Carb cycling is the foundation of what I do every day and with every client. I know through years of experience with many different clients that carb cycling works, so I’m going to introduce you to the basics and the five different carb cycling plans—Easy, Classic, Turbo, and Fit, and Extreme. I’m stripping it down to the basics to get you started:
What is Carb Cycling + How Does it Work?
Carb cycling is an eating plan with alternating high carb and low carb days. It’s that simple. It also has built-in reward days or reward meals (depending on the plan you’re following), so you can still eat your favorite foods on a regular basis. Sounds pretty much perfect, right? You can eat healthy foods, enjoy foods you love, and still lose weight.
While each plan has a different mix of high carb and low carb days, each day works basically the same:
- Eat five meals—no more, no less.
- Eat breakfast within 60 minutes of waking or whenever your feeding window opens if you’re an intermittent faster.
- For breakfast, you’ll eat a portion of protein, carbs, and fat.
- For your next 3 meals (snack, lunch, snack), you’ll eat either a low or high carb meal depending on which day you’re on. So, if you’re on a low carb day, those three meals will be low carb. If you’re on a high carb day, those three meals will be high carb.
- Your last meal of the day will ALWAYS be a low carb meal. Always.
- Choose approved foods.
- Drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water every day. So, if you weigh 150 lbs, you’ll drink 75 ounces a day.
How Does Carb Cycling Work?
Carb cycling is based on the right combination of proteins, carbs, and healthy fats. In order to lose weight, our bodies need the right combination. Here’s why:
- Protein builds and maintains muscles and these muscles burn calories like an inferno. Protein also breaks down more slowly than carbs and fat, which burns even more calories and helps you feel fuller longer.
- Carbs are the preferred fuel source for your muscles and organs, and they come in healthy versions (vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes), and not-so-healthy versions (cakes, cookies, soda, doughnuts, candy, and many processed foods). Healthy carbs are also crucial for burning calories, and since they break down more slowly than those not-so-healthy carbs, they keep your blood sugar and energy levels steady, and they also keep your calorie-burning furnace hot so it burns more calories!
- Healthy fats (unsaturated fats) eaten in moderation help the development and function of your eyes and brain and help prevent heart disease, stroke, depression, and arthritis. Healthy fats also help keep your energy levels steady and keep you from feeling hungry.
Why do we alternate high carb + low carb days in carb cycling?
On high carb days you’re stocking your calorie-burning furnace so that on low carb days your furnace burns fat, and lots of it! This pattern tricks your metabolism into burning a lot of calories, even on those low carb days. It’s an amazing and well-proven process.
What are the Benefits of Carb Cycling?
Carb cycling has many benefits:
- It fits any lifestyle.
- You’ll learn how to shed weight and body fat and how to make smart lifestyle choices for the rest of your life. This puts YOU in control.
- You’ll feel better and have more energy.
- You’ll eat the foods you love.
- You’ll build lean, strong muscles.
- You’ll be empowered physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
I’ve only skimmed the surface of carb cycling, so learn more about our five carb cycling plans to find your ideal cycle, and let’s get cycling!
Get even more information on carb cycling in both or our books: Extreme Transformation (the newest edition to our carb cycline lineup featuring the Extreme Cycle) and Choose More, Lose More for Life (which features our other four cycles).
If you’d like some help creating your own meals, there’s a handy “Create Your Own Meals” chart in this post! To get a customized cycle for you and your goals + several workout programs (from gym-based to bodyweight to dance) + the all-important life lessons (the key to long-term transformation), check out The Transform App.
Note: If you’ve been carb cycling using our book, Choose Lose More, Lose More for Life, you’ll notice that we’ve changed a couple of things since that book was published: You now include a fat for breakfast, and every final meal of the day is a low carb meal. Like with a lot of things in life, the more you do them, the more you learn about how to do them even better!
xo,
1,381 Responses
Hi I wondered is it still possible to carb cycle while you’re trying to gain weight? If so how do you work out how many calories you should have each day as I know you should have a calorie surplus to gain weight? I’m really confused. Thanks.
Yes, carb cycling is a program you can follow for life. Here’s a post that might help you figure out how many calories to eat so you have a surplus each day: https://heidipowell.net/5366/all-about-calories/. While a lot of the info in this post is how to lose weight, the same principles (in reverse) can help you figure out the numbers to gain weight in a healthy way. You might have to play around with the numbers to learn what works best for you, but it can be done. Good luck!
Hi Heidi!
What if you don’t need to actually lose weight, but just lose some stubborn fat like cellulite on legs, and a little on the stomach. I am 5’6″, 124 lbs. I can see bones in my chest, and vascularity up top at all times, yet, I have cellulite ( quite a bit!) I lift very heavy 4x’s a week and do HIIT and Plyo 2-3 days a week. I am starting carb cycling as a last ditch effort! I have quite a bit of muscle on me legs under the fat but I just want to shed the fat to show it off. Would I eat maintenance on heavy lifting days and under maintenance on those low carb days? I don’t want to become any more lean than I am up top though except my stomach! TIA! Also, I read the carb confusion post. 🙂
Yes, carb cycling can work! I’d suggest trying the Fit Cycle (https://heidipowell.net/2719/carb-cycling-the-fit-cycle/) since you are really active and want to get rid of that bit of stubborn fat. You can follow the calorie recommendations in the program (1200 for low carb days and 1500 calories for high carb days), however, since you really don’t have much to lose, you can adjust the daily calories if you need to. And you can change cycles at any time, based on your goals and needs. Good luck!
