How to zig zag cals properly/caloric cycling properly

sheltielover

bump! great info! started today.

natini

Bump for later

nursenelson

bump

FaithHopeBELIEVE

http://www.naturalphysiques.com/64/zig-zag-calculator-for-fat-loss-andor-muscle-gain

http://www.mylifestylediet.com/calorie-calculator.php

i found this site that has a calculator, I prefer to keep it simple and use more even numbers though.

On those sites are these net calories or total calories?

net calories.

Oh my so its NET calories? I've been going by my food intake. Ugh. I just can never wrap my head around this.

amys31

so confusing with the net calories...I cant fathom eating them all back...just my opinion:)

amys31

so confusing with the net calories...I cant fathom eating them all back...just my opinion:)

Also...how do you get a deficit if your eating back your exercise calories?

SouLThinking

The deficit is already worked into the Fat Loss level and of course the Extreme Fat loss level.

Want me to make it very easy for all of you! I just figured this out myself.

What is your goal weight?

What is your height?

Go plug that into the calculator...

Use those amounts. why?? because it's already a deficit because your heavier than this and also it's gets your body ready to eat those amounts for a life time because that's the amount you'll need to eat when you maintain. Now if you have a lot to lose you can adjust these totals some also. Because if your used to eating a lot more than this it's harder to drastically cut down. For example
I want to weight 135. I'm 5'4" ..Maintenance calories for me at this weight are 1759. So for now I'm zig zagging around that total.

It works. I look back at my food diary months ago and I actually was zig zagging already but not in any set form, I now like knowing in advance when my high days are so I can plan outings and stuff accordingly. Also with the holidays approaching I will switch some days around..as long as my weekly average is at 1700 or so I'll do fine.

Good luck,

jrditt

So excellent. I've been stuck so I am ready to try this.

servilia

so confusing with the net calories...I cant fathom eating them all back...just my opinion:)

Also...how do you get a deficit if your eating back your exercise calories?

When you set up your MFP goals, you presumably told MFP how much you want to lose per week right - so it used that info to distract cals from your normal requirements. Any exercise you do adds onto the already existing deficit. For example, let's say X is the number of cals you burn on a day to day basis just by living. You tell MFP you want to lose 2 lbs a week. MFP will set your cal goal at X-500.
Let's say you exercise and burn 100 cals.
Now you're at a 600 call deficit: X-500-100. So if you eat back those 100 cals, you STILL have the 500 cal deficit that MFP set up for you.
Not saying you must eat them back, but that is the reasoning behind NET cals.

amys31

Thank you, got it makes sense now!!:-)

mrrad

This is very interesting, may give it a go.....thanks everyone

servilia

so confusing with the net calories...I cant fathom eating them all back...just my opinion:)

Also...how do you get a deficit if your eating back your exercise calories?

When you set up your MFP goals, you presumably told MFP how much you want to lose per week right - so it used that info to distract cals from your normal requirements. Any exercise you do adds onto the already existing deficit. For example, let's say X is the number of cals you burn on a day to day basis just by living. You tell MFP you want to lose 2 lbs a week. MFP will set your cal goal at X-500.
Let's say you exercise and burn 100 cals.
Now you're at a 600 call deficit: X-500-100. So if you eat back those 100 cals, you STILL have the 500 cal deficit that MFP set up for you.
Not saying you must eat them back, but that is the reasoning behind NET cals.

Quoting myself here to correct something - it won't let me edit..
The 500 cal deficit is if you set it up to lose 1 lb per week, not 2lbs as I wrote above. For two pounds it would be 1000 cals per day deficit.

HonkyTonks

I would be more inclined to do this if I knew that the calores in and calories out for me were 100% accurate. Plus no idea what my BMR is exactly, it's all just estimating!

recesq

This is a really good post. Thanks for sharing and helping.

Juliette320

Okay, um what is a maintenance day? Like do you eat you cals back? On any of the days? Because I am eating 1200 cals sometimes going slightly over was scared to up my calories bc I did loose a couple of pounds and quite alot of inches in the beginning and when combined with exercise I was doing really good. But now I'm like at a plateau so 1250 for two days and ? How much for another day. And so on and so forth or what? Please and thank you for your response

minna13

keeping for later! thanks

Malissas

Thanks for this. I'm going to give it a go.
So weird how scary it is to have to eat so much more food. Although I'm sure there is a 'magic number' of cals that also have to be burnt as well?

keepitoff99

bump

thankyou4thevenom

I love calorie cycling but the mention of starvation mode in the first post really doesn't make any sense.

Starvation mode (as in the sense of your metabolism rate dropping) does not set in unless you're eating less than 50% of your maintenance calories for at least a month. So this kind of calorie cycling should never do that.

servilia

Okay, um what is a maintenance day? Like do you eat you cals back? On any of the days? Because I am eating 1200 cals sometimes going slightly over was scared to up my calories bc I did loose a couple of pounds and quite alot of inches in the beginning and when combined with exercise I was doing really good. But now I'm like at a plateau so 1250 for two days and ? How much for another day. And so on and so forth or what? Please and thank you for your response

A maintenance day is when you eat enough to leave you with no deficit at all. So eat all the calories you need for that day, including exercise calories. For me this is at least 1800.