Well, it's worked for me before, so I am going back to it...calorie cycling! For anyone who is unfamiliar, it focuses on your AVERAGE daily calories over a span of time (usually a week). That way, you have some strictly low-cal days and some days where you can have much more than normal. The idea is to not allow you body/metabolism to "settle" into any set amount of calories, which should help to avoid those dreaded plateaus!

For those of you who do it or would like to give it a try, come join me! I would love to share support, ideas, and friendship!

Including today (assuming I stick to my plan), here are my Fitday calorie totals for the past week:

Jan. 31: 2354
Feb. 1: 1033
Feb. 2: 1605
Feb. 3: 1640
Feb. 4: 1515
Feb. 5: 2944
Feb. 6: 1314
Avg.: 1772

I think I'll normally do my average Monday-Sunday, but I didn't keep my Fitday log for Jan. 30, so this will have to do for this week. This was also not a normal week for me, so hopefully this week will be a little more like what I expect to do.

My goal is to have my daily average calories each week to be 1850 or less. My scale said 279.5 this morning, so we'll see where we go from here!

I haven't planned out any exact numbers, but what I'm shooting for on my cycle days is maintenance calorie level, which is 1700. I don't want to go above maintenance. So on Wednesday's I'll eat 1700, then go back down to 1200-1300 until Sunday. Sunday, unfortunately, I have no idea how many calories I eat, exactly, because Sunday is the day I take a break from counting.

But to add, Sunday's are definitely above maintenance. Which is why I don't want to go above 1700 on Wednesday. Too many days over maintenance can add up to 3500 calories and I'll end up gaining.

I'll check in! I've been doing a zig-zag type plan, and I try to keep it around 1400 calories a day, bumping it up every third day or so to 1800-2000. So far, I've lost a little over 6 lbs in two weeks by doing that.
Calorie-cycling sounds like a good plan, but too much math for me, lol! How did you get started figuring your daily average?

Okay, I'm in! I've been cycling my calories for a while now and can't imagine doing it any other way. I've just started taking these last 20 pounds seriously so I'm trying to average 1500 calories each day. I don't actually plan out how many calories I'll have each day but I rarely go over 2200 calories and 1200 is typically the lowest I go (although I might have 1000 calorie day here or there). So, I usually just check my stats on a regular basis and make adjustments for the following day as I go along. Thanks for the accountability Jillybean!

I actually sort of happened upon it accidentally. When I moved in with my boyfriend, we were eating out a lot on the weekends (or ordering pizza or Chinese or whatever). I thought that for SURE was going to kill my diet, but I lost 10 pounds in less than a month after we moved! I was packing/planning my food during the week (M, T, W) and then we always do Subway for dinner on Thursdays, so my cals were a little higher, and then on Friday we usually had dinner out, so again, a little higher, and then on Saturday and Sunday, forget it--cals skyrocketed! I kept everything in Fitday, even the bad stuff, and just looked at the report to find my average calories over the past week, and I discovered that I was calorie cycling without even knowing it

So now, I do it on purpose! I stay low (around 1200, sometimes even a little lower) for Monday-Wednesday, then more like 1600-1700 for Thursday and Friday, then up to 2500 each for Saturday and Sunday. That way, I don't feel deprived, and I still end up with a daily average each week of 1800 or less, plus I can use a high-cal day for a party or something during the week if I need to and just tell Jeff that we can't eat out on Saturday night

This also works out perfectly for me because Thursday is my "official" weigh-in day, so it comes after 3 strict low-cal days, so I can't blame any upward fluctuation on what I may have had the day before--keeps me a little more honest

Hey Jilly - followed you here from 20 somethings, I am 3fc stalking you j/k. This sounds like a great idea. I use fitday and I am often set back by having an off day. It would be nice to look at my eating in the grand scheme of like a week and be able to make up for falling off the wagon every once in a while.

haha, that made me laugh

You make a good point about being able to make up for falling off the wagon, though. One group I post with, I said I was restricting my calories one day to make up for a major bad day the day before, and someone said not to do that, to just let the bad day go and move on. I'd much rather look at it this way and think that I can help to balance things out by just alterring the rest of my week as necessary--after all, even though we need to take it one day at a time, it's really calories in v. calories out in the grand scheme of things, right?

Jill - I guess I am also stalking you - this time from 300+

I just averaged my calories for January and with cycling I was actually right on track. I was shooting for 2000 and I ended up averaging 2002. My high was 2620 an my low was 1208. The weekends are definitely the highest for me. I am making healthier choices when we eat out, but we still eat out quite a bit and I need to find something that will mesh with my lifestyle. Count me in!

I think I'll join in, too!

I normally shoot for 1200 a day. If I exercise, I allow myself the additional calories that I burned off that day so I don't eat too little, but sometimes I use them and sometimes I save them and use them another day (for when we eat out or when I want to treat myself). I'd like my weekly calorie total to be 8400. (My week is Monday to Sunday.)

- Bella

Hi, I've been thinking about doing this, but I have a question, do you have to follow the list of days calories exactly? Or can you swich days around as long as you end up averaging your daily goal at the end of the week? I mean what if the plan tells me to eat 1200 on a day when I'm starving, or 2000 on a day when I'm not hungry. (ok so fat chance on the second one) I noticed that you said you save all of your high cal days for the weekend, and then do your low cal after, but is it more effective to switch back and forth every day? Sorry for the 3rd degree, I'm just curious. It would be really great to be able do eat more like on saturdays, but I'm scared of the whole, "too good to be true" thing. But if its cool, then I'm so in ! Thanx Lindy

Woohoo, another stalker! I feel so loved

lindy--as long as you average whatever you want to average per day for the week, you should be able to plan your high and low days whenever it's convenient for you. There are plans out there that are much more structured/specific, but I think they are more for people who lift (a lot!). You can find a lot of info on calorie cycling in relation to weight lifting, but I think that for the purposes of weight loss, you should be able to switch the days around however you like. That helps me in that if I have a part or something during the week and end up having a high day, I can just have a low day on Sunday or something to make up for it, so long as my calories average out in the end

Bella--that's a good idea to know what your weekly total should be. I guess mine needs to be 12,600 or less (that would average 1800 a day).

My week will run from Monday-Sunday with my "official" weekly weigh-in on Thursdays. I did well yesterday...I missed 2 snacks and ended up with only about 1100 calories for the day (1094 per Fitday ). I've planned a very similar menu for today, although dinner may change a bit depending on what I feel like cooking when I get home from work.

Well, it's working. Jill, I'm sure you recall how I was stuck at 141 for nearly 2 months until I started this zig-zagging and I finally broke my plateau and saw 140. Well this morning I was 139. So it's budging! Finally!

Woohoo!