline caloric needs is advised especially for active populations. Your high-calorie day is not a cheat day, not a binge, and it’s not going off the deep-end with junk food, but rather fueling the machine above and beyond with every ounce of wholesome nutrition possible. This can be after your Sunday long bike or long run, for example. Or it can even be the night before a mega outing such as a long backpacking trip where you will have limited fuel available. Or, heck, you can use your high-calorie day at that social gathering where you indulge a bit too much, and then get back to the main priorities in the 24-48 hours after. You follow?

Meanwhile, if your hypocaloric diet leads to stagnation in your weight loss, there’s a plausible reason for this. You may be suffering from down-regulation of the metabolism, and decreased leptin secretion—both of which are not good for weight loss or weight maintenance. Simply eating more can reverse these issues.

I also recommend high-calorie diets for women trying to regain their menstrual cycle, normal levels of sex hormones after being depleted, or improve thyroid health—but that’s another topic for another day.

Beyond The “Science”

Last work before we get to the “how-to” section. Some experts and research state that cycling in carbs and calories with refeeds may not be enough to mitigate any negative risks of these dietary approaches. But regardless of if an isolated calorie refeed boosts your T3 or isolated carb refeed boosts leptin, I think there are values beyond what “the science” says about refeeds, so to speak. We all need balance, and we can’t live like machines following strict regimented diets 24/7. I believe this can lead to burnout, irritability and bad moods, orthorexia, or loss of lust for life. So these refeeds may simply just give you a little more freedom and a relaxed approach—which speaks volumes for your overall health and wellness!

Executing Carb Cycling

There is more than one way to skin a cat, so I’ll cover some of the most effective and “easy” approaches. These carb refeeds are geared toward athletes and those exercising or training on a regular basis. CHO stands for carbohydrate.

Daily Refeeds

Option 1:

Lower CHO breakfast and lunch, CHO refeed in the evening.
CHO refeed starts either after your afternoon/evening workout or at dinner.
This is helpful if you plan to do a fasted workout the next morning, and may also benefit sleep quality

Option 2:

Higher CHO breakfast or in the morning, then taper off CHO as day goes on. Dinner is low CHO.
Some research supports that we handle CHO best in the morning (see sources below).
This approach may make sense if all your training is in the morning and your evenings are more relaxed and sedentary.

Frequent Refeeds

2-3x CHO refeeds a week
Example: CHO refeed every other day or every third day
Plan CHO refeeds around moderate to heavy training days, physically demanding days, or when you are doing back-to-back workouts.
Plan low-CHO days on easy, recovery or more sedentary days.

Option 1:
- Small CHO refeeds at every meal and/or snack
  - Starchy veggie at breakfast (butternut squash ‘porridge’)
  - Fruit at lunch or as a snack
  - Add another starchy veggie or whole-food carb to dinner with quality fat and protein
Option 2:
- Follow options in “Daily Refeeds” Section
Option 3:
- CHO refeed(s) timed with workout(s), usually the bulk of CHO after training combined with quality protein
Athletes may want to plan for at least one of the weekly CHO refeeds to be even higher CHO than the others; this can be the high-calorie day too.
- Options: More starchy veggies, 2-3 servings fruit, post-workout nutrition include carbs, gluten free grains, balanced meals, etc.

Infrequent Refeeds

Generally not recommend if in training mode or have had past issues with low-carb detriments.
For healthy individuals, this can be done in the offseason and/or for a temporary and controlled timeframe, accounting for adequate calories.
This typically entails a CHO refeed only once every 1-2 weeks, and thus the majority of time is spent low carb, which must be carefully monitored.
Take some time to think about if you’ve unintentionally been going this long without a refeed (especially athletes!) and adjust accordingly.

How Many Grams on Refeed Days?

Carb needs vary with total training volume and intensity, so specific numbers (i.e. grams per day) must be individualized to your situation.
CHO grams per day on carb refeeds can fluctuate: some days can be moderate carbs, whereas once a week can be heavy carbs. Note how you feel to avoid remaining too low carb.
How much depends on the person. True low carb or getting into nutrition ketosis is usually <100 g/CHO a day, sometimes as low as 25g a day. “Lower” or moderate carb is 100-200g/day. But a better way to outline this is based on your bodyweight (whether current or optimal BW):
- Ketogenic/very low carbohydrate diet: ~0.5 g CHO/lb (~1 g/kg).
- Lower/moderate carb diet: ~1 g CHO/lb (~2 g/kg) or slightly more.
- A typical high-carbohydrate diet: ~2-3 g CHO/lb or more.
Female athletes will usually need even more grams of carbs than men, and may even need more than the calculation based on bodyweight (i.e. add 5 pounds to your current weight, then calculate again), and I generally never advise any female going below 100-200g/CHO a day, thus refeed days may go beyond that range as necessary. These numbers are low enough for health and performance benefits and still allow for healthy functioning and proper hormone signaling in most women.

