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 Heidi and Chris-
I’m new to the carb cycling method and recently picked up one of your books. I’m confused. According to the information in Choose More, Lose More for Life it states that for breakfast you should eat protein/carb/veggies. On your HC days to eat protein/carb/veggies for all five meals and LC days protein/fat/veggies for all five meals. The above is introduced as the newest cycle and it states eat protein/carb/fat for breakfast and on your HC days to eat protein/carb/veggies for all the rest of the meals except meal 5 where you eat protein/fat/veggies. Which is the latest recommendation for someone who has 25 or so pounds to lose?
Thanks much!
Hi Bethany Jane: Different cycles follow different meal plans, and the Extreme Cycle is the newest cycle based on Chris and Heidi’s experiences with their clients since “Choose More, Lose More for Life” was published. As with anything in life, the more you do something, the better you get at doing it. You can lose 25 or so pounds using any of Chris and Heidi’s carb cycles, so choose whichever cycle will work best for you. And you can change cycles at any time too. You can do this! 🙂
so i’m interested in the turbo carb cycle, can anyone at any percent body fat start this? or do you need to be at higher or lower percent for this to work for you?
also, i have the book (and LOVE it) but was wondering how I find a good macro count for following this plan. is it in the book? or located on this site somewhere?
thanks so much, you rock!!! 🙂
Hi Jill: Yes, anyone can use the Turbo Cycle. If you’ve got “Extreme Transformation,” it is in the book, but here’s a post that can help with figuring your macros for each meal (it has the same info as the book): https://heidipowell.net/10617.
I’m new to this site. Where can I find a sample meal plan for the Extreme cycle? And is this plan the better of the two (between Extreme and Turbo). Thank you!
Hi Jill: There is a 21-day meal plan in the book (http://amzn.to/2eTGrVy), and there is a chart in this post that can help you put your own meals together on the Extreme Cycle: https://heidipowell.net/10617. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi,
I was wondering if my calorie intake is 1500 and then I burn, say, 200 calories at the gym, I don’t eat that back do I? Apart from the protein after obviously. I’m just wondering because I’m worried my calorie deficit is too high.
Thanks!
Hi Mojgan: You are correct – if you’re wanting to lose weight, you do not eat back any calories you burn through exercising. To lose 1 pound of fat, you need to have a 3500 calorie deficit, and you can space this out throughout the week as you’d like to. For example, if you have a 500 calorie deficit each day of the week, this will equate to about a 1 pound loss per week. Hope that helps! 🙂
Just bought the Extreme transformation book, I’m preparing my own recipes, Could you please tell me, coconut flour would be considered a fat, carbohydrate or protein? Thank you
Hi Wi: Coconut flour has a good amount of fat as well as carbs, so it doesn’t really fit into any single category. If you use coconut flour, it counts as part of a fat serving and a carb serving as well, depending on how much you use. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi I’m doing the Transform App Program. When wanting to add in green veggies do I adjust macros to add them in ?
Hi Brandy: You’re not able to add in your own foods yet (we’re working to add that option to a future update), but since green veggies really have very little calorie/macro impact, you should be good to go!
Hi is it okay to do most of my meals as grab n go? Thank you !
Hi Brandy: If that’s what works for your schedule, that’s totally fine! If you can add in some non-root/non-starchy veggies with any meal, that will help make sure you’re getting all those nutrients your body needs. 🙂
Hi I recently purchased the Transform App, I love it . Just wondering how many hours apart do you space meals ? Also how many hours prior to bed to stop eating ?
Hi Brandy: We recommend eating breakfast within 30 minutes after waking and every 3 hours after that for a total of 5 meals a day. If you work out first thing in the morning, here’s a post that can help you figure out the eating and working out thing: https://heidipowell.net/9194. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Heidi and Team Powell!
I’ve just started with your Transform app, and so far it is awesome! I’ve also gotten my fianc? on board, since we’d both like to lose some weight and get in shape for our wedding next year. (I’m 5’2″ and 138lbs). One problem I’ve run into so far is finding time to both prepare and eat all five meals every day – my fianc? and I are both teachers, so we work 10-11 hour days as well as some hours on the weekends, and it’s been a real challenge to shop and prep all of these different meals. I don’t want to stop the program because of this – do you have any suggestions? Thank you for everything!!
Hi Megan: Congratulations on your engagement! 🙂 You can totally repeat meals during the week, which will really help with meal prepping. And be sure and take advantage of those Grab N’ Go and Quick Prep options too.
Hi! I am a vegetarian. Can I still do the extreme cycle? If so, what are some examples of protein I can eat for my protein portions. Thanks so much!!!
Hi Nina: Heidi just posted a blog post all about carb cycling as a vegetarian! https://heidipowell.net/12054 🙂