On Extreme Weight Loss and in our books “Choose to Lose: The 7 Day Carb Cycle Solution” and “Choose More, Lose More for Life,” Chris and I teach people how to lose weight and get healthy using a program called carb cycling. When you carb cycle, you eat 5 smaller meals a day, 1 every 3 hours starting within 30 minutes of waking up.
Eating this often is new to many people, especially those that skip breakfast and suddenly realize halfway through the day, that they’ve also missed lunch. Irregular eating can derail your fitness goals.
Preparation is key to eating every three hours. While we all know the best laid plans can go awry with an emergency, you get stuck in traffic, a meeting goes longer than planned, etc., so many people ask Chris and I what happens if I accidentally skip a meal or am unable to eat my meal on time. What do you do?
Find out the answers by watching this week’s Ask Heidi Anything.
264 Responses
I had recently started your turbo plan and I wanted to try Starbucks egg white bites but not sure how they will fit in? Low or High days or not at all??
Thanks
Sarah
Hi Sarah: You could use egg white bites for breakfast! 🙂
Hi Heidi,
On most days I can wake up and have my breakfast by 8, within the thirty minute period, but I was wondering what I should do if I want to sleep in till 9 or 10? I don’t want to be eating dinner at 10pm
I also have looked at your post how to carb cycle with a crazy schedule and I didn’t see this question addressed
Hi Ashley: In this case, you can add 1/2 of a meal to two of the other 4 meals so you’ll still get in all of your nutrition every day and be able to eat dinner at a more reasonable hour. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Heidi… Just wondering how I adjust my food intake as my exercise becomes more intense? I use the Classic cycle and am down the weight I wanted to be, but have increased my workouts tremendously as I have become stronger. I’m hungry all the time now and can barely make it three hours to my next meal. Should I be counting macros rather than calories? Thanks for any guidance you can provide ?
Hi Rachel: Yes, it’s time to either increase your calories or try macro tracking. Here’s a post that can get you started! https://heidipowell.net/10990. And congratulations for reaching your goal weight! 🙂
Hi again! 🙂
Another question, because of my schedule, I’m sometimes awake for 18-20 hours. Do I still eat every 3 hours and then just have a huge gap at the end before bed, do I add another meal, or do I spread the meals out to every 4 hours instead? I also don’t want to eat too close to bedtime and not sure how many hours there should be between the last meal and bedtime. Thanks again, as always!
Hi Sunshine: Here’s a post that definitely help you structure your meals on your crazy schedule:https://heidipowell.net/10556. Hope it helps! 🙂
Hi Team Powell,
I have a question about PB2. At 2 Tbsp, it’s 45 calories, 1.5 g Total fat, 5 g Total Carbs (with Sugar = 1 g), and 5 g Protein. From what I remember, fat and carb portions are ~100 calories. But flavorings are ~30-50 calories.
At 1 Tbsp (or even 2 Tbsp), could PB2 be considered a Flavoring? It doesn’t seem to have enough calories to be considered a carb or fat…especially if only half the serving is used.
Thanks for your time!
Yes! It’s a fat if you eat 4.5 tablespoons. Just be sure to track everything you eat – it keeps us accountable. 🙂
Wow…that’s a lot for a smoothie! I only ever use 1-2 Tbsp per so does that mean I still need to add a fat on my low carb days and treat the PB2 as a flavoring? My pb chocolate smoothie is just almond milk, chocolate protein powder, pb2, and ice. And 4.5T would be way too much peanut butter for my smoothie.
Thanks!
Hi Sunshine: Yes, if you use less than that 4.5 tablespoons of PB2, you would need to add additional fat to equal a fat serving to that meal. 🙂