Overeating calories one day, cutting it out the next

Yes. It's not healthy. You should never eat less than 1200 on any given day. You are going to play all sorts of games with your metabolism and cause it to slow if you do that on a regular basis. Try to focus more on self control every day.

I don't think its a problem at all. Although thinking of it as a "punishment" might not be the right word, you might make a bad mental connection and then cause you to overeat again or something. But to lose 1 lb. a week you need to have a deficit of 3500 calories in that 7 day period, your body doesn't really care how the calories were spread out... just that there has been that deficit.

Actually it could be considered calorie cycling if you the calorie difference wasn't so big. Calorie cycling can trick the metabolism into going up because it can't keep up with the changes but it may be a little unhealthy the way you're doing because the difference in the amount of calories is so great. I calorie cycle sometime but it's usually only the difference of between 400 calories or so. I am not an expert on calorie cycling or eating right but I hope this helps. Good Luck with your weight loss journey.

No, that doesn't work. You can't "bank calories"....a calorie is a calorie and a day is a day. Your goal is to be reached in a 24 hour period. When you are over, you are over. Eating over is going to hinder your weight loss and so is eating under 1200. It is best if you strive to net a minimum of 1200 calories a day. There is calorie zig zagging, but you don't eat under 1000 calories when you zig zag. If you are trying to zig zag google it so you do it the right way.

If you eat that little the next day, you'll probably get really hungry and end up eating more anyway! It's best not to get into a cycle of eating loads and then hardly any, so if you eat a bit more than planned one day, just accept it and move on and eat 'normally' the next day.

2200 isn't really that much anyway, and 850 calories is WAY too little to be surviving on! Punishing yourself will just make you feel worse about yourself. I've been guilty of doing this in the past, and it's a lot less stressful just moving on with your life and forgetting a bit of overindulgence .

I thought this practice, on occasion, is what is meant by "zigzagging." No?

Zigzagging is usually a few hundred calorie difference a day. Not something this large. And I would never recommend zigging or zagging under 1200 for any reason.

There is a difference between calorie banking - which is what you're describing - and calorie cycling, or 'zigzagging' your calories. Typically when someone banks their calories, they go over on their sodium, fat, carbs, etc. The scale will then show a gain. When you then 'starve' off your calories, it will take longer to lose that weight gain - even though it's not technically there (unless you eat like 10,000 calories in a day). Cycling your calories is typically a difference of no more than 300 calories between days. So on day 1, you eat 1200, day 2 you eat 1500, and day 3 you eat 1200 again. This tricks your metabolism into trying to keep up with what you're doing AND you don't fall below the 1200 a day that your body needs to survive.

Banking calories, IMO, is unhealthy. What concerns me even more is your statement that you'll 'punish' yourself by eating 800. Your diet is NOT a punishment, it's a way to feed your body.

I'm new to calorie counting and the healthy eating stuff and I find that I accidentally zig zag due to me just not being experienced enough. its always seemingly under... then I make up for it with beer at the end of the day.. this helps me not drink as much either. Is this ok to do?