Chris and I have been so excited and touched by the positive feedback we’ve received on our new book, Extreme Transformation! We seriously poured our lives—and lots of blood, sweat, and tears—into this book with the hope that it would help you begin and achieve your transformation goals, whatever they may be. And…we included 21 days? worth of amazing meals in this book after so many of you asked for a daily meal plan. We aim to please! 😉
Many of you have loved the daily meal plans, but we’ve heard that some of you are a little overwhelmed with all of the shopping, prepping, and cooking involved with some of the amazing recipes in the Extreme Cycle. We know it is a lot to take in all at once, and we did not mean for this new way of doing things to be a “do it all now” type of experience. We recognize that it takes just small baby steps to begin to incorporate new healthy habits into your lifestyle, and that’s exactly how we expect it to be with this new carb cycle. That being said, here are five options we’ve laid out for you to help simplify your meal planning on the Extreme Cycle:
Option 1: Follow the 21 day’s worth of meal plans as outlined in Extreme Transformation.
We’ve outlined the shopping list, meal prep, and other tips for you to use to prepare and cook your meals for 21 days. We tried our best to include a variety of recipes each week, because variety is huge when you’re trying to incorporate new habits into your life.
Option 2: Follow the daily outline of low- or high-carb meals in Extreme Transformation with some substitutions.
If you find a day’s plan that works well for you, do it again! You can double up the same meals during the week to cut down on meal prep (eat the same dinner on Monday and Thursday, for example), or swap meals (high-carb for high carb, low-carb for low-carb, clean cheat for clean cheat, breakfast for breakfast) to make meal planning and prep easier. If you find that some recipes are easier to prepare than others, then go for those!
Option 3: Use other high-and low-carb recipes.
If you have our other books, Choose to Lose and/or Choose More, Lose More for Life, you can use any of the high-carb and low-carb meals from these books in the Extreme Cycle. And if you have your own low- and high carb recipes, you can use those too.
Option 4: Put your own meals together.
We know there are times when you’re out and about and need a quick, healthy meal. Or you need a fast ‘n easy meal made in 5 minutes or less, and simply don’t have time to put one of our recipes together. Be sure to scroll to the end of this post for some guides straight from Extreme Transformation that will help you design your own meals!
Option 5: A combination of the other 4 options.
We want this meal plan to be very user friendly, which is crucial to long-term carb cycling success, so do what works best for you and your schedule! If cooking is your thing, we’ve got you covered for 21 days! If meal prepping and cooking different meals doesn’t fit into your life, then bulk prep meals. You can even freeze many of our meals for a quick option later. If you like to put your own meals together, that works too. And it’s always a good idea to keep quick options with you wherever you go so that you don’t derail your eating plan because you don’t have healthy options available. And what about eating out? Our guides in option 4 will help you navigate any menu so you can make the best choices for your goals.
And no matter which option you choose, remember that this is a life-long journey! You’re not expected to do everything at once—perfectly. One of the best things about any transformation journey is all the things we learn along the way, so it’s 100% okay—and absolutely normal—to encounter some bumps on the path. With practice and patience, you will figure out what works best for you!
If you have any other questions about meal planning on the Extreme Cycle, please leave me a comment below. And please share what’s worked for you so we can all learn from each other!
Xoxo,
Heidi
Related reading:
Carb Confusion
The Power of Protein
Protein Powder: It’s Not Just for Shakes Anymore!
Ask the Powells: How Can I Structure My Meals?
Pre-Workout Problem: To Eat or Not To Eat?
Avoiding Road Trip Road Blocks!
Are you ready to begin your own Extreme Transformation? Grab a copy of our book today, and let’s go!
640 Responses
Hiya Heidi,
Can I find the ‘Meal Planning Guide’ and ‘Quick and Easy Meal Ideas’ in the ‘Extreme Transformation’ book? If so what page can I find it please because im browsing but i cant see it.
Thank you so much!
I have a few questions-
1. If I want to eat a whole egg do I need to count the yolk as fat? If so is it ok to eat two?
2. I like my egg scrambled or fried sometimes and spray the pan with cooking spray. Should I count that?
3. I usually get whole wheat bread is that okay. I see you recommend whole grain. Also I am assuming I can eat two slices at a meal right?
4. How often or with what meals can you have sauces? I love spaghetti squash but would use a spaghetti sauce, Alfredo sauce or marinara. Just don’t know how to count it.
