Hi all

I've only been counting calories for about 4 weeks (not sure ... might be 3 or 5.. lol)... i am 6'2" and 262 right now with the goal of 170 set. I'm 38, not preggers or bf, i'm sedentary but have started walking.

I started off doing 1700 calories a day. After the first week i noticed that Monday, Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday my weight would go up. Also, i was tending to NOT drink my water on those days.

I've been doing some reading and besides being sure to get all my water in i am looking to calorie cycle. I was thinking to up my base calories to 1800/day. Here is the little plan i worked out ---- how's it look?

Monday - 1800
Tuesday -2000
Wednes - 1600
Thursday - 1800
Friday - 2000
Saturday - 1800
Sunday - 1600

Is this to many calories to lose on? It's the same weekly cals (12600) that i would get eating 1800 every day. It seems this might be a good way to keep things fresh and help me from stalling.

The other thing is --- should i just try to get my water instead of switching my calories around? Argh!! This is actually FUN but i want to be sure to give myself the best, healthiest advantage.

As a side note --- i love these forums. Here and the 100+ club are my usual spots to read but i dive in all over and LOVE all the info!

Hi! Lots of people like calorie cycling like you're proposing, and for many it seems to work. The main thing to watch out for is calorie drift, where you find you're going higher on average than you had intended. That is, the high days go too high, and the low days not low enough to compensate. Try to vary not more than a couple hundred calories each way from the average that's your target.

On the days you don't drink enough water, your body will retain water. That's what the increase in weight is, most likely. So I would try to make it a priority to get enough water.

Good luck!
Jay

Thanks Jay. In the 5 weeks i've been counting i only went over a few times (by 200, 10 and 5 cals). Usually i am right on or under by 100 or less.

I think i will give this a start Saturday. That's my official *weigh-day* so it's a good time to start.

Thanks about the water info. Water is TRICKY. My friend just got out of an A&P class and he found out that water helps fuel metabolism as well. Yikes!

Drink up! (but not coffee... )