advice to keep metabolism hopping?

hmadrone

During my last weight loss journey, I tanked my metabolism. I was logging everything really strictly (weighing everything) and still ended up losing weight at a slower rate than the numbers said I should. I figured my calorie usage was really 200-400 fewer than the math said it should be. I just let it go as one of the side effects for being on a calorie deficit for a long time.

This time, I'd like to keep my metabolism burning at a higher rate. I've read about cyclical calorie deficits and taking recovery periods, and that makes sense to me. I want to schedule in times when I'm consuming my TDEE so I can keep my burn going.

How often should I do this? I've heard some people do it one day a week or one day every two weeks, while others take a couple of weeks after 6-12 weeks of calorie deficit.

Mokey41

Your metabolism doesn't bounce around like that. It is what it is unless you've been in severe starvation for an extended period of time. All the tricks and potions won't change the metabolism that you were born with.

cmriverside

Calorie cycling is extremely difficult to get right. It isn't as simple as 1100 one day and 1600 the next.....you really need to know what you are doing with it.

Just eat the same every day, get some exercise, do it for month. Adjust in small incremements if necessary. Unless you really have the time for all the spreadsheets and nutrition tracking you need to do in cycling.

billsica

I woudl take a look at the phone app if you can. it has some great weekly charts that you can kind of see were you are at.
I couldn't get the hang of calorie zig zagging, but if I have a major burn I sometimes need it to see how I'm doing for the week