5. I plan on starting tomorrow and will be doing insanity Max 30 as a workout which although I modify makes me workout harder and sweat more than ever before. Do you think that’s a good workout for the program.
I am going to try your new extreme cycle and am currently 5ft and weigh 224. I really need to lose this weight as it makes me incredibly self conscious and I have been avoiding people I have not seen in a long time due to weight,
Hi Laetitia: There’s a complete list of approved foods in the book that will answer any questions you have about what you can/cannot eat on the program, so I’d keep that handy. And you can do any type of cardio you’d like!
Please help 🙂
Just back off holiday where I read the extreme transformation book, and want to get started but I’m lost, due to being in UK a lot of the shopping list is tricky to get hold of, so would need ordering, so I want to make a start on my own first, I’m meal planning but stuck with how I work out protein carbs and fat.
Say I’m on a high carb day
So protein 100 cal
Carbs 200
Fat <30
If I had salmon which an app tells me I can have 65g for 97cal it's that's the number I'm looking for, even the it contains some fat?
Or do I need to calculate the calories from the 16.6g of protein and also 2.9g fat (still looking at a 65g serving just for the numbers)
I may be over complicating it, but I want to make sure I'm starting off correctly. Especially since I can't find any fellow extreme carb cycles on Instagram or facebook groups 🙁
Hi Sarah: You’re doing awesome! Yes, you’ll want to calculate all of the macro calories for every food for every meal since foods do contain more than one macro. You can do this!
Good day,
I’ve been trying this book diligently for a number of weeks now and I’m noticing that the shopping list quantities don’t match up with what is required for that week. The what I buy from the shopping lists given will have an item or two missing when I go to make the actual recipe. Am I doing something wrong here? Why is it that the amounts (for protein in particular) that are needed that week in the shopping lists don’t match up with the amounts needed in the recipes?
Thanks,
Aidan
Hi Aidan: I’m so sorry you’re having this issue. As you can imagine, it was quite the task to correlate shopping lists with recipes for both the men and women’s versions, so please double check your recipes against your shopping list before you go to the store. And you can also plan your own meals (use the same recipes twice, etc., and there are some other awesome options in this post) that can help also.
Hello, I don’t do well “eyeballing” sizes. I like to weigh my portions. For CLASSIC carb cycling, will the Create Your Own Meals chart included in this blogpost work?
It’s the only chart I’ve seen that is straightforward for women who simply want to know how many calories of protein, carb, and fat to eat per meal.
Everything else I’ve seen is cryptic stuff like “High Carb Meal: Protein: 40%, Carbs: 40%, Fats: 20%. Low Carb Meal: Protein: 40%, Carbs: 20%, Fats: 40%”. Huh?
Or “Here is how many ounces of meat are in 100 calories”. Again, not helpful to me in just figuring out how many calories of protein/carbs/fat per meal I should be eating.
If the Create Your Own Meals chart does not work for the Classic Carb Cycling program, please let me know the calories/meal for women for HC and LC days on the Classic cycle. Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
Hi Lisa: The macro percentages for the Classic Cycle are a bit different than for the Extreme Cycle, and you’ve outlined those percentages in your comment. The Classic cycle isn’t as “outlined” per meal as the Extreme Cycle, which allows you to divide your daily calories between the 5 meals/day as works best for you. I’d take the 1200 calories for LC days and 1500 calories for HC days, divide those between your 5 meals a day, and then use the percentages to figure out how many calories per meal. And remember, each gram of protein or carb = 4 calories, and each gram of fat = 9 calories. If you want to use a macro tracker app, that can make things a lot easier. Learn more about macros in this post: https://heidipowell.net/10990. And welcome to carb cycling!
Hey Powell Pack (that’s my nick name for the two of you)!
I just started the turbo cycle, but have a few questions… I have been a Macro tracker & noticed that “cottage cheese, cashews, plain Greek yogurt” etc all have carbs in them Aprox 5-6g per serving…. When I add my 5 meals up on a low carb day I am still getting close to 80g carbs… Is that too high? Should I be switching my protein & fat sources to ones that contain 0g carbs?
Also, my focus is to loose fat, but pack on muscle… I was training VERY heavy physique training & eating up to 5-6oz of meat protein per serving before, so the 3oz servings are just not feeling enough & I am afraid of loosing my small hard earned muscle… Can I still eat more protein or add in a 6th meal (protein in water + handful of nuts before bed) and still see results?
