My Plateau Nutrition Story, Learn from my mistakes.

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this thread is awesome....love it! thank you so much I am going to try the zig zag method...

Good read!

With the way I eat, I'm thinking a ZigZag method may serve me well, since I have troubles eating my calories on most days I will go high on some days and low on others but at the end of the week I will have eating the same calories. Any one have any idea if the Zig Zag method works??

I zig-zag and I love it. Seems to be working well for me as I am losing but never feel deprived. I don't follow the numbers given at that website though. I just eat less calories some days so I can splurge on others when I need to because I'm more hungry than normal or I have an occasion where I want to. I then just look at my total calories for the week and make sure I'm close to my weekly target calories by the end of the week. That's easier for me than trying to shoot for different intake numbers on different days that might not match up with the days I'm hungrier or have those special events to attend.

Oh my gosh thank you for talking about this! On the days I do heavy lifting or zumba I end up with a huge calorie deficit and just can't eat it all back. On the following day I am super hungry and end up eating over my calories. So basically I would be able to just shoot for my weekly goal as opposed to killing myself to meet the daily ones?

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With the way I eat, I'm thinking a ZigZag method may serve me well, since I have troubles eating my calories on most days I will go high on some days and low on others but at the end of the week I will have eating the same calories. Any one have any idea if the Zig Zag method works??

I zig-zag and I love it. Seems to be working well for me as I am losing but never feel deprived. I don't follow the numbers given at that website though. I just eat less calories some days so I can splurge on others when I need to because I'm more hungry than normal or I have an occasion where I want to. I then just look at my total calories for the week and make sure I'm close to my weekly target calories by the end of the week. That's easier for me than trying to shoot for different intake numbers on different days that might not match up with the days I'm hungrier or have those special events to attend.

Oh my gosh thank you for talking about this! On the days I do heavy lifting or zumba I end up with a huge calorie deficit and just can't eat it all back. On the following day I am super hungry and end up eating over my calories. So basically I would be able to just shoot for my weekly goal as opposed to killing myself to meet the daily ones?

Yes. It's working for me. And I don't feel deprived on days my hunger is stronger. Nor do I feel like I have to force-feed myself on days my hunger is less. Or on days when I've eaten so clean and had so many veggies that I'm full and just can't add more calories without feeling stuffed.

It's very freeing and I don't even feel like I'm on a diet. Last week I went out for Mexican food one day and enjoyed a chimichanga, rice and beans. Another day, I had a huge cinnamon roll. And I still came out just a bit under my weekly target because I had a couple low calorie days to balance it out.

If you have a smartphone, the app on there does something much better than here at the website. When you go into the weekly tab, it actually tells you a number instead of just a bar graph. So you know exactly how many calories you have left, for example, on Saturday night if you're going out and want to splurge and use some of them. If you don't have access to that, you do have to track and add up your calories separately somewhere.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

thank you so much, that was some great information!!! Thank you for the advice--I will definitely apply that information to my own journey!

Awesome story. I, too, just broke a 2 month plateau and now I'm working hard at eating a minimum of 1200 net calories. I'm also thinking I need to start strength training and will get a trainer to teach me what to do so I can be most effective.

Definitely need to check out that book. Thanks for sharing your story....it's one that needs to be shared!!!

Once I verify my plateau is over, going to post my story as well. Very good information from the poster.

One thing that I did that seems to have worked (did about everything that I could think of...I do eat my exercise calories back...goal 1 pound/week...MFP and the link had close to same goals for me)

I don't know which of these may have caused the movement again, so will post both. One...I used to do zumba and cardio jam because they gave me the biggest burn for my minute (avg HR 175 per Polar FT60 HRM), even though my HRM gave me goals of set hours of exercise between 120-150. I didn't listen because 'a calorie is a calorie', right?

After reading some articles/medical journals/etc, I decided that it appears that a calorie isn't a calorie and I started focusing on 4 hours with heart rate 115-130 and 3 hrs of 130-150, per my watch recommendations. It appears, from reading articles, that when you get into high heart rate zones, you burn what is readily available (carbs/muscle), but when you exercise slower your body can burn actual fat. I love zumba, so I hate that I gave it up...but I can go to it when my cardio function needs more push for the goal heart rate.

Another thing I have done was change my macro to 15% fat/65% carb/20% protein, after reading an article from the journal of endocrinology and metabolism re: low fat/high carb diets and the leptin/ghrelin response (and finding regarding increased hunger after weight loss). This article can be found here http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/88/4/1577.full . I know I won't be able to reach the 15% fat goal every day, and I have only done this for a week...so not sure of its effects, but I started this Jan 27th at 163.4 pounds and weighed in today at 161.2.

I also added one a day motabolism multivitamin and phillips colon health (for the probiotics) this last month as well.

Hope something here helps

edited to add--I have a thyroid disorder (goiter), which MAY cause decreased resting metabolism. I do zig zag (method I do is 1430 is the average daily net calories, but reviewed as a week. 2 days, I am 300 calories below 1430 and 1 day amd 500 calories over. I don't stress the '2 days low/1 day high/repeat', I just focus on the week being below 1430 and I have highs and lows for the week. I preset my 'high days' when I know that it will be a high calorie day or a day I can't exercise.)

I apologize if someone asked this already but if it says extreme weight loss 1576 calories --does that mean my net calories should be that or before net?

Hi! 1576 should be your net calories. Believe me- it's hard at first. Or I guess it is for me! I eat all day and still struggle to stuff down all my dinner to get calories in on the days I exercise. I guess though I need to change my eating routines. I'm defniitely a routine girl; I tend to eat the same things everyday with differences here and there. It's a challenge for me to get the higher calories in without going over in carbs or fat! It takes some serious morning planning and food diary trial and error planning my days! It'll all be worth it though! Actually it's all worth it now because seriously- I'm hardly ever starving. I get hungry around lunch time and around dinner time but other than that it's eating and enjoying food to get the calories in. Today I had to get over 1900 calories in- tough! lol Good luck!

OMG having the same "problem"! I can easily eat 1300-1400 net calories but 1500+ is kind of hard for me....although I eat alot of protein....any tips on snacks to take me up a bit on the calories without busting the fat bubble?

Thank you SO much for the info...I've been struggling lately with this darn plateau!

I welcome any advice if anyone wants to check into my food diary. I work out at least 6 days out of 7. I'm on a personal challenge of sorts....I have a Gazelle Glider that's been gathering dusts for a while...well about 3 weeks ago I decided to dust it off because I was sick of running on the the treadmill. So I challenged myself to go on it for 45 min a day, regardless of whatever other exercise I do (I teach yoga 2 times per week). So far I've done it, even when I was sick. I've noticed changes in my figure but was a dummy and didn't get a before measurement.

Thanks again for the advice! Feel free to friend me and/or take a look at my diary.