Calorie Cycling?

darleyschroeder
darleyschroeder Posts: 322
in Food and Nutrition
Calorie cycling/zig zagging.
Does anybody here do it, have done and did it work for you? Was it helpful?

I have been thinking about changing my calorie intake daily. I have stalled the last 2 weeks, haven't had much of a change in the scale and was wondering if cycling would help.

Maybe a few days of 1,100-1,200 and a day of 1,600 and keep doing that or changing it up to see what happens. I would still do my cardio along with it as well.

Replies

  • tachyon_master
    tachyon_master Posts: 226 Member
    I been doing it for about 6 months. But I didn't start until I had a fairly good grasp on my exercise output and the calories in the foods I eat most often so I could figure out how to balance it out.

    You need to keep a pretty close eye on your calories and accurately log everything, but it's worked for me. Ultimately, it came down to the fact that I wanted a "cheat meal" occasionally and this was a simple way to allow for it.
  • darleyschroeder
    darleyschroeder Posts: 322
    It does seem like a good way to get in a cheat meal. I was thinking of doing 3 days at 1,200 calories, 1 day at 1,600 and then 3 days of 1,200...repeat. I'd like to give this a try for 1-2 weeks and see how it goes. This would average out to 1,300 calories daily.
    On the 1,200 calorie days I could do a light walk and some ab work.
    On the 1,600 calorie days I could do strength/cardio circuit for about an hour.
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    Ha I've been doing this (kind of) and not even realised I'm on the last 10 pound stretch and losing a pound a week (my weight loss has actually sped up from half a pound a week), I used to call it the week day diet, because I'm very good during my working week when I have a scheduled lunch and limited access to food, but my weekends can be chaotic and social so it's hard to be as good, I didn't realise it was a thing!

    I try to gross 1400 a day (just over my BMR) during the week and usually top 2000 Sat and Sunday (sometimes over 3000 0_o) I'd say my net daily average is around the 1500-1600 mark and because I don't feel like I'm on a diet every day I don't crack and could carry on indefinatley. I would definatley recommend it, I feel like I have a nice steady loss. :) ... although maybe avoid the 3000+ boozy food weekends too often lol ;P

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