7 Day Carb Cycling Plan (Meal Plan for Weight Loss)

Here, you’ll find my 7-day carb cycling plan for weight loss that you can use to break through a plateau to burn fat while keeping your lean muscle.

What is carb cycling? It’s a proven diet that helps you lose weight by combining low-carb eating with planned high-carb days. This speeds up fat burning, reduces stress, and boosts energy without the usual diet burnout.

But it’s easy to become confused with exactly how to do even a 7-day carb cycling plan. How many low-carb days, and how many high-carb days? How much carbs and calories should you have? Following the wrong carb cycling meal plan will give you zero results.

With this 7-day carb cycling plan, you’ll have an optimized program you can use to maximize fat loss, but without the extreme restrictions. So keep going to get your copy of my carb cycling meal plan.

Why Carb Cycling Is Effective for Weight Loss

The biggest benefit of a carb cycling meal plan is the freedom to eat carbs.

Following a keto diet or low-carb meal plan can always have disadvantages. But you can use carb cycling for weight loss and fat loss and still have the freedom to eat carbs.

For many, going too low carb can slow your metabolism and cause muscle breakdown (catabolism).^1,2 Adding in high-carb days (especially when intermittent fasting) boosts your metabolism, protects muscle, and keeps fat-burning high.³

Carb cycling is good for fat loss because you’ll still be in a light ketogenic state most of the time. You’ll put your body into prime fat-burning mode since you’ll have more low-carb days during the week.

But the trick is to have a strategic carb refeed to prevent a metabolism slowdown, increase muscle gain, and give yourself a much-needed break. If you’re skinny fat, then following a carb cycling meal plan is better since you’ll have an easier time gaining muscle.

It’s tough for many to go completely low carb all the time. Studies have found adherence to ketogenic diets is low.⁴ So, by adding in some carb refeed days, you’ll be able to enjoy pizza once in a while without it ruining your results.

With carb cycling, you can get the best of both worlds.

You’ll put your body in a light state of ketosis, which maximizes fat burning. But then you can add high-carb days for muscle recovery and growth, preventing metabolic slowdown. And the best part is that it gives you diet flexibility, making it much easier to stick with long-term.

Is Carb Cycling Healthier Than Keto?

For many, following a carb cycling meal plan can be healthier than keto. The keto diet has many pros, such as reducing hunger, stabilizing blood sugar levels, and improving insulin sensitivity.

However, the keto diet does have cons, including difficulty in keeping up with it long-term.⁵

This includes possible nutrient deficiencies, as well as side effects like fatigue and constipation. You’ll also avoid the dreaded “keto flu” that can happen after 3-4 days of eating keto. This is when you feel fatigued and have brain fog, headaches, and irritability.⁶

Carb cycling offers the flexibility and benefits of having high-carb days. These replenish muscle glycogen stores and help to fuel intense exercise like HIIT. Carb cycling also prevents hormonal imbalances and metabolic slowdowns when you always eat low carbs.⁷

But carb cycling does have some disadvantages. It does require more planning and tracking than just eating keto. With carb cycling, you will reach a slight state of ketosis but not as deep as you would following a proper ketogenic diet.

Best Carb Cycling Schedule for Maximum Results

In my experience with clients, I’ve found the following to be the best carb-cycling diet schedule:

Day 1: Low-carb day

Day 2: Low carb day

Day 3: Medium carb day

Day 4: Low carb Day

Day 5: Low carb day

Day 6: High carb day

Day 7: Low to Medium carb day

Day 1 will typically be a Monday. This is after the weekend when you’ll have the high-carb day and the low-to-medium-carb day before. Increasing your carb intake over the weekend will replenish your glycogen stores. So, it’s wise to dive deep into the low-carb days to start the week.

By the end of Day 3, you’ll be ready to have some carbs. Day 3 is typically when the “keto flu” symptoms can start to occur, and your body is craving carbs. So, I like having a medium-carb day with one or two meals with higher carbs.

But then go back down to low-carb days for Days 4 and 5. Following this schedule, Day 5 will be Saturday, typically when many like to cut loose and have a break from the diet. So, Day 5 is strategically scheduled for a high-carb day.

On Day 7 (Sunday), I like to start cutting back down on carbs but usually do not go on a full low-carb day.

If I went overboard with the high-carb day on Day 5 (Saturday), then I’d make it a low-carb day. But if I stick to my allotted carb intake, then I’ll go with a medium-carb day.

7 Day Carb Cycling Meal Plan (Free!)

Below is an example 7-day carb cycling plan for both males and females. Keep in mind that this 7-day carb cycling plan isn’t designed for your individual needs. You may need to adjust the exact numbers of carbs, protein, healthy fats, and calories.

