Unlock Metabolic Flexibility Secrets: 5 Signs Keto Carb Cycling is Right for You

You might be tempted to start cycling carbs on keto but before you start baking that sweet potato, you need to know whether carb cycling is right for YOU. 

In this video, discover 5 telltale signs that your body is ready for carbs and learn how to properly incorporate them back into your keto routine for maximum results. Don't miss out on this game-changing information for your weight loss journey!"

Hello, my name is Lesya Holzapfel, I help professional women shed fat with a holistic clean keto and carb cycling lifestyle. 

This video is the third video in my series about keto carb cycling for women.

If you haven't yet watched the videos where I cover what Clean Keto Carb Cycling is and the 5 Reasons you should cycle carbs on keto, make sure to watch those first.

Today, I want to cover 5 Signs Keto Carb Cycling is Right for You

If any of these signs resonate with you, I want you to download my Keto Carb Cycling Guide in the description so you can start this right away and finish baking (and actually eat) that sweet potato without guilt or feeling like you messed up on your diet.

Also, at the end of the video, I will share my honest opinion on who I think should not cycle carbs on keto just quite yet so make sure to watch the video all the way through.

The #1 sign that carb cycling is right for you is if you have lost the weight you wanted on keto, don't want to do keto forever but are afraid that if you bring back carbs, you will gain weight.

I've worked with many women in this situation so I understand the fear that you might have about eating carbs again.

Like my client Karen. 

She lost 40 pounds on keto and didn't need to lose any more weight but every time she went off of keto, she started gaining the weight back. 

She didn't know how to maintain the weight she lost with keto without having to be on keto for the rest of her life.

Since working with me in my carb cycling coaching program, she's been able to eat up to 140 grams of carbs per day and not gain a single ounce. 

Pretty amazing, right? If she can do it, so can you.

I also went through this myself after losing over 110 lbs on keto in between my pregnancies since 2015. 

I was scared of eating carbs again because anytime I went off of keto, I gained weight. 

It took me a while to realize that it wasn't the carbs, but the kind, timing, and quantity of carbs I was consuming.

Carb cycling helps you to wean off of keto and get your body used to glucose again, slowly. 

We never want to go from strict keto to eating tons of carbs.

So if you find yourself in this situation where you lost weight on keto but don't want to do it forever, carb cycling is a great transition. 

You're still gonna have keto days, but once you get to maintenance, you can incorporate more carb days and fewer keto days and play around with your schedule.

However you choose to go about it, all I ask is that you don't stay keto forever due to your fear of eating carbs. 

Long-term keto is not a good idea for most women. 

I will cover the reasons why in a future video so subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss it.

The #2 Sign that you're ready for carb cycling is you've hit a stall on keto and simply "ketoing harder" or fasting more is not helping to break your stall.

Stalls happen because your body adapts to anything you do. 

Your body wants homeostasis and as soon as you try something new (like keto) it will work. 

But then after a while, your body gets used to keto and adapts to make it your new homeostasis. 

When that happens, weight loss slows down and sometimes stops completely. 

Your body is smart. It needs fat for survival and it will hold on to it for dear life unless you trick it to let it go.

The best way to trick your body when you hit a stall is not to cut carbs lower, or fast longer; quite the opposite. 

In my experience with clients, cycling back carbs or doing a reverse diet works best to break a weight loss stall.

Keto carb cycling keeps your body guessing because we are always switching things up. 

Your body can't adapt because you are switching from using glucose to fat constantly. It never knows what fuel it's going to get so it's a way to keep your metabolism on its toes, so to speak.

I had a client who didn't lose a single ounce for months on keto and as soon as we brought back carbs strategically, she dropped 5 lbs within a week. 

Crazy right? Who knew?

The 3rd sign your body is ready for carbs is you're experiencing issues with your adrenals, thyroid, or your period. 

If you're experiencing high cortisol and you've burned out your adrenals, your HPA axis is not regulated.

With adrenal dysfunction, your body is already stressed and your cortisol rhythm is out of balance, which means it might be too high when it should be low and too low when it should be high.

Since the keto diet is a stressor on the body, it can make your symptoms worse, increase your cortisol even more and cause weight gain, especially around the belly area because that is where cortisol receptors like to hang out.

Side note: this is what I started to notice when I found out I had elevated cortisol. 

I started gaining weight around my belly area, more than in other places on my body. 

If this sounds like you, I highly suggest you get your cortisol tested by a functional medicine specialist.

