Zig-Zagging Calories

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Jubee13
Jubee13 Posts: 132 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am sooooo close to my goal weight - five pounds - and the weight is coming off very, very slowly. The past two weeks, I lost 1/2 pound total. I am staying at 1,200 calories and exercise five/six days a week. I thought about trying zig-zagging my calories for two reasons. One, to hopefully give my metabolism a little boost so that it won't be so hard to maintain. Two, to one and for all get these few pounds off!! Has anyone tried this?

Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.
  • slaite1
    slaite1 Posts: 1,307 Member
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    I've done it, but for sanity! If you are having a hard time sticking to your calorie goals, it's better to have 1 or 2 days at a couple hundred extra calories than it is to binge.

    If, however, 1200 calories is fine by you, I would suggest adding in a lite extra exercise, or just being patient. When you don't have a lot to lose it comes off sloooowwwwly.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    Your
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    Your
    Grammar policing your own post...respect...

    To OP: If you want to do it for convenience or to allow yourself some higher calorie days, then by all means, stagger your calories. It will not increase your metabolism at all though. Nor will it inherently help you lose the last few lbs. What it might do is inadvertently help you stick to your deficit better. That could help you lose the last few lbs. But as Lis said, tightening up your logging is going to be the best thing to help shed the stubborn fat.


  • amandastock
    amandastock Posts: 53 Member
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    If you are exercising 5-6 days away have you gained muscle? You could actually require a few more calories now that you are leaner. A lot of health pros recommend this and it might work for you to try 1300-1700 and see what happens. Case in point -http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/193m19/i_started_eating_more_calories_to_lose_my_last/
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    This.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    amandastock wrote: »
    If you are exercising 5-6 days away have you gained muscle? You could actually require a few more calories now that you are leaner. A lot of health pros recommend this and it might work for you to try 1300-1700 and see what happens. Case in point -http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/193m19/i_started_eating_more_calories_to_lose_my_last/

    You don't gain muscle at a calorie deficit. As you get smaller, your calorie amount gets smaller, not bigger.

    There is nothing magical in zig-zagging calories, such as the person in the article proclaims. She simply started fueling her body better, which probably increased her energy level to the point where she was able to step up her exercise. Also, she continued to eat in a deficit because, otherwise, she would not have lost weight. There was some miscalculation going on somewhere, because if she'd really been eating 1200 calories she would have lost weight.

    So, whether or not you zig-zag calories is personal preference only and irrelevant to weight loss.
  • Jubee13
    Jubee13 Posts: 132 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    I weigh, measure, and log everything. Also, I exercise for an hour six days a week, so I don't feel I could add more exercise.
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    This. It took me almost 3 months to lose the last 5lbs. You have less room for error at this point so it's important to make sure you're logging as accurately as you can.

  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    edited March 2015
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    What Im going to say is on my thoughts of someting i read about, and seems to make sense in theory...please dont slay me if Im totally wrong!! Just guide me :)

    But what about taking a break from dieting, and eating at maintenance for a week or two. A little bit of weight gain as the body reajusts would be normal, but then at maintenance, you wouldnt gain or lose weight..just maintain..and give your body a chance to take a break from always being in a deficit...so that it can just function normally for awhile.

    Then once you have done that, can then go back to dieting, create a deficit based off what you now know are the calories you need to maintain, and hopefully see more loss as you continue on from there.

    Does that make sense? I hope so, because I dont want to stay in deficit for several months at a time til I reach goal, Id like to be able to just take a break for physical / mental reasons, and eat at maintenance for a little bit, then go back to focusing on weight loss.
  • Jubee13
    Jubee13 Posts: 132 Member
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    Dragn77 wrote: »
    What Im going to say is on my thoughts of someting i read about, and seems to make sense in theory...please dont slay me if Im totally wrong!! Just guide me :)

    But what about taking a break from dieting, and eating at maintenance for a week or two. A little bit of weight gain as the body reajusts would be normal, but then at maintenance, you wouldnt gain or lose weight..just maintain..and give your body a chance to take a break from always being in a deficit...so that it can just function normally for awhile.

    Then once you have done that, can then go back to dieting, create a deficit based off what you now know are the calories you need to maintain, and hopefully see more loss as you continue on from there.

    Does that make sense? I hope so, because I dont want to stay in deficit for several months at a time til I reach goal, Id like to be able to just take a break for physical / mental reasons, and eat at maintenance for a little bit, then go back to focusing on weight loss.

    Yes, that makes complete sense. As much as I want to get these last few pounds off, I'm really getting worn down exercising so much and eating so little. I think staying at maintenance for a few weeks would be helpful for me right now. I ate very little yesterday with plans to eat more today, and I feel awful. I couldn't even complete my run this morning. Thank you for the advice.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    Your

    That kind of attention to detail is one of the reasons why I luvs ya @Liftng4Lis‌
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    Your

    That kind of attention to detail is one of the reasons why I luvs ya @Liftng4Lis‌

    I know, how embarrassing, right!
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    Jubee13 wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    You're metabolism doesn't need a "boost". The last five to ten are the hardest and you need to really tighten your logging.

    I weigh, measure, and log everything. Also, I exercise for an hour six days a week, so I don't feel I could add more exercise.

    Please open your diary, it's the only way we can give concrete feedback on logging issues.

    Also, the last few pounds always take longer to lose, so you're going to have to be patient.

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