Calorie Cycling

Some comments about special cases to take into consideration

Calorie cycling may stop working (or progress may slow) when you are very lean (less than 18% bodyfat for a woman, or less than 13% for a man). At that point you would look at carbohydrate cycling.

When calculating your maintenance calories with the calorie calculator, I suggest inputting your goal weight since the calculator assumes a moderate bodyfat percentage.

If your metabolism is already slow (you gain fat at far fewer calories than the calorie calculator suggests), then spend 2 weeks following a diet which is within the guidelines I give here, eating at your suggested maintenance from the calorie calculator, before moving to a dieting phase. Note: if you are on a severely reduced calorie diet, raise your daily calories by 100 per week until you reach this level. You should not try to raise them faster, as this will cause the body to store the calories as fat.

Why it works

Calorie cycling is a technique which thwarts your body's attempt to hold on to excess weight while dieting. When on a reduced calorie diet, the body will lower your metabolism as an attempt to hold on to the fat. Lower your calories excessively, and it will start burning muscle instead of fat. To avoid this, you want to keep from lowering your calories too much (more than 30% of maintenance calories), and cycle your calories. Having your calories above maintenance 1-2 times per week will raise leptin levels, and prevent your body from lowering your metabolism. Leptin levels tell your body when you are "too" lean for its liking.  

The technique

I recommend planning your calorie cycling based on weightlifting and/or cardio routine. You want to have high calorie days on a heavy workout day (such as leg day). Put a high calorie day at least every fourth or fifth day. This is NOT the same as a "cheat" day - you still follow the guidelines to healthy eating. The only difference is your meal size.

Depending on your routine, you may use either 2 or 3 calorie levels for your calorie cycling.  You will need to design meal plans for each type of day in terms of activity level (samples given later).  Note: when I say maintenance below, I mean your weekly average, not for THAT day.

Examples:

Be sure to plan your meals following the guidelines given here. 

If you are doing both deadlifts and squats (on different days), these would be natural high calorie days.  Here are some example calorie cycles based on different splits:

Gauge your progress using measurements and not the scale.