Calorie Cycling?
 

I've heard cycling daily calories mentioned a few times in these forums. Does anyone have any information or experience with it? I think I want to try it, but I'm not sure what the evidence backing it up is quite yet.


Thanks all! :hug:

I haven't tried it myself- but I look froward to hearing the answers because I too was thinking about asking about it because I'm seriously considering it

Calorie Cycling is, essentially, setting an "average" calorie goal, then going higher or lower than that on different days of the week, so that the calories for the week average out to your target.

So let's say you're aiming for 1500 as your daily calorie goal. One way to average 1500 calories is to just eat 1500 every day. But a calorie cycle might take that 1500 calories and eat it as follows:

Day 1: 1500
Day 2: 1300
Day 3: 1700
Day 4: 1400
Day 5: 1800
Day 6: 1200
Day 7: 1600

The numbers for the week average out to 1500 calories a day, but you have some higher and lower days in there. These are useful for special events/evenings out/heavy workout days. Theory suggests that by mixing up your calorie level, you can "trick" your body a bit, preventing it from going into starvation mode and slowing your metabolism. I know a lot of folks here have used it to great success.

I used calorie counting and calorie cycling to get to goal -- I basically had high days of 1800 calories or so, low days of 1300 and medium days of 1500 -- averaging over the week to a 1500 calorie a day target. As I started my plan, I read on a number of sites about the philosophy behind it -- the idea that it "tricks" your metabolism into not becoming increasingly more efficient as can happen when you feed it a constantly lower level of calories. This idea made sense to me. But I also used it for a couple of other reasons (1) I liked the variation and the "higher" days to look forward to and (2) it helped me fit "special occasions" or a bigger family meal into my plan without having to go over my calories for the day. I would just make those days fit as my high calorie days.

It did, however, make a little extra work as you have to keep track of your week, and how many calories you are going to eat each day...not just how many you have had on a given day. This never bothered me much because I did quite a bit of advance menu planning.

Anyway, I am only one person, so my experience is completely anecdotal evidence, but I lost my weight very steadily and very consistently -- averaging a touch over 2 lbs. a week all the way down -- around 50 pounds in 5 months. I also, of course, did strength training 3x a week and HIIT cardio on my exercise bike for 45 minutes 6 days a week.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

hmmmm.... interesting....I tihnk I'm going to give it a try starting next Monday! lets see how it works... I've kinda hit a plateau recently for the past week I've gained and then lost the same pound every day... I cant seem to shake 290! grrr.. thanks for making a post about this I was wondering about it myself!

That sounds good to me. I might have to try this after a month or so op.

I just want to say that calorie cycling is working for me:carrot: I've lost 36 of my 51 pounds since I started cycling and I'm rarely hungry or craving. I just track everything and the high days and low days seem to work out on their own. Best wishes to you!

I definitely think I'm going to try this once the semester starts and I'm not on a crazy budget. Right now, I have to eat the same thing every day, but when I start my meal plan again this should be AMAZING.

QUESTION: How great a calorie difference do you need between hi and low days?
 

I actually am trying calorie cycling right now. I'm alternating every other day, going on a 1150-1250 range on Day 1, and a 1550-1650 range on Day 2.

However, I'm not sure if the difference between day 1 & day 2 is great enough (its only 300cals). If those of you with experience in this can render an opinion, I would really appreciate it.:hug:

Thanks!

I like this idea, there are some days where Im just not that hungry and have to force myself to get to the 1600 calories and other days I want to eat everything. So basically instead of 1600 a day it would be 11,200 a week (I had to go figure that out). Keeping it within limits, meaning not doing 2500 one day and 600 the next, no extremes?

That's probably enough difference. You can always alter it if your weight loss stalls or you seem to be too hungry at times.

I cycle between 1300 and 1700 cal per day averaging 1550 since Christmas. When I started this in September (weight about 245) my average was about 1800, but I've reduced it because I'm not as active during winter and I was getting full, but still trying to eat more:dizzy:

It's been so much easier counting cals by cycling than trying to achieve one certain number every day and I have lots of energy-I don't seem to get lazy and tired losing weight this way. Of course, the last time I tried counting calories was in the 80's when the recommended daily cal count was 1000 or less (no wonder I couldn't stick to it!)