Thanks
Courtney
Hi Courtney: There are different combinations of macros in about all foods, so having a few carbs in your protein sources is totally okay. For LC days, you should try and be closer to 50-60 grams of carbs total for the day. When choosing proteins and fats for LC meals, try and look for those as low in carbs as possible, and make sure you eat a variety of proteins and fats. Depending on how many pounds you want to lose, you might want to adjust your macros accordingly, especially if you only have a few pounds to lose. If this is the case, I’d follow the “Create Your Own Meals” chart in this post, and if you’re not seeing the results you’d like, I’d make some adjustments. Hope that helps!
I am in my 3rd time through the Extreme Cycle and am down about 10 pounds. I just got blood work results and my LDL levels are really high and my HDL levels are ok but not great. My doctor is recommending the DASH diet. I read a little about it and it sounds almost exactly to what I am doing on the Extreme Cycle. Can you give me any tips or hints to adjust the Extreme Cycle food list to lower my bad cholesterol and raise my healthy cholesterol numbers? Thanks for any advice. I want to get this under control before they put me on medication. -Judy
Hi Judy: It would be best to discuss this with your healthcare team and have them help you make any necessary modifications.
Hi There.
I just purchased the eBook version of Extreme Transformation and had trouble finding out “how much” I should eat in calories and/or grams in the book. I’m glad to have stumbled on this companion site and see the diagrams that make it very clear for me.
Unless I’ve missed it (or the equivalent), a suggestion would be to include these diagrams in the book. It makes things a lot more “obvious” to readers like me and allows me to track in MyFitnessPal.
As well, it seems that no consideration to the size of the person (or man in my case) or activity level for this carb cycling plan to work effectively. You either follow one plan if you’re male and another if you’re female.
I’m very active with resistance training 5 days/week and cardio 6 days/week which would imply that I I require more calories to support my energy needs.
Should I be concerned on the Extreme Transformation’s effectiveness?
Thanks for your time.
Richard
Hi Richard: This plan has been followed successfully by people with varying amounts of weight to lose, so you should be good to go!
Some of the recipes in the Extreme Transformation book call for PB Powder. I have an allergy to peanuts. Is there any other product I can substitute for the powdered peanut butter? Important to note I’m not allergic to any other nut/seed/etc. besides peanuts. I haven’t seen any other powdered nut product sold online or in the store. Wondering if there is something simple I can swap with the same macros. Thanks!
Hi Michelle: I’m not aware of a substitute for peanut butter powder, but you can swap out any like recipes (low carb for low carb, etc.) for any recipes with powdered peanut butter. Hope that helps!
There is an Almond Butter Powder on Amazon.
We have a peanut allergy in our home as well.. I have not found a peanut free powder yet, but I have found a peanut free almond butter called Barney Butter. It is the closest texture and taste to peanut butter that we have found. I bought it from well.ca. it is worth the small fortune!!
I’ve read both Choose to Lose and Choose More, Loose More. I have not yet read Extreme Transformation. In those books, Chris outlines 100 calorie portions and says to eat 1 portion of protein, 1 of carbs, and veggies for HC days. But in the chart above, it says 200 calories of carbs on HC days. Mathematically, isn’t that essentially eating 2 portions of carbs each for the two snacks and lunch? Also on the LC days, above it lists 150 calories-wouldn’t that be moving beyond the hand portion and counting slightly more than 1 “portion”? I’m a former low-carber and since starting carb cycling I’ve tried following just the 100 calories portions of the appropriate macros on the appropriate days so I feel hesitant to move in to eating roughly 700 calories-roughly 50% worth of my calories in carbs on HC days. Am I on the right mathematical track? Thanks.
Hi Kellly: So sorry for the confusion. You’re to eat the portion sizes as outlined in the chart in the books where protein = your palm, carbs = your fist, fats = your thumb, and veggies = 2 fists. Those 100-calorie lists are only for reference purposes for those who would like to also count calories, and those 100 portion sizes are not meant to equal the actual portion sizes. There’s a chart in this post for easy reference: https://heidipowell.net/4514. The macro breakdowns are a bit different for the Extreme Cycle, and here’s the macro breakdown for the other cycles: High Carb Meal: Protein: 40%, Carbs: 40%, Fats: 20%. Low Carb Meal: Protein: 40%, Carbs: 20%, Fats: 40%. I hope this helps!