Carb cycling trains your body to tap into fat stores and speeds up both weight loss and fatloss results. It's also simple, allows you to eat more of the foods you love and can be combined with fatloss workouts for even better results.

Check out my Carb Cycling Diet guide to learn more about all the different types of carb cycling diet plans and to check out pics of the evil trainer who taught me this amazing fat burning system.

I've been carb cycling for 10 days now and the results are pretty amazing. This is my third time carb cycling and my first time using Wendy Chant's Carb Cycling Plan which is very different from other carb cycling diets I've used before.

My scale weight for the past 10 days has been 120 lb. (it always hovers around here) but this isn't what matters bcz with carb cycling you are 100% focused on quality fatloss meaning you don't want to lose any lean muscle while dropping bodyfat. In fact if I could maintain my weight and lose 4-5% bodyfat that would be awesome but I know my body and that is not what will happen (in other words unlike other fitness people I won't gain muscle on this plan, some people do).

I can already tell that I've lost at least 1% bodyfat. I can see it! I don't need calipers or a bodyfat monitor to know and the tape measure and my jeans are confirming this too. I did measure on the Omron and the numbers are all over the place so definitely need to look into buying my own calipers so I don't have to keep asking the trainers at work to measure me.

The goal for the next 4 weeks is to lose 4-5% bodyfat without losing inches on my hips and with a minimal drop in weight. Then stay on the plan for 4 more weeks and see how much further I can drop. I have not decided whether to continue intermittent fasting at this point. I almost did yesterday but maybe it would be a better fit during weeks 3-5 of this plan.

Will keep posting carb cycling updates each week. Check out my carb cycling diet page to learn more about all the plans.

Dear Monica -

I'd definitely love to hear updates on how this works for you. It is so true that it's important to hold onto muscle mass while losing those fat deposits!

What type of exercise are you doing this week? I just bought myself a step unit so I can do step exercises and not hammer on our poor actual inside-the-house steps Right now I hear "squeak squeak" when I go up and down on the first step towards the second floor.

I post all my workouts weekly in the exercise forum. The post is called what are your workouts (I think) but basically I do HIIT five days a week, I do mobility and flexibility daily and I also do some cardio 2-3 times a week (if I'm run down I only do cardio 1 x per week).

I used to love the stepper back in the 90's but now I just prefer outdoor cardio (hills sprints, stair sprints, hiking, and bootcamp cardio).

I'm actually going to post about setting lifetime goals for both weight and bodyfat.

My personal lifetime goals for weight are 120 lb. or less and my bodyfat goals are fitness range year round and athlete range 1-2 times per year.

I think most people don't see their body stats as being flexible but they really should be. This gives you more freedom with diet and the type of workouts you do year round.

I've been dancing since I was 3 and working out consistently since I was 15 so it would be just silly to think there will be no ups and downs. People need to learn how to be more flexible with their eating, their workout, and their body stats too : )

Today is carb up day!

Just had eggs with potatoes, green chilis, and greek yogurt and a small flaky dinner roll.

Lunch is probably going to be a green smoothie made with vanilla yogurt, banana, spinach, chocolate whey protein powder, and peanut butter (all organic ingredients and no low fat anything).

Snack will probably be a chai latte from Starbcks (my son keeps asking for donuts so I might have 1 bite of whatever he gets)

Dinner will be huge salad (greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, celery, cucumbers, avocado, green beans, onions) plus 1/2 cup rice or pasta and 3 oz. of some type of protein (not sure what we have), plus 1 square of dark chocolate.

I love carb up day but the next day it always feels good to get back to less food. I still wish I could eat fruit every day but being able to have 1 starchy carb at breakfast or lunch on carb down days makes up for it.

Definitely working out at a slightly higher intensity today and drinking tons of water so I don't go overboard with carb portions.

Weight is now down to 118.5 lb. from 120.5 lb. 10 days ago. Doesn't take long for my body to lose all the false weight when I make any changes to my diet the true test of success will be my bodyfat measurement next week.

That is awesome news Monica, congratulations!

Thanks for the details!

Went overboard with carb up day yesterday! I had my 1 square of dark chocolate after the breakfast I posted (weird) and still had my smoothie after I worked out around 4 except we had no spinach so I left that out and cut down on the pb too.

Also I skipped the Starbucks chai latte and instead had 1/2 a donut and a couple of handful of buffalo ranch Doritos with a glass of water. Believe it or not the chai latte with whole milk (which is something I get for a treat once a week) is more calories than the junk food (315 calories vs. 1/2 a glazed doughnut at 92 calories and doritos at 140 calories.

