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
Thank you for today’s tip. Have you found that people with hypothyroidism are successful on the plan? Losing weight is already tough. Just wondering if you could share any success stories of those on the plan. Thank you for being so amazing. I have enjoyed watching you and Chris. Blessings to you and your beautiful family.
I have 3 small children (4, 2 and 5 months) and I have an in home daycare as well. I have 4 other kids here from 7am until 5pm and one little girl stays until 8pm. My time to workout is nap time. I’m alternating strength training and cardio or high intensity interval training. The issue I’m having now that I started carb cycling is this workout time is always at the same time as lunch. Should I eat lunch before my workout? Or wait until I’m done?
I’m up at 6 so I eat at 6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30. I do great with timing it in the morning but then the afternoon and evening get messed up. I’m usually eating lunch at 1:30, snack at 3:30 and then dinner is usually at 6 because the kids, especially the baby, get grumpy after that. Lol.
Please give me your opinion on this 2 minute clip. It says that running isn’t an effective exercise for weight loss.
http://www.180nutrition.com.au/2013/08/15/professor-tim-noakes-weight-loss/
I have a hard time getting vegetables into every meal, especially breakfast – I don’t want to have eggs every morning. Any suggestions?
Hi there! I’m about to start the ‘Classic Cycle’, as I’ve been reading through your latest book. I am a mom of a 3-month-old and am exclusively breastfeeding. I’m assuming my calorie intake should be different, but what do you suggest? Thanks!
Heidi, I applied for the show in 2012 but didn’t get in. Chris’s advice about setting small goals has finally hit and I started with first walking every 5 minutes then slowing increasing that time and started drinking more water (I’m not drinking water only!). I don’t currently carb cycle but I do have food items that have carbs and I think are low on the glycemic index (I try my hardest to stay away from grains). I do find eating every 3 hours to be very helpful! What time is the latest that I should be eating? Some nights I do a late Bikram Yoga session that starts at 8:15pm and ends around 9:45pm which means I sometimes don’t have a “dinner” but most likely had a snack(greek yogurt, cheese, fruit) around 6ish (I don’t eat 1.5-2 hours prior to a Bikram Yoga session). Since I’m eating my dinner usually really late what are some ideas of what I could eat? Any suggestions or ideas is appreciated! Thanks.
Hi I would be really interested to see am English menu plan for some examples everything I see is quite American and the products are not available here in the uk.
Most things should be pretty basic but if you need help finding a good substitute contact our support team and they’ll be happy to help you or you can ask on Facebook. 🙂
I wish someone would just draw out a diet for me. I think my problem is not knowing exactly what to eat. Should I set a timer? Can I eat too much fruit? What are some things I can do to feel full? What can I eat to make me feel fuller?
I’m into my second week of Carb cycling and week 1 was great. The second week however I am finding I am hungry between my meals on low carb days, even 10 minutes after I have just eaten. I increased my vegetables to help but broccoli just hasn’t solved it. Any ideas?
I have a Dad and and he’s fat and a nephew that is a little chuppie too but I am trying too let him go running with his auntie and it seem that he’s too lazy too go and need some HELP