Does the "Zig Zag 7 Day Calorie Cycle" really work?

ElizabethRoad

In principle it's great, but I don't see how anyone could follow something this regimented. It's much easier to me to follow my circumstance - eat more if there's a party or I go to a restaurant, and eat less on other days, making sure it averages out to my weekly goal.

For those who say it gives you more calories than MFP, I used sedentary and it gave me a bit less than MFP. If you put in that you will exercise 3 times a week, it's not going to be too accurate because it has no idea how much you're going to burn. I would do sedentary and use that as a net calorie goal.

Oh and yes, it works, that's how I've always done it and I've lost steadily.

Kattaway

Okay, I have over 100lbs to lose and MFP allots me 1650 calories a day, zigzag is telling me 2546 a day, that's like 800 more calories a day?? And 2518 for maintenance? How is that even possible to lose weight when only eating 50 calories less to maintain???

It comes out like this:

Monday 2518 2456 2456
Tuesday 2456 2456 2456
Wednesday 3022 2948 2948
Thursday 2518 2456 2456
Friday 2456 2456 2456
Saturday 2770 2702 2702
Sunday 2518 2456 2456

2hungariangirls

Okay, I have over 100lbs to lose and MFP allots me 1650 calories a day, zigzag is telling me 2546 a day, that's like 800 more calories a day?? And 2518 for maintenance? How is that even possible to lose weight when only eating 50 calories less to maintain???

It comes out like this:

Monday 2518 2456 2456
Tuesday 2456 2456 2456
Wednesday 3022 2948 2948
Thursday 2518 2456 2456
Friday 2456 2456 2456
Saturday 2770 2702 2702
Sunday 2518 2456 2456

What did you put in for exercise? Remember that MFP already figures in the deficit when you enter your exercise. 1650 is what MFP says, but if you exercise and burn 400 calories that day then MFP changes for you. That day MFP says to eat 2050.

The other site doesn't have the deficit figured in it. So it is pretty close to what you should be eating if you are exercising.

ClascyParra

thanks for the post....
going to bump to save the site

sondra216379

Wow, I don't know if I could eat that many calories!! It's telling me 1790 and then up to 2100, thats way more than i have been eating!

Wisemomoffour

I listed to one of Jillian Michael's podcasts. She said she beleives in zigzagging but essentially simplified the zig zagging into a spike day. She tells her clients to eat 1200 6 days per seek and then 2000 one day.

That makes it way easier! May have to try this!

AmyM713

Ok so theres maintenance (keeping you at same weight), fat loss (losing weight), and extreme fat loss (higher weight loss faster) is that correct?

So for a person like me that has only 10lbs to lose I would go with the middle column?

MaryEffingPoppins

IDK if I could eat that many calories. It's telling me a whole bunch

SammyKatt

I was doing this last year and loved it! totally forgot about it!

How would you keep track of that on here tho? Just set your cal limit for the higher numbers?

yorkies2

It says for me to eat 1396, I can't even make it to 1200 a day that MFP wants me to eat.

yorkies2

IDK if I could eat that many calories. It's telling me a whole bunch

There is no way I could.

Brown_Eyed_Beauty

I went to the site and got a higher calorie goal as well. Took a picture of it and saved it to my phone for reference. Someone in a previous topic of mine mentioned my calorie goal isn't high enough. I did change my program on here still going with the MFP method, just made it so I lose 1 pound at a time. If I don't notice a difference I'll try the zig zag program. Thanks for the info!

Another thing I may try is eating the calories MFP adds back when I exercise only every other day. that kind of looks like the zig zag diet anyway.

joybell32

considering this... should it only be done as a jump start and to break a plateau, or can it be done safely for longer?

kstep88

interesting...

kstep88

I love Jillian- but I tried that and it did not even out at the end of the week. I gained from it... My body has to do small changes here and there. I can't go from 1200 cals to 2000 cals without a gain.. Just not the way my body works.. I wish though!


and to use this properly without confusion..

I would set the exercise to sedentary (as another poster mentioned) and then let that be your net after exercise or goal without exercise. It is easier that way....

ACEgirl1

Thank you! :flowerforyou:

E1rlindsay

If you go to the site http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm the values they give you are not net calories. You put in how much you exercise and the zig zag you are given are the number of calories you are supposed to eat. I am doing Insanity and I put in that I exercise 5/week intense and am going by what numbers it gave me. Some days, I burn 400 calories and only eat 1360 TOTAL calories. This makes my "net" less than 1000. Some days, though, I am eating nearly 1800 calories. I just want to be sure that if people are using this site, they don't put in an exercise level and then also eat back exercise calories. This might make you much less successful.

Sorry, i'm attempting to start zig-zagging to help break a month long plateau...so i DON'T eat back the exercise calories?? I tried the calculator on freedieting.com and it didn't seem to make a difference how much or how intense my exercise, my calorie recommendation always seemed the same. If i shoot for 1512, as recommended today, and burn 600 calories i should or should not eat them back? That would leave me under 1000 calories net!

E1rlindsay

okay, nevermind, i was looking at the "extreme fat loss"...i see under the "fat loss" section it varies anywhere from 1512-2300! so i'm guessing that's calories in TOTAL, not net, after subtracting exercise....is that right??

Kayla165

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been stuck at the same weight for 5 weeks now. I have tried everything upping/lowering calories. upping and lowering exercise nothing is working. I am starting the zig zag monday. Thank you so much for this I really hope that it works.

jmsouth5

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm. This is so great, and makes it so simple! I tend to seriously overthink stuff reading post after post. I used this freedieting site, did the body fat calculator and it broke it down to calories per day that I could agree with and not work against. I am starting this TODAY. Why wait??? I need to shock my body, and I have been depriving my body of calories which makes total sense why I am not loosing an ounce for multiple weeks. I will post next month with an update to this post.

nomorebingesgirl2014

Bump