My New Plan

After losing nothing for an entire month, and after taking a short break and stepping back to look at everything again, I've decided that I need a new plan. One that's different from what helped me lose the first 70 lbs, and one that's aggressive enough to help me lose the last 30.

I did a little research, and I came up with a new strategy to try: calorie cycling. I used this calculator to get a general idea of the zig-zagging, but I ended up coming up with a completely different cycle. Basically, I'll eat anywhere from 1200-1800 calories on a rotating basis. The days that I do cardio and lift weights will be the days that I eat more; the days where I'm only doing cardio will be lower calorie days. The theory behind this cycling idea is that it keeps your body and your metabolism guessing, so as to never let your body become accustomed to any one calorie level and start storing fat/eating muscle.

Something else that is different about this strategy is that I've given myself one day to be "off" from calorie counting (if I feel like using it - if not, I'll eat 1200 cals). My hope is that having that one day each week will help me resist urges to overeat throughout the rest of the week. It will most likely lower my calorie deficit for the week, but it's what I think I need to be able to stick with this cycling thing and stay sane, lol.

Here's the game plan!:

(open in a new window to see the whole thing :])

I think I'll actually change Sundays to 1200 calories. And the L1, L2, L3's all stand for what level of the 30DS I had planned on doing, but I think I'm going to wait to start that until this summer, since I wont be able to use the gym during that time. I know that calorie cycling is going to take a lot of effort and persistence on my part, but that's what it takes to reach goals of any kind. Continuous commitment and a strong will to succeed. My goal is to be 169 lbs by the end of may, which is VERY bold, but seeing as how I haven't lost anything in quite awhile, I feel like it's possible.

Have any of you ever tried calorie cycling? What did you like or dislike about it? Any tips?

Love you all!

Caaaaaarissa