Have you heard or used the zig zag

[Oya]

Have you heard or used the zig zag calorie counting system. If so did it work for you

[Heybales]

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@Oya wrote:

Have you heard or used the zig zag calorie counting system. If so did it work for you

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Zig zag has an interesting premise, that if you fool the body with calories eaten then it keeps the metabolism up.

Interesting theory not shown in any studies.

What has been shown with studies and meal frequency though, is the calories you eat, in a few meals or many meals, increases the metabolism (not really metabolism though) to digest/process the food exactly the same. So you eating more one day but different than goal, compared to another day different than goal, but on average eating the same amount daily - provides no extra benefit.

If you want true Zig-zag of calories your body is receiving, then look at each weekly report from Fitbit as to what you burned on average daily.

Subtract your deficit, and eat that much each and every day.

So while you are eating the same amount, some days you actually burn more, some days you actually burn less.

Usually this works out better, because the days you burn less might follow days you burned more, in a bigger harder workout. Well, if hard enough, repair can continue on in to the next day, and there you are eating more calories for it to use in repair!

That's usually called TDEE deficit method.

The only one that in a study showed positive results, was eating 5 days at TDEE, what you burn, and then 2 non-consecutive days eating at 25% of TDEE. Hopefully non-exercise days.

That's helpful because of not messing up the hormones, and up to 72 hrs of a fast (which this isn't really), the metabolism actually increases.