77. Calorie and Carb Cycling: Beneficial or Unnecessary?

I will get a lot of questions about this topic and DMs on Instagram , and I actually asked on my stories , I think just last week topic ideas , suggestions , things that you would want me to talk about on a podcast episode , and this came up quite a few times as people were questioning and wanted me to make a podcast episode about it .

So here we are talking about calorie cycling and carb cycling . So this is not something I have done calorie cycling and carb cycling before . I've tried all the things , like I said , but this is not anything that I've ever done that has like worked or that I would recommend .

So right off the bat , I'm just going to tell you it's not something that I recommend .

To answer the question , I think that everybody kind of wants to know my opinion on it , obviously via my Instagram , people want to know my opinion , but I also want to preface this by saying that the person I am talking to in this episode is not someone who wants to get ready for a bodybuilding show or compete in an event or , to , you know , have a really

really low body fat percentage or really really high muscle mass percentage . Like , I'm not talking to someone about carb , carb cycling or calorie cycling in this episode . I'm not gearing this episode toward someone who is getting ready for an event or a show or has a exact specific percentage of body fat or muscle . You know something like that .

Who I'm talking to in this episode would be someone like myself . Yes , I consider myself fairly normal in the sense that I want to look good , I want to feel good , I want to have food freedom . I don't want to be scared of food .

I want to understand carbs , fats , proteins to the extent of not a scientist , but to the extent that I know what they do for me , I know how , I know the importance of them . I want to have fitness add to my life . I don't want it to take away from my life . I don't want it to be stressful .

I don't want it to be something that I overthink or that it's constantly on my mind . I want my fitness journey to compliment my life . I want it to fit in seamlessly . I want it to improve my life , but not take it over and be obsessive .

So if you , if that sounds like you , if you are like me in the sense that you want all of those things , you want to look good , feel good , think good , be mentally good , have the idea that you can have all the foods you want and you can work out like you want and , you know , have like that confidence and that freedom around food , then you are who I

am talking to in this episode in this sense of the calorie cycling and carb cycling . Do I think that calorie and carb cycling has its place and it has a reason and there are benefits to it ? Honestly , I don't love it , but I do know . For certain bodybuilding events , certain dietary issues , certain medical issues , absolutely .

So I'm not naive to that , but that's not the person that I'm talking to . So for a person like me and I know I get a lot of messages to saying like I can relate to your journey , christy , the things that you talk about , the way that you used to feel , the things you went through like that's me . So I know a lot of you will resonate with this .

But if we think about calorie cycling , for example , or carb cycling . But when I get asked , typically you know I will get a DM and just you know , someone will kind of tell me their little backstory and what they've dealt with , and I love all of that . And then they will say like , do you think calorie cycling is something that I should do ?

Do you think it's beneficial ? Something like that . And I will usually respond and ask like in what , what are you hoping calorie cycling does for you ? What are you hoping to see from calorie cycling ? Why are you asking me that ? Right , what is your goal ? And the majority , if not everyone , is like weight loss .

I would like to try calorie cycling to see if it helps me lose weight faster . So knowing that the majority of you are wanting to know if calorie cycling or carb cycling will work for you will benefit you .

Knowing that you're wanting mainly weight loss and I would say , hopefully fat loss , but I think in times of desperation it's more like I just want to lose weight quickly . Will this magic item right , help me do that ? Or will this magic diet help me do that ?

So , knowing that your main goal is weight loss , and speedy weight loss at that , no , absolutely calorie cycling will not benefit you because even if you did see some quick weight loss with having low calories for a couple of days and you get on the scale every day and you're like , oh , this is really working .

On your higher calorie days , you may see a spike in the scale , your weight might go up and then you will think low . You know , low carb , low calorie days equal weight loss . High carb , high calorie days , equal weight gain . That's not good .

