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
When planning the reward day for the extreme cycle, would it work to finish up a week following the extreme cycle seven day pattern but then the next week do a six day pattern to make the reward day fall a day earlier? So three high carb,two low, then the reward day? Sometimes having that reward day fall on a day that will most likely be a cheat anyway gets tricky!
Hi Dina: You can arrange your carb cycle schedule as best fits your needs, but we do recommend you keep the schedule the same week to week and not change your reward day from week to week and follow the carb cycle pattern as outlined. So if you begin your week on Monday, for example, your reward day will be on Sunday, and keep it that way except for major holidays (like Thanksgiving and Christmas, for example). If you’d like your reward day to be on a Saturday, then begin your week on Sundays, as another example. For the Extreme Cycle, you’ll always do 4 high carb days, then 2 low carb days, then your reward day. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello, I have hypothyroidism and have found care bs do not seem to help me lose weight. Is the high carb meal plan good for those who have Hashimotos? Thank you.
Hi Krista: With any health issue, it’s best to discuss any nutrition and exercise program with your healthcare team and then follow their recommendations for any modifications to the plan. Since what is best for one person with an issue could be different for another, we’d rather not make general recommendations. I hope that helps! 🙂
need help with calculating my macros to coincide with my carb cycling. How do I figure out what my totals will be for high and low days so that I can input them into my fitness pal… EEKKK help!! thanks!
Hi Jeanie: There’s a “Create Your Own Meals” chart in this post that can help you figure out your numbers: https://heidipowell.net/10617. One gram of carb or protein = 4 calories, and one gram of fat = 9 calories. You got this! 🙂
Hi Heidi ? O have a question…..I’m vegan, so can I eat legumes without cereals for dinner?
Veggies are for free?
In the low carb days I eat mostly soia, so I would like to eat lentils, lupini, peas, chick peas ….in the other days.
I’bought both the book but still have doubts about legumes…. maybe because I’m Italian…. I’m trying to transalte everything hahahahaha thank you!!!!
Hi Maria: On the Extreme Cycle, every dinner is a low carb meal, so you’ll want to stay away from legumes or any carbs and opt for vegan proteins and veggies. The same for any low carb meals – they are made up of a protein, fat, and veggies. You can choose proteins and fats that are low in carbs, and that will work! There’s a “Create Your Own Meals” chart in this post that can help you figure out how to put your meals together, and this should be very helpful as a vegan: https://heidipowell.net/10617. And yes, non-starchy/non-root vegetables are free on the program. I hope this helps! 🙂
Hi! I have a question?? Low and high carb day, I need to eat the same amount of calories or no?
Hi Daniela: High carb days are higher in calories than low carb days. There’s a great chart in this post that can be helpful in putting your meals together: https://heidipowell.net/10617. 🙂
Hi
In the extreme book it mentions that you can change to a turbo cycle for faster results. Following the same logic, I was wondering if you could also change the extreme cycle to a classic cycle version. Alternating low and high carb days with the last day being a reset instead of four high carb days and then 2 low carb days.
Hi Jamie: The Extreme and Turbo Cycles have been shown to produce faster weight loss results, but you can follow whichever cycle works best for you. 🙂
Hi Team Powell!
I am just beginning my journey of Carb Cycling and am extremely excited to see results! I just downloaded the app yesterday and this is my first high carb day. I am a bit confused on how to switch to a different cycle in the app. I want to do the extreme cycle with 4 high carb days and 2 low carb days to see faster results. The app has me set up on 2 high carb days, 1 low carb day, and then 2 high and 1 low carb day again. Is there any way to switch this around to do the extreme cycle, and if so how?
Also second question, I feel my calories are so high I usually try to stay around 1500-1600 calories ( my weight being 148 lbs, I my height is 5′ 4″ ) It has me on high carb days at around 1950 and low carb 1750. Will I still see fat loss/weight loss with such high caloric intake?
Thanks so much!!!
Hi Devon: Welcome to Transform! Let’s get you some answers to your questions! 1) Which program are you following? If you’re following any program EXCEPT At Home/Weight Loss, your carb cycle will be chosen for you based on your goals. You can switch programs at any time, so that may be an option for you. 2) It is VERY common to be surprised at the amount of food you should be eating to reach your goals! Most people have the misconception (and ?old school? mentality) that you have to starve yourself to reach your goals?this is not the case at all. For our approach, we start you at the highest calorie intake possible to boost your metabolism and prime your body, then if you EVER plateau, the program will adjust your portions in a ?step-down? manner, to maximize your results and keep you losing. This is transformation the way it SHOULD be done! Your meal plan is totally customized to you and your goals, and so you can feel confident that if you eat all of that delicious food, you will achieve your goals! We hope you love the app!
I workout with weights 5 days a week and do cardio on two of those days. Would I still do high carb 4 days and low carb 2 days?
Hi Coleen: Yes! Since, workouts are built into the program, you should be good to go!
Hi! Can you use the recipes in the Extreme Cycling book with classic carb cycling?
Hi Erin: Yes! The recipes can work for any carb cycle. 🙂
Hi. I am reading the book Extreme Transformation and gathering all information before i start but as i am from the UK a lot of the suggestions/meal plans we do not have here. I’m struggling to work out what foods to have?
Hi Claire: You can sub any like meals (low carb for low carb, high carb for high carb, etc.) in the program based on what ingredients you can find in the UK. You can also sub like ingredients as long as the macros are pretty similar. You can do this!