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
I absolutely love to follow Heidi and Chris and the amazing work they do with helping individuals lose weight. I am currently looking to lose 75-85 pounds. My doctor has suggested a low card diet, but it seems to do all low carb will cause me to feel drained of energy all the time. I have stubborn visceral fat that needs gone. Would carb cycling work for me? And as a beginner where should I start? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Kristi: I think it could work, but you’d want to discuss the program with your healthcare team first. This post outlines the nutrition basics, and this other post outlines all parts of the programs: https://heidipowell.net/9060. You can do this!
I too am wondering which book I should purchase, the “Choose to Lose” or one of the other books, please give me your advice. I also have 75# to lose but want to purchase the correct book that works best for me.
Hi Margie: I’d purchase Chris and Heidi’s new book, “Extreme Transformation.” It has the most up-to-date information and cycle based on their experience over the past few years working with their contestants on the show. http://amzn.to/1RKDIgo. You can do this!
Hi! I’m going to be doing the turbo carb cycling plan and I know in the book it gives calories per servings for each type of food criteria. However, I wanted to know if there were any already made meal plans for the turbo cycle for a woman?
Hi Maddie: There are not meal plans for the Turbo Cycle. You can use the recipes in the book and the graphic in this other blog post to help you put your meals together: http://heidpowell.net/4514.
The link to “Choose More, Lose More for Life” at the bottom of the article is a bad link.
Thank you for letting us know, I’ll take care of that right now! Here’s the link for your convenience: http://amzn.to/1rhkPaQ
Hey Powell Team,
My friend and I are starting the turbo carb cycling this week. I have both books- Choose More Lose More & Extreme Transformation. We are stuck with snack options since your books list mostly meals. Can you provide some snack options? Thanks so much!
Hi Talissa: You put your snacks together the same way you put your meals together. There’s an awesome graphic in this post that can help: https://heidipowell.net/4514. You both can do this! ?
I have a question. It was mentioned in the replies earlier that women should eat 1200 calories. However, on the “All About Calories” article, it says I should be eating 1700 calories and that is with a 1000 calorie deficit to lose 2 pounds a week. How would this change apply to the carb cycling diets in the books? Please help me understand! 🙂
Hi Marisela: For the Easy, Classic, Turbo, and Fit Cycles, women eat 1200 calories on low-carb days and 1500 calories on high-carb days. On the Extreme Cycle, women eat 1500 calories every day. The only difference is the extra calories eaten for reward meals, reward days, or reset days (depending on the cycle you’re following). These are the recommendations for all women. The information in the “All About Exercise” post, and the numbers you get from the formula, is for general information. If you’re doing carb cycling, then you’ll follow the calorie recommendations for the cycle you’re following. I hope that helps!
Do you have meal plans for the turbo plan? I know in the back of the book it gave calorie breakdowns for each food group, but is there a sample meal plan for the turbo plan for a woman?
Hi Marisela: There are not meal plans for the Turbo Cycle. You can use the recipes in the book and the graphic in this other blog post to help you put your meals together: http://heidpowell.net/4514.
Unfortunately, that link does not work. Also, how do fruits fit into carb cycling? are they considered a carb?
Ooops. Forgot a letter in the link. ? Try this one: https://heidipowell.net/4514. And fruits are carbs – there’s more about this in this post.
Where do coconut flour and almond flour fit into carb cycling? Fat? Grain?
Hi Mindi: Those are counted as fats in carb cycling. ?
serving sizes?
That depends…if the flour is the entire fat serving for a meal, the serving size would be different than if it is part of the serving size for a meal. If you’re following the Extreme Cycle, there’s a chart at the bottom of this post that outlines how many calories of each macro to include in each meal, and this could help you figure this out. If you’re following one of the other four cycles, here’s a macro percentage breakdown for each type of meal:
High-Carb Meal:
Protein: 40%
Carbs: 40%
Fats: 20%
Low-Carb Meal:
Protein: 40%
Carbs: 20%
Fats: 40%
Before I found out about your Carb Cycling Plan I started a low carb diet with 20g of carbs, or less, per day. It was super tough the first three days but now I fell less hungry and have more energy. I’m afraid that if I add in the carb cycling it will throw me off. I was actually going to stay on the low carb induction for two weeks and then add in some healthy carbs such as berries, etc… What are your thoughts and suggestions for me? I love you and your husband and value your opinion. Thank you!
Hi Terri: Carbs (the healthy type) are super important for weight loss. They are the kindling that stoke your weight loss fire, so that’s why they’re included as they are in Chris and Heidi’s carb cycling program. Give their program a try!
Hi Team Powell!
I’ve read the book “Choose to Lose” and read about the Turbo Cycle on Heidi’s blog, and am SO excited to get started! A few questions I have that I hope you can help me with:
1) Is there a time of night you should’t eat past? I am a SAHM with three small children and we all get up by 7:30am and eat breakfast at 8 or 8:15am. That puts my last meal at 8pm, but if my daytime meals get off schedule at all (meaning 4 hrs go by instead of 3 because of kid activities or my work out classes), then my last meal will be at 9pm… is that too late? I typically go to bed at 11pm.
