Carb cycling: Big Daddy D's weight loss method

Big Daddy D

City & country: Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Age: 34
Weight before diet: 336 lbs.
Weight now: 254 lbs.
Target weight: 236 lbs. (about 18% body fat)

"Be flexible and experiment to find what works best for you" is advice that Big Daddy D followed and which he now gives to others who are trying to find a good weight loss method. Carb cycling helped him lose a large amount of weight and it's a plan he will continue to follow until he reaches his goal. Read on for more information on Big Daddy D's low carb program, his weight loss motivations, and his maintenance plans.

-What finally made you decide to start with a weight loss program?
At my peak weight, I was experiencing various aches and pains. My back and feet were often sore. My ankles sometimes swelled. Short walks would often result in my being out of breath. Regardless, this was not enough to motivate me. I knew that my weight was getting out of hand and that something had to be done about it. I kept putting it off.  It is very easy to say that you will start a diet next month or after the holidays. A year and a half ago, my wife and I had a baby. I felt that I owed it to him to get myself into shape. I want to be around to watch him grow up. Having a child in my life was the motivation that I needed to get healthy.

-What type of weight loss program are you following?
My wife and I started out basically following the Protein Power Life Plan (high protein, low carb). I say "basically" because I changed the plan to allow 2 floating cheat days per month. These days were intended to allow us to occasionally enjoy foods that were off limits.  The planned cheat days usually coincided with holidays or birthdays. Part of the rationale was that this flexibility would remove the guilt of cheating which erodes willpower and ultimately leads most people to give up. After about six months, I added more structure and began a formal "carb cycling" diet. Carb cycling is where you alternate high carb days with low carb. The high carb days are supposed to prevent your metabolism from adjusting to constant low levels of carbs. Because it takes me three or four days to enter ketosis (fat burning mode), I chose a relatively long cycle, 14 days. I am doing 11 days low carb (30-45 net carbs) followed by 3 days normal (about 300 net carbs). This amounts to basically being off of the diet every other weekend. I have found that carb cycling makes it easier for me to slip into ketosis (fat burning mode).

-Why did you choose this weight loss program?
Years ago, I tried a low fat diet and a low calorie diet. These both made me weak and tired. After analyzing my food intake, it became apparent that I was consuming too many refined carbohydrates. Because I thought it was the carbs making me fat, it only made sense to follow a low carb diet. I later switched to a formal carb cycling program because it seemed that my body had adjusted to the low carb diet and that it was not as effective as it had been the first 3 months. This also provided more structure than floating "cheat days."

-How long have you been on your weight loss program?
13 months

-What kinds of physical activities do you like doing to help you lose weight and stay fit?
Once every week or two, I mow my yard. That’s about it. I am contemplating adding resistance and circuit training to my carb cycling plan. If I do this, I will shorten my cycles and carb up days will correspond with heavy workouts. But (there’s always a but), I’m not sure that I am ready to commit to an exercise program.

-What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome or are still overcoming?
When I am working from the office or am on the road, it is hard to find quick meals that are low in carbohydrates. Also, my grocery bill has tripled since I began the diet. Quality food typically takes more preparation time and is more expensive. Most frustrating of all is that the closer I get to my goal weight, the slower the pounds come off.

-How do you keep yourself motivated?
Blogging about my diet has helped me tremendously. My readers give me advice and ideas. Also, I love to cook. I am actually enjoying the challenge of preparing tasty comfort foods in low carb ways. You really have to start understanding the science behind cooking in order to get good results using uncommon ingredients. This challenge makes cooking more interesting.

-Do you have any weight loss tips for our readers?
EveryBODY is different. Be flexible and experiment to find what works best for you. Don’t think that the only way to break a stall is to cut back further; sometimes the opposite is true. If you have cravings, find low carb versions of the foods you crave. Learning how to make good low carb desserts has made the diet much easier. For example, my wife fixed me a fabulous low carb birthday cake made of soy flour topped with cream cheese frosting.

-Do you think it will be easy to fall back into your old lifestyle pattern? How do you prevent this from happening?
When I reach my goal weight, my plan is to tweak my carb cycles to prevent fat deposits and perhaps build more muscle. At first, I will try 4 days carb down with 3 days carb up. I’ll keep increasing the ratio of high carb to low carb days until I find a good balance where I don’t gain or lose. I plan to watch my weight very closely for two years as it takes that long for shrunken fat cells to die off. If I can keep it off for these two years, I am at less of a risk for putting the weight back on even if I later quit the maintenance plan.

-Do you have a favorite Web site or blog that helps or inspires you to lose weight?
My blog, "Big Daddy D’s Low Carb Life," is located at http://lowcarbohydrate.blogspot.com. Here I share my experiences and low carb recipes. 

I also run a low carb blog feeds site, http://lowcarbblogs.blogspot.com, where you can see recent blog articles posted by regular people like you and me. 

There are also some wonderful discussion forums such as http://www.proteinpower.com and http://forum.lowcarber.org. 

And, there is netrition.com where I buy many hard-to-find low carb products.