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 Heidi,
Many thanks fro yours and chris’s book and work, its very useful 🙂
Quick question, for the calories level, is this a universal 1500 / 2000 regardless of starting weight?e.g. if someone is 200kg, would they still only have 1500 cals on a low carb day?
Thanks
Niall
Hi Niall: Yes, those are the calorie recommendations for all males. Good luck – you can do this!
I am interested in carb cycling. I am about 200 pounds and really need to lose 30 plus pounds. I am trying to get ,y macros just right, there are so may different numbers out there. Can you please confirm what the percentages should be, is it 1 gram of protein per pound. 200 grams just seems so high.
Hi Lindsey: In carb cycling, we don’t count macros or grams, just portions sizes (and calories, if you’d like). It makes things so much easier! If you follow the meal outlines, you’ll be getting in all your macros. There’s an awesome graphic in this post (as well as some other helpful info) that you can use as a quick reference for meal planning: https://heidipowell.net/4514. Hope that helps – you can do this!
I was wondering how would i do this since i am a vegan (for ethical reasons). What foods would i add in. I also do not consume gluten.
Hi Brian: You can eat tofu, tempeh, or TVP as protein options. Hope that helps!
Dear Team Powell,
Are Quest Bars and protein powders (Im taking Horleys Sculpt for women) permitted during the turbo plan?
Thanks!
Hi Carmen: Yes, Quest bars (and similar bars) are a great option for your protein + fat portions of a low-carb meal. As far as protein powders go, choose whey-based ones with between 15-20 grams of protein and less than 5 grams of carbs per servings. This would count as the protein portion of any meal. Hope that helps!
Hello,
I saw a video of Chris on Dr. Oz, talking about carb cycling, he was giving an example of what you can eat on a high and low carb day. The example he was showing for a low carb day for a snack was celery with peanut butter and a cheese string. I’m trying to understand carb cycling, but for that snack wouldn’t that example be two fats? Instead of a protein and a fat. Wouldn’t the cheese string and peanut butter both be fats? Thank you for helping me understand.
Hi Michelle: Great question! If the cheese is reduced/low fat, it can count as a protein. Hope that helps!
Hello Team “you’re gonna make me skinny”,
Where do I find the chart in chapter 15 that tells me how much to eat for my age and weight? Chapter 10 says I’ll find it there but I must be blind.
I’ve watched you guys on ABC for a few years and I must say the transformations are amazing.
I’m a professional dieter and have lost as much as 100 pounds but it always finds a way to creep back on (maybe not all of the 100 but 1/3 at least). Now I know why and I’m so excited to Carb Cycle to get and keep the weight off for good!
Thanks a bunch and I’ll keep you updated on my progress!
Hi Ruth: Check on pages 164 and 165 for calorie and portion size recommendations. Women will eat 1200 calories on low-carb days and 1500 calories on high-carb days. You can do this!
Hello,
I have a question about the carb cycling graph, first it?s so great that Chris and Heidi put this together so helpful. For the high carb day, lets say for the dinner meal, I have chicken and whole grain pasta, because chicken is my protein and the pasta would be my carb, does that mean I can?t put anything on the pasta? In the graph is it one serving of each protein and carb? So by doing my protein (chicken) and carb (pasta) I?ve used up the serving for protein and carb?
On a high carb day where I wouldn?t eat fat, because my protein and carb foods would have some fat in them, is there a certain amount of fat grams I should be staying under on a high carb day? And same thing for a low carb day, where I need to stay under a certain amount of carbs when I eat the protein and fat?
If I did zero fat greek yogurt with granola for a snack on high carb day, because I used the granola as my carb and the yogurt as my protein, I couldn?t put fruit in it because that would be a carb and I used my carb for granola, is that right?
I saw Chris recently on Doctor Oz and he was celery and peanut butter with a string cheese for snack, I’m having a hard time understanding, wouldn’t the peanut butter and string cheese both be the fat? As they are both in the fat column in the approved foods and then he is missing the protein in this snack?
Can you please help me understand, thank you so much for your help:)
Hi!
I am 5’3′, 120 pounds and trying to lose a few pounds to lean out and see all of those muscles I work so hard for. I am active and work out.
Here are my problems:
I feel like I am starving at 1200/1500 calories.
I am eating lots of veggies.
Will this huger go away? Like, my hunger pains are CRAZY mid day and even after dinner.
I feel like I’m eating a lot at each meal (like i am full, but then I am hungry an hour later.).
Hi Whitney: I’m not sure which cycle you’re following, but you might try the Fit Cycle: https://heidipowell.net/2719/carb-cycling-the-fit-cycle/. And if you’re just beginning carb cycling, your body should get used to this new way of doing things. Make sure you’re drinking your water every day (1/2 your body weight, so 60 oz), and hopefully those hunger pains will go away. If not, please post again, and we’ll go from there. 🙂
I have been on the Turbo plan for 8 weeks now, i am down 15 lbs. I am very happy with that. I have made it through 2 rounds of full week of HC meals. On these (2) weeks i have lost more weight than i have on the regular turbo weeks. I am wondering if this is normal or does by body need more carns to lose weight? Should i switch to classic? I am thinking that i may not be getting all of my calories on my LC days. Any advice?
Hi Krysten: This can be very normal! Just be sure you are getting in all 1200 calories on low carb days, and remember, veggies are technically carbs, so you are getting in great carbs even on low-carb days. And congrats on those 15 lbs gone – that’s so exciting!
Hi Powells love your book. I want to start weight lifting while carb cycling but the gym I go to is twenty minutes from home, and I’ll workout before work in the mornings. I wondered what is more important eating within 30 minutes of waking or getting my workout in before eating. Thanks
Hi Mike: You can actually do a bit of both, or whatever works best for you. Get more info here: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/.