General question about fluctuating calorie intake

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seanoca1
seanoca1 Posts: 7
in Food and Nutrition
I should preface this by saying I'm not trying to lose a significant amount of weight (2 -3 lbs at most) and I exercise about 10 hours a week between road biking and working out. My trainer recommended using MFP so that I can start eating better (I eat out almost every night as a function of my job). I usually stay within a 2000 calorie per day average, but I'll have days where I am significantly under or over that number by several hundred calories.

My question is, what are the effects of having this type of fluctuation in my calorie intake? Btw, My MFP is public, but definitely not for the feint of heart. All I can say is.. I'm working on it!

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  • AggieCass09
    AggieCass09 Posts: 1,867 Member
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    i do the similar thing on purpose...i'm also burning lots of calories on my long runs (similar to your biking) and then on rest days i dont eat a whole lot.


    personally i LOVE fluccuating (or zig-zagging) as I call it and have blogged extensively about it. SO long as you are eating ENOUGH to refuel your body after hard work outs (protein too!!!) you should be good. Try looking on a weekly perspective also.
  • TubbsMcGee
    TubbsMcGee Posts: 1,058 Member
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    By not eating a set amount of calories every day, you're tricking your body into jump-starting your metabolism and keeping it on its toes.

    If you haven't heard of calorie cycling, check this out:
    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

    For months I was always eating the same amount of calories every day. Switching things up every day got me out of my plateau.
  • seanoca1
    seanoca1 Posts: 7
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    awesome info - thanks! I still need to clean up my diet before I start "zig-zagging" on purpose, but good to know that I'm not hurting myself by doing so.

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