Calorie Spiking

LBATL

Hi everyone - I have a friend who is trying to start "calorie spiking" - is anyone out there familiar with this? Basically you eat healthy for 6 days and then have a cheat day where you just go totally nuts. One woman said that she eats 7000 calories on her cheat day. Of course I'm from the school of making healthy choices everyday but was just curious if anyone on MFP does this? If you do, does it really help boost metabolism?

erickirb

A lot of users do zigzag but within reason. Maybe a low day of 1100 and high days around 2000

hpsnickers1

Hi everyone - I have a friend who is trying to start "calorie spiking" - is anyone out there familiar with this? Basically you eat healthy for 6 days and then have a cheat day where you just go totally nuts. One woman said that she eats 7000 calories on her cheat day. Of course I'm from the school of making healthy choices everyday but was just curious if anyone on MFP does this? If you do, does it really help boost metabolism?

Wow, 7000 calories on her cheat day. 3500 calories = 1 pound of fat.

LBATL

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Wow, 7000 calories on her cheat day. 3500 calories = 1 pound of fat.
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I know which is why I think this idea sounds totally ridiculous. I can agree with upping calories on a day here and there (calorie shifting) but just excessively eating like that sounds insane.

crystal_sapphire

my worst binges would be around 7000 cals. I think it's a bit much th. I get the spiking or calories after eating lower for a few days, but it seems rather extensive.

LaylaClapton

That sounds more like binging to me. I wonder what it's doing to the metabolism also.

california_peach

If I hit a weight loss plateau I will increase my daily calorie intake by 200 calories for a week or so and then drop it back down. I think of it as calorie cycling and most of those addition calories are in the form of healthy foods, like nuts and low fat cheeses. That usually jump starts my weight loss again.

But I would never just run rabid and eat like a bear getting ready to hybernate. For me the whole point of this is to be healthy and binge eating is not healthy, in my opinion. In the process of getting healthy I have lost 34 lbs, but healthy is for me the ultimate goal.

joleciamichelle

I don't even know what you could eat to have 7,000 calories in a day and I can EAT. I sometimes do calorie shifting-1000 on low days and usually 1800-2000 on higher days but I don't do that often just because I don't like to make myself eat when I'm not hungry so I let it happen naturally, I usually stay around 1300 calories a day but I may have a day where I only eat 900-1000 calories and then it seems my body knows and then within the next few days I rebound with a higher day of around 1800 calories.

SHBoss1673

unless you're running 2 back to back marathons, I would never recommend a 7000 calorie day for most people (unless you're 7 feet tall and 375 lbs or something).

zig zagging has SOME merit but there's a very specific set of circumstances where it works, and a 7000 calorie day should NOT be included in that plan.

For instance, many body builders follow a 2 stage plan where they first bulk up, then they do a "cut phase" where they do short term fasts that maximize fat loss without jeopardizing body health (these fasts are 2 days or less, so the body never enters starvation mode). But this is a very difficult way to lose fat, better to just eat at a modest caloric deficit and slowly and gradually lose it IMHO.

wolfchild59

Wow, a 7000 calorie day? My hats off to that woman. I had a few almost 6000 calorie days while in Disneyland last December and one of the days I was so stuffed to the gills full that the hubby said I looked drunk as we walked back to the hotel cuz I kept listng to left cuz I was hurting so badly from so much food.

And that was with the eaten spread out from breakfast at 8 or 9am and dinner/dessert around 9:30pm, with walking around DL all day included in that time.

I cannot imagine just a straight 7000 calorie day, I'd likely pass out.