Wendie Plan and/or Zig Zagging?
 

I have read alittle about both the wendie plan and zig zagging for calorie counters. I'm doing ww's at home and was wondering how many of you are doing these no matter what program you are on. If you are doing them, how often and do they work?

Hey Wendy :)

I'm following the Wendie Plan, but this is only my third week with it. I can tell you that so far I really enjoy having a Super High Day to work with. I enjoy the food fluctuations. I feel satisfied with the amount of food I'm getting. I'm planning on continuing with it for another few weeks at least. I'm evaluating as I'm going.

Hi Wendy,

I do flex my calories for the week and have both high and low days. I use a formula from Jillian Michael's book, Winning by Losing. I calculate my total calories for the week, then distribute the calories for each day. Right now, my lowest day is 1400 and my highest day is 1700.

So far, nothing really works because I've not been 100% committed to staying on-plan. Ask me again in 2 or 3 weeks and I should have an answer for you.;)

Are you trying it because you hit a plateau or just to switch things up?

Pretty much just trying to switch things up. I wasn't in a plateau, but was definitely feeling like I was in a slump. I hadn't really been using many Flex Points, and now that I'm using more of them and still losing is one of the things that is helping me to feel better.

So out of the 84 pounds that you have lost, was that all on ww? Did you not feel in a "slump" until recently?

All 84.4 lbs has been lost using WW. I started feeling like I was in a slump in early February of this year. I had gained two weeks in a row. I got back to losing, but was losing a little less than usual. I had tried cutting back on using my FP, but that didn't help, so I tried using more of them and varying them (Wendie Plan). The first week was a 3.4 loss, the second I gained 1 lb but that could've been due to any number of reasons that week... definitely not food related. This week is the third week. I weigh in tomorrow afternoon. My scale at home shows a nice loss this morning, but the one that matters right now is the one at meeting.

I am obligated to speak up here and advocate the Wendie plan. I am on the WW Flex Plan, and I'd seen consistent loss for the first 11 or so weeks (right at 2 lbs/week). I'd lost 21lbs, and I was really happy! Then, I hit a stall. After some great advice from folks here, I decided to use my weekly flex points Wendie-style, and I lost 3.8lbs last week!

If you have a few minutes, I recommend reading this thread: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137803

This was the thread that got me started using my FP's, and there's a lot of great information there. It got me out of my stall, and in general, it seems like it's a good idea to help your body avoid finding a "food rut". Once it knows to expect X number of calories/points/etc per day, it seems like it gets used to that routine and it's easy to find yourself in plateau-ville.

I count calories, aiming for a 1,000 calorie deficit per day.

I cycle calories, with some higher and some lower days - I don't specifically plan this in advance, but I journal all my food intake. If the first few days of a particular week have a smaller than average calorie deficit, I'll try to eat less for a couple of days later in the week, and vice versa. I try to never eat fewer calories than my resting metabolic rate, and try to completely avoid any calorie-surplus days.

I believe the cycling helps in several ways . . . both by keeping your metabolism higher and making it easier to stay on plan, because eating more on any one day doesn't mean failing . . . it just means you have to eat a bit less on other days.

I'm nowhere near able to be an "intuitive eater" . . . I absolutely need to journal everything for accountability . . . but I believe "naturally thin" people do something like this, almost unconsciously.