How to Calorie Cycle for a More Sustainable Approach to Fat Loss
Lifestyle or transformation programs are designed to be inclusive and transform people’s lives. The biggest challenge in these programs is how to adapt to each individual’s life and guarantee people stay in the program long enough to see real results. That’s where calorie cycling comes in.
Everyone wants easy and fast results without changing their routine and lifestyle. Since most of the diet plans out there don’t offer much flexibility, It can be incredibly challenging to stick to them.
Flexible Dieting for Real Life
Are you the type of person who enjoys weekends out, gathering at a restaurant with friends? Or perhaps you like breaking up your weekday routine by ordering pizza with family or going out to watch a soccer game? Maybe you simply crave sweets during certain times of the month or when you’re on your menstrual period.
A traditional diet that requires you to follow a strict menu. You might consume the same things and the same number of calories every day. But this might not be the best option for you.
Over time, you might find that the lack of results, flexibility, and the excessive restrictions. This can become frustrating, leading you to give up. Most people fail at diets because they aren’t sustainable over the long term!
The Problem with Traditional Diets
When life circumstances require you to take a break from your diet, we all know that most people struggle to regain the same level of discipline. Often, they end up throwing in the towel and gaining back all the weight they lost, or even more.
What is Calorie Cycling?
Calorie cycling is an approach that involves dividing your macronutrient intake between high-calorie days and low-calorie days. Over the course of a week, the total number of calories consumed will result in a caloric deficit. Consequently, this allows you to lose weight while providing flexibility in your diet.
Unlikely carb cycling, where only carbohydrates are manipulated, calorie cycling allows for greater flexibility in manipulating all macronutrients. The only restrictions it poses are on protein adjustment. Additionally, this approach offers a broader scope for dietary variation, as you can accommodate different types and quantities of nutrients on different days.
Benefits of Calorie Cycling
Calorie cycling offers several benefits that make it a sustainable and adaptable dietary approach, both mentally and physically:
Sustainability
It supports long-term adherence by accommodating the body’s and mind’s needs, reducing the feeling of dietary restriction.
Flexibility in Food Choices and Portions
You have more control over what types of food you can eat and in what quantities. Consequently, this makes it easier to integrate into social and personal life.
Adaptability to Work and Physical Activity Routines
The diet can be adjusted based on your daily energy expenditure. This is particularly useful for those with varying levels of activity.
Freedom to Choose Eating Days
Calorie cycling gives you the liberty to decide on days when you eat more or less. You can base this on your personal and social commitments.
Long-term Adherence
The flexibility and less restrictive nature of calorie cycling can lead to better long-term sustainability compared to more rigid diets.
Mitigation of Metabolic Adaptation or Adaptive Thermogenesis
Calorie cycling helps prevent the common issue of weight loss plateaus that often occur in traditional diets. Additionally, varying calorie intake can keep the metabolism active and prevent it from slowing down.
How to Implement a Calorie Cycle Into Your Plan
First need to determine your caloric intake. Here’s a straightforward method to get started:
Calculate Your Baseline Caloric Needs
Use the following formula to estimate the number of calories you need to maintain a caloric deficit:
Choose the multiplier based on your activity level:
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- 26: for those who do not engage in physical activity and work mostly sitting down.
- 27: for those who engage in light activities like walking and work mostly sitting down.
- 28: for those who train 3-5 times per week and work mostly sitting down.
- 29: for those who train 6-7 times per week and spend a lot of time moving at work.
- 30: for those who train twice a day, 6-7 times per week, or have physically demanding jobs, or are athletes.
Adjust Your Daily Calorie Intake
Once you have your daily caloric needs, divide them into high and low calorie days. Typically, to set up a calorie cycling schedule with three high-calorie days and four low-calorie days, you can distribute your caloric intake as follows:
- Saturday: 2020 calories (High)
- Sunday: 2020 calories (High)
- Monday: 1640 calories (Low)
- Tuesday: 1640 calories (Low)
- Wednesday: 1640 calories (Low)
- Thursday: 1640 calories (Low)
- Friday: 2020 calories (High)
This pattern allows you to consume more calories on weekends. Consequently, this might align well with social activities or more intense workout sessions.
Meanwhile, the lower calorie days are set during the typical workweek, which can be helpful if those days are less active or more structured with work commitments. This type of schedule helps maintain a caloric deficit over the week while still allowing for greater intake on days when you might need more energy or have more social eating occasions.
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- High Calorie Days: These coincide with your most physically demanding days, like heavy workout days or weekends for life events flexibility.
- Low Calorie Days: These are reserved for your rest days or less active days.
Monitor and Adjust
It’s important to track your progress and how you feel. If you notice you’re losing too much weight too quickly, or you feel fatigued, consider adjusting your caloric intake. Conversely, if you’re not losing weight, you might need to further reduce your calories on low days.
Stay Flexible and Adaptive
The key to success with calorie cycling is flexibility. Therefore, adjust your intake as needed based on your activity level, social events, or changes in your routine.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you can effectively implement calorie cycling to help achieve weight loss while maintaining a diet that adapts to your lifestyle and physical demands.
