[saram]

I went to freedieting.com and calculated a calorie cycle. The thing is, the calories are higher than I usually eat. Is it better to eat higher calories like recommended on this site? I would love to hear from people who have tried the recommended cycle from this site to see if it worked.

[Shmead]

I think it's better to try higher for a couple weeks. If it doesn't work, you can go back down and all you've lost is time--you won't gain. But if it does work, you've discovered something amazing: you can eat more and lose the same!

To me, the more healthy food I eat, the less I am tempted by off plan food--but if I get hungry-hungry, that's when I start daydreaming of desserts and grease.

[saram]

Thanx for the info. I have not really had to hard of a time staying away from crap food (McDonalds, Culvers, Pizza Hut, etc...). I have been back on track for 3 weeks and in that time I have lost 8 lbs. That is great, but I feel like it should be more considering all the working out I am doing. I am thinking that maybe I am eating too few calories so I think I will kick it up a few hundred and follow the recommended plan from the website for a couple weeks and see what happens. Like you said, all I will lose is time and 2 weeks in the big picture is not that much time when you think about it.

[ncuneo]

Great attitude and I agree. I kept stalling at lower calories levels and I finally gave into freedieting.com and have been losing pretty consistently (when I'm honest about my food plan ).

[Leonor]

I just calculated for fun to see what it says. Not much difference in the cycling really..how does that work? One can not be accurate to the last calorie, right? For example today I ate half a small apple outside ( at panera bread) and had to estimate at home...but it adds up to 70+- here and there and that's not much less than the daily calorie difference.

[ap90]

I've also always wanted to try calorie cycling but I'm too scared. When it recommends 1800 calories for one day it just seems like too much. I'm thinking next plateau I will definitely try it though!

[susieyarb]

I really believe it works and I've also come to be a big believer in what Ncuneo is saying. See how many calories you can "get away with" eating and still lose. We've been told for so long that the lower the calories the faster you'll lose, but it's not true for me. So why do I get impatient and try to go radically low only to see my weight loss stall?!

The last week my whole family has been sick with colds and I haven't exercised all week. I kept my calories (averaged - 1450-ish) at the low end of my spectrum and weight just fell off all week! I had been eating closer to 1600 per day (averaged), but working out hard (at least an hour 6 days a week) and my weight loss was just limping along.

I am going to have to keep tweaking. But I definitely believe having a calorie range with some days higher and some days lower keeps your body guessing.