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
Hello. I have a question- I am a vegan (also allergic to almond,corn and gluten free) and would like to try this carb cycling. I would like to lean out a bit, loose a little fat. I am 5’3, 120 pounds and work out 6 days a week primarily weight lifting, 2 days cardio. I have not been seeing the definition I would like and feel something needs to be changed. What I see is I need to loose some fat in order to see more muscle definition. I am having a hard time figuring out how I would be able to do this turbo carb cycling and sub the meat for other low carb protein such as tofu..but tofu for both lunch and dinner seems excessive. What do you think about this meal plan for low carb days: Breakfast: Oatmeal with berries and banana // Snack: Vega protein shake with spinach // Lunch: Large salad (cucumber,carrots,tomato, lettuce) with garbanzo beans? (this is the meal I struggle with keeping low carb) // Snack #2 Walnuts // Dinner: Veggies with tofu ….. I am trying to figure out how to eat vegan, low carb and stay within 1,200 cal on low carb days. Thank you SO much for taking the time to look at my comment. Love!
Hi Emily: It sounds like you’re on the right track. For breakfast, you need to add a protein, and watch those carbs – you only have one portion for breakfast. You can add veggies here too. For your first snack, you need to add a fat. For your snack #2, you need to add a protein and veggies. For lunch, garbanzo beans are a carb, so you need to find a protein to add to this meal instead, and you need to add a fat. For dinner, you need to add a fat. There’s an awesome graphic in this post (as well as some other helpful info) that outlines how to put together every carb cycling meal: https://heidipowell.net/4514. Hope all this helps – you can do this!
Hello TeamPowell!
Ive started the turbo cycle just 2 days ago and its going great, but I have an important question: I work out very hard (crossfit, interval training) everyday about 1h after I eat the afternoon snack, so I am a bit worried about my performance on the low carb days, besides, I was used to take a scoop of whey protein right after my exercise session.
To lose fat, should I ajust a little my pre and post trainning, or I would burn more if I continue eating protein+fat 1h before and having dinner one hour later? Cause I saw your suggestions to people who work out to go with the fit cycle, but I really dont wanna miss the advantages of the turbo cycle, so could I maybe have one high carb snack only before the gym without jeopardizing my results?
My weight is 123 pounds, 5,35 ft tall and 24% of body fat.
Hope you can help me!
Love from Brazil xxxx
Here’s a post from this blog that will hopefully help you figure out what works best for you: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/. We wish you the best!
Hi Heidi & Chris! HELP!
First off, love you guys! Secondly. I am really stuck here and am desperate for your advice. I have been following the Paleo diet since the end of April and have successfully lost 18 lbs…until June. Today is July 1st and I weigh EXACTLY what I weighed on June 1st. I have been eating super clean (with carbs only coming from fruits, veggies and sweet potatoes), working out 4-5x a week and the scale has not moved this month! I know I have lost inches because I take progress pictures but I am still 50 lbs overweight, so I have plenty of lbs to drop for that scale to move down. After doing more reading, I want to incorporate carb cycling to break through this frustrating plateau. My only concern is, once I introduce these carbs, am I going to gain the weight right back? What is the best and most effective method for introducing my body to carb cycling. And for someone like me who still has 50 lbs to go, I am a 29 y/o 5’4 female. Any advice would be welcomed and GREATLY appreciated. I really want to reach my goals. I think I like this turbo idea because it’s closest to what I’ve been doing, but I need some real advice!
Hi Meg: I answered your email, 😉 but here is the response again: Congrats on those 18 pounds gone – that’s awesome! Carb cycling and the Paleo diet do have some similarities. I’d start carb cycling, with the understanding that it can take our bodies a bit of time to adjust to a new way of doing things. You might (“might” being the key word here) gain a bit of weight initially, but that should be temporary. Good luck – you got this!
Hi!
I have a question~how high is high carb and how low is low? I’m about 5’4″ and 125 lbs with 25% body fat but I really want to lose body fat and continue to put on lean muscle. Would a high carb be like 125 g? And a low like 60? Or would low be more like 30 and high be like 80?
Thanks!
There’s a great graphic (as well as some other awesome information) in this post that will show you how to put together every meal in carb cycling – both low and high carb: https://heidipowell.net/4514/carb-confusion/. Hope this helps!
