Calorie Cycling

Here is a good article with place to plug in your numbers and get a plan

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hugo19.htm

Cheers,
Kitty

I am bumping this to hold onto those web sites til I get home! Sorry!

Couple of things:

1) You shouldn't calorie cycle - you should CARB cycle. Its an advanced body building method for shedding fat pre-contest. Your protein and fat requirements always remain the same as your body needs to repair/generate hormones, etc - carbs are the only variable and should reflect your activity for the day. If you're sat at home doing nothing then low carbs. If you're climbing the side of a mountain, you need a lot. This is why it appears that the overall calories are shifting up and down when they're actually not.

I currently cycle carbs by having 6 low days (<0.75g per 1lb of body weight approx) and 1 high day (>2g per 1lb body weight approx). The high day tricks the body in to thinking that its calorie restriction period is over and it returns hormones related to weight loss to original, higher levels.


2) This '1200 calories is the law' idea that is floating around MFP is completely and utterly incorrect. MFP runs off a generic calculation and is not tailored to your personal body genetics - if you're blindly following the MFP recommendation chances are you're starving your body and sabotaging your overall weight loss goals. You must work out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and NEVER go below that number (for most women the number is actually around 1400-1600 calories per day). Any lower and your body will shut down hormone production of the ones that you need to lose weight in order to maintain energy. It will also shed metabolically active lean muscle mass until it reaches a level where it can maintain your body weight with those ultra low calories (and when you return to a normal eating plan the lbs will pile on quickly). Once you have your BMR you can then factor in the calories you require for exercise and will end up with a sensible number of calories which won't damage your health!

This link will give you a pretty good estimation of your BMR:
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

This link provides the numbers you must multiply to reflect your weekly activity, the resultant number is your current maintenance level:
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

I guarantee the numbers produced will be far higher then MFP, this is due to the theory behind the algorithm it's programmed with. You should only ever drop a maximum of 15-20% below your maintenance level to ensure that weight loss is steady and healthy. Once weight loss slows you can drop another 15-20% but as with everything in life, you can't speed it up by dropping a massive amount (its like taking paracetemol - 1 tablet might take 30 minutes to kill the pain, but you wouldn't take 16 tablets to make it happen faster because it's dangerous - precisely the same with weight loss)

Quick example of how the BMR works using me:
My BMR: 2024 calories a day MINIMUM
x Activity: 2781 calories
- 20% : Approx 2250 calories per day.

I use this method with a simple carb rotation detailed above and lose 2lbs a week with no problems and definitely no starvation! (MFP wants me to eat 1200 a day also to get these results)