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Calorie Cycling

katmarsc
katmarsc Posts: 118 Member
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
has anyone tried or had much success with calorie cycling. Mix it up. Eat high on your caloric range one day, low on the range another day. Eating a different amount of calories everyday but staying in range for the week or month. Don't let your body get accustomed to what you do. You have to confuse it to keep you metabolism moving. Mix it up & break the plateau or jump start metabolism??


http://www.ehow.com/way_5476876_calorie-cycling-diet.html

Love to hear feedback on this topic.

Replies

  • Kekibird
    Kekibird Posts: 1,122 Member
    Yeah. Back in my first round of weight-loss on My Food Diary, I was introduced to this idea. Zig-zagging. Though it wasn't something I could stick with a lot of other people has success with it.

    Katie
  • countjackula
    countjackula Posts: 99
    I'm trying it now but I've also experimented (for > 4 month periods) of:

    1. Eating at a surplus consistently = I gained 30 lbs, most of which was fat.

    2. Eating at a surplus but with carb cycling ONLY = I gained 20 lbs, probably split evenly between fat and muscle.

    3. Dieting at an extreme deficit = I lost 30 lbs, most of which was muscle.

    4. Dieting at a slight deficit, with carb cycling = I lost 20 lbs, most of which was fat.

    Your metabolism isn't going to get "confused" because you're switching calories day-to-day though, lol. If your body really did get confused like that it'd be pretty silly... not to mention that your caloric intake is "averaged" over a period of several days anyway.

    The one big benefit I see to it (for those trying to put on muscle) is that on days when you have intense workouts you need a greater proportion of carbs + calories to compensate before your workout, and you need more carbs + proteins afterward to support muscle growth. That necessarily means a calorie surplus, and having fewer calories on non-workout days might help to "average" it out to a level which doesn't result in putting on more fat than you want. Don't know if that actually works but I'm finding out!

    For losing fat, I don't see much point in zig-zagging calories. A better system would be having a deficit 4-5 days, and then having a greater proportion of carbs 2-3 days up to your maintenance to support your workouts.

    ...

    Just my two cents. :smile:
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