I am just finishing up week 1 of the Turbo cycle… So far this week was great. But, I am a bit concerned with my calories. I use myfitnesspal to keep me on track at around the 1200 calorie mark. I did not think I would be able to eat that few of calories but was wrong, which is great. But, my concern is some of the days that I workout. I wear a heart rate monitor to track my heart rate and calorie burn, which I have done for years. I run, cross train, and do yoga. Wednesday of this week, the high carb 1300 calorie day, I burned a little over 800 calories with my workouts. If I am reading this correctly, I should not be eating back the calories I burned. That leaves me with only 500 calories for the day. Naturally Thursday I was hungry even eating on plan. I generally work out hard like last Wednesday (500 calories+) only 2-3 days a week, so I did not think fit cycle would be right for me. I have about 15 pounds to loose but I am worried about my calories on hard workout days. Is it that bad to eat back some of the calories? Not all of them but some naturally in the guidelines of the low or high carb day?
You will do just fine following the calories recommendations in carb cycling. All those burned calories add to your calorie deficit, which leads to lost pounds. And remember, on high carb days, you’ll eat 1500 calories, not 1300 calories. Good luck!
My mom and I are on the second week of our turbo cycle. We have followed it without cheating the whole time. The first week she lost 6 pounds and I lost 5. This week she lost 1 pound and I didn’t lose anything. Is this normal? We workout about 5 days a week and I know Chris says we will gain muscle. But I was shocked after just 2 weeks we would hit a plateau?
Oh, also! The vemma app gives a list of what we can eat from fast food places. We saw that diet lemonade from Chickfila is fine. Can we drink that any time or is there a limit? We haven’t gone overboard with it because we weren’t sure.
Thanks!
Yes, your rate of weight loss can fluctuate a bit as your bodies adjust to a new way of doing things. Keep following your plan, and you will be fine. And don’t forget the reward days and to do your slingshot week every 4th week. And yes, Chick-fil-A’s diet lemonade is approved, but as with everything else, watch those calories. They can add up quickly! You both can totally do this!
hi! I’ve been researching carb cycling for a while now and I think your site can help me out the most, but… when you say “heres what a turbo cycle week looks like” I’m unable to see the days below, there is a link and it leads me to a page that says 404 not found, if you could PLEASE let me know what those days look like, i would be so grateful
Thank you for bringing this to our attention – the missing information has been added, so you should be good to go. Happy Turbo Cycling!
Is pumpkin puree considered a non-starchy vegetable?
Hi Dawna: Yes, pumpkin is considered a non-starchy vegetable in carb cycling, so you could eat it as the veggie portion of any carb cycling meal.
I am excited to start the turbo cycle program! Question: I have read that after a workout, particularly a hiit or strength training workout, you need to eat carbs to replace glycogen. Is this true and if so, what would you eat after a workout on a low-carb day?
You can eat veggies (the non-root/non-starchy type) as a part of any carb cycling meal, and since veggies are carbs, they would qualify as an after-workout carb. If you’re working out first thing in the morning, every breakfast is a high carb meal, no matter if it’s a low or high carb day, so you could eat the carb portion of that meal after your workout if you want. Here’s a post that might help: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/. Happy Turbo Cycling!
I did carb cycling in the past and loved it. However back then I didn’t really drink soda but now I have almost a gross addiction to it. I was wondering if you can drink seltzer water doing the carb cycling.
Hi Caitlin: Sparkling water is an approved beverage in carb cycling. Good luck – you can do this!
I started carb cycling doing the turbo cycle. I have a couple questions i can’t find in the book!
1. Can peanut butter be counted as our portion on protein?
2. What proteins are there aside from meats, cottage cheese, & Greek yogurt? I don’t like the cheese and yogurt and the only meat i typically like is chicken and fish.
3. The LC days say besides the first meal, to eat a protein + fat, so does that mean no carbs are allowed at all in those meals?
Thank you!
Great questions! 1. Peanut butter is a fat. 2. As far as proteins, meats(beef, poultry, pork, and seafood), dairy products, and some vegan options are on the list. 3. Yes, after your high carb breakfast, the other 4 meals will be made up of a portion each of protein, fat, and veggies (the non-root/non-starchy type). While veggies are technically carbs, these types can be eaten with any carb cycling meal. Hope that helps!