Is it true it's best to change up calories?

PoppyFlower1
PoppyFlower1 Posts: 62 Member
edited November 23 in Health and Weight Loss
Someone told me recently that it's best if you change up your calories daily, while maintaining a deficit. For example eating 2000 calories one day, then 500 the next, then 1200 after that. So overall 3700 over 3 days so remaining in deficit but he said this way your body/metabolism doesn't get used to lower calories and it helps you lose weight quicker. Is this true?

Replies

  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    Why would that help? Just eat less than you burn, and theres nothing extra to store.
  • lizzyleveille
    lizzyleveille Posts: 3 Member
    But there is no reason to eat 500 caps a day
  • lizzyleveille
    lizzyleveille Posts: 3 Member
    *Cals
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I calorie cycle in a deficit.. but I do it for adherence and better workout performance.
  • sdolan91
    sdolan91 Posts: 250 Member
    nope. you can't "confuse" your body lol. your body does the same thing everyday regardless of what you're gonna eat.
    eat in a deficit and youll lose weight. look at your calories for a week instead of a day. i "bank" calories during the week to eat/drink more on the weekends and i still lose weight.
  • PoppyFlower1
    PoppyFlower1 Posts: 62 Member
    staticsplit wrote: »
    Even when I was severely anorexic, I rarely ate 500 calories a day. That is so little food it's not a good plan (which is why I'm glad to see the 5:2 diet doesn't seem as trendy anymore...)

    Consistency is fine! Sometimes there's variation--appetites can cycle a bit, or exercise calories may change intake. Just follow MFP guidelines and you'll be groovy.

    Aww congrats on beating anorexia that's amazing x
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    Other names for it are "calorie shifting" or "calorie cycling". Too complicated for my taste (and not a regime I'd want to do for the rest of my life), and the research results are less than convincing to me:

    http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/diet-weight-loss/article/hype-calorie-shifting-diets
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,756 Member
    You can bank calories for an expected large meal or holiday but changing up daily amounts for any other reason than that seems pointless. Whatever benefit you would gain would be so minimum as not worth the effort. Your metabolic rate isn't like a muscle that benefits from changing and shock.
  • christibisti
    christibisti Posts: 1 Member
    Yeah, I think your are referencing the 5:2 intermittent fasting. 5 days regular healthy calories, 2 days low 500 calories intake.

    I just started this, and am at a healthy weight and fitness level. Just wanted to get beach ready for a trip. Now I understand that Basal Metabolic Rate may not change/ change easily. But here is what my first anecdotal experience:

    I have been doing Orange Theory Fitness classes for 4 months and my cardio is decent and my strength was increasing, but I still want to drop into the 19.5 BMI range before our vacation. So I did one day 500 cals, and the next day regular breakfast, and then workout.

    I never worked that hard in a workout before. I was barely hitting my cardio rate and weight lifting milestones I would regularly do. But my heart rate and calorie burn rate (which OTF measures) was the highest it had ever been.

    So I think my body did respond to this diet. It made my regular fuel less available and my body had to work harder to do the same things.

    But it would take a few more sessions to see if this trend continues.

    I do like the feeling of really understanding hunger though. A lot of the times I graze at the slightest hint of a feeling towards hunger. Versus a day later, and my body felt the urgent need to eat that it work me up early. So I fed it and it was satisfying!
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    IMO, the only reason to stagger calories is to accommodate workouts. I get ridiculously hungry on lifting days, so I eat more. I shave extra calories from non-lifting days to stay at goal.
  • peggy_polenta
    peggy_polenta Posts: 325 Member
    what you are saying sounds like intermittent fasting (to me it sounds like your referencing alternate day fasting) and yes, it works for many people.
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    I think it just matters what works better for you mentally. There’s definitely a value in looking at the net calories of the week instead of the day if you find yourself to be more hungry on some days than others. But yeah, for some people I think that’s easier mentally because they have varying appetites or triggers on different days and it just works for their life where as some people, like myself, prefer consistency
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    @Fatass2badass33 , as @karen8787 says, your other person is describing something similar to 5:2 Intermittent Fasting. This is the method with some actual academic study behind it. The numbers are days. The 2 are days in which you have 600 highly nutritious calories, such as 4 oz tuna and 400 calories of broccoli, the 5 are days in which you eat regularly, making no effort to cut calories. The academic person who has developed this protocol found that on the 5 days of regular eating, people tended to eat 125% of their maintenance calories. The math of it all works out to a 20% cut for the week, and only 2 days of mental stress and willpower. It's too much effort for me. I just try to stay inside my calorie budget.
  • staticsplit
    staticsplit Posts: 538 Member
    Fatass2badass33 wrote: »
    staticsplit wrote: »
    Even when I was severely anorexic, I rarely ate 500 calories a day. That is so little food it's not a good plan (which is why I'm glad to see the 5:2 diet doesn't seem as trendy anymore...)

    Consistency is fine! Sometimes there's variation--appetites can cycle a bit, or exercise calories may change intake. Just follow MFP guidelines and you'll be groovy.

    Aww congrats on beating anorexia that's amazing x

    Thanks! Stress can still bring out behaviours, but I've been managing it successfully for about nine years. :-)
  • staticsplit
    staticsplit Posts: 538 Member
    nowine4me wrote: »
    IMO, the only reason to stagger calories is to accommodate workouts. I get ridiculously hungry on lifting days, so I eat more. I shave extra calories from non-lifting days to stay at goal.

    I tend to do that too. On lifting days I tend to eat 2000-2200 calories, and on non-lifting days it's more like 1700-1800. Not always, but that's the average for the last few weeks at least.
  • johnandjenk
    johnandjenk Posts: 6 Member
    edited January 2018
    :)
  • besdais
    besdais Posts: 76 Member
    When I was doing WW, they suggested to switch up calories as a way to help get over a plateau. Supposedly your body will get used to a certain amount of calories if they are the same day after day. Changing it up a little seemed to help me get off more than one plateau. You really shouldn't go below 1000-1200 calories a day, though.
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