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

PoppyFlower1

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?

deannalfisher

little to no science that supports this to my knowledge

kommodevaran

No, if anything, as little calorie variance as possible from day to day is best - but many people bank calories for the weekend, and that works great, too. Your body or metabolism doesn't get used to anything, it takes what you give it and stores or uses it.

Momepro

Why would that help? Just eat less than you burn, and theres nothing extra to store.

lizzyleveille

Yes!! If your trying to lose weight and you hit a plateau you need to confuse the body to keep the pounds dropping. I heard some people have cheat days x1 A week just to kinda restart the metabolism.

lizzyleveille

But there is no reason to eat 500 caps a day

lizzyleveille

*Cals

sardelsa

I calorie cycle in a deficit.. but I do it for adherence and better workout performance.

sdolan91

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.

manderson27

You can eat different calorie amounts on different days and average it over the week but dropping down to 500 seems silly. You will only be really hungry that day and possibly overeat so seems to me to be a bit pointless.

Slow, Steady and sustainable wins in the end.

sijomial

I like to have a variable goal for adherence, to support my exercise routine and to fit my diet into my lifestyle - but weight loss is down to calorie deficit averaged over an extended period of time.

malibu927

lizzyleveille wrote: »

Yes!! If your trying to lose weight and you hit a plateau you need to confuse the body to keep the pounds dropping. I heard some people have cheat days x1 A week just to kinda restart the metabolism.

Your body does not get confused, and if your metabolism needs restarted then you're no longer living.

The only thing that ends a plateau is lowering your calorie intake, which most of the time happens through more accurate logging.

Acem24

I have not had any luck with changing up caloric intake like that. This is my third time to go down in weight to 170, and I have tremendous success on calorie counting and being a creature of habit. That's why I love this app. I count, and I do a strict diet, and lose weight. But I love fruits and vegetables. So I'm lucky.

staticsplit

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.

PoppyFlower1

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

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

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

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

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

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.