Low Carb Days

Breakfast (Egg Scramble & Avocado)

• 3 large eggs
• 3 oz. chicken sausage
• 1/2 avocado

Lunch (Grilled Steak & Greens)

• 5 oz sirloin steak
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Snack (Greek Yogurt & Almond Butter)

• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 1/3 cup blueberries

Dinner (Salmon & Roasted Veggies)

• 5 oz wild-caught salmon
• 1 cup roasted zucchini
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Snack

• Low Carb Protein Powder

Medium Carb Days

Breakfast (Egg whites & Fruit)

• 10 egg whites
• 1 apple
• 1 cup berries

Lunch (Chicken & Rice Bowl)

• 8 oz grilled chicken breast
• 1/2 cup cooked white rice (use a low-carb rice cooker)
• 1 cup steamed broccoli

Snack

• 1 scoop low-carb protein powder
• 1 banana (light green is best)

Dinner (Fish & Sweet Potato)

• 8 oz cod or pollock
• 1 medium sweet potato

Snack

• 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks

High Carb Day

Breakfast

• 1/2 cup steel cut oats
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 8 egg whites
• 1 tsp honey

Lunch

• 6 oz grilled chicken breast
• 1/2 cup cooked white rice
• 1 cup steamed broccoli
• 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

Snack

• 1 scoop low-carb protein powder
• 1 medium banana

Dinner

• 6 oz wild caught salmon
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 2 tbsp grass-fed butter

Snack

• 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup strawberries

Best Foods to Eat When Carb Cycling

The best carb food sources for carb cycling are:

Vegetables	Fruits	Starches
Broccoli	Grapefruit	Acorn
Cucumber	Raspberries	Acorn Squash
Cauliflower	Mango	Black rice
Carrots	Kiwi	Brown rice
Brussels sprouts	Bananas	Butternut squash
Green beans	Peaches	Ezekiel bread
Lettuce	Papaya	Ezekiel wraps
Kale	Cranberries	Millet bread
Mushrooms	Plums	Peas
Asparagus	Oranges	Potatoes
Collard greens	Blueberries	Quinoa
Onions	Pineapple	Steel cut oats/oatmeal
Artichoke	Cherries	Sweet potatoes
Eggplant	Blackberries	Wheat-free/Gluten-free Pasta
Celery	Watermelon	White rice
Cabbage	Apricots	Wild rice
Arugula	Apples	Yams
Spinach	Grapes
Spring mix	Melon
Peppers	Nectarines
Spaghetti squash	Pears
Radishes	Tangerines
Tomatoes
Zucchini

I recommend getting the majority of your carbohydrate intake from low-glycemic fruits and vegetables. High glycemic fruits and veggies spike your blood sugar and insulin. This pushes you further out of a ketogenic state, making it more difficult to burn fat.

Starchy carbs are foods that have a high amount of complex carbohydrates. Some starches are higher glycemic than others, but they also contain fiber that helps to slow the raise in blood sugar. Starches should only be eaten on Days 3, 6, and 7.

These are higher carb days that follow previous low carb days. Sticking low glycemic veggies and fruits on your first low-carb days is best to maximize glycogen depletion. But then you can eat more starches on higher-carb days to replenish glycogen.

It’s best to have your starchy carbs post-workout or pre-workout. Carbs post-workout will replenish depleted muscle glycogen instead of being stored as fat.⁸ Having your starchy carbs pre-workout will cause them to be prioritized for workout fuel instead of being stored as fat.

However, the number one carb to avoid is donuts. Donuts are fried in harmful seed oils, made from bleached and refined flour, and have a lot of processed sugar in them. It’s as bad as you can get!

For proteins, stick with real whole food sources like:

• Chicken
• Turkey
• Beef
• Bison
• Eggs
• Fish
• Pork
• Milk & Cheese (if it’s OK with your digestion)

If you’re having trouble getting enough protein, then try a low-carb protein powder. It’s an easy way to quickly get a lot of protein without cooking. And it supports fat loss by keeping your insulin levels low, and it’ll help reduce cravings.

Stay away from unhealthy fats like seed oils aka bad vegetable oils. These seed oils cause inflammation and can cause you to gain weight.

Instead, stick with healthy fats like grass-fed butter, ghee, tallow, extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, etc.

How Long It Take to See Results From Carb Cycling

After a few days of carb cycling, you’ll quickly start to see results and the scale moving down. You’ll most likely lose 3-5 pounds in the first week.

But keep in mind that most of that initial weight loss will be water weight.⁹ Your body is flushing out water weight as glycogen stores deplete and insulin levels drop. But you’ll also be less bloated, and high initial weight loss is helpful to stay motivated.

You can expect to lose about 10-15 pounds in the first month of carb cycling. If you want to lose 20 pounds, you’ll probably reach that in 2 to 3 months. Most have greater initial weight loss, but then the rate of weight loss slightly slows.

A lot of your results will depend on how well you stick to the carb-cycling meal plan. And the more weight you have to lose, the easier it’ll be for you to burn fat and lose weight. This is because they have a greater potential for weight reduction.

Endomorphs (naturally rounder and gain weight more easily) will have an easier time losing weight than ectomorphs. Endomorphs have more fat stores their bodies can tap into for energy when following a carb-cycling diet plan.

If you’re not seeing results from carb cycling, then take a close look at your carb intake. Make sure you’re tracking and measuring your carb intake so it’s accurate. It’ll be very hard to lose weight if you consume too many calories or carbs.

You can cut back on the high-carb days if you’re struggling to lose weight. Tracking how many carbs you’re consuming is key. From this data, you can tell if you need to eat fewer carbs or calories to keep losing weight.

Try adding in C8-MCTs to help kickstart the ketone making process from fat stores. C8-MCTs are efficiently and quickly converted into ketones by your liver. This helps “flip the switch” to kickstart fat-burning that otherwise takes longer by just going low carb.