How to Optimize Your Results with the Cyclical Keto Diet
What is Cyclical Keto?
👉 The cyclical keto diet involves cycling between a low-carb meal plan for 5-6 days and a higher-carb intake for 1-2 days. This method helps to maintain the benefits of the keto diet while avoiding cravings and feelings of being deprived, which can often come with a strict diet.
Are you tired of fad diets that promise quick results but leave you feeling unsatisfied? The cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD), or cyclical keto, maybe the solution you’re looking for. This diet combines the benefits of a ketogenic diet with the flexibility of carb-cycling. It allows you to lose weight and still enjoy your favorite foods
The cyclical keto diet consists of alternating between low-carb and high-carb days. On low-carb days, your body enters ketosis and burns fat instead of glucose for energy. On high-carb days, you consume more carbs to replenish glycogen stores and provide energy for intense activities.
Increasing carbohydrate intake on certain days of the week can prevent negative side effects like fatigue and muscle loss, making the keto diet more sustainable and enjoyable. Some studies show that this can lead to benefits such as muscle gain and improved athletic performance. However, like any diet, cyclical keto may not be appropriate for everyone.
Whether you’re looking to lose weight or improve your health, the cyclical keto diet may be your ticket to sustainable weight loss and long-term success. In this blog post, you’ll learn about the cyclical keto diet and its potential benefits and drawbacks, and find tips for getting started.
Table of Contents
- What is the Cyclical Keto Diet?
- How to Follow the Cyclical Keto Diet
- Cyclical Keto Food List
- Potential Benefits of Cyclical Keto
- Potential Downsides of Cyclical Keto
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Words
What is the Cyclical Keto Diet?
The cyclical ketogenic diet is a variation of the standard ketogenic diet. The former requires following a standard keto diet for 5-6 days a week, followed by consuming higher amounts of carbohydrates for 1-2 days.
The days with a higher carb intake are known as “refeeding days.” They help to restore the body’s reduced glucose stores. When following a cyclical ketogenic diet, you exit the state of ketosis during refeeding days to experience the advantages of consuming carbs for a brief period of time.
The cyclical ketogenic diet is suitable for those who aim to enhance muscle growth and exercise performance. Some people believe that the keto cycle diet may be more effective than the standard keto in increasing strength and building muscle.
Cyclical Keto vs. Standard Keto Diet
The keto diet is composed of 75% fats, 20% protein, and only 5% carbohydrates. When you consume more fat and reduce your carb intake, your body enters a state called ketosis, where it burns fat instead of sugar for energy.
If your body cannot obtain glucose from carbohydrates, it produces ketones from body fat through the liver, which serve as an alternative source of energy. Using ketones instead of sugar may aid in weight control.
The cyclical keto diet includes more carbs than the regular keto diet, specifically on one day per cycle. This helps to reset your body before returning to lower carb intake the next day.
How to Follow the Cyclical Keto Diet
It is recommended to follow a standard ketogenic diet for at least a month before trying cyclical keto. This will help your body get used to burning fat as fuel instead of glucose. Afterward, you can experiment with cyclical keto. This allows your body to easily transition in and out of ketosis due to increased metabolic flexibility.
Standard Keto for 5-6 Days
To start the cyclical keto diet, select five or six days of the week to eat low-carb. During this phase, you will consume about 20 to 50 grams of net carbs per day. Ensure that healthy fats deliver approximately 65-90% of your total calorie intake. Keep track of your carbohydrate consumption and check for ketosis using urine strips or a breath meter to ensure that you’re following the plan correctly.
High-Carb Consumption for 1-2 Days
In the second phase of the cyclical keto diet, you have 1-2 days to replenish your glycogen stores. Your daily carb intake should make up 70-80% of your total calories. You can consume all the carbs in one meal or divide them into lunch, dinner, or before/after an intense workout.
After completing your refeeding phase, you should promptly resume following a ketogenic diet by significantly reducing your carbohydrate intake. To burn through those carbs, incorporate intermittent fasting (IF) and exercise with high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
Cyclical Keto Food List
During the refeeding phase, both the quantity and quality of carbohydrates consumed are important. Avoid unhealthy sources such as white bread and baked goods, and instead opt for healthy sources to fulfill the majority of your carbohydrate needs.
To avoid feeling tired or slowed down during the day, try filling your plate with meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, and healthy fats. You can also add complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash, brown rice, oats, quinoa, beans, and lentils.
Vegetables: Green, leafy vegetables can be eaten while following any type of keto diet, including CKD. Pick low-carb vegetables like broccoli, cucumbers, asparagus, and zucchini. On refeeding days, you can have starchy root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, carrots, and parsnips.
Meat: Keto is a moderate-protein and high-fat diet. Excess protein may lead to the conversion of protein into glucose in the body, which makes it difficult to maintain ketosis. To stay in ketosis, consume fatty cuts of grass-fed, pasture-raised, or wild meat and wild-caught fish.
