My personal experience so far with zigzagging:

Yes, it works! But, I have learned a couple things from experience, and thought somebody else might benefit.

One, I noticed some calculators have you doing 5 "regular" days and 2 "high" days, but others have you do 4 "regular" days and 3 "high" days.

I have tried both ways, and I have to say, for me doing the 4/3 makes me lose control of my calories, and sets me up for being hungrier/wanting to binge. I don't feel that way at all with the 5/2 plan.

Two, on sort of the same topic, on the 5/2 zigzag plan I'm going to follow from now on, I think I am going to limit one of the high days to just a little over "normal" and do the 7th "high" day way high. A day to go have guacamole and chips, a big steak, a loaded baked potato, whatever it is that I really enjoy but would be hard to fit into a "normal" day.

Anyone else have any observations on what works or doesn't for them, with zigzagging?

What works best for me is to let life pick my calorie counts. I don't "plan" high days, but if they happen, I follow them with a couple of low days. It keeps my body guessing, and since I don't plan to have a high day, I don't get as obsessed with overeating (compared to my normal). I'm also prepared for those days where we have cake at work, or I go out to a surprise dinner.

I agree with stella1609 -- though I typically plan my higher days for the weekend when my husband is home and there tends to be more snacking, eating out, events and such.

I like to start my week with 3 lower days so I can have the wiggle room as the week goes on. My calorie counts for this week are in my blog, I averaged 1751 for the week.

I have a very high day first day of the week (2500 calories) then on day 3 and day 5 i have days around 1800-1900 the rest of the days are around 1400-1500. I have planned my high days to match the days i have PT Sessions at the gym. This averages out to 1650 calories per day.

kazz =]

Same here, my Friday and Saturday are usually the highest days with Saturday being the worst. Then monday through tuesday I eat pretty low and wednesday is a little higher. I used to have a medium day on thursday but i'm going to make it a real low day now so I have some leeway on fridays.

I've found myself unintentionally zigzagging, as there's at least one day a week where I don't have control over the calories in the food (homemade dinner, class party, unfortunately there's a funeral coming up with the obligatory eat-and-reminisce part, etc.). Seems to work for me, and I'm surprised by the amount of weight I've lost.