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2003/05/29, 07:48 PM
I'm not quite sure I understand what this is and what purpose it serves.
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~Jennifer
http://www.gwindalyn.com
If you dont stand for something, you will fall for anything.
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2003/05/29, 10:04 PM
Sorry, I've never heard of it... but I hope someone who has replies.
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2003/05/29, 11:10 PM
Do you have an example of some sort because i'm not totally sure what you mean. I know I read something a long time ago on something where you consume different amounts of calories on various days to help slowly drop your calorie. So say you were taking in 3000cal a day and wanted to goto 2500... rather then just dropping right to that in a day you would slowly go down.. ex: 3000 monday.. 2800 tuesday.. 2900 wed... 2750... thurs.. etc.. although I doubt thats the way the example went. Again i'm not sure if this is even what you mean. On the other hand though if that is what you mean then I think its done that way so your body doesn't panic and think its starving... pretty much defeating your diet/cut (thats probably the shortest way I can explain that). I wonder if rp/bb would have a better idea of what your asking.. but thats my best guess... i'm pretty bad with diets..
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2003/05/29, 11:17 PM
The problem with dieting for extended periods of time is that the body adapts to the amount of calories and through various hormonal process slows down the metabolism of fats. It is important to note that the process of fat burning does not consist of the body simply acessing fat stores for energy, a very complex process is required to release fat into the blood stream before it can be used for energy. It is this process that is slowed by long term dieting. It has been shown that by having 5 low calorie days folowed by 2 days at higher calories that the process that slows down fat metabolism is significantly counteracted. This explains the unexplained weight loss many have discovered the week following what they considered as a "cheat day"
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Patrick L.
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2003/05/29, 11:34 PM
Yep, it's called "Zig Zag Diet," and it's covered well in the Muscle and Fitness nutrition guide that came out last month ;) It's about fooling your "starve" mode out of a job by increasing calories for a couple of days per week over your normal dieting calories. Good luck, I think it works :D
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--There are no versions of the truth.--
Jeff Goldblum, Jurassic Park II
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2003/05/30, 12:06 AM
Are you supposed to do this when you hit a plateau or is it beneficial at other times?
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~Victoria~
...Some things have to be believed to be seen!
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2003/05/30, 08:11 AM
The way I understand it, you don't allow your body to adapt to a specific metabolism. Supposedly it also increases your immune system and I've copy and pasted the only explaination of it I've seen. First you have to figure out what your daily caloric needs are...
In order to tap into your fat stores you will need to lower your overall caloric intake. The key here is to not lower it all at once, or lower it too drastically. Here is my recommendation:
weeks 1-3 Lower calories by 250 calories a day on average. If your maintenance is 3, 000 calories, you will drop them by 250 to average 2, 750 calories a day.
weeks 4-6 Lower calories by 250 a day on average.
week 7 Raise calories this week to increase metabolism. We will get into more detail on this latter.
weeks 8-10 Lower calories by 250 calories a day on average.
Weeks 11-13 Lower calories by 250 calories a day on average.
This is the end of the diet. Once you reach the end of it. I would suggest again resetting your metabolic rate.
I will discuss this in an article in the near future.
What you notice here is a gradual lowering of your macronutrient intake over the 13 week span. This is to compensate for your bodies possible adaptation to the diet. This is a general guideline, however I want you to watch yourself carefully on this diet. If you do not hit a plateau, then do not lower your calories. Instead leave them as is until you reach a plateau. This is why it is important to monitor yourself carefully.
It simply means that we do not want to over stress our bodies, because this is when cortisol is released in greater abundance. Remember, our bodies become overly stressed when calories are lowered too quickly. This is why I have you lower your caloric intake by 250 calories every 3 weeks. Compared to other diets this is a relatively small deficit and won't set off many stress alarms. Our second weapon employed against stress will be caloric cycling!
Calorie cycling is a rather simple process. Its purpose is to trick your body into believing it is taking in more calories than it actually is and to not seek a water mark. You will have days in which you consume more food than others. This not only alleviates stress physically, but mentally as well. Most people do not understand how the strain of sticking to an everyday regimen takes its toll on their bodies! Lets say that you are on average going to consume 2, 600 calories per day. Rather than consume this amount directly, you will do the following.
Monday: 2, 500 calories
Tuesday: 2, 900 calories
Wednesday: 2, 700 calories
Thursday: 2, 300 calories
Friday: begin again
This averaged out to be 2, 600 calories a day. But notice how I cleverly cycled the calories so that your body wouldn't adapt as severely to the change. Furthermore on the last day, when your body was stressed the most, you immediately re-raised your macronutrient intake to set it at ease!
By Week 7, even with the calorie cycling your body will start to catch on to your game plan! This is the time when the stress of dieting will be more evident. The solution is to take a week off of training and raise your calories slightly. In order to do this properly you will pick the highest day of caloric intake that you are currently on and consume this amount for the entire week! Using the example above, your highest day was 2, 900 calories. This is the amount that you will eat for week seven. After which you will again go back to lowering your caloric intake and burning fat. This will re-vamp the conversion of t-4 to t-3 and lower the conversion of t-4 to rt-3. How cool is that!? And with this re-vamped thyroid you will burn fat at an extremely high rate for the final 6 week stretch!
Just curious what our experts here think of this. I figured out that my daily maintenance calories are 2375. I was shocked at how high that is. :)
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~Jennifer
http://www.gwindalyn.com
If you dont stand for something, you will fall for anything.
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2003/05/30, 09:27 AM
Calorie cycling can be as advantageous as changing up your workouts. Helps keep the metabolism honest, thyroid running optimal, and keeps the body "guessing". This is a good practice. Gwindalyns "diet" is very good. The only time you need to stay on a particulary strict calorie scheme is pre contest dieting. Great post, great thinking. That is another reason to like this site so much, very knowlegeable people.
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As far as genetics go, the skies the limit. You are limited only by your mental perception of it.
Ron
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2003/05/30, 09:39 AM
Thanks for the input Ron! I can't take credit for the information. I simply copy & pasted it from an article by Jacob Wilson.
I've been thinking about doing this kind of meal planning, but I wanted to get input from those more experienced first. I'm thinking I'll start this tomorrow (using my own maintenance calories of course). I still can't get over the fact that I should be eating 2300 some odd calories just to maintain. That just blows my mind.
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~Jennifer
http://www.gwindalyn.com
If you dont stand for something, you will fall for anything.
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2003/05/30, 10:34 AM
How did you figure our your maintenance calories? I have no idea what my should be. I know on the days I "train" I am burning about 340 cals on the elliptical and my trainer said with the way I am doing weight training I burn "at least" 10 cals a min for 60 minutes of training. So on those days I know I am burning approximately 940 cals in 1-1/2 hours. How do I figure out what I need to "breath"?
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Gramma
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2003/05/30, 04:07 PM
2300 doesn't really seem like that much, especially if you are on a pretty regular training schedule. Does the ft program figure your caloric maintenance level when you input your info to get a diet plan?
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~Victoria~
...Some things have to be believed to be seen!
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2003/05/30, 05:21 PM
Here is a great site that will answer all your questions calorie questions. http://www.fitren/res3artp.cfm?artid=46
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As far as genetics go, the skies the limit. You are limited only by your mental perception of it.
Ron
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