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 am new to carb cycling – I just bought “Choose More, Lose More for Life” and I am wondering, do you add the 2 servings of veggies to each meal and each snack or just to each meal? It looks like a LOT of food each day. I never thought I would say “I don’t know if I can eat all of that” but … lol
Thanks!
Jamie
Hi Jamie: You can add the veggies to any meal you’d like to! You can do this!
I’m looking to purchase the Powell Perfect Protein Powder, but can’t find it in stock on Amazon and my local health food stores don’t have it. Can you please tell me where I can find this protein brand or another brand you recommend.
Thank You
Hi Veronica: You can try vemma.com and see if the protein powder is available there. For protein powders in general, we recommend low fat (less than 3g), low carb (less than 5g), with around 20-25g of protein per serving. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Hdidi,
I love the thought of carb cycling but I was interested in knowing what your thoughts were on Keto Diets. There is a lot of hype on Keto diets lately. If I follow carb cycling correct, on those 2 LC days is that enough to put the body into ketosis so it starts burning fat? Should I significantly increase my healthy fats on those 2 days? Some internet articles talk about 70% healthy fats. Hope my question makes sense! LOL
Sorry for the typo in your name. I hit submit before I noticed.
Hi Eileen: Your question totally makes sense! Chris and Heidi believe that carbs are a necessary part of any transformation journey no matter what your goal may be (including fat loss), so that’s why they regularly include them in their carb cycling program. But they also recommend you do what is best for you! Hope that helps. 🙂
I’m going into my 3rd week of carb cycling (Fit Cycle) tomorrow and although Ive gained 5 lbs…I know it’s just temporary until my body gets used to this. Although I’m tempted to switch things up to the Turbo Cycle…I think I’ll just chill and give it a bit more time. Thank you so much for breaking down the diff kinds of carb cycling, Heidi. It is something I’ve never done before, and have yet to introduce it to my clients. I’m the guinea pig first hehe But I do see adding it to my coaching nutrition plans in the future.
Cheers!
I am interest in carb cycling. I understand the 5 meals and eating within a half hour of waking idea but I get up for a full day at 4:00am. I usually work out and then eat so I don’t have so long between my breakfast and morning snack. Because of my schedule, I often don’t get to eat my evening meal until 7pm or so. How would this work with your carb cycling program?
Hi Martha: Here’s a post that can help you structure your meals around a crazy schedule: https://heidipowell.net/10556. I hope it helps!
Hi,
Love your program. Great Job you guys, thanks for motivating me. Switching up to classic carb cycling!! As per your plan we are supposed to have two fistful of veggies with every meal, can we substitute it with fruits? Like Apples, Watermelon? Also for fat my thumb size usually gets me 6-7 peanut or 3 almonds is that correct? Planning to go further hopefully and take up the challenge with the help of your books+DVD in the very near future. Love the app. Fingers crossed! Thank you Guys <3
Hi Richa: Great questions! You won’t want to sub fruits for veggies because fruits fall into the carb category and should only be eaten as the carb portion of any meal including carbs. If you’re following the app, your macros and meals are figured for you (and you can add the veggies to every meal also). As for fats, you should be able to get more peanuts or almonds for a thumb-sized portion. On the app, go to ow carb, grab ‘n go, and then find a meal with almonds and that will show you how many to eat for that meal. Hope this helps! 🙂
I started using the Transform app this week and I’m really loving it, but I’m struggling with the amount of food I have to eat each day. I have been eating it all and I’ve noticed a change in how good I feel and I’ve achieved a 6lb weight loss in my 1st week of using the app. This was after hitting a plateau after dropping 74 pounds over the last 14 months. I feel like I’m eating all the time and I’m struggling to eat it all which is causing me to worry that I may actually going to gain weight verses staying on track with my goals. Is it okay to eat this many meals a day and do I have to eat this much?
Hi Chrisara: We get this question a lot! It is VERY common to be surprised at the amount of food you should be eating to reach your goals! Most people have the misconception (and ?old school? mentality) that you have to starve yourself to reach your goals?this is not the case at all. For our approach, we start you at the highest calorie intake possible to boost your metabolism and prime your body, then if you EVER plateau, the program will adjust your portions in a ?step-down? manner, to maximize your results and keep you losing. This is transformation the way it SHOULD be done! Your meal plan is totally customized to you and your goals, and so you can feel confident that if you eat all of that delicious food, you will achieve your goals!
My husband & I have been doing the keto eating plan for 6 weeks with good results! I just found your carb cycling and we are interested! I just ordered the Extreme Transformation book. Do you think that we could handle the transformational cycle would be fine to start out on? I do moderate exercise 2-3 times per week, my husband does heavy weight lifting 3-4x/week.
I meant to say the Turbo Cycle, not transformational
Hi Laura: If you’re purchasing “Extreme Transformation,” I’d start with the Extreme Cycle, and then use the Turbo Cycle later on as its outlined in the book. You both can do this! 🙂
do you reccomen that i do the turbo diet as a 14 year old male
Hi Rocco: Since you are a teenager, we recommend you work with your healthcare team to put together any nutrition and exercise program since they can work with you personally now and in the future as you continue to grow and develop. We wish you the best as you work to achieve your goals – you can do this!
Hey, so I just started the Transform (Cross Training Intermediate/Advanced for weight loss) and I have a question. Why shouldn’t someone looking to lose weight quickly use the Turbo Cycle? I see that in the app you suggest the Fit Cycle and that confuses me because the way I understand it is the low carb days burn fat and the high carb days are for refueling and recovery. Also how are my macros calculated on this app?
Hi Haelie: Welcome to Transform! Since your program in the app is totally customized to your and your goals, you can be confident that the cycle it suggests will help you achieve your goals. Be sure and do your weekly progress updates, and if you’re ever prompted to let the program adjust for faster results, be sure and click on this option and let the program work its magic! As for how the macros are calculated for your program, this is based on the info you input into the app and on your goals. You can do this!