A lot of you would not stick with it long enough to understand because there will be weight fluctuations , just like anything . So I don't love calorie cycling . It's flat out not necessary for weight loss . It's not necessary for fat loss . It's not necessary for muscle gain , for toning , for having the body you want , for looking like you work out .

I hear that a lot . I want to just quote-unquote look like I work out , right . Calorie cycling is not gonna help you with that . If you are already not eating enough and you decide to calorie cycle , your body is already like basically starved , right ?

If you're already not feeding your body enough and you go into a calorie cycle where you are eating low calories for a few days and then you usually have like a read feed day where you eat more calories , the scale is going to go up and down because over on average , you will still add up your calories for like seven days .

In that calorie cycle situation , there's still going to be an average daily from the week , right ? You add up your seven days of calories , you divide that by seven . There's an average , whereas if you just ate that on average daily , which is your macros , that you should be hitting like daily . That's how I teach my clients . It's the same thing .

So it's going to average out . If that makes sense and I hope that it does so basically it's just . In my opinion , it's . If you don't stick with it long enough , there's no reason for it . Let me just say that I could just end that . I could end the episode right now .

No , there is no reason for you to calorie cycle If you are the person with the goals that I mentioned previously . But if you don't stick with it long enough , you're going to see , like I said , those dips in the scale and the spikes in the scale and you're going to be like this isn't working because you don't understand the premise of it .

And if you understood the premise of it , then you would just eat a basic amount of , you know , a base amount of calories daily , which would be your macros , which would be average out to the same amount , and that's what your body needs to survive either way .

So let's just do it simply right , which is what I was going to continue to say was I am the type of person who wants fitness to complement my life . I am trying to get away from rules . I'm trying to get away from thinking about carbs being bad , fats being bad , certain foods being bad . I want all foods to be okay .

They either are a carb , a fat , a protein or a combination of all three , and that's it . Like I want food to be fuel period . I don't want and I don't want for you to have to wake up and say is this a low carb day or a high carb day ?

And then you know , on a high carb day or after a high carb day , then you have a harder workout because low carb days or low calorie days this these can kind of be either way . If I'm saying low carb , I'm really meeting low calories as well .

It's the same thing in my brain , but you're gonna have to then think about like am I eating a lot of carbs today ? Am I eating a lot of calories today ? And then , is this a hard workout day ? Or do I not have enough energy because I didn't eat enough food ? It was a low calorie day . It just makes it more work for you . And ultimately , why ? Why ?

When you can just have a certain amount of macros to hit every single day , then you don't have to think about it right ? And also , what happens if you are going to a party on the weekend and it falls on one of your low calorie days ?

Well then , you still feel restricted and you still feel like you're on a diet and you still feel like you can't partake in certain events and you're still not living life and you still missed out on things right .

So I would rather it just be something that you can almost just be so automatic with your calories and your carbs and your fats and just your macros in general . I would rather it be something that just seamlessly adds to your life and it's not something that you have to think about all of the time .

Ultimately , for me and the ladies that I coach , calorie cycling , carb cycling , high carb days , high fat days , any of these types of things , right .

Intermittent fasting it's like it's putting a label on it , it's putting rules on it , it's attaching and I think a lot of times we you , my clients , like to call it something Like they want to be saying like I'm doing this program where I'm counting my macros or I'm calorie cycling and I'm lifting weights five days a week , like you want to attach a name to

it , but why ? Why do you think that you have to be calorie cycling , carb cycling , intermittent fasting , measuring your food , weighing your food ? Why do you think that it has to be so precise ? Because I'll just tell you that it doesn't I . For me , it's just one more thing . And added to that , this just popped in my head actually Earlier today .

What made me think of this is all of the things that I just mentioned , like the intermittent fasting , and all of the things that just become like one more thing that you have to keep track of and count and all of the things .

But for me it just it makes it more complicated and it's like why I see all these things on social media that's like , do these like three to one method where it's like three days of lifting , two days of cardio and one day of Pilates , and it's like why do you have to attach a name or a number to it .

