I've been doing some online reading about zig-zagging (or cycling) calories to bust through plateaus (I'm going on month 2 now of staying at 141 exactly). And I've got a couple of questions.
1. Has anyone tried this and does it help?
2. Is there a site that can take what your maintenance calories are and give you an idea of how many calories per day you should shoot for? i.e. on 'this day' you eat xx amount of calories, 'this day' you eat this many calories, etc.
Here's what I found over the weekend about zig-zagging:
quoted from "Burn Fat, Feed Muscle":
'Your body is an amazing machine that is remarkably adaptable to any situation or environment. Your body likes to stay in a state of equilibrium and will always fight your efforts to change.
Fortunately, there is a way you can “trick” your body into keeping your metabolic rate up while you’re dieting for fat loss – It’s called the zig zag method and it’s without question the most powerful fat burning technique ever developed.
You must have a deficit to lose fat, but what you don’t want is a large deficit for a long period of time. The way to “outsmart” your body’s starvation response is to avoid prolonged calorie deficits. You simply drop into a calorie deficit for a brief period of three days, then – before your body has a chance to decrease your metabolic rate– you raise your calories back up to maintenance level (or even above maintenance) for one to three days. You then repeat this process until you reach your desired body fat percentage.
Some bodybuilders zig zag their calories completely at random and this seems to be effective for them. Other people use low, medium and high days in a pyramid fashion. My research, based on personal coaching programs with over 600 clients and on 14 years of competitive bodybuilding experience, has shown conclusively that the zig zag method works best in three day cycles. When your calories are kept in a large deficit more than three days, that’s when your metabolic rate starts to dip. By raising your calories every fourth day, you spike your metabolism and the starvation mode never fully kicks in.
Here’s how the zig zag method works: You will use two separate menu plans – one high calorie day, and one low calorie day. Your low calorie day will be initially set at 15-20% below your maintenance level. Your high calorie day will be initially set at your maintenance level. You will then “cycle” your calories on a three days down, one day up rotation."
I only just found this information over the weekend so I don't have any long term actual results to tell about but I'm going to start the rotation this week. I'm getting my body fat % measured tomorrow and I'll use that as a baseline. Hopefully, I'll have some good news to share soon enough.
My maintenance calories are about 1700. Minus 20% would put me at about 1360. That's about what I eat now, between 1200-1300. So what I'm gathering from this article is I would do 3 days at 1300 then one day at 1700, then go back to 1300 for 3 days, etc.
Wow... I'll have to set my days and write them on my calendar. I'm going to go ahead and try this for a while and see what happens. Now, I know for sure that Sunday's are a high-calorie day. Because Sunday dinner is my one meal of the week where I eat what I want and how much I want. I usually even have dessert. So Sunday would have to count as one of my high-calorie days. I most likely go OVER maintenance most Sunday's. I watch what I eat all day Sunday, but at dinnertime I let myself EAT and enjoy every single second of it, lol.
However, if you eat below maintenance for 3 days then eat maintenance for 1 day, that's going to be less than 1 day a week eating extra calories. I think. Jeez this stuff can boggle the mind. But I'll figure it out.
I zig zag all over the place. LOL. In the past month my lowest was 600 calories (NEVER intended to go that low) to 2200 calories. My avg is 1200-1500.
But does it keep your weight loss consistent? Or does it vary?
I'm pretty much "by the book" when it comes to calories. I make sure I stay at a certain amount every day. But I honestly believe I need to shake things up because like I said above, I'm going on month #2 of being at the same weight. And I know that once you get closer to goal, it's harder to drop the rest of the weight, but my body needs 'shocked' into doing something different, I believe.
Since it really is calories over time that causes weight loss over time ... I would think that zigzagging is fine as long as your average over time is good.
Well I think what I'll do is since Sunday is already a high-calorie day for me, I'll add one more high-calorie day to the week. Since it says your metabolism starts to drop by the 3rd day, I'll pick Wednesday as my additional high-calorie day. So I'll eat higher-calorie Sunday, then drop back down on Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesay eat another higher-calorie day, then Thursday, Friday and Saturday drop back down to my regular calories, knowing Sunday will be high again.
I'm gonna try that for a while and see if it helps me bust out of this blasted plateau. Plus I need to up my activity.
I calorie average over a 1 week period. I average between about 1300 cals daily, with daily intake between 1000 & 1600. I find that my loss is much better than if I stay at 11-1200.
I calorie average over a 1 week period. I average between about 1300 cals daily, with daily intake between 1000 & 1600. I find that my loss is much better than if I stay at 11-1200.
I'm pretty consistent with my calories, which is why I need to do something different. My body has pretty much settled in with my routine, has adapted to it very stubbornly, and is saying to me, "I like it right here where I'm at, so I'm staying put."
Personally, I can say it works. When I first moved in with my boyfriend, I had been stuck at the same weight for about 3 months. Once we were living together and my eating habits changed, I lost 10 pounds in less than a month I was unintentionally cycling my calories--I would pack and plan my food for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so that my calories were low (around 1200 a day, which is low for me since I am so large). Then I would be a bit higher on Thursdays because we always go out to Subway for dinner, so I would be around maybe 1600 on Thursdays and then again on Fridays since we would go out for dinner usually. My weekends were always high (around 2000-2200 calories), and then I would start all over with low calories again on Monday. That would bring me to an average of about 1600 calories a day over the course of the week, and it worked GREAT! Now, if only I could get back into that habit...
Thanks, everyone, for the comments and advice. Jill, that sounds like a plan
I'll let you all know if it works, but of course it will probably take some time. I'm wondering, though, if I should do like Jill did and do my two high-calorie days in a row. That would give my metabolism something to do for a couple of days, thinking it's getting all this food and going, "Yay! Food! I can move again!" then foil it again by dropping my calories back on Monday and leaving it that way for the week until Saturday and Sunday.
Hmmmmmm... I'm not sure which one sounds better. A high-calorie day 3-4 days apart? Or put them both together? Maybe I'll try the first plan to begin with (Sunday and Wednesday being high-calorie days) and if that doesn't work I'll start doing the high-calorie days back-to-back.
I think it would work both ways--in either case, the principal is the same. It's your average daily calories for the whole week that seems to matter most, so whether it's alternating high and low every day or doing little chunks of high and low days, the idea is that your body just never settles into one specific calorie amount. Like I said, I didn't even do it on purpose. It actually just accidentally happened by me trying to stick to 1200 calories EVERY day and then ending up eating out too often around the weekends
Zig-Zagging Calories
