Spike Diet

Scamd83

I don't like spending too much time reading up on a diet that comes with a brand name, but for whatever reason I'm still curious about the above mentioned plan. Has anyone done this and if so can you tell me where I'm going wrong with the RMR calculations just so I can know once and for all whether I've got it right or wrong please? I've tried asking about this on various threads and even attempted to contact the author of this book but currently no success.

misskarne

Why not just eat the calories MFP gives you? It's free, no purchases required (well, except a food scale, but that's what, $10?), it's easy, and it WORKS.

Scamd83

@misskarne I guess I should explain, I cut in 2012 and lost about five stone (I'm 10:6 lbs now), remained steady since then. Now want to lose those last few few pounds so I can be as lean as I feel I should be. But after doing it for so long diet adherence is quite difficult for me now (there's a reason why I lost five stone in less than a year but taken me over two years to lose a few lbs more) and I just want to explore ways of making cutting more interesting. This doesn't seem to be that way if the calories I came up with are correct, but I just want to know for sure.

middlehaitch

I think you have to give more information about your self: height, age, current weight, goal weight, present calorie goal, spike diet calorie goal. Eric etc, before you can get any meaningful advice.

But if you have had no success on other threads or contacting the author I would be tempted to ditch it.

Ones 'resting metabolic rate' is easy to find in a number of on line calculators. It is often called 'basic metabolic rate'.

Also a bit of info on the diet, and why it interests you more than just counting calories for the last few pounds.

Did you count calories to lose the first 70lb?

Cheers, h.

Scamd83

@middlehaitch 165 cm tall, 32 years old, 146 lbs, not sure on goal weight - it's more a case of I'll know it when I get there but let's say 10 stone for now, present calories is 1990 cycling carbs on training and rest days, spike diet (if I got it right) said 1600 and 1100 calories on high and low days, in gym strength training four days a week, play an hour of squash per week.

I don't think the author has been on here for a couple of months and I've harassed enough innocent people on various threads about it with no answer. So I guess if I was going to get a clear answer to my questions, I would have had them by now.

I'm just looking for a way to make diet adherence a bit easier, because 1900 calories a day consistently is a bit mind numbing for me. The spike diet seemed like it could be fun if the numbers were correct. When I lost all that weight I didn't count, I just did crazy amounts of cardio (progressed from 30 minutes a day to three hours a day, every day) and ate very little. I do it all differently if I knew then what I know now. Put on a little bit of muscle in 2013 because I pretty much needed to.

middlehaitch

You know you could put your info into MFP and do carb cycling and high and low days on your own.

Just as an FYI 1500 cals a day is the minimum recommended for men.

You work from your weekly calories instead of daily. Multiply your daily by 7 that gives weekly then split the days as you like.
Along with this if you are using MFP eating back your calories from exercise is important as MFP doesn't account for them.

You only have a little weight to lose so look at .5lb a week that way you won't lose much muscle.

Sorry I know nothing about the Spike Diet. If you don't get any further info on it just try working with this site. It is flexible and you can eat and drink whatever you like within your calorie goals.
And anything will be better than repeating what you did before

Cheers, h.

veganbaum

If you have the book and followed the directions, just double check your calculations. Here's an old link from the old Spike group:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/490371/bmr-calculator-for-calorie-goals#latest

You don't really need to specifically use the Spike Diet's numbers. I was first introduced to calorie cycling through spiking. I still do it in a sense, but I don't do really specific numbers other than eating roughly my BMR/RMRx2 on my big day. The other days I just remain under my calorie goal by whatever amounts I feel like, somewhat based on hunger. I track my weekly deficit through fitbit. Lots of people on MFP bank their calories for the weekend and eat more for one or two days than they do during the week. So, it's a similar concept. I never followed the nutritional aspects of spiking. I was a bit interested in the leptin side of it and whether that was true, but also didn't really care enough about that to research it. I liked it because it made my adherence easier. I don't remember calorie cycling being a big thing at the time I started it, at least not on the boards here (or it was I didn't notice posts), so it was nice to find the information.

Edit: I just noticed your numbers. They do seem off, you should run them again if you're still stuck on doing it that way. I seem to vaguely recall a warning in the materials not to go below 1200 for women and 1500 for men, even if that doesn't give you the full deficit (but even if it wasn't there, generally one shouldn't go below those numbers).

Scamd83

@middlehaitch Yeah, if I can't figure this out for sure I'll just do something like that.

@veganbaum I think my confusion comes from in the book when he lists his own example calories and he is somehow getting a 7000 calorie deficit per week and saying he burns somewhere close to 30000 calories (I think?). Using various formulas I burn about 17000 calories a week. To even just lose half a pound a week I couldn't have a 'spike day', it just doesn't fit in. I'm either missing something or this isn't meant for smaller people?

Annie_01

There are several zigzag calculators online that will give you various calorie levels by day.

Here is the one that I have used in the past...

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Not sure if this is helpful or not.

Scamd83

Thank you @Annie_01, that is very useful. Their suggested calories for fat loss are a bit low, but I can easily adjust that by selecting the next level of exercise option up. The staggered calories is very helpful.

middlehaitch

@Scamd83 glad you have some folk to help.
Cheers, h.

Russellb97

Hey Beth found me. Sorry I haven't been around much, I wish I had a great excuse but I do not.

No one has to buy the book, I've always shared the plan freely to anyone who asked.
For those who don't know my story I'll share the semi-short more personal version. When you know where I was compared to where I am, you'll hopefully understand how truly amazing Spiking is.

