Zig Zag Diet Works?

I've looked it up and most physicians and natural bodybuilders recomend it.What do you think?Has anybody tried it?

http://www.naturalphysiques.com/tools.php?ite mid=64

heres a link to a calculator and information website

Hmmm I do not trust this, it tells me to eat an average of 944 calories a day.

Zig Zagging has sometimes been used by people who hit a plateau.  I've known people on these forums who have seen good results using it.  However, I don't like this particular website.  I plugged my weight in and it tells me to eat anywhere between 1100 and 1250.  This is bad because I know that for my weight, height, sex and age, I should not be eating below 1400 or so.

Zig Zagging is fine, but make sure you keep it above your minimum for the week.  For me, it might be 1400 one day, 1600 the next day, 1300, 1700, and so on.  So basically, the concept is fine, but in this instance, the website's numbers may be too low.

Please remember that CC does not advocate extreme weight loss methods.  For adults, the minimum requirements are 1200 for women and 1500 for men.  for teens, they need to add 300 to that number.

The only time that I have used a zig-zag diet was when I was pretty much eating my way down to nothing. My zig-zag was 0-200-400-600 and of course it worked,however I was incredibly UNHEALTHY and I would NEVER recommend this to anyone and discourage anyone from attempting. However, I do think that the idea has something to offer-as varying your calories would keep your metabolism guessing per say. So long as it was still adding up to a healthy weekly value of cals, I think it would be worth a try.

I have done a form of zig-zagging and it definitely worked for me...zig-zagging is alternating your calorie intake over a 3 day span then start the process over heres an example...if your daily calorie intake should be 2000 (to loose 1 lb a week) then do this

day 1, 1900 calories

day 2, 2000 calories

day 3, 2100 calories

the overall 2000 calories is still maintained yet your body believes hey I am ok...do this over and over till you break the cycle....

here is a link that discusses the process...I personally have tried it when I wanted to cut the plateau...it does work.

http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/ zig-zag-calories-for-weight-loss-74803.html

That site also gave me some crazy numbers for EXTREME weight loss.  For regular weight loss, it was reasonable.  No one should be going for extreme weight loss unless under the care of a doc anyhow. 

That said, I zig-zag unofficially.  Hitting exactly 1750 cals/day is too much work.  Really, it's impossible considering that my scale may say 150 g yogurt, but there may actually be 153 g.  There's always going to be a slight discrepancy.

Anywho, I'm usually pretty easygoing about the whole thing.  My intake ranges from 1300 to 2500 or more.  If I overdo it, I cut back a little the next few days.  If I don't eat enough, I eat a little more the next day.  I just make sure not to go under 1200 unless I'm sick.  I also keep a rolling average of my cal intake, so it's easy to see when I'm getting too little or too much over all.

EDIT:  Forgot to mention that this is also how I lost weight - unofficial zig-zagging.  The only difference is that I tried harder to keep my cals between 1200 & 1500 with plenty of days off for parties and such.  Worked for me.

I agree...I would not recommend doing anything EXTREME without a doctors advice...I personally didnt vary much from the example I used earlier...nothing dramatic and it worked great for me.

i'm in the unofficial zig-zag party. i can't say that i intend to zig or zag, but my calorie intake is never the same two days in a row. i was just wondering yesterday how people eat exactly the same number of calories everyday. is there no variety in their diets?

^ im with you. I dont intend to zig zag either. I was for the first 6 months sticking to a certain amount of calories and it worked. I lost 10 lbs. I went on a plateau and then in oct. I broke it from zig zagging my calories and i've lost another 2 lbs. (note I do not excersis as much as I did in the beginning so it would probably be more effective if I did)

satryswoman basicly its a guestimate (my opinion) unless you buy the exact same things and prepare it the same and eat it at the same time...I measured (weighed) all my food and tried as best I could to get close but I am sure I probably zagged when I should have zigged on some days...lol...I did keep a daily food log and I did monitor so I was always sort of in the ballpark...but I also varied my food (but not by much)