Just call it a workout program , like , call it what it is . It's like congratulations my ladies . And body recont program , for example , do three days a week of full body where they lift heavy and two days full body where it's accessory work and they lift lighter . Like I could call that what , like the three two method . But why Like it ?

Just it doesn't have to have a name . But where I was going with this was this morning on Instagram . I don't even know if I saved it . I think I did because I liked the song that was on the reel . If I see a reel and I like the song , I saved the song so I can use it later .

But this is going to kind of get long and I promise there's a point to this . But the reel was this lady . She's probably in her 30s . It was two videos . The first video of the reel was her just kind of standing there and she looked great . She was in workout clothing , cute , pretty little thing looked great Then .

And then it switched to the next video and the first video said something about cycle sinking my workouts or like how to sinking my workouts . You know , with my cycle helped me to lose weight in my face or slim my face .

I'm really botching this , but anyway , what she was getting at was that cycle sinking her workouts helped her to lose inflammation in her face , and so the next video was her still standing there in a different workout set . Super cute still , and her face was a lot slimmer .

Now I had to go back after I read it and I was like , oh , I need to go back and watch the first video . Sure enough , she was a little more puffy in the first video either way , whatever .

And so I thought , well , that's interesting , I'm going to click on it , first of all to save the song , and second of all , I thought for some reason that it was going to go into like cycle sinking for food , which is something that does kind of interest me in the sense that I've been seeing it a lot .

So I kind of click through and read what people are saying . I'm not going to do it , probably , but anyway I read through it and it was so crazy to me because what she was saying was that she . I didn't read the whole thing .

I skimmed it and read the exact wording of the whole post , but what she was saying was that she now sinks her workouts to her cycle . So during certain parts of her cycle , her menstrual cycle , she will lift super heavy when she has more energy . During certain stages of her cycle she obviously , when we're menstruating certain things like we feel different ways .

So you're either able to lift heavier and push harder , or there are certain times of the month where you should not push as hard and you should pull back right and give yourself a little more rest , totally understand . First of all , at the very bottom of this post , if you read it all , which most people don't she had an asterisk and it said disclaimer .

I also have some name of Botox that helps me to slim my face . That helped slim my face . So first of all , I mean I'm glad she put that in there , because a lot of people wouldn't have put the disclaimer and just would have been like , oh , I did this with , you know , a different cycle of my workouts and it slimmed my face .

So you know , high five to her for putting that disclaimer in there . But honestly , most people don't read the full post and it's kind of misleading .

But this is another thing that where I read these and for me it's like if I'm not educated enough and I'm someone who's just reading through this , first of all , I would look at that and say , oh my gosh , I need to sink my workouts with my cycle .

So I need a different workout program that sinks my workouts with my cycle , like the workout program I'm doing must not be any good , I need to do another one . Panic right In my head and this is what I personally do is you can lift the same or no ? No , no , that's not true . You can do the same . Well , you can lift the same if you want .

You can do whatever the hell you want . You can do the same workout program , the period for years and years and years .

Right , and on the weeks when you are in that part of your cycle , when you shouldn't be lifting as heavy , when you don't have as much energy , when your body is tired , when you should be resting right , do the same workout , do the workout that's programmed for you , but maybe do less reps , maybe do less sets , maybe lift less weight , right , that's what I do

. Or skip a day , like I had a client last week I was talking to and we were talking about this , and I'm like you should absolutely give yourself more grace when you're on your period 100% . But you don't need to change your entire workout program to do so .

All you need to do is pick up a lighter weight or give yourself some grace , or do less reps or do less sets or take an extra rest day , or take two extra rest days , right ? So I bring that up because one always read a post if you're interested in it and look for disclaimers . Two , you don't .

