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 am 5’9, 127lbs and have good muscle, but i am wanting to put on better definition for the summer. I am 16 weeks post surgery and have been eating 5 meals a day and doing maintanance macros. I strength train 3 days a week and Hiit 2. Which ipen would be best for me. I’m feeling low energy, bored and fighting binges again with the post christmas detox and I want to change things up but not sure which plan to try and how low the low carb days are and how high the highs are
Hi Erika: It sounds like you’re doing awesome! I’d try the Extreme Cycle. And here’s another post that can help too: https://heidipowell.net/8679. You got this!
Just wondering about eating 30 min. After awakening, I cant seem to get myself to eat that soon after will that mess things up if I wait longer to eat.
Hi Leah: You can actually take up to an hour to eat after waking up, but we also recommend you do what works best for you! 🙂
Okay, so have the app. Love it. Bit wondering if I chose the best nutrition plan. I do my strength training and do my accelators (I’m not 100% each week but at least 80% compliance on those) I have maybe 15 lbs to go and really want to tone and get more definition. Currently doing the phase 5 home body sculpting program. Which nutrition program would you recommend?
Hi Lindsey: We love that you’re loving the app! I’d go with either the Fit Cycle or the Extreme Cycle, give the one you choose several weeks to make sure it’ll work best for you. 🙂
Hi Team Powell 🙂
I have about 60lbs to lose to my ultimate goal. Seems like each plan works better for one person than another-and I?m wondering which one you would recommend for me. I have a home gym set up, and recently diagnosed with PCOS which can interfere with insulin/carb intake. Thanks!
Hi Sarah: We do have lots of women with PCOS who follow our plan, but we always recommend you discuss our different carb cycles with your healthcare team to see which one(s) is best for you and what modifications might need to be made specifically for you. If you’re using the app, choose whichever workout program you’ll do regularly. You can also change workout programs at any time. Hope that helps! 🙂
I have been dieting low carb. I?m am very interested in carb cycling. I?m having foot surgery and will be down a minimum 6 weeks. Should I wait to carb cycle until I can exercise again?
Hi Nancy: I’m so sorry to hear about your upcoming foot surgery, and I hope you recover quickly! You don’t need to wait to begin carb cycling, you can carb cycle any time and all the time. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi there! I was recently diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistant. Which plan do you recommend?
Hi Mellony: With PCOS, we always recommend you discuss carb cycling with your healthcare team and have them help you figure out which cycle would be best for you as well as if you’ll need any additional modifications. We wish you all the very best!
Two questions.. Should you eat high carb and do high intensity the day after… And alternative high and low carb days weekly?
Hi Jessica: Great questions! The answers can be different for each person. Some do better doing their hardest workouts on high carb days, others the day after. I’d experiment and do what works best for you! Same for how you arrange your low and high carb days. It depends on what works best for your workouts and your goals. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi, I have the last twenty pounds to lose and I have chronic rib pain so it?s hard to do a lot of cardio or HIIT or Tabata at times. I am 33, 5?2?, 145lbs and I have an athletic build but I haven?t been able to get off the last 20lbs of baby weight. I started doing the extreme cycle and I was wondering if that is the best cycle for me and also for the low carb meals can I eat the same thing over and over (I?m a busy mom so meal prep is hard at times) like the vanilla almond Greek yogurt meal in the book and for high carb the apple and dip with carrots or green beans? I also usually do a Optimum Nutrition shake with almond milk, carrots, and 1 table spoon of almond butter for low carb and an Optimum Nutrition shake with almond milk, carrots or green beans, and a slice of Ezekiel bread for high carb or for breakfast, are those meals okay to go back and forth between for quick and easy clean eating?
Hi Shannon: Yes, the Extreme Cycle is a great cycle! And yes, you can repeat meals as long as you do HC for HC, etc. For your Optimum shake, we consider carrots to be HC foods, so maybe use another option that’s non-starchy/non-root? And for any breakfast, be sure to include a protein + fat + carb. Hope that helps! You got this!
Hi. I just have one question. I just read this and see that carrots are high carb which is ok. But I don?t see it in your book under 100 calorie foods at all. Under veggies or carbs.? I was just wondering why. I would have liked to eat them on my hc days…
Hi Stephanie: That was a misprint in the book, and carrots should’ve been included in the carbs list. 🙂
I am 44 years old and 150 pounds overweight. I’ve been on and off diets since I was 11. Which plan would you recommend?
Hi Mel: I’d begin with the Extreme Cycle! You got this!
Hi, I’m interested in carb cycling and was wondering which plan would be best for me. I workout 4-5 days/wk. right now, but have about 40-50 lbs to lose.
Hi Courtney! I’d start with the Extreme Cycle. You got this! 🙂
I am 50 yrs old I weigh 177lbs what carb cycle do you recommend
Hi Jennifer: We recommend you begin with the Extreme Cycle. You got this! 🙂
I need to lose about 20lbs. Which is better to follow, extreme cycle in the book or the app? I know the app changes the amount you eat as you lose weight. Will the book still be as effective as the app?
Also, if I remember right, the app has you end the last meal of the day of a reset/cheat day with a low carb meal but the book has you eat every meal as the cheat or clean cheat. Which should I follow?
Thank you!
Hi Kelli: Both can work, but the book is not customized to your current stats and will not change as you progress towards your goals. The app has several more carb cycles than the book, so the days can be set up a bit differently. But no matter what cycle you follow in the app, your last meal of every day will be a low carb meal. I hope that helps! 🙂
I never feel like I am full. It doesn?t matter what I eat or how much. Is this something normal that can be fixed with proper eating?
Hi Cindy: Are you adding lots of non-root/non-starchy vegetables to your meals? These can often help you feel fuller longer with minimal calorie impact. Also, are you drinking all your water every day? Aim for 1/2 your body weight in ounces (150 lbs = 75 ounces/day). I hope this helps! 🙂
Can my wife and I share the app or do we have to purchase 2?
Hi Chad: There used to be a family share option through itunes, but I’m not sure if that option is still available. Since you’ll each have different meal programs (and possibly different workout programs), it’s very, very difficult to share one app membership unless the family share option is available. Hope that helps! 🙂
I am 52, menopausal and prediabetic. Which cycle would you recommend?
Hi Cheryl: We recommend beginning with the Extreme Cycle, and with any health issue, we also recommend you discuss any nutrition program with your healthcare team first and then follow any modifications they may recommend. 🙂
I’m loosing a lot of weight with you carb cycling.
Please please edit yours books in spaish!!!
Hi Friki: Yay! Some or Chris and Heidi’s books might already be in Spanish. I’d check amazon.com to see! 🙂