Calorie Shifting & Excercise

trishagayler

I am going to start the calorie shifting type diet. I have lost 13 pounds on a traditional 1200 calories but I don't want to slow down my metabolism. I always eat the amount of calorie I burn in excercise. I burn alot, especially on the weekends. I would like to know if anyone can help me figure out how I incorporate excercise into the calorie shifting. Especially on the very high days, do I eat my excercise calories or not? If so, that's a lot of calories! Thanks in advance!
Trisha

linzismith

I just started calorie shifting and I also have the same question. I exercise a lot every day so I was assuming that even with calorie shifting, I still eat my exercise calories. (If not, on a low calorie day I would barely be eating 800 net calories, which I don't think is enough).

can anyone confirm this? if you calorie shift (1200 cals one day, 1600 the next), your calorie goals are net calorie goals, not gross, right?

trishagayler

I work out every other day....so another question is....is it better to excercise on high calorie days or low calorie days....

sheri3762

I changed up what I do about 4 weeks ago. I wanted to calorie shift (zig-zag) and wasn't sure how it would work with excercise so this is what I did. I went to a calculator site and figured out what I burn at an active level (I'm always busy!) and then subtracted 1000 calories a day from this. My daily burn is about 2600 calories (this does include 5 days of excercise for 1 hour). So, then I set my calories on MFP to 1540 per day. I don't eat 1540 each day, I switch it around. Example, yesterday I had 2200 calories (Actually, thats the most I've ever had on one day. Had a lot more carbs and sugar, but it was Sunday and we ate out twice!! I suffered with a stomach ache all night for it too!) Anyway, 2200 yesterday, so today I only ate 1300. tomorrow I'm going to have about 1400 and Wednesday 1500. 13oo for Thursday, 1600 for Friday and 1800 for Saturday. This is just an example of part of my plan, will prob change given next weekends plans. this way I can eat more calories on the weekend if I need them. I always try to make Thur or Fri and Monday are lower cal days to compensate. I excercise 5 times a week Usually make sure I excercise on Fri and Sun to help with the increased caloreis. . . I'm averaging about a 1 pound loss per week. I've lost 40 pounds so far and have about 18 to go so I'm REALLY happy with a 1 pound a week loss.

Hope this helps or gives you some ideas on how to try the zig-zag approach!!! Good luck!!!