The Extreme Cycle is the newest addition to our carb cycling family and is the result of our years of experience helping our peeps successfully transform their lives on Extreme Weight Loss. If you?re already a carb cycler, then a lot about this new cycle will seem familiar. If you’re new to carb cycling, check out the carb cycling basics first, and then get cycling!
Here’s what an Extreme Cycle week looks like:
- Monday: High carb day
- Tuesday: High carb day
- Wednesday: High carb day
- Thursday: High carb day
- Friday: Low carb day
- Saturday: Low carb day
- Sunday: Reset Day (and weigh-in day)
Those four consecutive high carb days will give your body a sense of normalcy and let you get into a routine with meal planning. Switching to two low carb days flips your weight loss into turbo mode, allowing you to burn the maximum fat, which is what we want, right?! And your weekly Reset Day (known as your Reward Day in other cycles), lets you eat all those foods you crave, boosts your metabolic rate, and actually helps you lose weight!
Just like with the other cycles, you’ll eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking and every 3 hours thereafter for a total of 5 meals a day. When it comes to putting your meals together, this is what you’ll do:
- Every breakfast—on both low and high carb days—contains a protein, a carb, and a fat.
- On high carb days, for meals 2, 3, and 4, you’ll be eating a protein, a carb, and veggies. For meal 5, you’ll be eating a protein, a fat, and veggies.
- On low carb days, all 4 meals after breakfast will contain a protein, a fat, and veggies.
- And veggies—the non-root/non-starchy type—are totally “free” in the Extreme Cycle! You can enjoy them in limitless portions, and they are a huge key to helping you feel full throughout your day.
If you’re using our book, Extreme Transformation, where we talk about the Extreme Cycle and a lot of other amazing transformation-related things, all your meals are planned out for you for all 21 days of the cycle! We’ve created 21 days? worth of amazing meals for you, including Cheat Meals for your Reset Days. We’ve also included other options to make meal planning as simple and flexible as possible. And you can repeat the Extreme Cycle as many times as you want, or you can change to the Turbo Cycle if you need to shake things up a bit. And for all you macro counters (*hand raised*), calories and macros are figured out and listed for you with every single recipe. 🙂 If you’d like to put your own meals together, or are out and about and can’t meal prep ahead of time, follow this handy portion size guide:
- Proteins: Palm-size portion
- Carbs (grainy, starchy, and fruit): 1 clenched fist
- Veggies: 2 clenched fists
- Fats: 1 thumb
- Sauces: 1 thumb
Are you ready to take your transformation to the extreme and lose those extra pounds in the fastest and safest way possible? Then grab a copy of Extreme Transformation, and let’s go!
661 Responses
Hello!
I am curious what you would recommend for macros for high and low carb days for women. I have the extreme transformation book and see that the calories are specified but was unsure if I should also focus on macros.
Thanks!
Hi Jamie: There is a great chart that explains macros in the Extreme Cycle in this post: https://heidipowell.net/10617.
Hi!
I have the book and I have used this chart to make my own meals. I was just wondering if there is a certain number of grams of proteins, carbs and fats we should adhere to on low and high carb days. (I’m female).
Hi Jamie: There’s a chart in this post that gives you some macro recommendations to aim for when putting together your own meals: https://heidipowell.net/10617.
We are grinding away following the extreme transformation program!
The food is amazing!!! – And we are really enjoying the Metabolic Missions (HIIT).
I was hoping to get some advice though on is this is the correct program for someone with my goals.
I am a160 lb, 5′ 8″ male at 17% body fat (bodpod). My goal is to get to 8 % body fat while maintaining (maybe even building) as much muscle as possible.
In the book it mentions that the more time spent doing the Accelerator the better. I am able to put 10 hours a day if it will help me reach my goals faster, BUT I am getting confused by all the noise out there telling me that if I am not careful how much Accelerator i do (running, basketball, biking, walks) I will lose a lot of muscle and the fat will become stubborn because I already am at an average body fat.
Is this program best for someone with my goals or meant for higher body fat people?
Is there a limit to how much Accelerator i should do each day?
In other words, put very bluntly, ha, i want to look like Chris one day : ) – Is this the right approach? Do yall sell another program that would be a better fit at this stage!
Thank you sooo much for taking the time to help people like us. It is so hard to find good health knowledge from trusted sources today, so it means a lot.
Thanks
Hi Hank: Here’s a post that discusses how to gain muscle weight, and I think it could give you some great tips: https://heidipowell.net/10540/ask-the-powells-gaining-healthy-weight/. And you can use this post in conjunction with the tools in “Extreme Transformation” to help you achieve your goals. You can do this!
HI…How important is it to eat within 30 minutes of waking up? I usually go to the gym at 5:30 AM and I have a hard time working out on a full stomach. I would have to wake up at 4:00 AM just to eat. Can I eat immediately following my workout?
Hi Laura: You can get some great tips on eating and working out in this post: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/. 🙂
Hello Powell Team,
Huge question regarding carbs & sugar alcohol in protein bars. I know people say yiu deduct yiur fiber to get net carbs. Is this correct for us carb cycles using Powell plan? Also recently reading which I didn’t know about sugar alcohol. I know Atkins takes that off also with fiber to get net carbs!!!! Do we? I’m doing Extreme Cycle and loving it but trying different protein bars and looking at nutrition. Please clarify this!!! Thank you so much!!!
Any comments regarding post above on carbs and sugar alcohol? Much appreciated. Thanks Robin
What is the difference between the Fit Cycle and the Extreme Cycle? Is there a huge difference in weight loss between the two, both having 4 high carb days and 2 low carb during the week? I love the recipe layout much better in the Extreme Book BTW. It’s more user friendly!