And yes I only ate half a doughnut. I often do this in front of family (with b-day cakes and other junk) and they always ask how I do this. The answer is simple. 10 bites of a doughnut or other junk doesn't taste better than 3 bites. It just doesn't make it better or fill you up either so why keep eating it. I had the junk food about 90 min. post workout and post smoothie which is the best time to eat garbage food (on carb up day only). For dinner I still had a huge salad but my son and I made lean ground beef burgers with cheese and served them on those flaky dinner rolls with extra lettuce.

Low carb day is the complete opposite of this. You get one starchy carb at breakfast and that is all. The rest of the day you eat 2-3 oz of protein 4-5 times a day and nothing but veggies (no fruit, no nuts, no sugar, no starches, no alcohol, no cheating of any kind). My week looks like this:

monday low carb
tuesday low carb
wednesday high carb
thursday low carb
friday low carb
saturday high carb
sunday baseline (not low but not high either)

On low carb days I'm usually hungry at night. I feel hungry most of the day, I go to bed hungry and I wake up because my stomach is growling. Hunger is something many people are no longer familiar with and it isn't as uncomfortable or as life threatening as most of those eat 6 times a day or you'll die diets suggest. Most Americans probably have enough fat stored in their bodies to survive for 6 months without food (alright I'm exaggerating).

Anyway, thanks to anybody who is following my carb cycling journal and not judging what I do. I like to experiment with diets. I always have. I've also always been fit and not overweight (except those 18 months post pregnancy when I couldn't lose the 30 pounds) so experimenting with my diet is easier for me than it would be for somebody who has always struggled with food and weight issues. I would not recommend this diet to people who need to learn how to eat sensibly. I would recommend carb cycling to anybody who eats healthy 80% of the time and is fit and looking to lose some extra fat the easy way.

BTW, my workout yesterday kicked a** I worked out so hard I was sweating buckets and my legs were shaking after the workout.

So today is officially day 15 of carb cycling and I'm so over it already. I noticed yesterday that even though I've been working out hard and following this diet to the letter and seeing the results of the work I've also been feeling extra tired, hungry most of the time, and kind of irritable (usually not much gets to me and even when it does, I vent and then I'm over it but this persistent irritability is not cool).

I know it has 100% to do with the fact that I'm depleting carbs 4 days per week and my body is not loving this. I'm a carb type so I thrive on carbs. When I eat carbs several times a day every day I feel super energized, happy, and just high on life. Right now I just want to kick something or somebody. I've heard bodybuilders who are leaning out say that this is part of the process and you get used to it. I think not!

I don't know how low carbers who are carb types do it. This is the feeling that I mentioned in the low carb forum that low carb people say they just don't understand but I know plenty of them feel it too. Many of my low carb clients who are not protein types have told me how horrible they feel when they low carb.

Protein types on the other hand feel like I feel when I eat tons of carbs daily. So the dilema is to continue for another 6 weeks after Sunday or find another fatloss diet that allows strategic cheating. I kind of feel like I should endure the torture just to see the end result.

Last two times I carb cycled I did it for 3 weeks max but this time I really want to see how low I can get my bodyfat so not sure what to do at this point. Starve and be angry for 6 more weeks to get ultra lean or go back to 90/10 healthy eating and intermittent fasting weekly.

This is definitely not the most important thing in my life but it's kind of tied to something that is very important to me so it's a complicated decision.

Hi, I'm just curious. How tall are you? How much fat can your body have @ 120 lbs? I'm 135 lbs, down from 142 lbs. I run up to 5 miles three times a week. I stretch sometimes twice a day, I do some fun ab workouts. I have a blog on how to get six pack abs. I dance a least once a week. I eat what I want, chicken, salads, fish, fruits, all type of nuts and ice cream, I love ice cream...!! I will be stopping by from time to time to see how you're progressing and to get some food ideas. I know I'm not eating right, work in process. Thanks... Positivep

Before I answer that, here is a bodyfat chart:

Bodyfat Chart for Women
Essential 10�13%
Athletes 14�20%
Fitness 21�24%
Average 25�31%
Obese 32%+

Bodyfat Chart for Men
Essential 2�5%
Athletes 6�13%
Fitness 14�18%
Average 18�24%
Obese 25%+

When I tend to be very careless and I'm talking very careless with my diet my weight stays the same as always 120 lb. (I'm 5'3 3/4") but my bodyfat shoots up to 23%. By very careless I mean instead of an 80/20 ratio of healthy food/junk I go 60/40 healthy food/junk. I do this every couple summers for some reason. As you can see 23% is still in the fitness range but not exactly where I prefer to be. If you are curious to see what I look like you can visit my free workouts site or my youtube channel and watch my videos.

