Spike day/diet - what is it?!

Maldivesbeachbodplease
Maldivesbeachbodplease Posts: 444
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all,

So just wondering what this whole spike diet is?!

I generally try and keep calories low-ish (1200-1350 ish) monday - friday and sunday and saturday i tend to have a treat meal which puts my calories for that day up to about 2000.

I do this because i follow the michelle heaton & hugh hanley diet (they have a facebook page) and they say you should have 1 treat meal a week (a MEAL not a treat DAY!).

just wondered what peoples views are?! xxx

Replies

  • Maldivesbeachbodplease
    Maldivesbeachbodplease Posts: 444
    Bump :)
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I've never heard of a spike diet, but a spike day generally refers to a planned day that you eat more than on other days. Usually it's one day a week.
  • bzmommy34
    bzmommy34 Posts: 229 Member
    Many names for more or less (I didn't say exactly) the same program - calorie cycling, zig zagging, spike meal/day. It's the idea that if you bump up your intake for a day or two throughout any given week you will lose more and/or break a plateau. Some say it's because you "trick" your body, give your metabolism a boost, and on and on. I use the gest of this and have averaged 1.4 lbs loss per week.

    :)
  • Russellb97
    Russellb97 Posts: 1,057 Member
    Basically it looks at energy balance over a week versus just each day. The goal is to be in a caloric deficit for the week, with days 1-6 being lower calorie days with BMR as a calorie goal and then 1 day you eat a small surplus of calories to keep hormones and metabolism balanced.

    It's a high protein/fiber diet and you focus on strength training instead of cardio. Many people love it and have been very successful. There's been several men and women who have lost over 100lbs and more importantly they are keeping it off.
  • grendella
    grendella Posts: 158 Member
    Basically it looks at energy balance over a week versus just each day. The goal is to be in a caloric deficit for the week, with days 1-6 being lower calorie days with BMR as a calorie goal and then 1 day you eat a small surplus of calories to keep hormones and metabolism balanced.

    It's a high protein/fiber diet and you focus on strength training instead of cardio. Many people love it and have been very successful. There's been several men and women who have lost over 100lbs and more importantly they are keeping it off.

    true story
  • brucedelaney
    brucedelaney Posts: 433 Member
    Basically it looks at energy balance over a week versus just each day. The goal is to be in a caloric deficit for the week, with days 1-6 being lower calorie days with BMR as a calorie goal and then 1 day you eat a small surplus of calories to keep hormones and metabolism balanced.

    It's a high protein/fiber diet and you focus on strength training instead of cardio. Many people love it and have been very successful. There's been several men and women who have lost over 100lbs and more importantly they are keeping it off.

    I owe about 80% of my weight loss to the Spike Program. More importantly, I owe 100% of continued diet compliance to the Spike Program.
  • AnitraSoto
    AnitraSoto Posts: 725 Member
    I have been following Russ' Spike Life program for 5 weeks, and have lost 5 pounds (and these are the last 10 tough pounds, and so far, they are coming off with ease...) I am a believer, and plan on continuing this indefinietly... Thanks Russ - great program!
  • MistyBlu88
    MistyBlu88 Posts: 5 Member
    How do you do it? Im on my last 10 lbs and I an stuck
  • akiramezu
    akiramezu Posts: 278
    depending on what month it is, cause i switch up my diets monthly cause a single diet gets boring. Generally, on every plan that i have, it will be 5 low calorie days (1000-2000) and 2 high calorie days (4000+) I still lose body fat doing so, the reason i do this is because my muscles would have been depleted of glycogen due to the low carb intake in those 5 days, and low carb is not zero carb, it's still generally 50-100g carb. But it is still not enough to function, so on the 2 high calorie days, i will reload with high carbs (>250g) to fill my muscles with glycogen so that i can continue my workouts for tor the weekday. Even with 2x 4000 calorie days, I still lose roughly half a pound to a pound of body fat per week.

    This is just my own personal experience and what i do. I myself highly recommend a 'spike' day as you call it, but of course not as high as i do it, cause 4000 calories to most people on MFP is just unimaginable
  • Bodhizephyr
    Bodhizephyr Posts: 48
    Tim Ferris advocates this with his 4 hour body plan. I agree with his Science but I do find his method extreme. its about not letting your body go into starvation mode.

    For me its a psychological thing too. I know every week i get a treat which makes it easier to discipline myself on the other days.
  • Goldenbast
    Goldenbast Posts: 227 Member
    I am a true believer of the Spike Diet as it personally works for me. 'Diets' never worked for me for long because they are usually too restrictive and I would cave because I have no willpower to speak of :tongue: With this, it is more of a way to eat rather than a diet and I can get whatever naughty food I am craving on my spike day. It makes it much easier to avoid temptation because you can tell yourself that you can have it in a few days and even I have at least that much willpower. Also I never really feel deprived on my other days and even if you don't track every little calorie (like I just did for the last few weeks) and just eat sensibly and limit your naughty food to one day a week, you still can lose.

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