I just started carb cycling and was wondering if there were any protein bars for low carb days that you recommend. I have 3 little ones so I like having a snack option I can keep in my bag when we are out running around that.
Protein bars can be a healthy option for both low and high carb meals, especially when you need a quick source of healthy nutrition. 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.
Would increase calories with carbs increase or would you cut down on fats or protein to stay at the same calorie level (deficit of 20% in my case).
My carb cycling would look like this:
50,100,150,200,250,300 and 350 or more grams on 7th day.
Thanks
The meal/snack calorie recommendations and portion sizes for all carb cycling meals are formulated to help you achieve your weight loss goals, so there’s no need to make any changes. For your reward day, you can eat up to 1000 extra calories of any foods. Hope that helps!
This carb cycling, how will it work with gluten free. I am highly sensitive to gluten (not allergic, but it does effect me physically if ingested) and I abstain from it due to an autoimmune disease. Any suggestions on this. I tried to read thru all of the above, but there is soooo much. I didn’t see anything about GF. Thank you
It can work, just choose gluten free food options from the approved foods list in “Choose More, Lose More for Life.” You might also discuss Chris and Heidi’s plan with your healthcare team, and then follow their recommendations. Happy carb cycling!
I am doing Carb Cycling Easy and the first week, I lost 7.2 lbs. I am currently at 242 lbs. and I just finished week two without any loss. Is this normal? I have done everything by the book and my reward meals don’t go over 500 calories for the day. Start week three tomorrow.
Hi Vanessa: Yes, your weight loss rate can fluctuate after the first week. It can take a bit of time for our bodies to get used to a new way of doing things. Depending on which cycle you’re following, your reward meals shouldn’t go over 250 extra calories/meal (you’ll only eat reward meals on high carb days0, and on your reward days you can eat up to 1000 extra calories that day. And remember to do your slingshot week on week 4. Don’t forget your water too! You can do this!
I have recently started carb cycling and find many of my meals don’t really fill me up unless I eat ALOT more than the 2 servings of vegetables recommended. For this first week I’ve been preparing recipes EXACTLY as they appear on the Vemmabode website to be sure I am getting the hang of it. I read both of the Chris Powell books and they recommend that women get 1200-1500 calories per day (depending on HC or LC day). I am a 6’0″ tall woman. Should I be eating more calories in a day or, if not, do you have some food/meal suggestions that would be more filling?
Hi Lisa,
I was disappointed to see that your question has not been addressed by Team Powell, as I would love suggestions in this area. I’m also 6 feet tall, and I have struggled in the past with many diets that fail to consider that 1200 calories for a larger built woman is unreasonable. It’s tough enough for a 5’3″ tall woman (e.g. My mother), and almost unattainable for a woman of our height to eat so few calories and fell well-balanced and energetic.
There are excellent calorie calculators online that can help you figure out exactly how many calories you can eat and still lose weight. By the way, your current weight is much more important in determining this than your height…..although the taller you are, the more you likely weigh. Also, keep in mind that once you’re losing, you will need to recalculate, as your caloric needs also decrease with weight loss. http://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/calories
These calorie counters give you daily intake, so I’m not sure how to adjust for carb cycling. Perhaps add 500 calories on the high carb days and subtract 500 for low carb days? It would be great if someone from Team Powell could weigh in.
Hi Jenn: Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. When fans post more than 1 comment, any additional comments are automatically approved and are easy to miss when we are replying. I’ve replied to Lisa’s comment, so hopefully that will help you also. Thank you again!
Hi Lisa: I’m so sorry I didn’t reply to this comment. When fans have posted more than 1 comment, any additional comments they post are automatically approved, so it’s easier to miss them and not reply. This is a great question. When losing weight, you want to burn more calories than you consume. Since you are 6’0″, you could up your calories a bit to compensate for your height. Try 1500 calories on low carb days and 1800 calories on high carb days, and see if that helps, while making sure you still have a calorie deficit every day. Make sure you’re also upping your portion sizes to make up for those extra calories, of protein especially, to make sure those extra calories are most beneficial. Hope this helps, and we wish you the best!
There is no place on the Chris Powell Website to “sign up” for a newsletter and receive the food list. There’s no link on the home page, the about page, the contact us page or any other page.
I’m so sorry – Chris’ site has been recently redone and that area has been removed. We’re working on getting this option added to Heidi’s site. Please be patient with us!
Hi Heidi,
My husband and I just started carb cycling but are horrible about eating withn half hour of waking up.. Also we’re not too sure about what to make for snacks and meals during high and low carb days . Do you guys have recipes that we can use?
Eating within 30 minutes of waking up can be quite the change for a lot of people. Just do your best, and eventually it will get easier. As far as what to eat for meals and snacks, there’s an extensive list of foods in “Choose More, Lose More for Life,” and there are lots of great recipes in that book and Chris and Heidi’s first book, “Choose to Lose.” Or there’s an awesome graphic (as well as other useful information) in this post that might help too: https://heidipowell.net/4514/carb-confusion/. Happy carb cycling!
Hi!
Two questions for you.
1. I just can’t eat first thing in the morning when I wake up. My stomach doesn’t like it. I start with a cup of coffee and then maybe an hour or two later will have breakfast. Is this bad?
2. How do I know if I am getting too much fat in my diet? I am focused on lower fat foods or good fats, but when is it too much?
Great questions! 1. If your stomach can’t handle eating right after you wake up, then eat as soon as you can and go from there. 2. If you follow the portion sizes, you won’t eat too much fat. There’s an awesome graphic (as well as some other great info) in this post from this blog: https://heidipowell.net/4514/carb-confusion/. I hope it helps!