This is just something else that I know I'm going to be asked about . It's like should I be sinking my workouts with my cycle ? Oh my gosh , should I be doing a different program ? You know it's going to set in panic and no , like . The answer to that is before you ask I can do an episode on this , you can do the same program that you're doing .

Just give yourself some grace . Not everything has to have a name . So now there's going to be like cycle sinking coaches , where you have to hire someone to have this program and it's like it's bullshit and you don't have to have it . Just give yourself some grace , listen to your body . So where I'm going with that is that's just one more thing .

Right Now there's cycle sinking your workouts and then there's carb cycling and there's calorie cycling , there's intermittent fasting , there's low fat , there's no like . No , that's not the goal . The goal is to just have this add to your life .

So the way that I would naturally have you calorie cycle is , as I was saying a little bit ago about what if your low calorie day ends up on a weekend when you have an event right and you're still feeling like restrictive .

And also what I was saying was at the end of at the end of the day , at the end of the week , when you are calorie cycling , you're having high calorie days , followed by low calorie days , followed by high calorie days . If you add all those days together at the end of the week , divided by seven , you have your daily calorie slash macro average .

If you just take that average and apply it by hitting the same amount of macros daily , then you don't have to worry about it . You don't have to worry about whether it's a high carb day , a low carb day , a low calorie day . You know pretty much what you're going to be eating and you can naturally fluctuate this .

So I kind of teach my clients to naturally calorie cycle and this is what I do for myself Plan ahead If you're going out to dinner in an evening and you're no , and you know you're going to be eating quite a bit more , or you don't know what kind of oil they cook the food in or something eat a lot of protein during the day so that when you're out to

dinner you can have some more carbs . You can have some bread that comes in the dish , right , you can have the extra fat on whatever your salad or whatever . But like , plan ahead for that .

Also , if you have a Saturday where you have a party , a get together , go ahead and eat and go a little bit crazy and then the next day just chill out a little bit . Right , if you overeat on a Saturday , just under eat a little bit on a Sunday .

This is basically calorie cycling , but it's freedom because you're not planning on it and it can fall on the days that you want it to fall on , so you can have fun at these events and then the next day you can just kind of under eat a little bit . Chances are , if you go crazy in an event , anyway the next day you're going to be a little lethargic .

You're not going to be as hungry because you overeat , so your body naturally will average itself out . So that's how I would naturally just have you calorie cycle , because that feels like it's in control .

Another way when I look into calorie cycling , a lot of coaches will say and I'm not totally against this , but also kind of , and I'll explain is a lot of coaches will have their ladies or their clients I was just saying ladies it's just a habit .

Their clients under eat , like go a little bit in a calorie deficit Monday through Friday so that on the weekends they can go into a little bit of a calorie surplus Again .

If you add all seven days together and then take that total , divide it by seven , you're going to get a daily average , and as long as that average is within your macro window , then you're fine , you're at maintenance .

But I like that and I don't , because it's almost like you're treating your weekdays as if they're kind of like a bummer , you know , like you're being punished and then on the weekend you can kind of go crazy . I don't hate that Like . That works for some people and if that would work for you and you want to try it , absolutely do that .

Just make your average work . One way that I have found that it's best for myself and my clients is like so , let's say , monday through Friday , right , I don't give myself any Oreos . I'm just like , nope , you can only have Oreos on the weekend , which is great , at least I'm allowing myself some .

But if it's like a Wednesday and I'm having cravings , I'm at that time in my cycle and I'm like , oh my god , I am frigging , ravaged , I'm savagely hungry , I'm ravaging through all the cupboards Like I'm so hungry and I can't have Oreos till Saturday . I'm still feeling like , god damn it , I just want food freedom , right ?

So if you're doing this a little more freely , to where it's Wednesday , I want some freaking Oreos , I can have Oreos . Chances are on . Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean you'll necessarily want to go crazy .

