calorie shifting or zig zag diet
 

thanks so much for the info! i think im going to try it im sick of being fat. im 268lbs and on the inside the real me is 135lbs and strangely enough when i dream about myself im skinny. so some part of me remembers skinny. now im off to find out how many calories i need to reduce to start getting smaller! thanks again!!:D

Well, there are so many forum threads about calorie shifting, but in none of them I found a clear statement that this diet method actually works.
Basically, if you want to lose weight you need to reduce the number of calories to a point where your body starts burning the excess fat. What difference does it make if you eat 1400 calories a day or shift the calories and end up with the same amount of calories on the average?

See now, that would drive me crazy, I like consistency in my food habits & intake. I mean, naturally, there is variation, but not that much. But that's the way this world is, some thrive on what drives others batty.

I can tell you that it works also; it has helped me bust through a couple of plateaus. I know that I would have done that eventually but I am convinced that calorie cycling is what did it for me.

I think I'm going to try this out.
Should you also increase your exercise on the days you have higher caloric intake?

I would say no, you do not need to. Your average daily intake of calories should be the same so no extra exercise is needed. So long as you don't slack off on your lower calorie days that is.

Hiya, im interested in starting the calorie shifting, where do i get information on it? is there a book like there is with the Atkins?

Just here for a single remark, came by this thread wile googling on "calorie shifting". Am molecular biology student have some expertize :cool: That's not entirely true, your body is designed to deal with the amount of food you ingest. If you ingest slightly less than normal you will just burn less. This doesn't happen consciously and you normally don't notice it. You will notice it when you seriously reduce you calorie intake, you get tired really easily and generally don't feel to good. Even if you have a generous fat reserve. Your body will go in starvation mode, conserving energy. Fat is for long term storage, you body has other ways to store energy for the short term and it doesn't "like" burning fat. Starving you body is not the way to go, as when you return to a normal diet while you're body is on conservation mode you will gain fat real fast...

The same happens the other way around, if you eat a Mars extra each day, you will not gain the weight equivalent of fat. You will be using more energy. Not that you wont gain any extra weight if you eat a mars a day...:), just not as much as you would expect.

So either way, from this you can't really conclude that the calorie shifting method will work. As the fat you burn on a low cal. day you will gain on a high cal. day... Perhaps combining high cal. days with exercise would do the trick.

bb

newbie question
 

i am new to the whole calorie shifting and am looking for a FREE vegetarian diet plan. being unemployed does not allow for a lot of extra money to be spent.

also i was wondering about how many hours a day you all work out? i currently weight 265 and would like to get down to 200 by the end of summer. my wife wants to lose about 60 lbs in about the same time period. i know we have our work cut out for us.

my wife is going to try the "Slim in 6" work out and i am starting a 9 mile bike ride daily and now that i have read about the calorie shifting we are going to incorperate it as well.

any and all input is appreciated

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy, there are a few good vegetarian plans out there... all are books, but you can get the premise of the plan on the websites, and also here in the Veggie Forum Popular vegetarian diet plans are McDougall (high grains, low fruit), Eat To Live (high fruit, low grains) and Engine 2 (mostly a health based diet, with weight loss as a nice side effect). Eat To Live has a subscription forum, but you don't have to be on their forum to do the diet.

Hello everyone,

After reading your posts I have decided to try this. I am now heavier than i was when I was pregnant with my 7 year old. Since I have had him I have done nothing but yo-yo. I didnt have this problem when I had my girls but I guess my body found it hard to adjust after having 3 kids. If you have any suggestions I would be greatful.

So how do you decide on your daily calorie goal? The number you want to average out to at the end of the week?

wan2bskinny, a lot of people use freedieting.com to help determine a zig-zag plan, but really, like everyone has said, you can do it however you like as long as your calories average your target number.

I did it while losing, I'm doing it in maintenance. It fits my life, because I like to go out to eat, drink wine, eat cake, etc -- so I need those high days! I'm more than happy to make up for it with some low days.

I think I might zig for a bit ~ it's just that every so often I need something new to focus on - I get bored quite easily!

I've been zig-zaging my calories for the past two weeks and it seems to be working really well. I plan it so I have a 1,000 calorie deference between each day.