ZIG-ZAG DIET... Good or Bad

[MonStar1023]

I am curious about the Zig-Zag Diet that I have recently been reading a lot about...

Anyone tried it or heard any good or bad thing about it?

 

[kjwise]

Worked well for me. Just don't get carried away, that is, during your 2 days of good eating, don't eat up all those calories you just tried to get off.

 

[HarmsWayBC]

Do a search for 'leptin'.........it's the starvation hormone in the body that regulates your thyroid, insulin, test, IGF-1, ect.......

The higher calorie refeeds or overfeeds on the ZigZag Diet replenish leptin levels and allow you to continue losing fat and maintain mass while you diet down ove time.....

I think you need to experiment with this kind of diet........

I did 3 days of 2000-2500 cals of low-moderate carb, high protein, moderate fat followed by one day of 4000-5000 cals from 80% carbs......I lost a ton of weight this way and got down to 161 with 7.5% bodyfat....at one point I was a 246 lbs. powerlifter......this diet got those last pounds of fat off me.......

Go to www.avantlabs.com on look through the first two issues of the online mag, or ask the all knowing and wise Par Deus (a member of the board) about this.......he has helped me a great deal......

 

[skinnyfat]

How much weight did you lose per week?

 

[HarmsWayBC]

Over a 3 day hypocaloric phase (sub-maintainence cals) i could lose 2-5 lbs (most of which is water).......then after the refeed/overfeed day, i'd gain most of it back (usually 75% of the weight i had lost)....but this was a GOOD thing.....overall weight loss was about 1 lb. a week (net, after the refeeds/overfeeds), and most of it was bodyfat, not lean mass or water.....

I think everyone should buy calipers....the scale is just not a good indicator of it you are gaining or losing fat....for example, in the past 7 weeks i've put on 8 pounds, but my caliper measurements have not increased, so I know the weight I gained was mostly water, with some lean mass and probably very little bodyfat (which is likely visceral fat since I have no increase in skin fold measurements)....

 

[cytrix]

i read that you can do either 5 or 4 days submaintenance, and accordingly 2 or 3 days above maintenance if your goal is to loose fat while gaining muscle. question: is that true, that even only 4 days submaintenance will work (even if a little slower), because many say it's supposed to be 5 days submaintenance to loose fat??

 

[Hoffmeister]

i read that you can do either 5 or 4 days submaintenance, and accordingly 2 or 3 days above maintenance if your goal is to loose fat while gaining muscle. question: is that true, that even only 4 days submaintenance will work (even if a little slower), because many say it's supposed to be 5 days submaintenance to loose fat??

You have to be careful with 3 days. I believe one of the reasons these diets work so well is that, in addition to replenishing leptin levels, it takes your body 24-36 hours to kick into lipogenesis (converting carbs to body fat).

That's why you don't add much if any fat during the refeed, assuming you keep to very high carbs and low fat.

 

[MonStar1023]

I am going to give this type of diet a shot I think and see what happens.. I am not really going to record anything though I am just going to maybe do 3 days of cutting back with high-protein, mod-carb, and mod-fat.. then do a high-carb day or whatever..

Would this be good??

 

[HarmsWayBC]

I agree with Hoffmeister.......i would not do 3 days of overfeeding/refeeding......the diet i did is not the actual ZigZag Diet, but it has the same principles.......

If you are over 12% bodyfat, i'd start out with 4 days sub-maintainence, then 1 day of high cal, high carb, low fat refeed (i did between 25-30 cals per lb. of bodyweight, though that may just be my metabolism, although I am an endomorph)....if you are under 10% bodyfat, i'd do2-3 days of sub-maintainence cals followed by 1 day of refeeding.......

bottom line is that you need to experiment with the ranges and timing of the diet and caloric intake...

 

[cytrix]

ON THE ORIGINAL ZIGZAG DIET YOU ONLY INCREASE YOUR CALORIES BY 2(TWO) PER LB OF LEAN BODYWEIGHT, IT'S NOT A MAYOR REFEED (LIKE 150 LBS BW AT 20% BODYFAT = 120 LBS LEAN WEIGHT X2 = 240 ADDITIONAL CAL)
ALSO, ON SUBMAINTENANCE DAYS YOU ONLY DEDUCT YOUR BODY WEIGHT X 2 (LIKE 150 LBS BW X 2 = 300 CAL MINUS)