Calorie Averaging keeps Metabolism guessing?

tcrchris
tcrchris Posts: 4
in Food and Nutrition
I have read that calorie averaging can be very helpful in keeping your Metabolism active. I would be curious to get any thoughts on this. For instance, let's assume you have determined you need to consume 1500 calories per day. One day, you consume 1800 calories, the next day you consume 1200 calories, the following day you consume 1500 calories, then 1100 the next, etc... Essentially, average out an entire week so that it is 1500 calories. Exercise all you want, I'm just curious about the part about keeping your metabolism guessing.

I have read several forums on the Internet that encourage this, and I wanted to know if anybody else does this and what the results are; compared to strictly eating 1500 calories a day (or whatever your calorie amount is)? Seems to make sense, but does it really average out and does it really work?

Replies

  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Generally speaking your metabolism doesn't guess and steady intakes are just as effective as staggered intakes provided that you're comparing apples to apples in terms of average intake.

    I don't believe the idea of "spike days" has any appreciable effect on the upregulation of metabolic hormones because they downregulate rather immediately when calories are brought back down. Same with Leptin.

    Cliffs: Let personal preference dictate how you go about this. If you ENJOY having higher intake days, OR you do it for specific performance reasons, so be it. I find steady intake to be simpler, and thus superior.
  • VMarkV
    VMarkV Posts: 522 Member
    The whole "confuse your metabolism" (and muscles for that matter) is ridiculous. Your body uses mixed fuel sources...it uses what's available.

    No need to worry about cycling calories, you can't target (isolate) fat stores as a fuel without using other sources...stick to a calorie deficit. Body fat is the most abundant fuel source and will be utilized in a calorie deficit unless you're in severe trauma or have some kind of endocrine/hormone tomfoolery going on...yes, patience, time, and committment before you think you have this problem.

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