Dairy: Opt for full-fat organic butter and dairy products that come from grass-fed cows. They contain healthy fats such as omega-3s and fatty acids with anti-inflammatory properties.
Oils and fats: In the keto diet, the most significant food category is fats, as most of your calorie intake comes from them. Prioritize healthy fats, such as butter, lard, ghee, coconut oil, and fish oil. You can also get daily fats from egg yolks, fatty meats, and seafood. Avoid inflammatory fats found in canola, cottonseed, corn, flaxseed, peanut, safflower, soy, and sunflower oils.
Fruits: Be careful when choosing fruits as most of them contain high sugar levels which can disrupt your ketosis. Fresh berries, avocado, and coconut are generally safe to consume on any keto diet. You can have sweeter fruits on your refeed day, but consume them in moderation.
Nuts: You can consume these nuts occasionally or keep them for your high-carb day. Although nuts contain high fat, they also have a considerable amount of protein and carbs. For snacking purposes, choose nuts with fewer carbs such as pecans, macadamia, and Brazil nuts.
Beverages: On a keto diet, it is common to get dehydrated easily. This happens because the body retains less sodium and water due to lower insulin levels from eating fewer carbs. To avoid dehydration, drink plenty of plain water and sip on bone broth to replenish electrolytes. This is especially important when the body is adjusting to the new diet.
Potential Benefits of Cyclical Keto
There is limited research available on the cyclical ketogenic diet, but it may have some potential benefits, including the following:
Aid in Muscle Gain
When you follow a very low-carb diet, you suppress muscle-building hormones such as insulin. Insulin is crucial in regulating muscle growth. It helps muscle cells absorb glucose and amino acids, increasing protein synthesis and reducing protein breakdown in muscle tissue.
By following the cyclical keto diet, you can raise insulin levels on certain days to use insulin’s anabolic effects to support muscle growth.
Boost Athletic Performance
You can exercise while on a keto diet without any issues. In fact, it may improve ketosis and help you stay fit. You can engage in cardio activities such as running and cycling and resistance training.
If you frequently engage in longer or more intense workouts, your body may experience a drop in energy. The muscles used in these intense workouts tend to tire or get fatigued quickly. Add more carbohydrates to your diet to provide the necessary energy boost to push yourself harder.
Help Regulate Weight Loss
Even if you’re on a low-carb diet, you may still hit a weight loss plateau. One solution is to follow a cyclical keto diet and increase your carb intake on certain days to raise your leptin levels. Leptin helps regulate your appetite and reduces hunger. Additionally, consider factors such as your level of physical activity, alcohol consumption, quality of sleep, and snacking habits when trying to lose weight.
Make Keto Dieting Easier
It may take some time to adjust to keto eating. This applies to any diets that eliminate food groups as well. Only after fully adapting can you determine if it’s the best approach for you.
Cyclical keto has multiple benefits such as improving muscle and strength gains, controlling weight, and maintaining a low-carb diet in the long term. Carb-refeeding days break the monotony of the diet and indulge in complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes.
Potential Downsides of Cyclical Keto
Research on the cyclical keto diet is currently limited, so we can only rely on studies conducted on carb-cycling to make assumptions. It’s worth noting that not all individuals who follow CKD may achieve desired outcomes.
The standard keto diet has some potential side effects such as water retention, fatigue, brain fog, and cravings for unhealthy foods. The same applies to cyclical keto. On top of that, some people may consume too many calories on their refeeding days, which can offset the weight loss benefits of the standard keto diet.
Also, note that switching from regular keto to cyclical keto might cause a temporary increase in weight. This is mainly because your body will retain more water when you eat higher-carb food. Every gram of carbohydrates stored in your muscles comes with at least three grams of water.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Cyclical Keto Diet Safe?
It’s unclear whether cyclical keto is safe for everyone since there isn’t much research on it. If you are prone to diabetes or have a carb-sensitive body, it might be better to avoid CKD. In any case, consult with your healthcare provider before starting a low-carb diet.
Can You Lose Weight with Cyclic Keto?
One benefit of using cyclical keto is that it can help regulate leptin levels. A low-carb diet may lead to a decrease in leptin levels, causing the brain to signal the body to eat more, conserve energy, and decrease metabolism. This can make it difficult to lose weight.
Final Words
A cyclical ketogenic diet means following a regular keto diet for 5-6 days a week and then 1-2 days of increased carb consumption. Although this approach is said to decrease symptoms of the keto flu, enhance athletic performance, and help in muscle gain, there is a lack of research on its efficacy and potential downsides.
The cyclical keto diet allows for carb-rich foods on certain refeeding days, which could potentially make the restrictive keto diet easier to stick to over time. However, it is unclear what benefits it may have in the long term.
It is important to approach any diet with caution and seek guidance from a healthcare professional. The cyclical keto diet, similarly, has its own potential drawbacks and side effects. It is crucial to understand these before starting the diet.
The cyclical keto diet will not help you lose weight quickly. But it can be helpful in the long term. Regular exercise, quality sleep, and a balanced diet can help you reach your goals and improve your health.