I am new to the forum and slowly learning my way around. I have 80 pounds to get rid of and was wondering if anyone cycles their calories or is this just something you do if you hit a plateau?

TIA,
Kristy

I cycle my calories, but not on a strict scale. I aim for around 1500 calories a day, but I'll let myself go over as much as 200 calories, or under as much as 100 depending on what I feel like eating that day. I average about 1550 calories per day. I don't have a set schedule, so I think I keep my body guessing. I also don't change my calorie intake based on how much I workout, so my deficit goes up and down.

This worked for me big time when I was 16. If I hit a plateau I would actually eat MORE.. so say if I am eating 1200 a day, I'd one day go up to 2,000 then go back to 1500, then to 1200, etc and I found eating a little bit more got me out of the rut.

I've been a fan of it for a long time. Tom Venuto wrote an ebook called Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle that talked a lot about the benefits of it. I like it

Just as a counter-anecdote, I've never cycled and I exercise the exact same every day and I've never (so far) hit a plateau, losing at a good, steady clip.

I have adjusted my calorie level/increased my exercise, but once adjusted I hold to the new level for a long time before readjusting.

This isn't to say cycling doesn't help--it may. But I've never bothered.

I don't specifically cycle but my target is a range - 1200 to 1500 a day. Some days I'm at the high end, some days at the bottom. For a while, I was averaging 1450 a day, now my average is 1350.

I also take calorie deficit into consideration, and while I try for an average of 1000 per day, depending on activity and what I've eating, that varies too, ranging from about 700 up to 1300 (this is based on using a Gowear Fit to determine calorie burn, mine is not that high even with moderate exercise just about every day, I'm hoping it will increase once I've gotten in good enough shape to do more intense activity)

Basically, I think that normal life provides enough cycling without my having to work at doing it.

I cycle and I love it. I also see a slightly fast loss rate (up to 1.8lbs/wk average from 1.5lbs/wk). But what I love about it is that it allows me to have a *cheat* day but not really be cheating. It also means that everyday is different so I have a wide varity of meals to chose from because they are so different in calories...this way I don't get bored eating the same varity of foods day in and day out...I can constantly switch it up. I got my cycle from freedieting.com and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

I usually eat when I am hungry and my goal is to keep my calories around1800 or below. There is where my gowear fit comes in when I plug it in at night I can make sure my deficit is close to 1000 or over. It is very motiviating for me to see that my calorie deficit was over 1000 and so far it has been a good indicator of how much weight I will lose each week. I guess I will see how it works out of the long haul. So, my calories cycle naturally is has not been something that I have set out to do.