I really do prefer to be about 19-20%. That is where I feel the best. I am officially two weeks into carb cycling and am confident that I will lose 3% bodyfat by the 4th week. Tom Venuto author of the Bodyfat Solution says .5%-1% loss per week is normal for somebody who is fit and already at their goal weight.

This is not the first time I've carb cycled. I did it in 2004 and went from 121 lb. and 22% bodyfat to 117 lb. and 17% bodyfat but I had another trainer monitoring every workout and every thing that went in my mouth at the time. I also had 2 people measuring me with handheld calipers at the time. I wish I had before and afters of all that. You can read more about it in my Carb Cycling Diet guide. I also carb cycled two years ago while I was training to start back up with aerial dance.

This time I'm hoping I can stay on carb cycling for 8 weeks and possibly drop down to 15% bodyfat. Keep in mind that most fitness competitors have much more muscle mass and they compete at around 10% bodyfat so I would not come close to that type of physique and that has never been my goal.

I do not wish to be all muscular and have "ripped abs". To me that is gross looking. I DO want to look and perform like a dancer again. This is the look I'm hoping to achieve Nike Make Yourself Team Sofia. That is my natural body type. I'm naturally an ecto with some meso qualities which means I don't put on or maintain muscles easily (except in the legs) but I do gain fat easily.

For me the less visible muscle and the more strength and agility the better. We'll see what happens this time : )

Food update

Yesterday was low carb day:

meal 1: 1/4 lean ground beef patty (leftover from dinner), 1 slice pepper jack cheese, 2 big lettuce leaves, 2 slices 11 grain bread (each slice is 50 calories and has 11g carbs. I usually only eat 1 slice of bread on low carb day but I was hungry!), 1 cup coffee with 1 tbsp half half

meal 2: 1/2 cup cottage cheese handful cherry tomatoes and
cucumbers, 20 oz. chia water, 2 mugs coffee w/ half half (yes I'm a caffeine addict)

meal 3: 4 oz flank steak, 2 cups onions, mushrooms, zuchini, green beans with pepper and lime juice (don't usually eat red meat twice in a day but boyfriend chose the dinner meat and cooked it too)

meal 4: 2 pieces of cauliflower with 1 tbsp spicy hummus, 2 celery sticks with 1 tbsp greek yogurt (don't usually eat after dinner but was in bed and my stomach was growling and I wasn't going to try to get to sleep hungry.)

Today is high carb day: I woke up at 5ish bcz my stomach was growling. So tired of this but was also too tired to care and went back to sleep. Got up at 7:30 and had the most amazing high carb breakfast ever!

meal 1: 2 slices 11 grain, 2 eggs, 1/2 apple sprinkled with cinammon and clove spices and sauteed in butter while french toast was cooking. Piled it on top of french toast w/ 1 tbsp maple syrup and 3 tbsp plain greek yogurt (tasted like some decadent dessert.)

Not gonna get that crazy the rest of the day but will be drinking some wine!! Tomorrow is baseline day (moderate carbs) and the end of the double accelerated fatloss phase. Monday I am continuing with phase 2 of Wendy's carb cycling plan, MIC (metabolic increase cycle) which is:

no carb
baseline
no carb
baseline
no carb
carb up
baseline

No more low carb days back to back but 3 no carb days per week. I am now thinking this will be easier than the last two weeks have been.

I screwed up my first day on the metabolic increase cycle. I had toast with eggs this morning. I just realized this 4 hours later.

So no carbs the rest of the day and will skip one serving of carbs tomorrow which is baseline day to make up for it. Not ideal but that should put me back on track.

Carb habits are hard to break!!!

My first day on MIC actually took a turn for the better! I had 1 cup tuna salad on a huge bed of greens for lunch (I make my tuna salad with onions, and tons of celery and spinach and 1 tbsp of both mayo/mustard just to keep it together). I also had 1 cup of steamed broccoli and brussel sprouts with 1 tbsp of greek yogurt on the side. For dinner I had 1 grilled chicken thigh and 2 cups of steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, onions).

I also had two 20 oz. glasses of water, 1 20 oz. glass of water with electrolyte packet (no sugar in this) and 20 oz. chia water and 3 cups of coffee (1 in the morning and 2 mid afternoon before my workout).

Today is baseline day which means I can eat 1 starchy carb at breakfast and at lunch but I'm skipping one of these to make up for yesterday's breakfast mistake. I'm taking another set of pics today and also measuring bodyfat on my handheld bodyfat monitor later this week. At some point I need to get somebody in the gym to measure me with calipers.

