I saw somebody on here who very succesfully lost 30+lbs in just a few months by cycling calorie counts.

I believe her plan was 1300calories on Tues and Thurs and Sat, 1800calories on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and whatever she wanted on Sunday. This seems like a LOT since I've been obsessing over staying between 1200 and 1300. But it obviously worked very well for her.

The theory behind it, is that the body will adjust if you consume 1200 everyday, and will burn energy most efficiently for that amount (as in, less weight loss). If you change it up, your body won't know if you'll be getting 1800 or 1300 for the day, so on a day that you get 1300, your body will burn it as if you had gotten 1800.

Does anybody else do this? If you do, what kind of meal plans are you using for a 1300 day vs an 1800 day?

I've been calorie cycling for a few weeks and I'm very happy with it. It's something I can see myself doing long-term as a lifestyle change to maintain once I get to the weight I'm happy with.

I used the calorie calculator at freedieting.com. It gives you a schedule with 3 options - extreme loss, normal loss, and maintenance calories. I keep my calories between the extreme loss and normal loss numbers, which for my height and current weight (5 ft and 125 lbs) this week varies from 1000 to 1394. I also recalculate every Sunday based on my new weight if I've lost that week, because every pound or two lost changes the numbers.

I sometimes go over or under because it's hard tailoring meals to an exact number, but try to keep that difference to less than 50 (and make sure "over" doesn't happen every day of course!). The high number days are the days I have a treat, like going out for fast food, or having an ice cream.