So a lot of times this creates a habit and just a routine for my ladies to be able to give in to some cravings and be like , okay , I can have things whenever . I don't have to go crazy on the weekends , because I can kind of go crazy on a weekday if I want , or I can have three , four Oreos every single day .

So I don't want them so much on the weekends , right ? It's like if you're restricting certain things just like a toddler , don't touch that remote control . That's the only thing they want to play with .

All of a sudden , for me it was like if I'm saying I can have a cheat day on the weekend , but I can't have it on a Wednesday , well , on a Wednesday , if my friend wants to go out to dinner , I can't have anything good . So it's like just kind of having this freedom where I guess essentially it's calorie cycling , just not planned .

I think it's the planned part for me that just it causes it to be something else that you have to obsess over . So to wrap this up because clearly I could go on and on with examples and how I just don't really think this will work for you and you should try different ways . Not everything has to have a name attached to it .

You do not have to be doing something that anyone else is doing . Also , a lot of these things are just wrapped up and packaged to you , right ? Calorie cycling can be done like I just explained in this last example . It can be done without a coach explaining it to you .

It can be done just on like a weekly basis on your own , and I think that's part of it too is why I don't love all of these things having labels , because I would love for you to be my client forever and ever and I would love for you to need me forever and ever for your workouts , like I would love for you to live on my app if you're my client

forever and I purchase my workout program sometimes from other people because I don't want to think about it , so I understand that part and again , I would want you in my world forever . So please enjoy my workouts and do them forever .

What I don't want you to have to count on me forever for is things like your macros and carb cycling and calorie cycling and intermittent fasting and giving you your macro counts and helping walk you through every single thing . Am I happy to ? Absolutely I'm happy to do that for you and with you , as long as it takes you to understand it for yourself .

And if you never do , that's fine . And if you're like no , I just want you to do it , perfect .

But my goal is for you to at least have the confidence to be like okay , you're reading a post and you're like um , I don't need to necessarily have a different program for when I'm on my period , I can just lift lighter , or I don't necessarily need to calorie cycle , eat high calorie Sundays and eat low calorie Sundays , because I kind of already do that and

the overall average for the week matters most . Right , I don't need to necessarily have this kind of a program name because I don't need to do that thing Like I want you to have the confidence and the knowledge in this stuff and in yourself that you don't need to count on someone else for all of this stuff forever .

Again , if you want to or you have to , totally fine . But for those of you that are like I want food freedom , I want to be able to be like no , I don't need to do this right , or see a product and be like I don't need that , my body already makes that .

Sometimes , supplements are like powdered and packaged for you in a way that looks like oh , you really really need this thing . And if you have enough knowledge , you'll be like oh , no , I don't need that thing , like I , all I need to do is hit my macros and be in a cali or be at maintenance , and my hormones will get better , naturally .

Sure , you might need a little assistance in that someday , but you can try these other things first if that makes sense . So I'm kind of getting off topic , but again , to wrap it up , a lot of these things are shiny objects . A lot of these are labeled and packaged to you and they're not things that you need to do .

So if you are like me and you're the person in the example that I explained , calorie cycling is not necessary . It will not help you lose weight faster . It will not help you lose fat faster . I recommend making your fitness journey so freaking simple that you don't need to have a name on it . You don't need to do any of that kind of stuff .

You just continue with your workouts , you eat a certain amount of macros closely every single day , you have treats whenever you want , as long as they fit and life is good right , and you don't have to stress out about all that stuff . So thank you for mentioning this topic to me . I think it was a really good one .

I'm obviously passionate about it , I love it and , yeah , I just really appreciate you giving me suggestions for podcast episodes . I do have more suggestions that I'll be talking about in the next few weeks , in between topics that I already had , you know , written down , of course , if you ever have something that you want to know about or a spicy topic .

Please send it to me at Kristi Kastio fit on Instagram . Shoot me a DM and let me know . I would love your suggestions and your ideas . I'm always up for a spicy topic . Thank you for being here and I will talk to you next week .