Intermittent Fasting (IF) and Full-Day Fasts

Many of us can still keep in some moderate IF, while some may benefit from more frequent IF and even longer fasts up to 24 hours depending on the situation. One 24-hour fast per month is enough to get benefits and, if you are training, more is not necessarily better.
IF can help those with digestive problems by allowing time between feedings for the body to reset and maximize digestion upon eating again—this does not mean skipping meals, just spacing them out.
How to organize this:
- 12-14 hour overnight fasts—for healthy individuals this can be done most if not all days. And I also like to use it as a marker to see how fat-adapted or carb-dependent someone is. If you can’t make the 12-hour overnight fast without being ravenously hungry, that means we have work to do in developing fat oxidation.
- 4-6 hour IF between meals (but don’t avoid small snacks if hungry)
- 24-hour fast just 1-2x a month on a REST day.
  - You CANNOT workout on a day in which you’re fasting for 24-hours.
  - You may need to build up tolerance to a 24-hour fast and don’t be discouraged if it takes a while! Eg. start with 16-17 hours and add more time as it gets more normal/comfortable. You don’t want to add extra stress if you’re not ready for it.

Sample Menus

To summarize, there are three ways to incorporate CHO refeeds into your diet:

Lower CHO breakfast and lunch, CHO refeed in the evening
Higher CHO breakfast or in the morning, then taper off CHO as day goes on. Dinner is low CHO.
Small CHO refeeds at every meal and/or snack

Example 1:

Breakfast:
- Egg scramble or omelet with veggies (onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, dark leafy greens like spinach or kale) sautéed in cooking oil of choice (like ghee or coconut oil).
- Toppings: avocado; homemade salsa or store-bought (beware of added sugars and preservatives!); raw, grassfed cheese (if you tolerate dairy).
- Bonus additions: bacon or breakfast sausage.
Lunch:
- Avocado Salmon Salad
  - Add frisée lettuce for a nice crunch, 1 avocado, 1 can of wild-caught Alaskan salmon, juice of 1 small lemon, and abundant extra virgin olive oil OR Primal Mayo by Mark Sisson.
  - If feeling really fancy I’ll add some capers and a dash of cayenne
Pre-workout:
- Fasted (not eating for several hours after lunch)
- Or a spoonful of coconut butter, nut butter (if tolerated), or a few slivers of raw, grassfed cheese (if tolerated; beware, many cannot tolerate dairy before a workout, even if dairy is ok normally)
*Exercise*
Dinner:
- Pork chops cooked in butter or ghee topped with sautéed apple and onion (heavy on the fats while sautéing to keep your body in fat burning mode WHILE also providing necessary carbs… yes, that is possible!).
- Side dish 1: baked yam or sweet potato with butter and cinnamon.
- Side dish 2: creamed swiss chard (cooked in coconut cream) with a few raisins and a pinch of nutmeg.
- Dessert: a handful each of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries with shredded coconut and cacao nibs.
  - Top with coconut cream straight from the can OR whip 1/3C coconut cream in blender with 1Tbs gelatin or collagen and 1tsp vanilla extract to make a proteinous, recovery-boosting pudding for the base of your berry bowl.

Example 2:

Pre-workout:
- Fasted
- Small snack no more than 150 calories, or Bulletproof coffee (1 Tbs MCT oil, coconut oil, Brain Octane, grassfed butter, or full-fat coconut cream blended in coffee)
*Exercise*
Breakfast: Two breakfast ideas for you! Are you feeling savory (1) or sweet (2)?
- Number 1: Pumpkin hemp porridge with breakfast sausage and fried eggs
  - Warm 1C of pumpkin purée in saucepan (make sure it’s not pumpkin pie mix, which is LOADED with added sugars; you can also roast your own pumpkin and store the flesh, which is a cheaper but more time consuming option).
  - Add 3Tbs of hemp hearts, a hearty shake of cinnamon, and dashes of nutmeg, clove, and ginger to taste.
  - In a separate pan cook breakfast sausage until done then add to warming porridge bowl.
  - In the free pan, add ghee or cooking oil of choice and fry 2-3 eggs.
  - Pour pumpkin/sausage/hemp blend in a bowl then top with eggs. Sprinkle with Himalayan salt.
- Number 2: Piña Colada Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie (so tasty and rejuvenating you won’t even consider adding rum!)
  - ½C coconut cream + 1C non-dairy, unsweetened milk of choice (I’ve had success with almond milk, cashew, hemp, and coconut milk), 1C frozen pineapple chunks, 1 small banana (best if frozen before), ½ large avocado, 1-2 scoops (depending on intensity of workout) of vanilla, coconut, or plain flavored protein powder (I particularly like BioChem’s Coconut Whey Protein Powder in this recipe), 1tsp ground turmeric, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1Tbs green powder (I’m currently obsessed with HealthForce’s Vitamineral Green) or a few handfuls of fresh greens of choice.
  - Bonus tip: I often prefer to turn my smoothies into bowls… it just makes me feel like I’m having something more substantial and takes longer to eat with a spoon than chug from a glass. To make this better for bowl consistency, add more avocado to make it thicker/creamier and/or add 2-4Tbs of chia seeds to make it gooey/pudding-y then top your bowl with unsweetened shredded coconut and a sprinkling of ginger.
Snack (if that morning workout is makin’ your tummy grumble):
- Rice cake with nut butter (this blend is my favorite… a splurge, but so worth it as a treat!)
Lunch:
- BLT on thinly sliced sourdough* toast (drizzle olive oil on the bread before adding toppings)
- Or, if you’re into it, sardines packed in olive oil on sourdough
- Add a side salad for extra nutrients and fuel for the day (infinite combination of lettuces and veggies here, making sure to coat thoroughly in olive oil or avocado oil).
  - Bonus Tip: I recommend splurging on a “fancy olive oil” from your local farmer’s market or artisanal store. I recently purchased an orange-rosemary infused olive oil from a farm stand and it’s so tasty that I just pour it on greens alone, throw some Himalyan sea salt on top and go to town… too excited to wait a minute to chop veggies. Fancy olive oil is a timer-saver and taste-enhancer in that regard!)

