I have lost 23 pounds and everything has been going well. I work out an hour (cardio and sometimes weights) 7 days a week. Recently, however, my scale has stopped moving. I have been stuck at a 152-154 margin for coming on 3 weeks. I'd really like to give my body a jump start as my current tactic seems to of grown old for it. I heard that zigzagging is the best route and I'm game.

I found a chart online which is determined solely on current weight.

This is how it goes:

M 1368
Tu 1216
Wed 1368
Thurs 1216
Fri 1368
Sat 1216
Sun 1216

I am a 5'6 female, 20 years old, weighing in at 152lbs.

This is the chart for "extreme weight loss" That isn't EXACTLY my goal, but the numbers for normal loss were in the 1500-1600. And that seems extremely high.

I'm just wondering if the more expert among you think this sounds correct/healthy/etc?

Thanks for your advice, chicks!

1500-1600 is NOT high!!! I am constantly amazed how the majority of women on this site think they need to eat 1200 calories to lose.

Zig Zag works ok but I do better doing it on my own. Every few days I try and eat a bit more to shock my system.

I highly recommend listening to the podcast "fat2fit" radio. start with episode 83. At least listen. Its all about why people eat to little when trying to lose weight.

Oh And btw, I eat 1600-1900 calories a day. The last few weeks I have avg 2 lbs per week.

That doesn't look like much of a zig-zag to me??

I zig-zag exclusively, mostly because I'm never going to be successful carefully meal planning to hit an exact number all the time and amazed by those that do.

I eat healthy, track everything, try to adjust dinner according to my decisions earlier in the day and hope I come up in my 1800-2000 target range (I'm a guy).

However I only view the 1800-2000 as a target and don't sweat it too much if I go over or under. If I have several days much too low or high I'll adjust.

My calories for the last 7 days were...

2270
1386
1533
1970
1786
1500
2092

While I don't actually know if this zig-zaggin has sped, slowed, or had no affect at my rate of loss I will say that I've been losing more weight faster than I expected to. I do believe strongly in the concept of keeping my body very confused and I think this is one way along with significant variation in exercise routines.

I think the big thing is that if you are going to do this, don't zig by binging a wasted 800 extra calories on unhealthy food.

crcossel- Thank you for your comment! I'm sorry for startling you. I realize that 1200-1300 seems very low. However, before I hit this stall, I was still counting calories and was eating a rather consistent 1500-1600. Before my journey began, I was eating 1700-1800 with NO exercise EVER (I know this because I counted a few of my 'typical' eating days out of curiosity). So, I believe that your range is simply more than my metabolism can agree with.

I could be wrong, of course! I often am, as a diet newbie.

Well it could partly be too that your body is "adjusting" I would definitely try zig zagging. but ignore that site. You can figure it out on your own. For instance.....maybe 2 days down 1 day up? 1200, 1200, 1500, 1300, 1700, 1200......that's just an example. The goal is to try and convince your body you aren't starving.

I do this pretty easily based on my food schedule. For instance friday nights is pizza night. Homemade but its usually 550-600 calories by itself when its all said and done. Another night might be a social occasion where I eat more like 1800-2000 calories for the day.

I don't know if this is the site you tried, but when I plugged in the stats you listed, it gives much more variation for a zigzag.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/cal...alculator.htm#

1375 1216 1650 1375 1237 1512 1375

I've adjusted slightly and I think this is a good deal better:

M 1338, Tues 1216, Wed 1460, Thurs 1216, Friday 1581, sat/sun 1216. There are an awful lot of low days, but I expect some days I will end up going over, anyway, just because of my schedule...