I did this last year during my initial 40 pound loss. Love it because you can make your weekend days higher. Now I calorie cycle in the sense of Mon - Fri, 1500-ish and weekends are higher (2,000+).

Another thing calorie cycling is great for sometimes (at least w/ my experience) is bumping you out of a plateau. It sounds backwards but I seemed to have the biggest losses the week after I had a high-cal day (2500-3000 calories) followed by going back to "in-range for weight loss calories".

Anyone else have this experience?

I'm exactly your height, 36 years old. I did some calorie cycling with 300 cal differences between days and it worked just fine. I will tell you though, that on days I found myself below 1200 for the day I was starving the next morning when I woke up, and sometimes woke up starving during the night. I actually targeted 1250-1350 later in the process for that reason and added in a little more protein.

this has happened for me several times already. When I hit a plateau, I ate high for a couple days (because I was mad at myself) then ate low for 3 or 4 days and suddenly, the scale moved again. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but it does, so I use it anytime I stay hovering around one number for too many days:D Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's had this happen!

I think it keeps your body guessing! Glad it's worked for you too! The biggest challenge is going back to lower calories after high calorie days LOL I decided I would eat whatever I wanted today and tomorrow it's back to the plan :-)

I cycle between 1600-2200 calories and it works well for me.

Calorie Cycling
 

I think many diet plans use a version of calorie cycling (without calling it that). Body for Life allows you to "eat whatever and all you want" one day a week, Burn the Fat has you eat higher every 4th day, New Rules for Lifting has you eat higher on the days you strength train, Weight Watchers gives you extra bonus points each week and extra points for exercise so you can eat higher amounts some days.....

I think that many people actually cycle calories without really thinking about it or calling it that. You might eat low calories for a few days and then have a binge (because your body is telling your brain that you're starving and need to eat now), so you eat more the day you have your binge cravings. Or on the day you don't exercise, you'll eat lower than your calorie goal and then another day when you've exercised you'll eat higher than your calorie goal. On the day you eat lower, you'll think "yea me" and on the day you eat higher you might get mad at yourself, but if you call this calorie cycling you think it's all good because it fits into the plan and you're in control.

So... IMO if being in control of the numbers makes you feel positive about the natural fluctuations that are a part of eating then go for it, call it calorie cycling and give yourself a goal for each day (I'd recommend tying exercise with your higher days and days off exercise with your lower days). I guess my warning is that you might become too focused on meeting the calorie goals each day and stop listening to what your brain and body are telling you, so you lose touch with your physiological needs. I'd argue that when you get to maintenance, you absolutely need to be able to read your body signals if you want to be successful at maintaining weight loss long term, so calorie cycling might initially hamper your success in maintaining.

I have tried calorie cycling, but I think personally it forces me to focus too much on food and intake each day to the point of obsessing over it, which, IMO is dangerous because it's the pathway to eating disorders, and I don't want to go there. What works for me (and I am just one person, and different things work for different people of course) is to have a calorie range goal (1300-1500) and try to hit somewhere in that range most of the time. If I have a day where I go over, I assume my body needed more calories that day, if I stay at the low end I figure I needed less. I also know that when I start getting the urge to bake yummy treats for my children that I probably need to eat a little more that day (so I'll try to eat something healthier like oatmeal rather than munching on raw cookie dough).

I allow my calories to "naturally" cycle. I eat what I'm hungry for throughout the day and at the end of the day, I decide to have a 1-300 calorie snack based on how much I've eaten that day and the day before. For example, if I've eaten 1400 calories for the day, and the day before I also ate 1400 calories, I'll eat a snack to bring it up to 16 or 1700. Or vice versa.

It has worked very well for me, but one word of warning- if you're going to hit a plateau any time in your weight loss experience, it won't prevent it. Calorie shifting may prevent smaller plateaus and keep you losing pretty good numbers, but don't expect a miracle when it comes to the real plateau.

Very interresting, I had never heard the term "calorie cycling" before. I don't follow a pure form of it but do something more like Rif and Kelly315 have suggested. I have a target of 1500 per day but also listen to my body and some days eat more or less depending on how I am feeling in the evening.