My workout yesterday was mobility plus 2 moderate intensity functional training circuits and 30 min. of stretching. Today I'm going high intensity with my best butt workout routine. I'm filming that and my new ab circuit too.

Today is my first actual no carb day. My favorite thing to eat for breakfast on no carb day is a big handful of chopped spinach with 2 scrambled eggs, some pepper jack cheese, 1 tbsp green chilis, 1 tbsp garlic cilantro salsa, and 1/4 of an avocado.

I did realize yesterday that I'm going to have to tweak my baseline days and replace one starchy carb with 1-2 servings of fruit. I really would prefer to eat 1 starchy carb at breakfast and then eat 1/2 a banana and some berries or an apple with my protein shake after my workout (instead of no fruit and 2 starchy carbs).

According to tons of posts that I read on various fitness and bodybuilding sites yesterday, plenty of people eat fruit post workout and are still able to lose bodyfat. Most of the advice I read said that carb types can experiment with this more. Protein types probably can't tweak much or at all. So again Metabolic Typing comes into play even when you're carb cycling!

Today of course is no carb day so protein and tons of veggies only.

My first no carb day went better than I expected. I ended up having:

meal 1: handful spinach, 2 eggs, 1 slice pepper jack cheese, 1 tbsp green chilis, 1 tsp garlic cilantro salsa, 1/4 avocado, 2 cups coffee w/half half

meal 2: 2 oz grilled chicken thigh, 1/2 cup steamed veggies, 2 tbsp greek yogurt, 5 cherry tomatoes, 10 nuts, 20 oz water

meal 3: small coffee w/half half

meal 4: small bowl of filled with lettuce and 2 oz flank steak, 5 cherry tomatoes, 5 cucumber slices, onions, 1 tbsp cottage cheese, 1 tbsp greek yogurt, 1 tbsp garlic cilantro salsa, 20 oz water

meal 5: 8 oz water, 1 scoop chocolate whey, 1 packet raspberry electrolyte mix, 5 ice cubes

Today is baseline day and so I get to eat one starchy carb at breakfast and lunch but I'm replacing the second starch with fruit so that means I have to get my workout in before then in order for this to work for fatloss.

I'm glad I'm sticking with this for another 3 weeks. Once I finis up with week 6 I'll decide whether to do the final stage. Week 8 falls on Thanksgiving week but it would still work with cheat days.

I have a pair of really cool cargo pants that I got as a xmas present a few years ago. When I am at my fittest these pants are 3 sizes too big and I can easily put them on and take the off while they are zipped and buttoned. I also have to cinch them pretty tight with a belt or they fall off (which is kind of why I like them so much).

When I'm not at my fittest and leanest they only feel 1-2 sizes too big. That is how they had been feeling for the past 2 months. Today they feel HUGE which means my bodyfat levels have dropped again!

Scales and monitors and pants are all ways you can track your progress but in the end it's how you feel about yourself that really matters and right now I'm starting to feel great and more motivated to write great fitness articles and create & film more awesome fatloss workouts for my visitors.

That is why carb cycling is important to me right now. Not bcz I actually care about some number on a bodyfat monitor or scale. The better I feel about my body the more inspired I feel to help others and the more successful my free workouts site is.

Do you know your underlying motivations? When you do sticking to your healthy goals is much easier than just saying I want to be healthy or I want to weigh this much or fit into these skinny jeans etc. It's never really about that for anybody as dozens of clients that I've helped have all confessed when they reach their goal weight.

After 3 weeks of following the carb cycling plan outlined in Wendy Chant's Conquer The Fatloss Code book I've decided to go back to The Carb Rotation Diet by Jayson Hunter.

Wendy's plan (available on Amazon for $16) was easy to follow but it made me feel hungry, tired, irritable, and very low on energy all day every day. Plus the results have not been nearly as impressive as the results I got in under 3 weeks with The Carb Rotation Diet which is a $47 digital download (I've owned this book for years now and have used carb rotation twice before).

I took my 3 weeks pics yesterday and even though I can see the improvements they just are nowhere near as impressive as the ones I achieved with Jayson's low high no carb rotation diet 2 years ago and also 10 years ago when I first tried his method of carb cycling.

Some things I hated about Wendy's plan
very high protein
5-6 meals per day
too many cheat foods allowed on high carb days
felt so depleted some days I had to warmup forever to boost energy levels enough to workout
no fruits allowed except on high carb days

I will still be carb cycling for 5 more weeks but I know the Carb Rotation Diet is just a much better fit for my metabolic type. I think Wendy's would be a great plan for yo yo dieters and people who are o.k. eating a higher protein diet, and those who like 6 meals a day.

