A little ‘411’ on the the Zig-Zag method of fat loss –
BMR = Basal metabolic rate: the rate at which your body burns calories while a complete rest, not sleeping, but laying down over a 24 hour period. (You want that number to be HIGH! 🙂
You want the body to lose fat and still maintain a high BMR without worry of plateau. This Zig-Zag method can be permanent if you cont. to eat 5-6 meals per day and exercise regularly. Now, if you have been in my accountability groups, I’ve taught you the importance of eating well, shown you how to do it, and helped to teach you proper nutrition. And, YOU have experienced how good exercise makes you feel, so these 2 things should be a part of your lifestyle by now.
You will notice that when you reduce your caloric intake and increase your caloric burn, your body fat % drops accordingly. But, so does your BMR. Then, to force the BMR back to a normal level, you begin eating normally again for a brief period. What happens is that your body fat level again begins to climb, but not as high as it was in the beginning. Then you lower the caloric intake again, and down goes the body fat. Eat normally; the body fat goes up….again, not as high as it was before. This process continues until your body fat% is at a healthy level.
By zig-zagging your caloric intake like this, you allow periodic BMR adjustments to take place, bringing it back to a level with is corresponding with your new (lower) bodyweight. Then, it’s easy to begin losing fat again – and again.
If you simply try going down, down, down, with your body fat, your BMR never has a chance to adjust and your fat loss becomes harder and harder until, in frustration, you binge and then gain fat again….forever because you’re messing up your metabolism. The Zig-Zag method is supposed to stop the plateaus. When most people hit a plateau, what do they do? They reduce calories…which is wrong. (You all should know that by now too, otherwise, I have not done a good job teaching you!). Reducing calories only adds to the problem because it drops your BMR. Zig-Zag your calories and your BMR will readjust to the higher level to burn more calories.
An important part of this is weight training. Without weight training, your lost weight will be from lean tissue, not fat!!!! And, don’t try to do it too quickly……. Even w/ weight training, starvation diets will cause too much muscle loss rather than fat reduction. Walking and cardio exercise is ok, but weight training is the single best method for ensuring that gradually lost weight will come from fat stores and not muscle. WHY? Because aerobic training alone will reduce your lean body mass and drop your BMR. Remember…. Muscle burns more calories at REST. So muscle increases your BMR. Did that all come together nicely for you??
The ‘down zag’ should last about 3-5 days, and the ‘up zig’ should be a day or two.
I bet your next question is: how many calories should I add and how many should I decrease? I would recommend knowing how many calories your body needs for a typical training day (this is another reason why daily exercise is important for an accurate/consistent number)…….and then decrease that number by 600-800 calories for fat loss. That new number is your daily caloric goal. I’d start with using that number as the lower one for 3-5 days and then increase it by 300-500 calories for the ‘up’ 1-2 days. But, it’s something you may need to play with in order to see what works best for your body. Remember: you never want to cut your calories and keep them low in hopes of losing fat. It will not work for a long period of time, messes up your metabolism, and the body starts losing lean muscle vs. fat.
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