Who zig zags calories

sjwhite7

After seeing how many people read the Burn Fat, feed the Muscle book, I decided to read it for myself. I was wondering who all does the zig zag method and have been successful using it. The concept really intrigues me especially since I have hit a plateau. Just wondering how long you have been using this method and how it has helped you?

dinosnopro

came in expecting a completely different topic.....

sjwhite7

What topic did you expect?

stuffinmuffin

I zig-zag my calories to fit in with my lifestyle. I've never heard of the diet book you refer to or followed any particular rules when doing it. Generally I follow this pattern though...

Midweek eat to my calorie amount (this is a rule every day). Save some exercise cals back (around half that I've earned).
If I'm going out midweek then I'll try and do a bigger workout and eat/drink to my calorie limit.
One day (or occasionally) two days a weekend I will have a high calorie day (e.g. going out for a meal or/and drinks with friends) sometimes hitting up to 3000 calories. (I will eat light during the day though).
My rule is not to exceed my weekly net cals not necessarilly daily ones and apart from probably twice in the last year, I've built up enough 'bank' cals to cover.
My life just doesn't fit into eating a calorie amount each day of the week.

I never plateaued during weight loss. x

gsager

I have, I call it a spike day. On my off day I add 1200 calories too my net so I eat about 2400 calories or a little more that day. I always eat back my exercise calories and I never feel deprived.

linzirussell

ive always done this, i couldnt eat exactly the 'right' number of calories everyday, sometimes im realllllly hungry, sometimes im not lol. so if i wake up one day and feel the need to eat a lots of pb or a pizza or chocolate, i will i sometimes go up to like 3500 calories on days like this (usually once a week or every 2 weeks). but then other days ill eat like 600-700 calories and its always from like healthy foods on days like this, just vegtables and protein and maybe oatmeal:) its called the spike 84 diet and I LOVE IT! and iv consistently lost weight, from 282 to like 170, got 20 pounds to go! (i did gain like 6 pounds over christmas but its gone again now)!

sjwhite7

I have heard of The Spike Diet as well but I wonder if the concepts from both books are the same?

meshashesha2012

i do this but it's not on purpose. I tend to go by when i'm hungry. Some days i'm well below my daily requirements other days i'm way over. on a weekly basis it all evens out and i do make sure to keep an eye on it. for instance if i see i have 2 days in a week where i've only had 900 calories i wont freak out a day i end up eating 2400 calories, but i'll make sure i wont have any other days like that in the week.

heybales

I have heard of The Spike Diet as well but I wonder if the concepts from both books are the same?

They are.

The idea is that you undercut your BMR by a healthy amount, either intentionally or accidentally as MFP has ones do if you select the wrong goal weight loss.

But then that spike day gives the extra calories to balance it on a weekly basis so your metabolism doesn't just slow down to compensate.

The zig zag ends up doing the same thing over several days of balancing.

You could also just eat the same amount every day and include weekly exercise in there, and your rest days would be automatic spike days, and lighter days and heavier days for workouts would be your zig zag days.

That's what you get automatically with
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/477666-eating-for-future-you-method