I personally just don't want to waste any more time with Wendy's diet. I want to focus on something that's going to get my body maximum fatloss in the next 5 weeks and that is Carb Rotation. Will keep posting my experience/results with that.

So after 2 days of eating much closer to my normal diet my energy levels are back and I'm feeling so much better plus I slept great.

My meals yesterday were:

meal 1: 2 cups coffee and no food. I was not hungry and I don't believe in eating just to eat.

meal 2: (11 a.m.) 2 scrambled eggs, 1 slice 12 grain plain, 4 slices grapefruit, 20 oz water

meal 3: 1/4 cup zucchini, mushrooms, garlic sauteed in olive oil (leftovers from night before) with 2 tbsp black beans plus 7 slices of cucumber with 2 tbsp hummus and 5 cherry tomatoes (best lunch I've had in ages and no animal protein which I normally don't eat at lunch time but had been for 3 weeks and was main reason I had been feeling so low on energy and irritable), 20 oz water

meal 4: 1/2 cup full fat cottage cheese, 2 tbsp vanilla yogurt, 1/2 banana, 20 oz water (this was my post workout meal around 5 p.m.)

meal 5: 1/2 raw zucchini w/ hummus and cilantro garlic salsa, 10 tortilla chips 20 oz water

After dinner I had 1 mini heath chocolate and 1 mini twix from my son's Halloween candy. That and 2 pieces of laffy taffy (I had Saturday) is all the Halloween candy I've had this year. It was a small cheat and I will not be having any more candy or other sugary treats for the next 6 weeks.

Yesterday would be considered a hi carb day, 2 servings of starchy carbs plus all the fruit, veggies and protein I needed plus 2 small cheats (small being the keyword).

Today is low carb day which means I get to eat 1 starchy carb and as much fruit/vegetables/protein as my body needs.

Then no carb day is no starchy carbs and no fruit at all so higher protein and lots of veggies.

The main difference between Carb Rotation and Wendy's carb cycling plan is Carb Rotation gives you more freedom with fruit and with protein plus cheats need to be very very small or you just don't cheat at all.

I'm happy again!!! I should've just stuck with what had worked in the past but was curious to try something different and glad I did bcz it helps me make better recommendations for people who ask questions about this on my free workouts site.

Yesterday was a low carb day and after my workout I had a really great protein shake:

8 oz water
1/2 orange
1/4 banana (leftover from breakfast)
1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
1 packet raspberry electrolytes
6 ice cubes

I was gooood and I am so much happier now that I'm eating slightly less protein and more fruit. I can't believe how much higher my energy levels have been the past 2 days since I switched from Conquer the Fatloss Code to Carb Rotation.

I also noticed that I don't have indigestion all the time like I did when I was eating protein 4-5 times a day so my abs actually look flatter than they did before when I was gassy and starving!

My skin also looks healthy again. When I was depleting carbs completely 3-4 days per week I looked wrinkled, tired, and hagard. I look young again!

I'm more excited now too and I'm expecting even more fatloss in the next 2 weeks than in the first 3 weeks!

Had a great no carb day yesterday.

spinach, eggs and salsa for breakfast

cottage cheese and 1/2 banana for lunch - (I love that I actually can eat bananas and other fruit on no carb day I found this out yesterday)

grilled chicken thighs and veggies in tomato broth plus 1/2 banana for dinner

1/2 scoop chocolate whey and greek yogurt before bed

I also did my hardest workout of the week. The video of that one goes live later today. I'm only slightly sore today which means my glutes, hips, upper body and core is getting much stronger.

I started uploading videos on youtube about 4 weeks ago (after about a year off to recover from a hip injury) and the changes are starting to become more visible (to me anyway). Stomach is flatter, arms are more toned, back fat starting to disappear, legs getting leaner, endurance better, exercise technique is better.

I really slacked off with both diet and workout intensity this past summer. I'm gonna try not to let this happen again!! In case anybody is wondering I ALWAYS workout (pretty much daily) and have been since I was a kid but it's the intensity that changes for me when I'm slacking. I just don't train as hard.

It's amazing how just being consistent with some type of healthy eating and exercise will keep you at your maintenance weight but your bodyfat and body tone reveal the truth about how you're training and eating.

3 1/2 weeks ago when I started carb cycling my Omron handheld bodyfat monitor gave me a reading 23.8% and 24%. I know my body and felt the Omron was fairly accurate.

I wanted to double check with calipers but was too embarrassed to ask my friend at work to pinch my fat rolls so I waited and the result of the skinfold yesterday with the lange calipers was 21.8% which means I've dropped about 2% in 24 days. I'm averaging about a .5% loss per week.