2) Which protein bars and protein shakes do you recommend for HC and LC days? I think I need to have some on hand for on-the-go meals with the busy schedules we have, we are always on the go!
3) Should I be tracking my calories? Or should I just trust the portion sizes that are listed in the book and go for it? Tracking takes up so much time!!
4) And my bonus question for you today – we are about to start a kitchen remodel next week and we won’t have a sink, stove top or dishwasher for about 2 weeks, maybe 3. Any ideas for eating on this plan with only a microwave and oven to cook with? No sink to wash veggies, stove to brown meat, etc… There may even be some days we can’t walk on the floors to the oven????? I’m dying over here!
Thanks! Love everything I’ve read and seen from you guys. And my littlest’s name is Ruby too! 🙂
Hi Leigh: Let’s get you some answers to your questions! 1) The main thing is to begin eating within 30 minutes after waking and then every 3 hours for a total of 5 meals. 2) For protein powders, look for low-fat, whey-based powders with between 15-20 grams of protein and less than 5 grams of carbs per serving. For protein bars, 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. 3) You can track your calories if you’d like to, or simply go by the portion size guide. 4) This can be tricky! Meal prep will be key. You can pre-cook your proteins and do any other prepping ahead of time, freeze some meals ahead of time, basically do all you can ahead of time. A meal plan will be key! Good luck!
Thank you so much! Another question I have is in regards to frozen veggie burgers – are they proteins or carbs or what? Could you have one with a whole wheat bun, lettuce, tomato, and salsa on a HC day? And could you have one with cheese or avocado on a LC day? The brand I’m looking at is Morning Star – the “Roasted Garlic & Quinoa” and “Spicy Black Bean Burger”…. thoughts?
Hi Leigh: These veggie burgers count towards a protein serving. They are a bit short of protein to count as an entire serving, so you’d need to add some additional protein. Here’s a post that offers more meal planning tips, including how many calories of each macro to include in each meal (to learn how many grams of each macro to include in each meal, divide the calories for protein and carbs by 4, and the calories for fat by 9): https://heidipowell.net/10617/the-extreme-cycle-meal-planning-tips/. And your ideas for high- and low-carb meals are awesome!
Thank you again! I’m not sure I understand how to calculate the macros though. The link you sent says 100 calories of protein for a HC meal. Those veggie burgers are over 100 calories each, so they should be ok, right? Maybe I’m missing something though?
Hi Leigh: I’m so sorry for your confusion. The chart refers to 100 calories for protein, not 100 calories total for the burgers. 100 calories of protein equates to 25 grams of protein per serving. Hope this clears things up!
Aw… thank you! I’m new to this for sure… this is going to get much harder or more interesting… thanks!
So, just to make sure I understand this…. Based on that chart, for a LC meal, I should be having 37.5g of Protein, less than 7.5g of Carbs and 11g of Fat. Is that right? If so, then the Kind+ bars I bought for LC meal replacements for on-the-go days don’t have anywhere near enough Protein. They only have 4g Protein and 190 calories total. Right? Thank you again for your help with this healthy eating transition!
Yes these numbers are correct. And you’re right about these bars. You’re so welcome!
Hello my name is Ghadeer and I’m 17 years old and im 88kg overweight.157cm.I’ve been on my own weight loss journey but not on a straight way like I binged a lot but worked out heavily. when I was 12 i weighted 73kg, after a year I lost 16 kg and then it was the battle of losing weight and gaining it for million times. in 2014 my appetite exploded all I want to eat a lot of food so i gained 36 kg.i really really just need a simple answers I’m so tired and depressed and exhausted not forgetting the fact that last year i had a disk on my back so my workouts can’t be too pushy.so my questions are, what is the carb cycling type for weight loss?? and can I go on a normal diet ( like eating normal healthy numbers of carbs ,protein,fats) when I finish my weight loss journey ?? can I workout like cardio abs workouts and lifting if I have a back disk?? does carb cycling have a certain numbers of calories ??
Hi Ghadeer: Since you are still in your teens, it’s best to discuss any nutrition and exercise program with your healthcare team and then follow their recommendations, especially with your back issue. They are the best ones to help you since they know your health history and can work with you on a one-on-one basis. You might also get some other tips in this post: https://heidipowell.net/7201/teens-and-healthy-body-image-its-not-just-about-the-pounds/. We wish you the best!
Heidi and Chris I am 25 weeks pregnant and I am 5ft 4 in and 180 pounds my starting weight was 170 which is according to my BMI obese for someone who wants to start after baby is born is it safe to do while breastfeeding and what is the first step I should take to start?
Hi Hannah: Congratulations! Here’s a post that outlines Heidi’s breastfeeding nutrition program: https://heidipowell.net/2275. As for exercise, it’s best to get your doctor’s okay before exercising postpartum. We wish you the best!