There's a reasonable balance that must be pursed, and calorie extremes in either direction are best avoided.Īnother thing you want to avoid most of the time is using this kind of calorie shifting during the week as a damage control strategy after an unplanned caloric excess. This can increase the risk of getting really hungry and it may trigger unplanned eating, bingeing or going way beyond your intended calorie target on the high day. But if you have higher and lower days pre-planned and lower calorie days don't bother you, then any downsides of cycling calories are minimal.Ī potential pitfall to avoid is cutting calories extremely low on deficit days. Fewer moving parts means less to think about and easier to follow. What are the pros and cons of this approach?Īn advantage of eating the same thing and the same amount every day is simplicity. The example above is only one of many possible arrangements. The rules about how you distribute those calories are a lot less rigid than most people think. If you want to lose a pound of fat, you're simply aiming for a 3500 calorie weekly deficit - those are the rules you can't break. But the extra 500 calories at one particular time, such as during an evening dining out with friends, may have made you a happy camper. ![]() A 2000 calorie Saturday - even with a 1000 calorie meal - would not be a mistake and wouldn't set you back at all. In other words, it's the weekly deficit that matters, not what happens at one meal or on one day. This can be set up on purpose, but some days calorie fluctuations happen by accident too, and understanding weekly deficits lets you relax, knowing that one day doesn't ruin a whole week, as long as you adjust and stay focused on that weekly big picture. Will it have the same positive result (fat loss) as eating 1500 a day, every day? Yes, it probably will, because the maintenance level calories on Saturday are offset by the larger deficit on Sunday and Monday. Will this calorie shifting (or "cycling") have any special effect that increases your fat loss beyond more linear dieting? Probably not. On this weekly calorie plan, you don't eat the same amount every day, but if you add this all up for the week, its the same 10,500 calories right? And so you still have a 3500 calorie deficit for the week, right? If you stop worrying about hitting one specific deficit every day and instead look at weekly deficits too, you realize you can! You don't have to eat in a calorie deficit 7 days a week to lose fat every week. Some days you might want to eat less and some days you might want to eat more. So at the end of the week, if you hit your 1500 calories per day goal, your 3,500 calorie weekly deficit should, on paper anyway, result in a pound of weight loss.īut for a variety of reasons, including travel, social events and personal preferences, it may not be practical or desirable to eat precisely 1500 calories per day, every day. Focusing on that daily deficit, every day, has always been the traditional way of doing things.ġ4,000 minus 10,500 is a 3,500 calorie deficit for the week. That's 10,500 calories over the week (1500 per day X 7 days). Suppose you want to lose fat, so you set a deficit target for fat loss at 1500 calories per day. ![]() That's 14,000 calories you burn over the week (2000 per day X 7 days). Lets assume your daily maintenance calorie level is around 2000 (typical for a lightly active female). That bigger picture (7-day) view gives you more flexibility to enjoy your meals, and eat more food at specific times when you want more.Īnd, as everyone who keeps up with the latest in techniques for effective (and lasting) fat loss knows, flexible dieting is in and restrictive dieting is out.Īn example of looking at calorie deficits weekly Why? Because it gives you a new and different perspective. Many dieters have become more successful (and happy) because they shifted the way they were looking at their calorie intake from daily tracking only to weekly tracking as well. Planning to eat the same number of calories every day - in a deficit - is the simplest and most common approach for setting up a fat loss program.īut did you ever consider that you could intentionally consume different amounts of calories on different days, shift the way that you monitor calories, and that might make it easier to follow your diet and make you a happier eater? It's true. ![]() Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle - the Bible of Fat Loss
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