zig-zagging

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tjradd73
tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been stuck in a plateau for about 4 months now (within 6lbs diff only), and I have tried pretty much everything to break through it, from adding more exercise, to adding more strength training, to upping my calories, and upping my carbs...and nothing is working! Now I think that I may try my own version of zig-zagging to see if that works?!

My version (with exercise I am suppossed to get around 1450 cals/day.)

Sun-1100
Mon-1100
Tue-1050
Wed-1400
Thu-2800 (my cheat day)
Fri-1400
Sat-1300

for an avg of 1450

so...I want to know what you "experts" think about my version of it, and if you think that it will help break me through like zig-zagging is suppossed to do?!

Thanks!

Replies

  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    Seems more like a spike diet pattern, but spike diets do work in bumping metabolism as well. Try it for a few weeks and see if it works for you, Teej. I zig-zag-spike on occasion and my weight is looser than an old slot machine hooker. Pretty much moves in any direction I want it to go. Lol.
  • sd892310
    sd892310 Posts: 151
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    Tara, your daily calorie goal is the same as mine and as you know i've been stuck in the same plateau (up and down 5lbs) for last 3 months. Hope you dont mind if i use your zig-zagging plan and see if can break trhough this plateau with you?

    Can't offer advice on if it is going to work as havent tried this yet - hopefully few more people will comment and let us know this!
  • tjradd73
    tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
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    D-man-nice analogy...LOL!!! I will def give it a try and see what's up!! hopefully, I can be in the "loose" weight club soon...seein as I wouldn't want to use that term in any other situation!

    sd-awesome!!! I will be starting it tomorrow (Wed) I sure hope it works...I'm soooooooo sick of this number on the scale! let me know how it goes for you too!
  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
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    haha, I'm not an "expert" but I can only speak from my own personal experience. It worked for me as I tend to eat more especially protein during my weight training days & less when I'm in cardio & even lesser when I'm on my "rest day". That's my routine even now in my maintenance stage.
  • tjradd73
    tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
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    haha, I'm not an "expert" but I can only speak from my own personal experience. It worked for me as I tend to eat more especially protein during my weight training days & less when I'm in cardio & even lesser when I'm on my "rest day". That's my routine even now in my maintenance stage.



    thanks for the tip! I sure hope it works better then being consistent every day!! and you look great btw...congrats!
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    haha, I'm not an "expert" but I can only speak from my own personal experience. It worked for me as I tend to eat more especially protein during my weight training days & less when I'm in cardio & even lesser when I'm on my "rest day". That's my routine even now in my maintenance stage.



    thanks for the tip! I sure hope it works better then being consistent every day!! and you look great btw...congrats!

    That is good tip, eating more on workout days and less on non-workout days. You can always adjust your macros that way too, higher percentage of carbs on workout days less on non. Basically, determine what your total calorie intake for the week should be and work backward.

    Say its 1,200/day then thats 8,400 for the week. If you were going to maintain an even distribution 1,200 calories is roughly 14.3% of the 8,400 calories. The just change that up to maybe workout days are 16%-18% of your weekly calories and non-workout days are something less than 14%, just make sure it all totals 8400.
  • tjradd73
    tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
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    That is good tip, eating more on workout days and less on non-workout days. You can always adjust your macros that way too, higher percentage of carbs on workout days less on non. Basically, determine what your total calorie intake for the week should be and work backward.

    Say its 1,200/day then thats 8,400 for the week. If you were going to maintain an even distribution 1,200 calories is roughly 14.3% of the 8,400 calories. The just change that up to maybe workout days are 16%-18% of your weekly calories and non-workout days are something less than 14%, just make sure it all totals 8400.

    so my plan is...I get a base of 1200 cals/day per MFP...I, on average burn 250 cals/exercise day...this puts me to 1450 cals...which is a total of 10150 cals/week. My carb to protein ratio is (and will stay, for now) 55% carb, 25% protein, and 20% fat each and every day, no matter how much I eat! The only thing is...while doing JM DVD's I am working out 6 days/week and burning approx the same amount of cals each time, so there wouldn't be much increase/decrease based on that right now! So...this is how I picked my cals the way I did...I weigh on Wed and have my cheat on Thursday (my highest cal day by far) and then I have my 3 lowest days while at work (cuz it's easier), with my lowest being the day before my WI. I think this is the closest that I can get to actual zig-zagging.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Options

    That is good tip, eating more on workout days and less on non-workout days. You can always adjust your macros that way too, higher percentage of carbs on workout days less on non. Basically, determine what your total calorie intake for the week should be and work backward.

    Say its 1,200/day then thats 8,400 for the week. If you were going to maintain an even distribution 1,200 calories is roughly 14.3% of the 8,400 calories. The just change that up to maybe workout days are 16%-18% of your weekly calories and non-workout days are something less than 14%, just make sure it all totals 8400.

    so my plan is...I get a base of 1200 cals/day per MFP...I, on average burn 250 cals/exercise day...this puts me to 1450 cals...which is a total of 10150 cals/week. My carb to protein ratio is (and will stay, for now) 55% carb, 25% protein, and 20% fat each and every day, no matter how much I eat! The only thing is...while doing JM DVD's I am working out 6 days/week and burning approx the same amount of cals each time, so there wouldn't be much increase/decrease based on that right now! So...this is how I picked my cals the way I did...I weigh on Wed and have my cheat on Thursday (my highest cal day by far) and then I have my 3 lowest days while at work (cuz it's easier), with my lowest being the day before my WI. I think this is the closest that I can get to actual zig-zagging.

    Yeah I understand that. I had thought about doing that with my calories but I'm on a 6-day training split too so personally it just didn't seem to matter much.
  • sd892310
    sd892310 Posts: 151
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    sd-awesome!!! I will be starting it tomorrow (Wed) I sure hope it works...I'm soooooooo sick of this number on the scale! let me know how it goes for you too!

    Cool, i'll start mine tomorrow too, fingers crossed we'll get through this plateau and soon!!
  • tjradd73
    tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
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    sd-awesome!!! I will be starting it tomorrow (Wed) I sure hope it works...I'm soooooooo sick of this number on the scale! let me know how it goes for you too!

    Cool, i'll start mine tomorrow too, fingers crossed we'll get through this plateau and soon!!




    AGREED!!!!!! LET'S DO THIS!!!!

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