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

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  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
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    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: 10,182 Member
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    @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
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    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
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    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
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    :)
  • besdais
    besdais Posts: 76 Member
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    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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