According to bodyfat expert Tom Venuto that is totally normal for somebody like me (fit, at desired weight, been exercising all my life).

I would like to speed things up in the next 4 weeks so I'm going to get a little more strict with my starchy carb choices i.e. quinoa vs. pasta, brown rice vs. tortilla, Ezekiel bread vs. the 12 grain I'm eating now. I'm also cutting out alcohol (this is something that was allowed on hi carb days on Conquer the Fatloss Code but I feel it needs to go for maximum fatloss.

I also need to cut out my afternoon caffeine fix and drink more water and get back to eating a wider variety of greens like kale, chard, collard greens, brussel sprouts, bok choy, etc.

These changes should help me get down into the 17%-18% range in the next 4 weeks then I can keep going from there.

Damn! Today is no carb day and I am soooo hungry and craving my healthy french toast that I make. Tomorrow is hi carb day so I just need to get through today.

I hate being hungry on no carb day. It's like trying to intermittent fast when you wake up starving except worst because you actually have to deal with food.

I'm thinking of making one of my no carb days an intermittent fast next week. I'm thinking it can work to deplete glycogen even more but only if I can get back on track without going nuts with carbs.

Had to post that I got my hunger/carb crisis under control by having a filling breakfast:

spinach mushroom tomato and cheese frittata w/ 2 mini sausage links and 2 cups coffee

will also be drinking lots of water and eating a plate of raw veggies with 1 tbsp hummus for lunch

plus chocolate orange protein drink after my workout later today

gotta plan ahead if you want to get through a no carb day!

Carb Rotation Update: It's hard to believe that you can burn fat eating as much carbs as I had yesterday but it's happening and I can't wait to take my 8 week pics (just 4 weeks to go).

Yesterday was high carb day and I had:

egg, mushroom, cheese burrito with 1 mini sausage, and coffee

big piece of homemade chai pumpkin bread and coffee

2 small pieces Dominos sausage & peppers artisan pizza, and water

handful tortilla chips and hummus plus water

homemade veggie, beans, rotini, chicken tomato soup (this was the best meal of my day yesterday), and water

I also did a full body interval workout for 30 min. I LOVE hi carb day but am happy to go lo carb today. Tomorrow is no carb then the cycle repeats and on the 7th day I do a low carb day.

I weighed/measured again since starting and was very happy with the results so far:

Before carb cycling and carb rotation
chest around ribcage (I store fat there and notice when my workout tops start fitting snug) 32"
waist 29.5 (I freaked when I saw this number)
hips 36
weight 120.5 lb
bodyfat (according to Omron) 23.8% and 24%

After 3 weeks of carb cycling and 1 week of carb rotation
chest around ribcage 30"
waist 27.5"
hips 35.5"
weight 119 lb
bodyfat (according to Lange calipers) 21.8%

I'm excited that I'm losing fat and not losing weight! This is actually a good thing. I'm also excited that all my baggy pants fit baggy and my not so baggy pants are also starting to fit a bit loose again and my workouts tops aren't digging into my ribs anymore. Ah it's good to be back to normal.

Now the hard part begins: No more alcohol, healthier starchy carb choices, smaller cheats on high carb days, longer harder workouts.

Self sabotage reared it's ugly head yesterday. Not sure why this happens to me and has happened to virtually every client I've worked with right around the time when you start making some serious fatloss or weightloss progress.

I've written a few articles about weightloss self sabotage and weight los sabotage solutions and have helped plenty of clients conquer it.

My issue with it has to do with higher expectations at work and I'm already experiencing that on my site. I got flooded with fatloss questions this past weekend (visitors and friends too). It was overwhelming.

I'm also a private person and even though I'm excited to take before and after pics I'm NOT excited about the idea of having my pics circulating on youtube and other sites. These are big issues for me that could most definitely fuel some nasty self sabotage but this time I'm dealing with them before they stop my fatloss dead in it's tracks, instead of ignoring them like I have in the past.

Part of my self sabotage plan was to find the smallest pair of pants I have in my closet and start wearing them more often. That and filming more videos will help curb any desire to cheat, workout with less intensity, and other silly behaviors I engage in that prevent fatloss.

Self Sabotage Prevention Plan = Increased Fatloss so be sure to come up with one. If you do not devise a plan to stop self sabotage before it starts chances are you won't reach your fatloss or weightloss goal. Check out my articles for helpful tips.

Yesterday was no carb day and it was an o.k. food day. I had too much fat at one meal and could have had more veggies. I also ended up eating a small piece of grilled pork sausage for dinner and woke up with periorbital edema today. My body really seems to hate pork right now.

