If you want to shed those extra pounds extra fast, the Turbo Cycle is for you. Of the four original carb cycles (Easy, Classic, Turbo, and Fit), this cycle takes off weight the fastest. Unlike the Easy and Classic cycles, which alternate low and high carb days, the Turbo Cycle pits two low carb days against every high carb day. That means you’ll burn fat two days in a row before your body’s furnace (metabolism) is re-stoked on your high carb day, and you’ll lose weight really, really fast!
Even though the Turbo Cycle has an extra low carb day as compared to the Easy and Classic cycles, it is not a severely calorie-restricted cycle that will crash your metabolism. And since you’ll have two low carb days in a row, you may feel less energetic on the second low carb day. But this is okay. These low carb days are powerful weight loss accelerators!
Here’s what a Turbo Cycle week looks like:
- Monday: Low carb day
- Tuesday: Low carb day
- Wednesday: High carb day
- Thursday: Low carb day
- Friday: Low carb day
- Saturday: High carb day
- Sunday: Reward day
Every breakfast—on both low and high carb days—will consist of a portion each of protein, carb, and fat. For the next three meals of the day, you’ll eat either a high carb or low carb meal (depending on which day you’re on). Your final of the day will ALWAYS be a low carb meal. Follow the portion size guide to put all your meals together. And as with the other cycles, you can stay with the Turbo Cycle as long as you want, or you can change cycles at any time. This program is tailor-made to you and you alone!
Learn more about the Turbo Cycle in our book, Choose More, Lose More for Life. And if you’re interested in learning about the Extreme Cycle, check out our book, Extreme Transformation.
And if you’d like some help creating your own meals, there’s a handy “Create Your Own Meals” chart in this post!
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!
950 Responses
Hi Powell Team,
I’ve got 2 questions, I’m hoping you can help me with!
First, with reward days, are you allowed to eat 2200 cals of what foods you like or is it supposed to be 5 healthy meals and just use the extra 1000 allowance to eat whatever we want?
Secondly to make sure I’m eating 1200 cals a day on LC etc, I have to count calories, and it would be really helpful if someone can put together a rough estimate for Protein, fats, carbs allowance calories because otherwise its impossible to know if we are hitting the required daily calorie intake for each day? I see you’ve referred everyone to the hand sizes, but that really doesn’t help to know if I’m eating enough calories. My hands are really small and when I use them to measure food my rough calorie intake stands at 800 cals for low carb days.. which is quite far short of the 1200.
Any help would be great!
Many thanks!
Hi Lexi: 1) On reward days, you can eat whatever you want up to 1,000 extra calories. 2) There’s an approved foods list in “Choose More, Lose More for Life” that is broken down into serving sizes and calories for all foods in all areas. Hopefully that will help! Happy carb cycling!
Thankyou!
My morning routine consists of getting up at 4:30 am, 30-45 min bike ride and then strength training. After that I shower and get ready for work so it is typically 6:00 or 6:30 before i eat breakfast. I dont like to eat before I work out. Any suggestions?
With working out and eating, do what works best for you. Here’s a post that might help: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/.
How many or max carbs should you strive for on a low carb day eating vegan?
In carb cycling, we don’t count grams of anything, we count portion sizes. You can learn more about this and how to put together every meal in carb cycling in an awesome graphic in this post: https://heidipowell.net/4514/carb-confusion/. This post has lots of other helpful carb-related info too. Happy carb cycling!
Hi!
First, thank you for creating this site, your patience with questions, your quick response, and honest insight. You and your hubs truly want to/do make a difference with allowing people to create a healthier, better image of themselves. (However, for me, I’m not sure there will ever be a “better image”..at least not one that lives in my brain. 🙂 )
Like many of your followers stated above, I eat super clean, strike a balance with intense cardio+weights 3-4x a week plus, what I affectionately call cardi-yoga ,2x a week for the stretch. If you ask my BMI and Dr. I’m at a healthy weight, but I just want to feel oh so confident in a suit…..like a VS model 🙂 and see a number that is 10 lbs less than what the scale currently shows. Currently I’m at a plateau which isn’t good for my mental state (see above) not to mention the fact I’m headed for a sunny vaca in a few weeks and that bikini image is burnt into my mind. So, I’m in with the carb cycling program; thinking turbo given my time frame. Similar to your followers, I’m better with the menu spelled out (I’m thinking there is a $ making idea here; cue pleading for at least 2 days of meals), but I’m also diligent/crazy enough to eat the same sample foods as you’ve outlined in your prior response to reach my goal (I mean, it’s only 30 days). 🙂 My glitch is this, I’m a vegetarian. What proteins to you recommend? One can only eat so many eggs (unless you’re Cool Hand Luke; I’m showing my age with that comment).
