zig-zagging calories??

I was on a plateau , and started the zig-zaging , I've been on it it for one week and I have lost one lb.
I would recommend it !

See this confuses me.. I did the Calorie Cycling calculator and it says (approximately)
Monday 1300
Tuesday 1200
Wednesday 1500
Thursday 1300
Friday 1200
Saturday 1400
Sunday 1300


I dont understand how that could work.. Granted with working out and having extra calories I would be burning the exact same as eating 1300 everyday... I would have to dramatically cut my calories in order to have a deficit without working out.

I think it's kindof smart in a way.. But I also can see how it would be negative. Humans are creatures of habit and it's actually very natural for us to form set systems and follow similar routines. I think it would throw me off a little bit, at least at first.

Ah but if you think terms of hunter gather your diet would rarely if ever be constant so it fits right in.

I actually work in reverse with it and it's worked great for me. I usually have one day a week where i eat more than i ought to - you know, the trip to the ice cream store with your 7 year old kind of day - for the next 5 days i make up for the overage. The basic concept is that you shouldn't go by calories per day, but rather calories per week. Plan to have one day a week that's short and one day that's long on calories. I also short a little extra each day because you never know when the icecream will call your name! I have found that it works really well and that any temporary gain from a long day or two is quickly reversed ie. last weekend was my son'd birthday - I ate icecream cake, pizza and molson 67 beer all weekend, gained 2 lbs and it was gone within 1 day.Usually I would gain nothing from a high day but 2 days of debauchery got me that time! I've lost 46 lbs this way and certainly plan on continuing for the next 39!

Some one on here gave the suggestion to set yourself manually at the lowest calorie intake and then input your own exercise and have it be "Monday zig-zag", etc. that takes into account the difference you need to eat that day. Then you can just add the exercise and eat all of those calories. I've just started trying it (trying to get refocused on losing the last few pounds of fat), but doing that has made it super easy.

This is what I'm doing also! I have made my own exericse for the days I zig zag!

Some one on here gave the suggestion to set yourself manually at the lowest calorie intake and then input your own exercise and have it be "Monday zig-zag", etc. that takes into account the difference you need to eat that day. Then you can just add the exercise and eat all of those calories. I've just started trying it (trying to get refocused on losing the last few pounds of fat), but doing that has made it super easy.

This is what I'm doing also! I have made my own exericse for the days I zig zag!

Yep, that's what I did as well. I have exercises for my zig-zag calories, then I also enter my exercise I've done for the day but add those cals back as quick cals so they offset and I'm still eating the right amount. Example:

Monday is a 1744 day. My lowest day is 1544 so that's my base calorie amount I enter in MFP. My Monday Zig Zag cals entered as an exercise would be 200, so now it should show I have 1744 to eat that day. If I workout, I still like to see what calories I've burned (just for my reference) so I enter it in. This morning was a weight day and I burned 172 cals. I added "quick cals" of 172 to cancel out the exercise calories so MFP still shows I have 1744 to eat.

What about the exercise calories? Why don't I eat those back? My zig zag calculator takes my exercise in to account so it's already added those calories in to my calorie allowance. I hope I didn't just confuse everyone!

I wish MFP had an option for this!!!

On the phone app there is a graph you can see your weekly total and average and how close you are to goal each day, I can see it kind of working by using that.

I tend to do this without trying as I have some high days & some low days.

Ditto.

Take the last week for example:
Tuesday: 1561
Monday: 1696
Sunday: 1321
Saturday: 1992
Friday: 1799
Thursday: 2406
Wednesday: 1941
Tuesday: 2233

I'm all over the board just eating when I'm hungry, but my weight has been consistent (and happy) my whole adult life.

I think it's kindof smart in a way.. But I also can see how it would be negative. Humans are creatures of habit and it's actually very natural for us to form set systems and follow similar routines. I think it would throw me off a little bit, at least at first.

That "humans are creatures of habit" is exactly why this and other scientifically impossible diets seem to work, at least for a time. When you make a conscious effort to observe WHAT you are doing, you are NOT doing "out of habit." There is also a correlation between just tracking what you eat and weight loss. That is, when you start tracking what you eat, without any effort to change any eating habits or eat less, you lose weight.