Why and When to Carb Up on Keto Diet

If you have already mastered the standard ketogenic diet, have a solid workout routine and would like to mix things up a little to gain more muscle and shake your metabolism routine, you might want to consider starting to do carb ups, or a cyclical ketogenic diet.

If you’ve ever had to cut calories for a sustained period of time, you know that it isn’t all fun and games. You can have food cravings, be more irritable, tired, and even lose some strength and muscle mass.

Even worse, as you decrease calories, your body will down-regulate your metabolism in an effort to prevent starvation, often resulting in your weight loss stalling even at these low calorie levels.

But there was a way to mitigate some of these unpleasant side-effects of cutting. I’m talking about taking regular carb refeeding days, where you’ll get to eat more calories, feel better, and potentially lose weight even faster.

A carb up (also called “carb loading” or “carb refeeding”) is a period of time, usually 1 day (but it could be as short as 1 meal or as long as 2 days) where you’re intentionally consuming more carbs than usual. Yes, this will kick you out of ketosis and this is the purpose.

There are a whole number of reasons that regular refeeds can be beneficial – both psychologically and physiologically:

• They provide a temporary break from your diet, which can help considerably with dietary compliance.

• They help to normalize leptin levels, which can boost your metabolism and decrease appetite/cravings.

• They refill your muscle glycogen stores, allowing you to have more effective workouts.

To get the full benefits of a carb refeed, you need to do it in a controlled manner, in order to make sure that you get back to keto right after that, and that your carb up weekend does not turn into a carb up week or month.

“A carb up (also called “carb loading” or “carb refeeding”) is a period of time, usually 1 day (but it could be as short as 1 meal or as long as 2 days) where you’re intentionally consuming more carbs than usual. Yes, this will kick you out of ketosis and this is the purpose.”

You should consider doing carb ups on a keto diet only once your body has adapted to burning fat as its primary fuel source, which for most people comes after at least 4-6 weeks into their new ketogenic way of eating.

If this sounds like a cheat day (a day where you can eat whatever you want, temporarily throwing notions of calorie counting and food restrictions to the wayside), it does indeed have its similarities but in reality a refeed day is NOT just a cheat day.

A refeed day differs from a cheat in that it is a lot more calculated, eating at a specific (albeit higher) calorie level, with equally specific macronutrient targets.

On your planned refeed days, you’ll be eating very differently to your typical standard keto diet plan:

1. First of all, you should increase your calories by 30%. So if you’re cutting at 2000 calories, then you would be doing your refeed days at about 2600 calories. This will put you at a slight caloric surplus for the day – but not so much that you’ll risk gaining additional fat (as you do with a cheat day).

2. In terms of your macros, here is what you should be eating on your refeed day:

• About 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight

• As little fat as possible – keep it under 40 grams

• Everything else coming from carbohydrates, so as to meet the calorie targets

Whenever you’re doing a carb up meal, you need to keep the fat lower than on keto, because your body can either burn glucose or fat, but not the two at the same time. You should still watch your calories, although staying at a deficit during a carb up might be quite challenging. If you don’t manage to, then try upping your limit to maintenance.

If you are properly timing carb ups, they can help with muscle growth, and for those of you who want to optimise your body composition and gain muscle, this can be an amazing benefit.

Plus, since you probably aren’t eating a ton of carbs on your cutting diet, it’ll give you a chance to indulge in those delicious, carb-heavy foods, making you feel a lot less deprived.

Remember that carb ups shouldn’t be an excuse for cheating on keto. You shouldn’t use a carb up to stuff your face with whatever high-carb food you might have been craving.

While a carb up will give you much more flexibility than eating keto, whole foods that have a lower glycemic index will give you the best results (and will provoke less cravings overall).

Some healthy carb options to consider would be carrots, sweet potato, black beans, quinoa, apples, bananas, berries, oatmeal, tomatos, skyr, quark, whole wheat pasta and rice.

Here’s an incomplete list of simple carbohydrates to avoid:

• Sugar-sweetened beverages (soda, Gatorade, Vitamin Water, etc.)

• Fruit juice

• White bread

• White flour

• Refined grains

• Cookies

• Cakes

• Candy

• Sweets

Your carb-up meal should be the last meal of the day because you will be sleeping and avoiding the post carb cravings and blood sugar highs and lows.

In order to figure out the ketogenic diet and carbohydrate refeeding cycle that works best for you, we must consider your workout schedule as well. One of the goals of your workout schedule is to ensure that you will be depleting your glycogen stores before carbohydrate refeeding.

The amount of training to completely deplete your glycogen is dependent on the amount of carbohydrates you had during refeeding.

If you don’t have weights, explosive exercises like short sprints, jump variations (squat jumps, lunge position jumps, etc.), and clap pushups can also help deplete your glycogen levels.

After your glycogen is fully depleted, you are ready to load up on complex carbohydrates for 1 to 2 days.

I would recommend carb refeed every 2 or 3 weeks to make totally sure your glycogen is fully depleted and have time to get back into ketosis enjoying its benefits.

Once you finish your carbohydrate refeed, you must get back into ketosis as quickly as possible. Simply follow these steps:

1. Last day of carbohydrate refeeding: do not eat after 6 pm.

2. Day 1 on the standard ketogenic diet: Wake up and perform HIIT or intense weight training on an empty stomach. After the workout, begin a strict ketogenic diet with 0-2% carb intake.

3. Day 2 on the standard ketogenic diet: Wake up and perform MISS (medium intensity steady state) or medium intensity weight training on an empty stomach. Return to a normal ketogenic diet with 3-5% carb intake.

The longer you have been on a ketogenic diet, the quicker you’ll get back into ketosis. If you’ve been on the ketogenic diet for a year, you will find it much easier to re-enter ketosis than someone that has done it for a month.

Also, if you consume lower GI complex carbohydrates, it will be easier for you to re-enter ketosis.

The more consistent you are with your cyclical ketogenic diet (proper carb ups, not cheating), the easier it will be to come back because your body will adapt more quickly each time.

Carb up practice might be beneficial to many individuals but might not work for everyone on a ketogenic diet especially if you are new to keto. You must become fat-adapted first before trying to experiment with carb refeeds. You need to decide if this is good for you. There’s no one right answer so find out what works for you.