I've been overweight most of life going back to 1st grade at age 6 my parents called me "husky" or that's what my jeans said. When I was 13yrs old I was over 220lbs. This was well before childhood obesity was the norm so I stood out. As the "fat kid" in school I was usually either ignored or teased. I hated my life and I hated myself. So I made a choice to lose weight. I told my mom and she told me with love and good intentions, "don't be hard on yourself, it's your genetics and our whole family struggles with this. You are perfect just the way you are"
Whatever mom!
I spent the summer eating salads, jumping on my mini-trampoline and of course Sweatin' to the Oldies. I lost about 25lbs and grew a few inches which honestly made a huge difference.

The problem was, and I'm sure you can relate, is my weight was constantly going up and down. I had to keep eating less and working out more to just maintain. By the time I was 16yrs I was also struggling with month long periods of anorexia followed by days and weeks of binge eating.

I lived this way all the up to the time I met my very thin and can eat whatever she wants and still be thin wife. When we met I was around 210lbs, the following year we were married, and I was 235lbs. The next year 250lbs, then 280lbs and by 2003 I was over 300lbs. In this 5 year period I feel like I was always on a diet and I tried everything from the Anabolic Diet (Basically Atkins) to counting points with Weight Watchers. I lost weight with all of them and gained extra back with all of them. I could never get over the plateaus. Later that year my doctor wrote "morbidly obese" on my health chart. I was pre-diabetic with high blood pressure, on anti-depression medication and my scale hit 330lbs, which was also the max weight on my scale. I had given up, my mom was right so why fight it?

In September of 2003 while looking at pictures of my very large self holding my tiny 1yr old son a horrible thought hit me. My genetics, my son and I didn't want my painful life to become his life. I didn't want to look into his eyes one day and tell him this lie, "I’m sorry son, it's our genetics and we are just ok the way we are" because it was *kitten*. We have one fricken life to live and I'll be damned if it will be a miserable one. So I set out to lose weight once and for all, I would have died before I quit.

I began immediately. I logged everything I ate, I kept my calories under 2000 every day, and I exercised 5-7 times a week. I started losing weight. By the 4th week I was already down 15lbs and I was still "all in". But then in that 5th week I didn't lose a single pound. So I checked my food logs, did I miss something? No! Well maybe it was water weight or the scale is off. I kept on the path. Week 6, again no weight loss. It had to be the scale, so I actually went out and bought a new one. Of course the new scale was a 2 pounds lighter than the original one (I love this scale already) and I was back on the path.

When Week 7 started I noticed a change in my motivation, a kink in the armor. I was beginning to really crave pizza and ice cream. I even made a note of this in my food log. But I said to myself "No matter, for I have Will Power!" At the end of the week I needed that "will power" to stop myself from buying another scale because now this one wasn't moving either.

Week 8, still no weight loss, the 4th straight week! I was literally starting to panic. I added up all of my calories again and again, it wasn't that. "I'm telling you my food journal is perfect” while asking some cocky trainer at the gym for advice. He just gives me that "yeah sure it is" smirk and says, "Its all calories in and calories out soooo something’s not adding up here". Seriously why would I lie? I'm not doing this for your approval sir. My God! Now the food cravings are starting to come out of nowhere now. My mind is screwing with me! I can't tell if that was a tire swing or a really large donut I just walked by. I'm smelling pepperoni pizza as I fall asleep and everyplace I go has free cookies, damn them! I have to quit, I'm going to go insane.
At this, my weakest moment, I heard a voice in my head say "Give in" not give up but give in. I'll take a day off and eat everything I've been craving, get it all out of my mind. And why not? I'm not currently losing weight anyway.
So I did just that.
I had pancakes for breakfast, donuts for second breakfast. I went to Burger King for lunch and had both a Rodeo and a Bacon Double Cheeseburger. Then went to DQ for a large cookie dough and a small Reece’s blizzard for dessert. Also stopped for some free cookies on the way home.
Dinner, a large bacon, pepperoni and sausage pizza from Papa Johns and of course a few breadsticks.
Mix in a few smaller things throughout the day like those frosted animal crackers and a Snickers bar. I didn't say no to anything I was wanting.
That day was 7,500 calories of awesome!
Next day-No food cravings. Just a bit bloated my energy was amazing and my mind was clear. It was MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! It worked and I was back to the diet and the journey.
Week 9 - A bit afraid to get on the scale but here goes, wait WTF!!! I lost 3lbs. "Who's messing with me?" I said to myself. Try it again, step off and on, off and on, and still 3lbs down. I couldn't believe it, I broke my plateau and I ate like I was about to get the electric chair. Well shoot, I'm going to do that again.

My second Spike Day wasn't quite as crazy as the first but I still got in 5,000 calories of fun, and later that week I lost 2 more pounds. That's when I realized there's a lot more to losing weight than calories in and calories out and that trainer has no fricken clue about what he's talking about. My journey of losing weight became a journey of knowledge.
Needless to say I kept Spiking and every week I lost about 2lbs and at 11 months I was officially down a 100lbs.

This would be Part 1 of my semi-short personal story because in the past 12 years I added a 2nd Spike Day to my week and I continue to lose a few pounds a year with very little effort. My metabolism has never been better and I proved that body weight set point is *kitten*. Our brain has no idea of how much we weigh or how much fat we have stored. If it did none of us would be obese. It's this daily energy balance and when we are constantly in a deficit, no matter how small our metabolism will adapt. It's so obvious really. Leptin declines in after about a week of daily caloric deficits. Leptin increases beyond baseline levels after just 12hrs of overfeeding.

The plan in a nutshell is you will have a weekly caloric deficit so overall weight will be lost. Just make sure one day each and every week you have surplus. 6 days deficit one day surplus = weight loss without the metabolic adaption. It truly is as simple as that.