I can’t tell you how excited I am to be starting this next round of my FASTer Way to Fat Loss program. This round, I have made some changes to our food cycle because I am always looking for ways to maximize my clients’ results. The program is based on intermittent fasting, carb cycling and an IIFYM approach to eating. I have combined these three strategies into the very best program available to ensure my clients achieve incredible results. One specific change I’ve made this round is that we’ll be doing two low carb days back to back. Low carb days are critical in our carb cycle because they help us become better fat burners.

The purpose of low carb days.

Each day in our carb cycle has a purpose. On low carb days, our goal is to deplete our glycogen stores so that our body burns fat for fuel. When we eat carbs, our body turns those carbs into glycogen. When we eat fats, our body stores those fats into fat or triglycerides. During a sprint or a heavy lifting workout, the first place our body goes for fuel is our glycogen stores. Once it has used up the glycogen stores, our body will reach into our fat stores for energy. This is exactly where we want our body to go!

Doing back to back low carb days will ensure our glycogen levels are low, so our body uses those stores up quickly and can start burning fat.

Workouts for low carb days.

Our low carb day workouts will be doing a speed burst workout paired with some low intensity cardio. This will require our body to exhaust its glycogen stores and start burning fat throughout our speed burst training.  It will then continue to burn fat throughout our cardio workout, and for hours after our workout is complete!

It is best to do both your speed burst training and low intensity cardio while fasted, and to break your fast shortly after finishing. During speed burst training you need to push yourself. You want to get into those fat stores quickly, so work hard during this part of your workout. During your low intensity cardio, you should be able to carry on a conversation. It’s important you stay in a lower heart-rate zone for this portion of your workout to maintain fat burning.  

How we do low carb days.

On low carb days my clients and I consume less than 50 net grams of carbs (net carbs are carbs minus fiber in a given food). These carbs come from complex carbs found in vegetables, whole grains and fruits. We do our best to avoid starchy carbs that lack any real nutrients, since we are working towards feeling our best and fueling our body well. During my program, we do eat our carbs in a 6-8 hour eating window as part of our intermittent fasting. There are days where we will have some discretionary calories based on our workouts and cycle for the week. During those days, we can eat carbs from any source we choose…hello donuts!

Low carb days can be a bit challenging because they don’t allow for as much room as high carb days, but aren’t as cut and dry as a no carb day. They require a bit more thinking, but can easily be carried out once you’ve gotten a good handle on the macros in what you normally eat. I’m excited to see the results my ladies experience as we change things up with our carb cycle this round.

If you are interested in joining my FASTer Way to Fat Loss program on January 16th, sign up here. My last bootcamp filled up quickly, so if you are on the fence, I recommend you sign up asap before spots are gone.