So, I am thinking about doing some calorie cycling as the weight loss seems to have sloooowwwweeeedddd down to a crawl. BUT, I don't know anything about it other than I have seen it mentioned around here so, I am hoping to get some help with some questions:
1) What is the differential between a higher-calorie & a lower-calorie day?
2) Do you just alternate days or is there some pattern that you use (2-hi, 3 low, 2-hi...??)?
3)Do you also tweak that contents or just total calories? For example, the higher calorie day has proportionally more carbs and the lower cal, more protein.
I don't have a set in stone pattern that I follow-it just seems to work out, but I vary between 1300 & 1700 cal per day averaging about 1550 over a week. As far as content, I don't plan out more of this or that, but I've noticed that on my high days, I'm usually higher because I'm eating more protein (meat or cheese), so I just figure my body is asking for that that day. I'm not very scientific about my plan, but it's working for me
I don't have a set plan, usually I average between 1300 and 1800 calories a day, just depends on my appetite (sp?). The same goes for the proportions of carbs/protein/fat, some days I feel like I need more protein than others, and some days I can't get enough carbs. It is all in what works for you, experiment with it and see what works best.
Last edited by jademarlene; 02-03-2009 at 03:47 PM.
Reason: added more
I've been doing a lot of reading on calorie shifting/cycling and it seems to me that you get the best results by having at least one really high day and one or two really low days with the rest being some level of moderate mixed in between. I naturally do this as I always eat a lot more than usual on Saturdays (Sat. night eating out, bigger breakfast with the family on the weekend, etc.) and then I almost always make up for it early in the week with a day or two of very light eating. After my weight loss stalled for about two weeks, I decided to make the cycling more regimented and so far it has worked to help me start dropping again. I label my days as follows:
I don't think it works as well if you are only shifting up and down a few hundred calories. I know it works against what most people think but if you take a day and let yourself eat more, you won't feel as deprived and it will make your body react to getting a lot fewer calories in subsequent days.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to eat huge amounts of unhealthy foods on your "high" day. But that is my day to eat the bread with butter, or dessert, or bacon and eggs for breakfast. Knowing that one day a week I can "splurge" makes it easier to stick with the low-cal eating the rest of the week. And so far it's worked to help the weight continue to come off.
This is interesting, I'd never heard of it. I always thought steady was better. I thought if you spiked high then low your body went into survival mode. I pretty much naturally do this since my goal is pretty flexible, 1300-1600.
I've only really stuck to this for 17 days, as in not having gone over that goal at all, and I have dropped only a few pounds, but I also started on a new birth control and it's too early to make any statements about how well this is working.
Wow, awesome ideas. One thing that strikes me is that the hi and low days are BIG jumps, 400-600 calories. I think that I would have thought about 150 or so but if it has worked, I'll give it a go.
I hadn't thought about trying to set an average for the week and working toward that. I was just thinking a low value and a high value alternating. I don't know if I should set the average target the same as what I have been doing (~1800) or lower so that things get moving.
Also, do you coordinate your hi/low calorie days with your workouts?
This is interesting, I'd never heard of it. I always thought steady was better. I thought if you spiked high then low your body went into survival mode.
The theory behind this is that your body adapts to the calories you take in and learns to use whatever you give it most efficiently so by cycling or shifting your calories you are not allowing your body to adapt to a set number. Think about it this way, in the past when you were overeating you may have been eating an additional 500-1000 calories a day above what you were burning for your basic metabolic rate. At that pace you should have been gaining 1-2 lbs a week for a total of 50-100 lbs a year, but I'm sure for most of us that didn't happen. It's because your body adapted to the excess calories and burned more because it was given more. Of course it didn't/couldn't burn all the excess calories so that is why you slowly gain the weight over the course of the year, maybe 10-25 lbs. So it works the other way also - if you cut your calories to less than your basic metabolic rate, your body will eventually adapt and burn less calories to be more in line with what you are taking in. That can really slow down the weight loss.
The only way you can go into survival mode is with 3+ days of very low calorie eating. With the cycling plan, you are only eating low for a day or maybe two in a row and then you are back to moderate or high.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pferde01
One thing that strikes me is that the hi and low days are BIG jumps, 400-600 calories. I think that I would have thought about 150 or so but if it has worked, I'll give it a go.
I don't think 150 calories is enough of a change to affect the body's adaptation to the caloric intake amount. I think it needs to be at least 200-300 calories different from day to day. Personally, I think the larger spike from the high day to a moderate to a low is very effective. I did a high day on Saturday, moderate on Sunday, and low on Monday and I lost 2 lbs. from Sunday to Tuesday. Prior to that I haven't lost any weight for over a week.
That being said, I think everyone has to work it out to best suit their own needs. For some, they may be able to eat the same number of calories every day and still lose several pounds a week. For others, the cycling works. Even within the cycling, some may find success with a smaller range of calorie shifts, and others with the larger range. Test it out and see what works for you.
i'm inclined to believe that this works well for me. i couple of weeks back, i had a cheat day which resulted in about 2100 cals. the next day i had like normal 1500 cals and the next i was low. i lost the most weight of the last 6 weeks doing it that way. the notion makes me feel less guilty about looking forward to the weekend dinner parties with my group of friends. now only if i could throw a few beers into the plan
Calorie Cycling...help, please.
