Calorie Cycling - Lose Weight Quicker by Mixing Up Your Diet

Then calorie cycling may be the change you need to help get you over the hump. Everyone hits a plataeu at some point in their weight loss journey. I know I have hit that wall many times, and as we age it gets harder and harder to bust through it.

If you have read our article on muscle confusion then you know that your body adapts to your workout. It does the same thing with diet!

Our bodies are very sophisticated pieces of machinery. When you diet and start to lose weight, your body adjusts your metablosim to slow weight loss. This was a very important feature for our ancestors who did not have the abundance of food that we have today. Unforunately, this evolutionary mechanism keeps us from losing weight and actually encourages weight gain.

So how to we fight evolution?

Calorie Cycling may be able to help you get through.

What is Calorie Cycling?

It is the process of varying the number of calories you eat from week to week and varying where these calories come from to recharge your metabolism.

For example, say my daily caloric needs are 2000 calories. For 10-14 days I would eat 2100-2200 calories to jump start my metabloism.

The next 10-14 days I would eat a 1500 calorie diet comprised of 50% protein 25% carbs and 25% fat. For the next 10-14 days after that, I would eat 1800 calories comprised of 30% protein 40% carbs and 30% fat. I would then return to 2200 to jump start my metabolism again.

The percentages I used above are generic. But try playing around with high carb and high protein. Do not go high fat and do not cut out any food group completely. I am a firm believer that a little bit of everything is a good thing.

The goal of calorie cycling is the same as muscle confusion - to keep your body guessing. Your body responds better to weight loss when your diet is constantly changing.

If you missed it on our Weight Loss Tips Page, a great resource is a FREE calorie counting and weightloss page called FitDay.

It will calculate your percentages for you and allow you to keep up to a year's worth of exercise, food, and weight loss data. I highly recommend it.

Warnings About Cycling Calories

If you read up on the web about this phenomenon, you will see that there are variations to this method. I went to bodybuilding.com to see what they would recommend and their calculators had me on a 1000 calorie diet for a week or two.

I don't know about you, but have you ever tried eating a 1000-1200 calorie diet? I did when I was boxing to lose weight for fights. Do you lose weight? Yes. Are you starving? YES!!!!

You should never reduce you caloric intake by 50%. That triggers your body into starvation mode which actually slows down your metablism greatly. I only recommened cutting out 25-30% of the calories you body needs. Which for most people will be in the 400-500 calorie range.

Keep to these regulations and you will be fine. Your body will respond to the changes in calorie intake without starving itself. If you body is starving, it will start breaking down muscle, which actually burns more calories than fat. Losing 1-2lbs a week is healthy.

Give it a try. If you are not losing weight, calorie cycling may be just the thing you need.