Question for the Zig Zaggers (or anyone who wants to help out!)

I need a bit of help figuring out how many calories I should eat today.  I typically eat three days of 1500, two days of 1700 and one day of 1900.  I found these numbers on a website that calculated them for me based on my height (5'6), weight (187), and activity level (5x a week/moderate). 

Today I went for a long bike read (the first in many years!) and burned 1710 calories.  That puts my total daily burn at about 3400, on Sundays I usually eat 1700 calories.  Should I stick with the 1700 calories OR should I bump it up to 2400 for the day to be sure I only have a 1000 calorie deficit?

Thank you in advance! 

Hi,

I do not have any information to help you with this but I was wondering which website you visited for your calculations on the zig zag approach....I have recently been reading up on that and am interested in giving it a shot but have only found website withblog type info so far...maybe we can start our own support group for zig zaggers around here.

Thanks!

Here are two options:  http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calc ulator.htm or http://www.naturalphysiques.com/tools.php?ite mid=64 

I used the first one then just rounded my numbers.

how much do u weigh,whats ur height,and what kind of excercise do u do?

I'm 5'6, 188 and I do the following: running three times a week (approximately 40 minutes) and a cardio/strength training routine three times a week (approximately 90 minutes).  Today I did the bike ride for the first time.  I will likely be biking to and from the gym once a week (about 8 miles total) and to and from my study group once a week (which is what I did today - about 18 miles total).

08:30 Breakfast: 2 egg whites 1 whole egg

1 cup of skimmed milk 150 ml

a cup of oatmeal

11:30 1 small can of tuna with water

1\2 cup of noodles

14:30 200 grms of steak,fish or chicken

with a cup of brown rice

17:30 another small can of tuna with a large bowl of salad no olive oil or salt

--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------

now for ur training substitute running with walking and not prisking and let it be for an hour,cuz the first 10 minutes u will be warming up,than for the next 20 minutes u burn carbs ,than the other 20 mins u burn fat,and last 10 slow ur pace.

now if u persist on running try H.I.I.T"high intensity interval training" ,u will do it 3 times a week , for 12 minutes prreferably in the morning ,warmup for the first 4 minutes after that the 5th,6th,7th and 8th minutes ull "sprint" for 30 seconds and jog easily for the next 30 seconds,after that the 9th,10th,11th,12th,u cool down.

with ur strength training dont do cardio and drop the biking .

go on strength and HIIt  on a 3 by 3 days a week and with the diet,access weight will fall of u.

good luck

umm.. thanks for your advice.  BUT  I am not looking for a diet or advice on my routine.  I already know what types of food and activities work for me.  I simply want to know is.. if based on the zig zag theory, on one of my high caloric intake days if I need to bump it up when my activity is much more than normal.

zig zag theory if am not wrong is based on targeting leptin enzymes,and while u increase  or decrease ur calories  in ur short period of time,it doesnt work.

and u dont need to bump ur intake cuz the training ur doing  dont even burn  3000 cals a week.

*sigh* ok..

 

If anyone else has any comments please let me know.

jeeeez !!how long was that bike ride??

thank you so much for the website. I am no expert since I am just reading up on this but maybe if you did your calculation with intense exercise as your activity level, you would get a higher calorie range for the days when you do your more intense exercise...then on the days you have the more intense activity you can eat your calories at the higher end of your range. I for one, plan on not eating an exact amount of calories each day but within a specific range that way if I have a day where I don't get as intense a workout I will eat less and the days I do workout more I can eat more.

beate - it was 18 miles.

mfields - thank you!  That makes sense.  I will try that.  I ended up eating about 400 more calories than normal yesterday, even though I really wasn't hungry. 

Also, that's a good idea for a group for zig zaggers - it'd benice to have a central place for us to ask questions and support eachother. 

If you are super hungry, definitely eat more. If not don't do it just to satisfy the calorie ticker.

It would be really tough to burn 1700 calories on a bike ride. I would need to be Bicycling - 14-15.9 Mph, Racing or Leisure, Fast, Vigorous Effort for over 2 hours to burn that many. I ride the stationary bike at a 17KPH clip with the resistance set to 10 in the gym for 30 minutes at a time, I am busting my arse, and that usually burns about 230 calories.

In other words, don't add the 1700 calories of food just because you did some exercise . . . only add if you are hungry.

My bike ride was over two hours and it was very vigorous (my average heart rate was 172).  I tried to train myself using the stationary bike, and let me tell you, stationary to real biking is like night and day.  It's kinda funny, today my legs are not sore at all only my shoulders and arms are from being so tense when I was riding (oh and my butt is too!). 

I felt very weak afterwards, that's why I ate more than normal despite my lack of appetite.  I figured my fatigue was a good indicator - in hind sight, maybe or maybe not

I am doing zig-zagging and I think instead of doing the 1500 then 1700 then 1900 you should change is up a bit more. I think instead of a steady incline throughout the week the approach is to mix it up and keep your body guessing. In the end, your body will get used to 1500 working up to 1900 at the end of the week.