Today is hi carb day which means I can eat a lot of carbs but I will be sticking to the healthier carbs like quinoa, beans, and will have 1 small piece of homemade pumpkin bread that is left from Sunday's hi carb day.

I caught a glimpse of hourglass figure today in the mirror which is cool but probably won't last if I take my body fat levels down to 17-18%.

Today I'm adding massive weight to my best butt workout in the hopes of building up my booty as I continue to debulk my waist. This is such a hard thing to do for those of us with boring rectangle shapes.

If you were born a triangle or hourglass then you've got it made compared to rectangles and cones. All you have to do it workout and eat clean and bam you're lean and curvy. Cones and rectangles gotta literally bust their butts to look lean and curvy.

Learn all about how to workout for your bodytype in my latest article: Hourglass Body Workout Tips

Of course if all you want is to be healthy and fit then don't worry about any of this body type stuff.

Hi Monica,
I absolutely adore the tips you bring us. Before you, I didn't know about hi carbs and the like. Thanks for the great info -- this article to me is spectacular!! One of your best yet.

Thanks so much for your comments April and glad my tips are helpful.

Carb Cycling Update:

My weight is now 118 lb so I've lost another pound since last week. If you are new to carb cycling I would not recommend you weight on a hi carb day (like I did yesterday). My body doesn't tend to retain a bunch of water when I eat carbs so I can pretty much weight any time but some people do retain water if they eat hi carb so try to hold off on weighing and do it after a low or no carb day if you must.

I also found out that my strange allergic reaction was not because of pork. My boyfriend told me the sausage he grilled was chicken (he even showed me the package) so I went through 5 weeks of my journal to see if I could figure out what might have caused or contributed to the face/under eye swelling and I suspect it is peanut butter. I'll cover diets and food allergies in detail in another post.

Also yesterday's hi carb day was awesome, had plenty of carbs which fueled an amazing lower body workout that included an exercise with a 20 lb. sandbag that I had not done in months. It was challenging but not as challenging as I thought it would be so my best butt workout is definitely doing the job of strengthening my glutes and core (which are both hip and low back stabilizers) as well as building a nice booty and stripping away layers of ab fat too.

I know I write a lot about training to look good but I am big on functional training so all my workouts include functional exercises that do more than just help you look good. I just don't write about it as much bcz sadly people don't care as much about that as they do about fitting into their skinny jeans and losing weight.

I believe that a great workout should improve function, health, and body composition too! If your workout only addresses one of those thing then you are not going to be very happy with your results long term.

My workouts this week have been so much better since I switched from Conquer the Fatloss Code style carb cycling to Carb Rotation Diet. I have more energy so I can train with more intensity now. I've now added more weight to some of my exercises plus 4 minutes of tabata protocol at the end of my workouts to boost fatloss and it's been great!

I did forget to eat my second serving of starchy carbs yesterday (lo carb day allows 2 starchy carbs per day) so I started craving junk late at night and woke up starving this morning. I think I might do another lo carb day today (this time I'll remember to eat starchy carbs twice) then no carb saturday. Same number of hi lo no days per week just in a different order. It's totally o.k. to mix up your days any way you like as long as you get:

2 days hi
2 days no
3 days lo

*would not recommend doing 2 back to back no days (not fun)

I've been reviewing the 4 day diet for my fatloss workouts site. It is very similar to carb cycling and promises 7+ pounds of fat loss in 4 days. I don't know what it is about quick weight loss and rapid fatloss that is so appealing to most people (even me). I guess if it really is possible to lose 7+ pounds of fat in under a week then why wait 8-12 weeks for the same results.

The most fat I've ever lost was 5% bodyfat in just over two weeks which showed up on the scale as a 4 lb loss. I have had clients who lost 15 pounds in just over 2 weeks but much of it was false weight (either way it motivated them to stick with good eating and exercise and keep losing).

The truth is the more overweight and out of shape you are the easier it is to achieve quick weight loss or rapid fat loss. The leaner and fitter you are the longer it takes and the harder it gets to lose fat. The main reason for this is your body doesn't like being lean. It would rather retain a healthy level of bodyfat in case of famine (your body only cares about survival).

The reason I'm writing about this today is that it's very tempting to ditch a plan that is giving you consistent but slow results for the promise of fast and easy weight loss or rapid fat loss but the reality is that weight loss and fat loss takes time, patience, commitment, will power, and perdiodization for life not just for 1 week or 1 month or 12 weeks.

There ARE ways you can speed up your weight loss or fat loss results. Check out my article Fat Loss Secret Tips for strategies that really work. Just remember that the leaner and fitter you get the harder it gets to get results fast.

I was feeling really burned out on carb cycling yesterday afternoon plus my son has been sick for two days and is feeling really down (which always make me feel down bcz there's not much I can do to make his cold go away).