Hi Julie: The Extreme Cycle should help you lose weight faster, and in addition to how the days are arranged, there are a couple of other differences that are outlined in this post. Either can work, it’s all about what will work best for you. And you can change cycles at any time too!
Is there a point at which i need to be worried about over training?
On days i play basketball for several hours, should i be adding a protein bar or anything to help protect the muscle? I am worried about losing to much muscle if I dont lift heavy weights and if i over due the cardio.
Thanks
Hi Philip: You’ll want to include both strength training and cardio in your workout routine, as both are very important. You can do this!
Hedi, my wife and I bought Extreme Transformation and are excited to get started.
A few days a week I play basketball for 2.5 hours. I have been told on those days to eat a protein bar and maybe a clementine throughout the games to make sure i dont crash / to protect the body from losing to much muscle. Is this true for your program as well?
I have heard if the calorie deficit created becomes too large, the body becomes stubborn to losing fat. Do i not need to worry about this? I used to always try to get as many “steps” as possible with the fitbit and then i was taught that i may be plateauing due to over training. Now i am just confused :/
Thanks for your help and book : )
Hi Philip: Welcome to carb cycling! I’d follow the meal schedule as outlined in the book, and here’s a post that can help you figure out how schedule your workouts and eating: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/.
Hi
I am really loving the recipes in the extreme book.
I tried the extreme cycle, but I really want to get this weight off (I have about 30 pounds to lose) so I have been doing the extreme turbo cycle.
I was just wondering for the previous version of the turbo cycle, you advised doing a slingshot every four weeks. Does this apply to the extreme turbo cycle as well?
If I were to do the slingshot advised in the extreme book, I wasn’t sure exactly how to go about doubling the carbs. If I’m creating my own meal, for example a high carb meal, would I just make the carb calories 400 instead of 200? (I’m female) How would you apply doubling carbs to the recipes, would you just double all the ingredients that are carbs in the recipe you are using? And do you also double the carbs for the low carb meal that ends each day?
Thanks again for the great recipes!!!
Hi Jamie: You can learn about the Slingshot Week for the Extreme Cycle on page 176 in the book. As far as putting your meals together, instead of doubling the carbs within a recipe (which might throw the taste, etc., off), you could simply add a carb to that meal. And there aren’t any carbs in low-carb meals, so you don’t need to worry about that. Hope that helps!
Hi
I do have the book and read about the slingshot. Just wondering if it is something I should do every fourth week or only in the case of a plateau.
Thanks!
I’m referring to the extreme version of the turbo cycle from the extreme book. That’s why I wasn’t sure if I had to slingshot every four weeks or not. Thanks!
Hi Jamie: Yes, on the Extreme Cycle you can either Slingshot or do a week or more of the Turbo Cycle. 🙂
I’ve bought the book, as well as the others, I’ve been doing a Low Carb lifestyle and have had some success and thought I would change it up with Carb Cycling.. But there is NO WAY I’m doing 4 HC days in a row.. NO WAY!! I’m guessing you had to come up with a new plan, or what would the new book have to offer but I’m disappointed I purchased it. I think I’ll jump back in with Turbo. I would think coming from the SAD this plan will work, but I can’t see it working for me.
Hi Rhonda: While there are 4 high-carb days in a row, every dinner on every day (both low- and high-carb) is a low-carb meal, and you’ll add a fat to each breakfast. Chris and Heidi have found these changes in their plan to work amazingly well with everyone they’ve worked with since “Choose More, Lose More for Life” was published. Maybe give it a try? And Turbo is an awesome cycle too!
Hi…I’ll post again just in case you didn’t see it. THANK YOU!
I?m trying the Extreme cycle after having done the turbo with no results (I?ve been on a diet for as long as i can remeber, but it?s been always very hard for me to loose weight over the past 10 years, I?m 26 and need to loose10kg, try to always eat healthy, drink a lot of water, vegetarian, workout 5 times a week both cardio/strenght training but nothing). Seeing all the good results people get I bought the book thinking I must be doing something wrong and wanting to get it straight following the recipes, but since I?m a vegetarian its not so easy.
1) should I replace any protein portion with the same amount of tofu/egg whites/lowfat greek yogurt/cottage cheese or should i calculate the same amount of macros of whats in the recipe and therefore eat only certain proteins on LC days and certain ones on HC? Meaning, is the n.1 rule to follow the calorie chart (given the amount of calories from fat/carb/Prot based on the meal you give in the book) or to count the over all macros no matter where they come from?
2) could all the lactose in cottage cheese and greek yogurt be not so good for weight loss/hormones?
3) about reward day, do we do 5 reward meals or only 4 (the book says to keep dinners LC, but then on reward day menus i see 5 ?reward? meal suggested ? If you have any suggestion for me on why I am not loosing, ever!, it would be great to hear your opinion!
4) how much is ?one scoop of protein?? would it be 15g(30ml) or 30g(90ml)?
Thanks a lot!!!
Hi Elisa: All first-time comments have to be approved before they post, so that’s why your first comment took a bit of time to post. I did answer those questions, and let’s get you some answers to these new questions. 2) We haven’t found any issues with the lactose in cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, and since proteins are only a part of carb cycling, this shouldn’t be an issue. 3) For Reward Days, you can eat anything you want up to 1,000 extra calories. You can eat healthy foods, treat-type foods, or a combination of both. 4) One scoop of protein powder can be a bit different for each manufacturer, but aim for 1/4 – 1/3 cup. And even the same serving size in different powders can yield different macro counts. Again, any differences are so small that they shouldn’t matter. In general, look for low-fat, whey-based powders with between 15-20 grams of protein and less than 5 grams of carbs per serving. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the anwser!!!!