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
One more question…what does a “reset day” consist of? High carb? Low carb? Whatever we want? Donuts? Ice cream?? 😉 lol
Hi Beth: Your reset day is a day you can eat anything you want! ?
Does this mean we can have a couple glasses of wine?:)
Hi Elizabeth: Wine is best left for a Reset/Reward Day. ?
ok, I just wanted to make sure!!! Thank you!!
Hi there. I’m looking for a protein bar to have on low carb days. I usually use quest bars that have less than 5 grams of net carbs. The carb count is 23 grams with 17 grams of fibre, 7 grams of fat, 21 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar and 2 grams of erythritol. Is this a good protein bar for a low carb day or would it be more appropriate for a high carb day or is there another one you could recommend.
Hi Mary: Those are a great option for low-carb meals, and one bar counts for the protein and fat portions of that meal. The key to knowing which bar is best for which type of meal is to look at both the carb and fat content. If more calories come from fat than carbs, then that bar is a good option for a low-carb meal. If the reverse is true, then that bar is a good option for a high-carb meal. Chris and Heidi do recommend consuming only one protein bar a day, since it is best to eat whole foods whenever possible. Hope that helps! ?
Hi Guys! First I want to say thanks for all your advises and taking the time to care about people’s health!
I need an advice as off which is the best plan for me right now, I need to lose about 10 pounds from fat to be at the % that I want. I have been eating good for a while and exercising 5-6 days a week, I just started a new program with a personal trainer and I work out 1.30 to 2 hours a day between weights(heavy) and cardio because I was stuck. I want to start with one of the carb cycling plans (about to buy the book) but before doing so, I want to know which will be the best plan for me at this point to get to the best results and give that extra boost my body needs to lose those fat pounds.
Another quick question is besides protein, which would be the other supplements you suggest to get the best results of training and well help with the fat lost.
Thanks!!! and please keep going with the awesome work!
Hi Cynthia: Any of the carb cycles can work, and I’d recommend you begin with the Extreme Cycle. As for supplements, it’s best to discuss any supplements with your healthcare team first and then follow their recommendations. Learn more about supplements here: https://heidipowell.net/10115/the-scoop-on-supplements-two-of-my-most-recent-faqs/. We wish you the best – you can do this!
Hi Team Powell
I been doing the extreme cycling for about 1 week and half.. lost 3 lbs feeling great. The first week was a little bit off, ate about 100 calories of carbs rather then the 200 mentioned. I have a question.. on the 100 calorie portion chart I have been using 100 protein,200 carbs on high carb day ,, but some time the food choice for high carb is much bigger that a fist for example 1/2 brown rice and one corn tortillas with 3oz white meat and 2 cups of veggie .. is that to much carbs for one sitting. More than a size of a fist??? thanks
Hello, I got the extreme transformation book and I am on the third week now. My goal is to lose around 10 pounds to get more definition. On the past weeks I didn?t lose any weight and this week I actually gained a pound. I am tracking my calories in myfitnesspal and doing 30 min weights and 30 min cardio 5 days a week. Should I keep with extreme cycle or would moving to turbo be a good idea? I also read that doing one week high carb help some people, but I?m afraid I might gain more weight instead.
Hi Gisselle: You said you’re tracking your calories in MyFitnessPal. Are you eating back the calories you’re burning? Some apps add back in the calories you burn into your calories to eat each day, so I’d check on that. You don’t want to eat back any calories you burn – burned calories go towards your daily calorie deficit, which leads to lost pounds. And since you would like to lose 10 pounds, you might want to add more cardio into your day if you can so you’re burning more calories. The less pounds you have to lose, the slower your rate of weight loss can be, and there’s definitely much less wiggle room between your calories consumed and your calories burned each day. And remember, as you’re replacing any extra fat with muscle, the number on the scale might not reflect any losses, but you should see changes in how your clothes fit, etc. Please let me know if you have any other questions, and I’ll watch for your reply.
Hi, thanks for such a quick reply. I am not eating back my calories, actually I don?t use the app to track my exercise activity, just the calories and macros on my meals so they match with the plan in the book, as I am not following the exact meals all the time.
I will try to add more cardio, but regarding the cycling plan would you recommend to stay in the extreme cycle or to switch?
I’d stick with the Extreme Cycle for a bit longer and add in some more cardio if you can. If you’re short on time, maybe do weights 3 days a week and use those 30 minutes for cardio on the other two days. You can do this!
Hi,
In the new book, you’ve given macros for your suggested meals, however it doesn’t say roughly how your macros should look per day of carbs or low carb so it doesn’t really help anyone that counts macros. Do you have rough guide at all please?
Hi Lexi: Chris and Heidi have figured out all of your macros for you in carb cycling (for both low- and high-carb meals), so you don’t need to worry about tracking them. Follow your carb cycling plan, eat proteins, carbs, and fats when outlined in the meal plan, and you’ll be getting all the macros you need to be healthy and lose weight. However, if you’d like to count your own macros, here are some general recommendations:
High-Carb Day:
Protein: 40%
Carbs: 40%
Fats: 20%
Low-Carb Day:
Protein: 40%
Carbs: 20%
Fats: 40%
Hope that helps! ?
Hi,
Thankyou for taking the time to reply!
As I’m vegetarian and don’t live in the US I can’t follow the meal suggestions exactly so its helps to know Macros to stick to, to make sure I’m eating the right amount of macros.
Following what you posted for high and low carb days, based on the 1500 cals per day does this look correct?
High Carb day:
150g Protein
150G Carbs
33g Fat
Low carb Day
150g Protein
75g Carbs
67g Fat
Thank you for your help! Looking forward to starting the new cycle!
Yes! These look great!
I asked this question already, but it disappeared. I want to do the extreme plan. I’m just wondering how it fits in with distance running. I am training for a half marathon and Sunday is my long run day. Will I have enough energy to run the distance coming off two low carb days?
Hi Jayme: All comments have to be approved before they post, so that’s why your comment didn’t show up yet. I’ll answer your question here. Different things work for different people, so if you find that this order of high- and low-carb days doesn’t work for you, you can move the schedule one way or the other. Just keep the low- and high-carb days in the same order, and you should be good to go! And good luck on your 1/2 marathon!
Is extreme appropriate if you have only 10-15 pounds to lose? I want to take this weight off as quickly as possible. Would extreme be the most appropriate cycle to use in this case?
Hi Mary: Yes, any of the carb cycles can work no matter how many pounds you want to lose. Just remember, the fewer pounds you have to lose, the longer it can take to lose those pounds in a healthy way. You can do this!
Is your book available to online? I would prefer to have access to it through my phone or computer for easy reference as opposed to hard cover.
Hi Mary: Yes, “Extreme Transformation” is available as an ebook: http://amzn.to/1RKDIgo.
Can portion sizes be adjusted for body sizes? I have a RMR of 2600
Hi Steve: The portion sizes should be good for you as they’re outlined. Give them a try!
Hi! Im from srilanka. My weight is190 pounds and im 5 “3. I nees some great help on carb cycle. Thanks.
Hi Zinra: You can learn all about the basics of Chris and Heidi’s complete carb cycling program in this post: https://heidipowell.net/9060. And you can find their complete Extreme Cycle program in their new book, “Extreme Transformation” (http://amzn.to/1RKDIgo). You can do this!