I really wasn't in the mood to follow rules or to track my food so instead I followed my instincts and just ate whatever I felt like eating for the past two days.

I was supposed to go low carb and no carb yesterday and today but I think both days were more hi carb (still healthy though) and it really doesn't bother me at all.

I also took a day off from high intensity training today. I just did 15 min. of mobility and 45 min. of stretching and foam roller work. The really strange thing is I feel leaner than I did on my no carb day a few days ago.

I'm not sure that I want to continue with carb cycling at this point. Tomorrow would start week 6 which means I only have 3 more weeks to go. I've never done carb rotation for longer than 3 weeks and I'm not a huge fan of diets so I tend to get burned out on any type of strict eating plan really fast and the more I try to stick with it the more it starts messing with my workout motivation.

I know I can find another way to burn more fat in 3 weeks without carb rotation but having trouble deciding what to do at this point. I'm considering going back to intermittent fasting. I wonder if fitness competitors struggle with eating rules as much as the rest of us do.

I can't stand rules so for me being on any type of diet no matter how easy eventually begins to feel like torture. I'll see how I feel tomorrow and post an update here or on I.F. Monday.

So I finally made a decision yesterday about whether to continue for 3 more weeks with carb cycling.

I know all this must sound so trivial to people who have a lot of weight or fat to lose and especially to people who can't even stick to any type of healthy eating habits or exercise plan for more than a few weeks but being fit isn't just fun to me it's also my job.

I actually have to look the part or you just get no freakin respect from clients or from online visitors and especially from other women who struggle to lose fat and get fit.

Yesterday when my boyfriend got home from his deer hunting weekend with a friend we talked about this at length and as we were discussing all this I could see both sides of it.

side 1: I am fit and healthy so what if I don't have perfect abs and low levels of bodyfat, I can still help people get fit and feel good about what I do.

side 2: I am fit and healthy but unless I look as fit as Jillian Michaels does or close to as fit as fitness competitors do or that crazy fitness chic on youtube then people don't take me seriously and my site traffic suffers which means I don't make the money I need to make to support my son.

It's an interesting dilema that ALL fitness professionals deal with daily which is: How fit do you have to look for people to actually follow your fitness advice and recommendations.

My friend Zak who is one of the smartest most knowledgeable fitness professionals in the universe and has God knows how many fitness certs and years of experience helping people lose massive tons of weight can't get clients bcz he's 60 pounds overweight. Many fitness pros I worked with at Bally's could not get clients bcz they didn't look like bodybuilders.

I can't stand this aspect of our job as fitness pros but it is the harsh reality that all of us have to deal with and those of us who choose to work in the ultra competitive business of fatloss (which is the only area of fitness that can provide a steady income) have only one choice which is suck it up and look the part or your fitness business dies a slow and lonely death!

So am I continuing with carb cycling? No, but it's not due to frustration or failure. I lost 2 lb of scale weight and 3% fat in the last 5 weeks. That is hardly a failure for somebody with my body type and my fitness background. I will be switching to a new fatloss plan to prevent psychological burnout and avoid fatloss plateaus that are lurking around the corner.

This is the longest I've ever carb cycled and the results this time around were not as impressive as before but only bcz my body is so conditioned to all this.

If you are new to fatloss, fitness and carb cycling I highly recommend it. You can lose up to 15 pounds in 30 days with carb cycling. I've seen it many times and my first time with it I lost 5% bodyfat and 4 lb of scale weight in just over two weeks which took me from 121 lb and 22% bodyfat to 117 lb and 17% bodyfat. It works especially for people just getting started.

It's just no longer working for me right now so it's time to move on which brings me to an even more important point. When something is no longer working for you in the weight loss, fatloss, or fitness dept. it's time for change!

BTW I totally forgot to add that one of the most significant things I've experienced every time I've been on the carb cycling diet is inches lost and pant size reduction.

This time around it was 2 inches off my ricbage which means my workout tops don't fit snug anymore and 2 inches off my waist and virtually no inches lost on my hips (which is exactly what I wanted). Plus my size 2 jeans all fit loose again (yay!!).

The next phase of my fatloss plan is going to be a challenge! I'll start a new post on this later today or tomorrow.

So I've been on the carb lovers diet for a few weeks now but that doesn't mean that I won't be mixing in some carb cycling as well as some intermittent fasting every few weeks.

I'm taking a nutrition periodization course soon so I'll be learning more about how to create 3-4 month eating plans to maximize fatloss and fitness results.

Nutrition periodization is something I've only experimented with in the past 2 years so I'm excited to learn more and write all about it.