There are a ton of diets out there that can help you on your weight loss journey. One that has been popular and successful lately is the carb cycling diet because it is not only great for losing weight but can also be used for increasing muscle mass, cutting your body fat percentage, and more.
Take a look at a brief description of carb cycling and the best carb cycling apps to help you be successful.
What’s Carb Cycling?
Carb cycling is a dietary approach focused on nutrient timing that involves varying your daily carbohydrate intake. When doing a carb cycling diet, you may eat a high-carb diet on Monday, no carbs on Tuesday, then a moderate amount of carbs on Wednesday, etc.Â
Some people also do carb cycling in phases versus switching it up each day. For example, they go a period of time only eating 75 grams of carbs daily, then transition to higher or lower carb counts for a period of time, continuing that cycle for as long as they decide to follow a carb cycling diet.Â
Carb cycling diets are utilized for those trying to lose weight, maintain body mass, build muscle, cut body fat, and more. It is very versatile in the outcomes the diet can achieve as it is highly customizable to your goals, especially if you work with a nutrition coach.
However, nutrition coaching can be expensive, which is why many people choose to use a carb cycling app to help them reach their goals on this diet instead.
How Do Carb Cycling Apps Help
Carb cycling apps help you track your daily carbohydrate intake and total daily caloric intake, set goals, advise you on when to switch diet phases and create a meal plan.Â
They often also include a nutritional calculator that uses body measurement data like body weight and body fat percentage to calculate your target macronutrient intake. This includes how many grams of carbs to consume depending on your goal, whether it be weight loss or gaining weight.
Essentially, everything a nutrition coach would offer you, a carb cycling app aims to provide so that there is no more guessing if you are still on track in your carb cycling diet.
The Best Carb Cycling Apps
The Fitt Cycle
The Fitt Cycle is an app created by Lindsay, who is a retired nurse, fitness entrepreneur, and certified nutrition coach.
With The Fitt Cycle app, you’ll have access to daily workout plans that switch each week, hundreds of recipes, and video resources about carb cycling and other health topics. On the upgraded Fitt Cycle plan, you will also get custom macronutrient calculations based on your goals that are revised each month based on your progress.
The Fitt Cycle app costs as low as $16.99 per month when you pay for an annual plan. The custom nutrition addition costs $50 per month, which is still far less expensive than hiring your own personal nutrition coach but includes all of the same benefits.
Get The Fitt Cycle app in the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, or your desktop.
Granite Nutrition Carb Cycling App
Granite Nutrition, LLC has a carb cycling app that is one of the only ones specifically designed for just carb cycling. There is a free version and Carb Cycle Pro, which is the paid version.
In the free version of the Granite Nutrition Carb Cycling App, you’ll get a nutrition calculator that uses your body measurements, goals, and your workload for the day to give you the exact amount of carbs you need at any given time.
When you upgrade to Carb Cycle Pro, you’ll get access to the following awesome features, including access to all diet phases. These include the basic cut phase, basic bulk phase, advanced bulk phase, advanced cut phase, and maintenance phase. Then there’s further customization of the calculator to change your preferred amount of carbohydrates and protein to consume based on your body mass; and the ability to send your data to the Health App on the iPhone to track your progress.
New updates to the app include building your own custom eating plan within your given macronutrients, meal reminders, and the option to change your daily workload. These premium features are definitely worth the one-time purchase of Carb Cycle Pro.
Granite Nutrition only offers their Carb Cycling App on the Apple App Store.
The Transform App
The Transform App is a fitness, nutrition, and community-focused resource that has some great carb cycling programs within its functionality. You can choose other programs and diets, but carb cycling is the most popular program within The Transform App.
They offer multiple cycles to choose from depending on your goals and lifestyle. This makes it easy to make this diet work for you and your schedule.
Other features of The Transform App include advanced macronutrient tracking with an extensive food library, the ability to add your custom recipes, weekly meal planners, an integrated shopping list, and a library of recipes from the Transform community; over 1,000 guided workouts. Many of these are led by celebrity trainers. Plus, you get access to a community of over 50,000 like-minded individuals on their own journey in which you can participate in challenges together, win prizes, and share progress, tips, successes, and challenges.Â
The Transform App also offers 1:1 personal coaching where your personal expert will give you additional guidance, accountability, and support.
Pricing for The Transform App starts as low as $11.99 when you pay for six months at a time, though you can also take advantage of their 7-day free trial.
Find The Transform App available for download on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
Nutrition Trackers
Nutrition trackers do not give you any recommendations on carb cycling specifically. However, if you already know how many carbohydrates you are supposed to be eating and when they are excellent for making sure your daily macronutrient intake is right on track.
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular nutrition and exercise trackers because it saves you from having to painstakingly track your diet and instead makes it as easy as possible.
It features a library of over 14 million food items categorized appropriately to use for logging your meals which you can enter into your food diary through a manual search or by scanning the barcode of a product.
By using MyFitnessPal, you also join a community posting their advice, tips, successes, and support, along with getting access to resources, recipes, and motivational tips curated by the MyFitnessPal experts.
Though the majority of the app’s features are free, there is a paid premium version that grants you meal plans, recipes, custom coaching, data analytics of your progress, and an ad-free experience.
The premium plan is only just over $6 per month when you purchase a year at a time and comes with a one-month free trial to take it for a test drive.
Download MyFitnessPal on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or access your account from any internet-connected device on their website.
Cronometer
Cronometer is a nutrition, exercise, and biometric health data tracker headquartered in Canada and run by a small team of passionate professionals who want to see you succeed no matter your health and nutrition goals.
The Cronometer app features tracking for 82 macro and micronutrients, food logging with a library of foods, recipes, and meals with verified, accurate nutrition, informative data analytics, custom diet settings, a fasting timer, and so much more.
The Cronometer app is free, though they have a premium version that provides even more features.
Find Cronometer on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that carb cycling works, and you don’t have to know a ton of scientific formulas or pay hundreds of dollars to be successful on a carb cycling diet. A carb cycling app is a perfect way to get guidance and track your success. Choose one of these resources to increase athletic performance or your energy levels, aid in weight loss, or build muscle. To get started with carb cycling, don’t forget to download our free seven-day carb cycling meal plan!