My New Diet Set Up
While the set up I have been using for cutting has worked pretty well for me, it hasn’t been perfect. To overcome some of the issues I have with my previous approach, I’ll be trying a new set up where I cycle between a higher calorie day and a lower calorie day. While this closely matches the traditional approach of calorie cycling, I’m just doing this to make dieting fit my lifestyle a little more effortlessly.
Old Set Up
Generally, I would start my cut at around 2100-2200 calories a day.
This would mean that I would eat, let’s say, 2100 calories daily and every 7th day I’d refeed at 2700 calories.
Here’s how a two-week cycle would look like:
Saturday - 2100 calories
Sunday - 2100 calories
Monday - 2100 calories
Tuesday - 2100 calories
Wednesday - 2100 calories
Thursday - 2100 calories
Friday - 2800 calories
Saturday - 2100 calories
Sunday - 2100 calories
Monday - 2100 calories
Tuesday - 2100 calories
Wednesday - 2100 calories
Thursday - 2100 calories
Friday - 2800 calories
Weekly average - 2200 calories/day
While this approach has nothing inherently wrong with it, it does have some flaws.
Firstly, dieting for 6 days straight is much harder than it sounds. It might be very easy in the first few weeks of the diet, but as you get deeper into the cut, you will realize that it’s extremely difficult to not end up becoming food-focused.
Secondly, after that whole week of dieting, one day at or slightly above maintenance calories doesn’t really do much to give you the mental break you crave. I’ve noticed that whenever I was deep into a diet, the refeed day would come and go away and I wouldn’t even realize it. It never left me satisfied, and knowing that I’d have to stick to the deficit for another 6 days just to eat at maintenance again was just frustrating.
Now while I say this, keep in mind that this is the very approach that has given me results till now. Also, the problems mentioned above usually kick in towards the end of the diet and aren’t as big of a deal if you’re just looking to lose some weight.
The main flaw I find in this approach is that...
I can’t eat out!
Or at least not as often as I like.
This is a very debatable topic. One thing we all know is that our diet is the most crucial part if fat loss is the goal. There’s simply no way around it. You have to change your eating habits and if you don’t, even if you reach your goal, you won’t be able to maintain it.
But does this mean that you are willing to sacrifice your quality of life just to have a decent set of abs? Well, not me.
This has been one of my biggest pet peeves about this approach. When you’re dieting for 6 days straight, followed by a day at maintenance, you can’t really eat out as much as you’d want to. I would rather find an approach that helps me be more flexible with my routine while still hitting my goals.
New Set Up
To counter the above-mentioned problems, I thought of trying a new approach going forward. I will alternate between a high-calorie day and a low-calorie day daily.
Here’s how a 2-week cycle could look like:
Saturday - 1800
Sunday - 2600
Monday - 1800
Tuesday - 2600
Wednesday - 1800
Thursday - 2600
Friday - 1800
Saturday - 2600
Sunday - 1800
Monday - 2600
Tuesday - 1800
Wednesday - 2600
Thursday - 1800
Friday - 2600
Weekly average - 2200 calories/day
As you see, my weekly average calorie intake remains the same in both the approaches.So from a fat loss point of view, both should yield the same results.
The only difference is that in this approach, every other day I am eating 2600 calories which provides a huge mental relief, which can be one of the most important things to consider while dieting.
Why I think that this approach will work better for me is because it will help me be a lot more flexible with my lifestyle. I will be able to incorporate eating out multiple times a week while still being able to hit my goals. For me personally, eating 1800 calories vs eating 2100 calories would not make a huge difference on a per day basis. But I do feel that eating 1800 calories between two days of 2600 calories would be a lot more relaxing than eating 2100 calories for 6 days straight. Also, I will be able to space out my training on the high-calorie days which will be an added bonus.
Note
This is not to promote eating unhealthy or dieting at extremely low calories. Even when I choose to eat out, I will be making healthier choices. On top of that, I will be making sure that I hit my micronutrients needs. This is not a shortcut and will only work if you track your calories and macros consistently.
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