Critics of the 1200-calorie diet, help me out!!

This is fine but only if you track the calories on the 'splurges' and know what your average is over the week. IMO too complicated and just eat the same calories every day, but whatever.

This is right on. Both parts! I prefer to eat to the same target daily but whatever works to keep your deficit right, go for it.

Waaaaay back in the day there was a thing called the "Wendie plan" which started out in weight watchers. It talked about staggering your points (calories) so that you had low days and high days and the thought was it kept your metabolism guessing so that it didn't slow down, but your average weekly points (calories) were what you were supposed to eat. It was billed as a plateau buster.

For example, if you were to eat 1500 calories a day, that equals 10,500 calories a week. According to the Wendie plan, transferring it from ww points to calories is that your target for the week should be 10,500 calories or less a week, but you'd stagger the calories during the week like this: low/high/low/very high/very low/high/med. high. So you might eat 1100 day one, (low) 1800 the next(high), 1100 the third,(low) 2000 the next,(very high) 1000 the next,(very low) 1800 (high) and then 1700.(medium high) =10,500 calories.

I think the plan could have some merit, but you'd have to be meticulous to count calories and be able to reign it back in on the low calorie days. I also think it can be confusing (is it high or low day? what's medium high, anyway?)

Point being, as long as your total week is within range, a cheat day is probably not going to hurt you as long as you can reign it back in. It didn't work for me, as for ME what works is consistency...but lots of people swear by it.

I guess I am saying this to say that your way reminds me of it and if it works for you.....key is just be honest with yourself and be willing to tweak it if it doesn't. Weight loss is a long term commitment and maintenance is lifetime. Weight gain happens when we stop being careful...ask me how I know! LOL!

Good luck to you in finding what works for you.

Calorie shifting works for me. But I've never done anything really low for multiple days and then binged for a couple. Some days I'm just hungrier than others or I know there's a special occasion that I'll want extra calories for. It helps me not feel guilty if I go over as I know I'll just make it up elsewhere without having to exercise until I want to die. If I do have a day where I go over my calories, I will just subtract a little from each day or make just one day low so that I still have the proper amount of calories for the week.

1200 calories a day won't hurt you. end of story. not unless you have a ridiculous calorie requirement. you will not go into starvation mode, your body will not shut down, you will not bulk. that's all mythos.

Hi, All,

I've seen a lot of criticism on these forums of the 1200-calorie diet, which is what I'm sort of on right now. I completely understand that eating only 1200 a day, 7 days a week, will result in a slowed metabolism, loss of muscle mass, etc. etc. BUT, my question is, does your criticism still apply if I eat 1200/day, FIVE days a week, and then "splurge" with over 2,500 calories the other two days, so that my AVERAGE is around 1500/1600?

I've tried to lose weight a lot of different ways, and I've found the only way that works for me is COMPLETE CONTROL five days a week with two unfettered "cheat days" twice a week. I can't have one treat a day and stop at that (if I had one cookie, I'd have ten cookies...).

Do you still think my metabolism will slow down?!

thanks!

No, but that is almost 1,600 calorie/day average, whatever works for you. If you are not in the obese range, you should be eating more, try TDEE -15%, you don't have that much to lose. I try to eat 1600/day, sometimes a little under, sometimes a little over, but I go by the weekly average.

Waaaaay back in the day there was a thing called the "Wendie plan" which started out in weight watchers. It talked about staggering your points (calories) so that you had low days and high days and the thought was it kept your metabolism guessing so that it didn't slow down, but your average weekly points (calories) were what you were supposed to eat. It was billed as a plateau buster.

The Wendie Plan was the only way WW ever worked well for me way back when .... so I'm doing it again just with calories now. It can get confusing remembering which is high and low so I've written out a little cheat sheet that I taped to my desk, Every morning I adjust my settings here accordingly before I start going about my day. Hopefully it works as well for me now as it did then!

There's also a site that creates a "zig-zag" plan for calories.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Input your info, and when it gives your calorie goal, click on the zig-zag button.