So if your body is already stressed, combining keto with adrenal issues is like adding gasoline to the fire.

Clinical studies have shown that adrenal dysfunction can be improved with a carb-cycling strategy which is exactly what I teach in my carb-cycling program, The CKCC Blueprint in the Adrenals & Stress Protocol.

Carbs put you in a state which activates your serotonin, the neurotransmitter that helps you relax.

Cycling carbs can help return your cortisol rhythm back to normal by altering the number of carbs eaten throughout the day.

This is a special way to carb cycle so you wouldn't do it the same way you would do it if you were trying to break a stall or wean off of keto.

On the other hand, there's your thyroid. You need carbs to convert thyroid hormones.

Your thyroid regulates your metabolism and being in ketosis for too long or severe calorie restriction can reduce thyroid function and lead to hypothyroidism.

You need insulin for thyroid conversions to happen. 

Insulin helps T4 convert to T3 so if your insulin is too low for too long, the conversion won’t happen which will lead to low-thyroid-related symptoms and slow metabolism.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t do keto if you have thyroid issues, however, I’d recommend a more cyclical keto approach which I also cover in detail in my Carb Cycling Program. 

If you are someone who is experiencing this, I would love to help you. 

Check out the description to learn how.

The 4th sign that you're ready to cycle carbs is that you are active or an athlete.

This goes without saying, but the more active you are, the more carbs you can eat because you're gonna burn through them faster.

Perhaps you are a runner training for a marathon or you're into CrossFit or spinning or lifting. 

You're going to benefit from adding more carbs into your diet which will increase performance and help with recovery.

Very active women are able to burn through glucose much faster than sedentary women, which means you can increase the number of carbs you consume and get fantastic muscle gains and fat loss.

Now, I want to mention this because I hear a lot of weight loss gurus telling people that you can gain muscle while losing fat at the same time.

This is very hard to do, especially as a woman in her reproductive years.

I recommend you choose one. 

I would start with fat loss if you have extra fat on your body and then attempt to gain muscle. 

Doing both at the same time is extremely difficult without a strict nutrition and fitness regimen.

So the point here is, the more active you are, the more carbs you can eat.

It's another perk to move your body, if you're a woman who thinks things like, “I hate working out. I hate exercise.”

Well, do you hate exercising more than you love carbs?  

Because carbs are delicious, if you exercise, you can have more of them.

If you are active, keto carb cycling is honestly the best choice for you and is even better for you than keto, especially as a female.

The 5th sign that you are ready to have that sweet potato is that you simply miss carbs and keep binging on them on keto, otherwise known as cheating on keto.

If you can’t stick to keto consistently that to me is a huge red flag that it’s probably not the right diet for you.

There are a few different reasons why you might be struggling with sticking to keto:

#1 You’re coming straight from a SAD diet. 

If this is you, your body is so metabolically inflexible that you’re cravings for carbs and sugar are too intense for you to resist.

#2 The second reason you can't stick with keto is that you have mental blocks and habits that are holding you back

Mental blocks are things such as an all-or-nothing mentality, self-sabotage, restrict-binge cycles, or emotional eating. 

Unless you address all of these things, it will be hard for you to be consistent with any way of eating.

#3 Your body is screaming for carbs but you're not listening. 

As I mentioned earlier, if you are experiencing certain hormonal issues, are very active, or hit a stall, your body might need more carbs and keeps giving you cravings for them.

You can keep fighting them but eventually, in a weak moment, you will probably give in but not with the healthy carbs.

Now, at this point, I want to share who I think is not ready to bring back carbs.

If you have diabetes, I do not recommend carb cycling for you. 

I have some clients that have diabetes that told me Oh, I'm really excited to start carb cycling and I'm like, we'll get to it, but that's like step 10.

That's not what you should be worried about right now. 

Right now, you need to worry about getting your diabetes in check because again, if you have diabetes, you're very sensitive to any types of carbs, so we want to be as low carb as possible to help manage your insulin levels and blood sugar.

Let's work on one thing at a time. 

By the way, If you need help with this, I recommend you check out my Holistic Clean Keto Weight Loss Program for Women first. 

Once you fix your diabetes, we can work together in the Carb Cycling Program.

Now that you know who carb cycling is for and not for, the next step would be learning how to do this.

In the next video, I'm going to share my 3-step simple blueprint for cycling carbs on keto as a female.

Go watch that video next.