To break my plateau (female, 136 pounds, 5'6", trying 6 pounds) I've been doing zig-zag calorie counting to achieve a total deficit of 3500 for a week. CC says I should eat about 1500 so mine looks like this:
Sunday: 1400
Monday: 1600
Tuesday: 1200
Wednesday: 1600
Thursday: 1400
Friday: 1200
Saturday: 1600
I run on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (the other days I just have normal activity plus a 30-45 min walk). Should I just eat the 1600 on days I run, or eat extra to make up for the calories burned running?
Does that make sense?
I don't really know to be honest but Iwould say on the days you excercise to eat a bit more protein and unrefined carbs than the days you don't, for energy and muscle repair/funciton. So if you used the extra calorie days to fit this in then it would work out?
I've never heard of zig-zagging before? Can you provide any additional information on this concept? I can only assume the purpose is to keep your body guessing but my gut impulse would be do accomplish something like that more through exercise i.e mixing up your workouts, but it's intriguing to me...
Normally with zig-zagging your calorie intake you would go from a restricted calorie amount to maintenance for 1 to 3 days. Going 100 calories above your target wouldn't really do anything (your body won't notice). The idea is to prevent your body from adapting to the lower calorie amount. Some people believe that after about 3 days, your body realizes that 'times are tough' and 'food is no longer plentiful' and adapts itself to use less calories (metabolism slows down). Your body will eat up muscle & as little fat as possible to make up the difference. Your body intends to keep your fat stores for emergency use when food runs out. Remember you body is adapting because it thinks there is a food shortage and it wants to keep you running as long as possible.
If you constantly restrict calories, your body will adapt and you will most likely plateau once you reach the point where you can no longer lower your calorie intake any further. You can try zig-zagging the way I describe above, but if you have been restricting your intake for a very long time, you may need to slowly work your way up to maintenance to get your metabolism up to speed. Once everything is running properly you can restrict your intake to break through the plateau.
Sorry, I guess I should add that loosing the 6 lbs may not do what you want it to. If you feel you have a little too much flab or chubbiness, you may simply need to build some muscle.
It is nearly impossible to loose just 6 lbs of just fat. If you are just restricting and not strength training, you will more likely loose muscle which isn't going to help you keep it off (muscles burn calories, fat just sits there). Doing cardio will help you burn calories, but it does very little for toning and building muscle.
Being so close to your goal weight, I would suggest ignoring the scale and start a strength training routine to build some muscle. You may end up liking the results without loosing a single pound.
See the comparison shots at the bottom of this post for pictures of a woman at the same weight before and after strength training.
http://hotnfit.com/wordpress/?p=5
Her weight didn't change, just her body composition.
