Carb Cycling- A diet that makes sense

So I've been listening to The Fitcast ( http://thefitcast.com/) for a while, and the people on the show keep talking about Carb Cycling. This can be used for either weight loss or body building. The notion is that you cycle your carbs, depending on the diet, you have high carb, low carb, no carb days.  Again it seems like it would make sense, My parants always had  very good results when they went on the Atkins Diet, dropping weight like crazy.  However, I never quite grasped the notion that its bad to eat fruits and veggies. Frankly, most diets work, just because your watching what you eat. I immagine , and its recomended by the guys ( men of GIRTH, both have goal weights over 200 pounds) over at Fat2Fit ( http://www.fat2fitradio.com/ ) that if you just wrote down everything you ate, you'd quite possible lose weight because you were paying attention, i.e notticing the fifteen reeces pieces cups you snatched randomly through out the day and probably you'd cut back.  Carb cycling makes sense because Carbs are the prefered energy source for your body. You cut back on these and your going to lose weight, problem is, you also need carbs like fruits and veggies not only to enjoy , but to have a normal ( or regular) life. So if you have your normal carb days when you exercize so you have energy, then do low to no carb days on your rest days there should be some weight loss. Anywho, here's some good info and links- 

Excert from- http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/metabolism-myths.aspx

Going into power-saving mode

 

The first goes like this: your body, when deprived of food for a period of time, will go into “starvation mode.”   This is when the body burns fewer calories in order to conserve energy, just in case the food shortage continues. During a famine, you’d need to live on your stored fat. Down-regulating your metabolism is a way to make those fat stores go a bit further.

 

It’s similar to the way your laptop adjusts its energy usage when it’s running on batteries, by making the screen a little dimmer, for example. When food is plentiful again, your metabolism goes back to normal, just the way your screen gets brighter when you plug your laptop back in.

 

If there were actually a famine, you’d be glad that your body is designed this way. But, if you’re trying to lose weight, the last thing you want is increased fuel efficiency. You wantto be burning through stored fat like an Escalade burns through a tank of gas. So, the trick is to reassure your body that there is no shortage of food by eating every few hours. Your body will oblige you by continuing to burn calories with reckless metabolic abandon. Or so the story goes.

 

It makes sense, doesn’t it? And, it’s sort of true. Your body does respond to a prolonged fast by slowing your metabolism to conserve energy. Here’s the thing, though: your body doesn’t go into starvation mode if you go four hours without food. In fact, it takes about three days of fasting or serious caloric restriction for your body to respond with any sort of metabolic adjustment.

 

http://www.squidoo.com/CarbRotationDietReview

 

I like this (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFY/is_8_20/ai_98539290/ ) program, but its geared more toward someone working out very hard. So, adjustment should take place. Use this ( http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/carbohydrate.asp ) to figure out how many you should eat on days of moderate exercize ( walking, biking, kayaking for instance).