Possible,..... I have just started reading here but,   then what was
the need for a reply like this:

Yeah... remember the days when a frequent response here was "RTFB"?

In case you missed it RTFB means "read the f.cking book", just because
you guys click with her, dosen't make it right.

You may want to Google the web (and this NG) for TKD -
Targeted Ketogenic Diet.  Although it may not be what you
need, it is another option.

Weight lifters tend to do this type of cycle.  It's not a cheat
day - It's a switch from low carb to low fat and then back to
low carb again.  View it as a cheat day and there's little
chance you'll get it right.

The reason its controvertial is this - If you do view it as a
cheat then it erodes your commitment to the plan.  If you
are subject to carb cravings when starting low carb (most
are but not all) then you're putting yourself through the
hardest part of the first year of low carbing again and again
every week.

Biochemical reasons why this works.  Note that weight
lifters use it to push their body fat percentage down well
below the ideal levels so question its use if that's not your
goal.

Look to studies of T3 thyriod levels of folks who stay at
or below 20 for a long time and you'll see mention that
T3 output goes down about two weeks in *  My informal
data says that actually depends on amount to lose but
I'd need studies to move that bit from a hypothesis to a
theory.  Thus a one day switch from low carb to low fat
and back keeps the T3 level high and thus the basal
metabolism high.

Also folks on Atkins who to the ketostix to measure
their ketone output know the typical pattern of high
output in the first two weeks then low output from then
on - The weekly cycle attempts to keep the body in that
initial over reaction and I think that's why they can push
body fat percentage below ideal.  Everything I've seen in
long term low carbers who do mild systems like Atkins,
Eades, South Beach (must learn how to spell
Atagoston ...) is that anyone who doesn't do calorie
reduction doesn't lose the last 10 pounds so low carbing
alone won't drive folks below ideal weight or even to it.
Some use the appetite suppression of low carbing to
reduce appetite for the last 10, some use this cycling
trick, some are happy enough with their loss they settle.

Next is leptin.  It's released by stored fat so the less
stored fat the less leptin and the lower the loss rate.
It's also released by the liver that somehow reflects the
highest carb intake in the last few months.  Stay too
low, leptin from the liver eventually drives loss rate down
to zero - That's just another reason why every plan out
there increases carb quota over time or keeps it high
the entire time.  And again the cycling trick handles
leptin by the weekly switch from low carb to low fat and
back to low carb again.  Since there's a weekly high
carb day the liver's track of the highest carb intake in
the last several months always has a high level.

I consider cycling to be overkill and a way to handle
not following the directions in the first place.  I know it
works and why, but I'd rather see folks march their carb
quotas up on schedule than not.  Giving yourself
hormonal metabolic problems and then using cycling to
cure those problems just doesn't seem right to me
compared to not triggering those problems in the first
place by following the schedule.  I view the attitudes
involved as too close to fad diet versus sustainable
lifestyle change.

It's also universally true good advice.  Consider what went into
writing each of the popular books - A decade or more of study
and experimentation to find non-obvious actions that work
better than the obvious.  Then compare with the experience
level and typical conclusion of newbies with a month of
experience - So many newbies don't want to do the
non-obvious steps because they think the obvious is the best
course.  The problem is nearly all newbies conclude that if
low carb is good then lower carb is better - If that were actually
true every single low carb book out there would teach exactly
that.

Doctor Atkins claimed that the single most predictable outcome
of low carbing was reduced blood pressure.  It's a strange claim
from someone who made his living getting people to work on
losing stored fat but it sure matches my experience of a decade
reading what people report.

Susan,

That study seems to state that there is no loss in submaximal exercise
capability, ie, aerobic execise ability.
As one increases exercise intensity, you move more and more toward maximal
exercise capability, which the study
doesn't seem to address.  Of course, I don't know what "continuous exercise
to exhaustion" means in the context of this short blub.