Much appreciated,
C
Welcome to carb cycling – it’s awesome! For protein vegetarian options, try nonfat plain or lowfat Greek yogurts, cottage cheese, tempeh, TVP, and tofu. Hope this helps – you can totally do this! 🙂
I drink Shakeology daily how do i count it on my low carb and high carb days? I usually drink it for breakfast or a snack everyday.
Shakeology shakes would count as the protein and carb part of a high carb meal. 🙂
I have just finished the book & plan to start the turbo plan Sunday. A couple questions: I am breastfeeding a 10 month old, should I make any modifications? Also, when do you work in the Shape/Endurance/Size Shapers since you do 2 low carb days in a row…? Thank you. Andrea
Great questions! Here’s a post that outlines Heidi’s nutrition program while breastfeeding as it relates to carb cycling: https://heidipowell.net/2275/q-a-carb-cycling-while-prego/. And you’ll do both 9-Minute Missions and Shredders Monday-Friday. There are some charts in the back of the book that outline what you’ll need to do every day. It’s an awesome program!
Hi! I’m excited to be starting the turbo plan but have a question. I work 3 night shifts a week, 7p-7a and am wondering which meal I should count as the first meal, the one with the serving of carbs. On my days off it’s my morning meal when I wake up but when I work, is it better to make it the meal when I first wake up around 4 or 5pm or should I keep it in the morning even though, if I worked, then I’m about to go to bed? Hope this makes sense and you can help me.
Thanks!
Great question! I’d consider that first meal/high carb meal of the day to be whenever you start your “day,” or the period of time when you’ll be up the longest. Happy carb cycling!
Are you a healthcare worker? As a nurse I often have a hard time finding the time to eat/drink anything let alone a meal every three hours.
Hello, I recently started carb cycling and love the program so far, usually on my low carb days I have quest bar with some natural peanut butter on top as snack and my question is is it ok to have quest bar on low carb days since it has around 20g of protein?
A quest bar can be a great low carb meal/snack replacement since it has both protein and fat. Add a veggie, and you’ve got a perfect low carb meal/snack!
I just read Chris’s book and am excited to get started with carb cycling. I like that the exercise schedule is so simple, but I have diastasis recti from my twin pregnancy and have been told not to do sit ups or push ups. Are there any other substitute exercises that you recommend for my Shaper days?
With your diastasis recti, we’d hate to recommend anything since we don’t know the exact nature/extent of your issue. I’d suggest you discuss this with your healthcare team and see what their recommendations are for you. There’s an updated Shaper program (called 9-Minute Missions) in Chris and Heidi’s new book, “Choose More, Lose More for Life,” and this would give you some other options to discuss with your healthcare team. Happy carb cycling = you can do this!
Check out Lindsay Brin, she is awesome — http://www.momsintofitness.com/pregnancy-diastasis-recti-and-flat-stomachs/ — Her ab workout that includes diastasis recti mods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxz0A9EyvWc&feature=youtu.be
I’m starting turbo tomorrow and I’m confident in which meals I need to eat on high and low carb days but not sure how to go about snacks on either day. I formerly did Atkins and I think maybe it’s clouding my judgement on how I should go about carbs with this. For low carb days could I have approved fruit or cooked veggies for a snack despite their carb count? Also I have a protein shake but the serving calls for one scoop at 20g of carbs which sounds very high but has 20g of protein. Definitely could use some guidance so I can start on the right foot tomorrow.:-)
There’s a great graphic in this post (as well as some other awesome info) that shows you how to put together every meal in carb cycling: https://heidipowell.net/4514/carb-confusion/. And remember that fruits and root/starchy veggies are all considered carbs, so you’ll only want to eat those for high carb meals. As far as protein powder, Chris and Heidi recommend powders with between 15-20 grams of protein and less than 5 grams of carbs per serving. You could probably count your protein powder as an entire high carb meal (the protein and carb parts), and you could add a portion of veggies (the non-root/non-starchy type) as well. Happy carb cycling!