Calorie cycling?

No, this has nothing to do with getting on a bike and cycling away your calories. This is a concept that can, once again, really aid you in your weight loss goals for several reasons. It will allow you more freedom to eat larger portions, get rid of cravings, aid in maintenance of metabolism and therefore keep your weight loss continuing for longer, and your ability to diet will be improved dramatically.

Remember, the person who loses half a pound a week for a year will be better off than the person who loses 10 pound a week for a month, and then quits. This is why choosing a diet that is sustainable in the long term and which doesn’t cut out any of your foods is the best option.... like this one.

What is calorie cycling?

A typical dieting approach involves a method (direct or indirect) of cutting overall calories. Most approaches employ a specific daily deficit – one where every day is a low calorie day. The main problem with this, as you will have found, is that your metabolism will eventually drop to match the new calorie intake. For example, if you normally eat 2,000 calories a day, dropping to 1,500 a day will initially see weight loss. But after a week/month, your metabolism will drop down so that it only uses 1,500 calories per day. The result – no more weight loss.

Has your weight loss frustratingly stopped?

Calorie cycling is where you would alternate the amount of calories you eat per day. For example, one day you would eat 1,300 and the next you would eat 2,000. The advantages of this approach are;

·         You are only really dieting one day at a time – when it gets tough, you can remember that “Tomorrow is a high calorie day”. This is a huge psychological advantage over an orthodox diet.

·         Human metabolism is much more reactive to 3 day spans. By using your ‘up days’ (high calorie days), you are essentially telling your body that there is still food available and there is no need to drop metabolic rate.

·         You can combine your high calorie days with your exercise days (if you are exercising) so that the extra nutrients are used to support muscle maintenance/glycogen replenishment rather than fat replenishment.

·         You can use the high calorie days to eat some foods you have been craving – how many other diets can say this?

·         Even if those foods are a little sugary, they will be better partitioned as your skeletal tissue will now be more insulin sensitive (a good thing) and your liver will be glycogen depleted.

What this means for you is less fat, more lean body tissue (think toned body), and a diet which is mentally easier to stick to and physically easier to stick to.

There is evidence that this type of calorie cycling can also be valuable for a range of health benefits, such as lower inflammation, positive effects on asthma, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, heart disease markers etc. There are even animal studies showing that it can extend life-spans a very significant amount, and lower risks for Parkinson’s disease. It is too early to say regarding humans, but preliminary tests look good.

How to do this?

Work out how many calories you need per day to maintain your weight. For example, if you are a typical active male, this would be around 2,500 calories per day. Eat at maintenance level every other day, and in between those days, cut your calories by 500-1,000 calories. So it may look something like this;

Day	Calories
Monday	2,500
Tuesday	1,500
Wednesday	2,500
Thursday	1,500
Friday	2,500
Saturday	2,500
Sunday	1,500

That totals 14,500 calories for the week, which is a 3,000 calorie deficit – almost a pound of fat. With the above plan, the person was also on high days for the weekend (when they may be going out, socialising), and only had 3 diet days in the week. By eating the correct foods on the ‘down days’, the person would be able to feel fully satiated. By combining the calories like we discussed last week, this could also mean two big meals of 750 calories each. Then on ‘up days’, they would be able to be a little more lenient on their food choices and have a little of what they felt they were missing out on. Maybe a bit of ice cream J

 Ice cream on a diet? surely not!