The best approach I have found and which logically makes the most sense to me is a 1500 calorie day then a 1900 then a 1700 then 1500 then 1700. Keep your body guessing, dont have 2 days at the same caloric intake.

I just want to say that you're lookin' super hot in your newest pic! Nice work.

I agree with Stacey you should be more random in your zig zagging.  I have been zig zagging for 8 months now and concentrating on keeping my protein at 30% and fat at 20% and I think that it is the best way to eat right for life.  I have had amazing success with it and plan on doing it for as long as humanly possibly.  It is so easy since I can have horrible days (2800 calories yesterday).  So anyway no one has given you a number so I say you eat 2300 calories today (since you worked out so much) and just make sure your fat content in at 20% or so.

I try to average 2300 calories a day for the month so here are my last eight days of calorie counting to just give you an idea.

 

1543, 1745, 3200, 1603, 1954, 1873, 2800, 1725

So over the past 8 days I am averaging 2,056 so I need to eat more tomorow to keep my self on the same track.

I've been reading a lot of info on this topic, here on CC and the web.  What CC recommends is 500-700 deficit.  Some here say 500-1000. 

Another bit of info I read is that if you have days that you exercise you increase your cals that day and decrease on your day off.  Which makes sense as you are adding fuel to the fire when it's needed. 

Also if you exercise on a given day you need to eat back at least half of the calories that you expend (burn).  So if you burn 400 cals you need to eat 200 more cals that day.

Now I believe you also need to make sure you have enough protein.  If you're making those muscles work hard they need that protein.  CC recommends 50% carbs, 25% fat, 25% protein.  That could be why you were so tired, but it could be that you just pushed yourself too hard.  I experienced that fatigue recently and I too had over done it.  The next day I took the day off to rest, and the following day was a light workout of just walking.

Using the distance - 18 miles - to get an approximation, a person my size biking at 10-12 MPH burns about 485 per hour (20-24 miles over a 2 hour period). A person going 14-16 MPH would burn 809 per hour. But at 172BPM for two hours, you're probably right.

I'm sorry, I was unclear about my schedule.  I do it as follows: 

Sunday - 1700,
Monday - 1500,
Tuesday - 1500,
Wednesday - 1700,
Thursday - 1500,
Friday - 1900,
Saturday - 1500. 

So, it is mixed up.  (I was just too lazy it type it out before!).

I guess the thing I get confused about is how you relate your intake to your output.  The days I eat more calories (Sunday - 1700; Wednesday - 1900; and Friday - 1900) are also the days I exercise more.  Should I really do some sort of percentage of my output to intake, so that my body doesn't know what to expect?  For example, if I my daily burn is 2000 on a low intake day, maybe I should take in 70% of the calories (or about 1400) then on a high intake day if I burn 2000 I should take in 90% of the calories (or about 1800 calories). 

I am probably just way over analyzing things!

Thank you all for your input!  I really appreciate it.

And thank you mortalmonkey, you made me blush

Original Post by durgy:

If you are super hungry, definitely eat more. If not don't do it just to satisfy the calorie ticker.

It would be really tough to burn 1700 calories on a bike ride. I would need to be Bicycling - 14-15.9 Mph, Racing or Leisure, Fast, Vigorous Effort for over 2 hours to burn that many. I ride the stationary bike at a 17KPH clip with the resistance set to 10 in the gym for 30 minutes at a time, I am busting my arse, and that usually burns about 230 calories.

In other words, don't add the 1700 calories of food just because you did some exercise . . . only add if you are hungry.

I know this is an aged post, but it's not completely correct.  First of all, the calorie counters on the machines at the gym shouldn't even be there...they are all over the chart depending on what type of machine it is and who made it.  Even club managers will tell you not to put any stock in them...they are a guide only, and a poor one at that.

That being said, cycling is one of THE best exercises you can do to burn calories.  (And it will help you get a great bootie and thighs, also!)  And yes, cycling on a real bike versus stationary is WORLDS apart.  Worlds apart in results, conditioning, feel, EVERYTHING.  I ride the stationary at the gym often, but if I have my choice, I will get on my road bike every time!  There is NOTHING like cycling and seeing the sights, feeling the grade of the road change, standing in your pedals to climb a steep hill...it's AWESOME.  You wanna feel a real burn, cycle uphill!

(I just realized my cycling passion carried me away again!  Sorry!  I can't wait for it to warm up here!)

Anyhow, cycling even at a moderat effort will burn over 600 calories an hour.  If you are really getting into it, you can burn almost 1100 calories an hour!  That's the same as running 7.5 MPH!  (Which I can't even come CLOSE to!)  And it's much less impact on your joints than running, too, if that is an issue for you.

So get to cycling!  It's AWESOME!