Carb Cycling Meal Plan PDF
Written By: Jeremy Fox, CNC, CPT – Published: January 24, 2024
Carb cycling is a weight loss strategy that has gained popularity as an alternative to chronic low-carbohydrate diets. This process involves alternating your carb intake between high, medium, and low-carb days, providing a more sustainable dieting approach. By fueling your body with the right amount of carbohydrates and calories, carb cycling can help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Benefits of Carb Cycling
The primary benefit of a carb-cycling diet is flexibility. Unlike a continuous low-carb diet, carb cycling allows you the freedom to eat some of your favorite foods like bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. Having fewer restrictions on food choices can make a big difference in sticking with your diet plan long term.
Carb cycling also has more tangible health benefits. On low days, carbohydrate and calorie restriction lowers blood sugar levels and increases insulin sensitivity. This, in turn, makes your body more efficient at burning both carbs and fat for energy, also known as metabolic flexibility1.
Additionally, moderate to high-carb days provide a fuel source for intense workouts. At the same time, high-carb foods help replenish glycogen stores to enhance athletic performance and boost energy levels.
Some Carb Cycling Benefits
- More flexible than keto, paleo, or carnivore.
- Provides nutrients missing in more restrictive diets.
- Promotes healthy blood sugar levels and can increase insulin sensitivity.
- Improves metabolic flexibility (the body’s ability to switch energy sources).
- Fuels intense workouts and replenishes glycogen stores.
​However, it’s essential to understand that carb cycling alone is not a magic trick for fat loss. It only works if you combine it with an appropriate calorie deficit and a healthy diet that contains all the essential nutrients.
7-Day Carb Cycling Example
​You might be interested in carb cycling, but you’re probably hung up on creating your schedule or plan. So, I will walk you through an example 7-day carb cycling meal plan to show you how you might apply it to your diet.
In this example, Stacy is a busy mom of two, and she wants to lose 20 pounds so she can have more energy and feel confident in her clothes. Stacy plans to eat fewer calories, exercise for 45 minutes three times a week, and cycle her daily carb intake to reach her goal.
Here is an example of a 7-day carb cycling meal plan schedule for someone like Stacy.
- Sunday – Low-Carb Rest Day
- Monday – High-Carb Workout Day
- Tuesday – Low-Carb Rest Day
- Wednesday – Medium-Carb Workout Day
- Thursday – Low-Carb Rest Day
- Friday – Medium-Carb Workout Day
- Saturday – Low-Carb Rest Day
It’s important to understand that your schedule and fitness goals will dictate how your carb-cycling meal plan looks. Just remember that rest days are low-carb, workout days are medium-carb, and you get one high-carb day per week.
Click the image above to download the free PDF.
​Low-Carb Days
You’ll notice that each of Stacy’s rest days corresponds to a low-carb day. Matching her carb intake to her activity level signals her body to use fat as the primary energy source. At the same time, it can help improve blood sugar control and reduce the risk of insulin resistance.
Stacy aims to eat less than 50 grams of carbs or 5-15% of her daily calories on low-carb days, similar to a ketogenic diet. A high protein intake of around 30% calories is also a good idea to help her feel fuller between meals and maintain lean muscle mass, contributing to a higher metabolic rate.
Finally, dietary fat balances Stacy’s calories at 50-70%, depending on her other macros.
- Carbs – 5-15%
- Protein – 25-35%
- Fat – 50-70%
Medium-Carb Days
On a carb-cycling meal plan, moderate carbs correspond to days of the week that involve a medium to high-intensity workout, such as resistance training. Her calorie intake is also slightly higher, but she’s still in an appropriate calorie deficit, thanks to her added energy expenditure.
On medium-carb days, Stacy’s carbohydrate intake represents 25-35% of her calories, the same as her protein intake. Fat intake again makes up the balance at 30-50%.
- Carbs – 25-35%
- Protein – 25-35%
- Fat – 30-50%
High-Carb Days
Lastly, Stacy includes one high-carb day per week. The best approach is carb loading at the beginning of the week to provide an energy source that can be tapped into during her workouts.
High-carb days consist of 45-55% of calories from carbs, with the standard 25-35% from protein and 10-30% from fat.
- Carbs – 45-55%
- Protein – 25-35%
- Fat – 10-30%
What to Eat While Carb Cycling
A carb cycling meal plan is not an excuse to eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros (IIFYM). Instead, it’s best to consume primarily whole or minimally processed foods.
This includes whole grains like oats, pasta, bread, sweet potatoes and rice. As well as healthy fats like olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds. Protein should come from lean poultry, red meat, fish, or dairy while avoiding processed meats.
- Low-Carb Days – prioritize colorful veggies, leafy greens, avocados, lean meat, fatty fish, full-fat dairy, olive oil, and nuts/seeds.
- Medium-Carb Days – prioritize fruits, veggies, whole grains, sweet potatoes, lean meat or fish, and full-fat dairy.
- High-Carb Days – prioritize starchy carbs like rice, potatoes, and oats. Get protein from lean meats, low-fat dairy, or whey protein supplements.
Click here to get a free healthy grocery list for your carb cycling plan.
Personalized Carb Cycling Meal Plan PDF
The carb cycling meal plan PDF is only intended to be an example of applying this process to your diet. Your target calories and macros depend on your body composition, activity level, and individual goals.
To help you create a more customized plan, I’ve created a simple carb-cycling meal plan generator. Just fill out the form below to provide info about your body, activity, schedule, and goals. Then, you’ll receive a free carb cycling plan that you can download as a PDF.
More Carb Cycling Info
I hope you found the information in this article helpful. And if you’d like to learn more about carb cycling, I have some additional resources below.
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