*Sourdough, if it’s actually sourdough (bread that’s undergone substantial fermentation and has no baker’s yeast added), has probiotics and other nutrients because of the bacteria in fermentation (Gänzle and Ripari 2016), is lower on the glycemic index, and has substantially reduced gluten (case studies like Foschia et al. 2016 have shown that individuals with gluten intolerance and sensitivity can tolerate true sourdough breads; HOWEVER, if you do have an intolerance or sensitivity be very cautious and discuss with your medical practitioner before trying)

Dinner:
- Taco Salad Bowl
  - Sauté onions and bell pepper in coconut oil or ghee then add grassfed ground beef – bring on the fatty cuts!
    - For an amazing homemade seasoning, I use Danielle Walker’s Taco Seasoning recipe in her book Meals Made Simple. Be careful of store-bought spice mixes, as they can have weird preservatives and added sugar.
  - Fill a bowl with shredded butter or red leaf lettuce and add veggie-beef mix.
  - Top with shredded raw, grassfed cheese (if tolerated), sour cream (Green Valley Organics makes a full fat, lactose-free sour cream with no sugar), avocado, and homemade pico de gallo or store-bought (beware of preservatives and added sugars; I like Frontera’s Jalapeño Cilantro Salsa).
    - Remember, this is a low CHO meal, so skip the beans, tortilla chips/taco shells/tortillas (even if they’re gluten free and “paleo approved”; they’re still higher in CHO).
Bonus Dessert that’s LCHF:
- Homemade spicy Mexican chocolate!
  - In a saucepan melt 1/4C coconut oil then add 1/2C raw unsweetened cacao powder.
  - Minimally sweeten with stevia if desired (but I encourage you to embrace the bitter… not only is it a robust and delicious flavor but bitterness has also been shown to stimulate digestion).
  - Add 1/8tsp cayenne powder or more to taste, if really spicy is desired.
  - Spoon melted chocolate into mini muffin molds and put in freezer; it’ll only take a few minutes for these to harden up into little chocolate bars. You can store them for months (yeah right, as if you could make them last that long). This is a fun, unique, high fat spin on your post-dinner chocolate fix.

Example 3:

*Exercise at any time during the day*
Breakfast:
- Breakfast burrito and small berry smoothie (a great meal for on-the-go mornings!)
  - Sauté veggies of choice then scramble eggs.
    - Wrap in Julian Bakery Paleo Wrap (I recommend the turmeric flavor!)
  - For smoothie, blend 1.5C non-dairy, unsweetened milk of choice, 1C frozen berries (I get Sunrise Growers Organic Antioxidant Berry Blend at Costco), 1-2 scoop (depending on workout) of vanilla protein powder of choice, ½ avocado (for added creaminess), 1-2Tbs MCT oil.
    - Note: if you’re eating after a workout and want a more substantial meal then go ahead and drink the whole smoothie, but if you haven’t worked out yet or it’s a lighter day then go halvsies on the smoothie recipe and save the rest for tomorrow. Let hunger be your guide here… don’t worry, 1 whole cup of mixed berries IS NOT carbo-loading.
Lunch:
- Kale salad with chicken, quinoa, and homemade lemon-dijon vinaigrette.
- Note: this is a great meal to make at night and bring to work the next day. The acids from the lemon in the vinaigrette will help break down the kale; the longer it “marinades” the more tender and less bitter the kale will become.
- To make your own lemon-dijon vinaigrette (enough for two salads) mix 1/4C olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, 1.5Tbs dijon mustard, 1tsp champagne vinegar, 1 tsp Himalayan sea salt, and a pinch of pepper.
Dinner:
- Burger wrapped in butter lettuce
  - Toppings: sautéed mushrooms, onions, bell peppers; pickles, but beware of added sugars; mustard and mayo ok but watch out for preservatives, artificial ingredients, and added sugars)
  - Side Dish: homemade carrot fries (preheat oven to 350 degrees, use vegetable peeler to thinly slice carrots or use shredder in Cuisinart, coat shredded carrots thoroughly in coconut oil and sprinkle with Himalayan sea salt, paprika, and pepper. Cook until desired crispiness, checking frequently and stirring carrots on occasion for even cooking).