I came across this 2009 interview with former bodybuilder turned fitness coach Scott Abel recently and thought his comments re carb cycling interesting:
Often this industry seeks to create consumer dependence. The more complicated we make something, the more “genius” or “expert” guidance required to unravel it. It’s a way of creating two things.
One as I said, is dependence, and the other is the illusion of control. If we give people more and more variables to pay attention to, they “think” they are controlling complex bodily processes that are not linear one-way causative relationships. Again, by seeking to complicate what is simple, the industry creates for itself “experts” to unravel its own creation: complexity. …
The simple truth is that complicating things in the short run usually burns people out in the long run to the point they just give up and move on. The industry relies on this turnstile nature of consumers within it. So carb cycling may “work” depending on how you define it, but is it sustainable and relevant?
Seems to me you could replace “carb cycling” with a whole lot of other diet & exercise approaches. YMMV.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
I want to say that this is what I’ve wanted to say all along about diet gurus and their MO, but…no, Mr Abel is simply a genius. I’ve never bought his materials, but if anyone deserves to make money off searing psychological insights, it is he.
In fact, those who set the scientific record straight, like Evelyn, could replace half their ‘about’ page with the above quote, and use it as an apt reply to their critics. Not to mention Abel’s usual blogpost closing of, ‘Again, some of you will get it, and some of you will not.’
i also liked the following statements from the interview:
—- First, this industry needs to stop slotting people into diets, and start making diets to fit the people. This means entertaining and assessing not just the physical specimen but also lifestyle, emotional awareness of eating patterns, nutritional knowledge, etc. These are important considerations that seem to get scant attention by experts assigning diet protocol. Again, this microanalysis seems to come at the expense of the big picture emphasis.—
—I get letters all the time from people asking me about my “program” or my “diet.” The industry has brainwashed them into thinking all experts fall into a specific category of one-dimensional approaches. While that may be true of some, it’s not true of myself. I don’t have a diet or a program. I have thousands in both categories.—