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 a 50 yrs woman. I was slim and sexy all my life. I have been a size 8 and now a size 12 …..
I hurt myself 3 years ago and stop any workout for few months. I gained weight from eating alot of sweets and not taking care of my food intake…
The result is now not able to loose weight : try so far. 21 day fix. IF for 1 year = lost 12 lb gained it back.
Try about anything so far.
I am still sore in my hips , shoulder and got an tennis elbow. I use to workout min. 5 days a week and eat super well.
But now at 50 I am hopeless and all my old tricks do not work. And sore for 2 days when doing a workout….sniff
I eat well but my scale will add fat and lb . I don?t know if Carb Cycling is good for a mature woman. I am very discouraged at this point but I cannot give up.
Please respond to me honestly I don?t want to loose my time and be deceived again. Is this program good for menopause woman???
Thank you for your time and be safe .
Hello! I work out 5 days a week. I do mostly strength training and some HIIT. I’m currently following Caroline Girvan’s 10 week epic challenge (which is AMAZING). I weigh 130lbs. I’m a Mom of 3. I’m currently on week 7 of my workout challenge. I feel like i should be toning up faster than what I am. I have a lot of muscle but also feel like i have a lot of fat over that muscle. I’ve been looking over your website here on carb cycling for the last hour and have printed some material. I have tried carb cycling in the past (for my wedding when i was working out like crazy.) The carb cycling program was really hard, keeping track of all the carbs, proteins, and fats in grams. I want to start carb cycling but I’m not sure which one of your carb cycling program i should follow of yours? the easy, fit, turbo etc.?
Hi Michelle: We always recommend you follow the carb cycle that will work best for you, and all of them can help you achieve your goals. We often recommend people start with the Extreme Cycle, and to keep things simple, you can follow the meal creation chart in this post that uses your hand to help you create portion sizes: https://heidipowell.net/4514 If you’d like to try out our app, The Transform App, for FREE for 14 days, go here: https://transformhq.com/chris-powell-14-day-free-trial/ The app has all the carb cycles + over 550 meals you can choose from, which are scaled to your nutrition needs and your goals. You can add your own foods also, and when you choose any of our meals, all the counting is done for you. And remember, it can take time to build muscle, so keep being patient with yourself, and you’ll get there!
Can you Carb Cycle with just 3 meals a day? Is the new book suitable for me if I need to loose a lot of weight? I remember Chris from years ago helping David, I’m there myself sadly but now I have to make some changes.
Hi Jeremy: While we recommend eating your meals every 3 hours, plan your meals in the way that works best for you. And yes, the new book could work for you. If you’d like to try our app for free for 14 days (the app has customized nutrition and workout programs that are amazing), go here: https://transformhq.com/chris-powell-14-day-free-trial/ We wish you all the best!
Your original book had a high carb week every 3 weeks. Has that changed or is that still the case? Thank you!
Hi Tara: In Chris and Heidi’s The Transform App, a slingshot week (a week of all high carb days) can be taken after several weeks of plateauing. However, you can still add a slingshot week every 3 weeks if you’d like. We recommend you do what works best for you. Hope that helps! 🙂
I did low carbs (50 and less sometimes) for years and lost around 40lbs. My goal weight for a 5’5 and half ,female, is 127lbs. I keep coming down to 132 and going back up to 137/138. This happened 4 times in the last 1 year. Lately I have been very shaky, nauseated, lightheaded. My cardio performance derailed as well. I have started adding carbs to my diet. With so much information out there your article stands out with very clear and detailed information. Would you recommend carb cycling for my last 10lbs? If so which of the 5 plans you listed?
Hi DK: Thank you for your comment, and congratulations on losing 40 lbs! Carb cycling could definitely be a good option for you. Since you have been on a low carb diet and have been trying to slowly reintroduce carbs into your diet, I’d start with the Turbo Cycle, the cycle which has the most low carb days. But most importantly, I’d follow the cycle that best works into your life AND that you can stick to. That cycle might change over time, and that’s totally okay! Healthy eating is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a lifelong thing, not a short-term thing. Hope that helps! 🙂
We have been following the Extreme transformation plan , 4 days high carb, followed by 2 low carb and then cheat day. We have been following the meal plan in the book and have a question about daily calorie goal. The daily meal plans in the book exceed recommended caloric totals of 1200 calories per day for low carb and 1500 for high carb.recommended for women. What are we missing?
Hi Joan: You’re doing awesome! It’s almost impossible to hit those daily calories goals exactly, so we try and get as close as we can. Some days you’ll be under and some days you’ll be over. If you follow the meal plan in the book exactly, work out regularly, and drink all your water, you should be good to go!
I have watched my fianc?e have successful results with carb cycling and am excited to start the journey myself l, but I?m still confused on a few things.
1. Breakfast is always protein, carb, and fat. Dinner is always protein, veggie, fat. Are you supposed to eat veggies with every meal regardless of low or high carb days, or just on your low carb days?
2. The portion size guide is helpful, but I?m looking for a more specific way to measure my food using a food scale and cups. Can you tell me how many ounces or protein I should be having with each meal, how many cups or veggies/ carbs, and how many teaspoons of fats?
Thank you!
Hi Ashley! Great questions!
1) You can eat veggies (the non-root/non-starchy type) all day long on any day, in fact, we encourage it!
2) There?s a link to an awesome macros calculator in this post: https://heidipowell.net/10990. This calculator won?t break down your calories into low and high carb days, but there?s a ?Create Your Own Meals? chart in this post that can help you figure out low and high carb days: https://heidipowell.net/10617 Just remember that each gram of protein and carbs = 4 calories, and each gram of fat = 9 calories. We also offer a customized nutrition program in our app, The Transform App (http://thetransformapp.com), which adjusts as you progress towards your goals. The app has several amazing workout programs too! Hope this helps!