Zig Zag Calories and Food For a Jaw Dropping Ending That You Wouldn’t Expect

What do The Prestige, The Usual Suspects, and The Sixth Sense have in common?  If you zig zag calories, how does that play a similar role in your diet to a thriller?

Other than the fact that they were all good movies, they also had plots that kept you guessing.

I see dead carbs…

A part of what made them so intriguing is that they didn’t have your standard drama, horror, or action script. It followed plot lines that are very unique compared to many other half-baked movie ideas. These types of movies keep the audience guessing until the very end and walking away talking about it with all of your friends.  You replay it in your mind because it was so unexpected that you say, “What the crap just happened?”

When it comes to your body, it is a similar script. You are the story writer, food is the script, and your body is the audience. Your body has seen the same movie over and over again. In order to really get your body’s attention (which in this case means lowering body fat percentage) you have to give it a unique script it hasn’t seen before or maybe not as often.

Just like fitness, you don’t want to be redundant with your nutrition. What is interesting is if you mix up your diet by giving your body “an ending with a twist”, then your body will reward you by getting better and faster results.

So the question is…how do you give your body that extra twist?

Food

I talk quite a bit about how every meal should consist of protein, vegetables, and healthy fats. You also can throw in some nuts, seeds, and fruit every once in awhile. That could sound really bland to you like a bad sequel.

When you throw in a variety of herbs and spices like basil, black pepper, cinnamon, cilantro, cumin, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, oregano, parsley, peppermint, sage, salt, thyme, vinegar, and vanilla to name a few then your taste buds have the potential to leave the theater in shock. When you consider all the variations of meals you can make with protein, vegetables, fats, herbs, and spices we are talking about literally tens of thousands of meals. You could literally go the rest of your life without eating the same meal twice. You probably can’t say that you will walk out of the movie theater without ever seeing a dud again or a similar story.

What magic trick can you pull with your diet?

Eating a variety of animal protein, vegetables, fruits, and dietary fats will give you a variety of unique nutrients. Some foods may be more heavy in one vitamin while others may give you more daily requirements of another vitamin. A variety of foods means you can be pushing all of the right buttons on your body to keep it satisfied and full of energy.

Zig Zag Calories

Another way to get your body’s attention is to zig-zag calories. As you shift the size of your meals by adding another handful of protein, vegetables, or fat more than what you may normally eat, it can make a huge difference in your energy levels and how your body responds.

As you eat similar portions for a while, it is easy for your body to eventually catch up with one constant caloric intake because your body is simply an amazing machine that yearns for stability.  You may continue to lose fat or gain muscle, but maybe not as fast as you could.

Yes your body can get used to and wrapped up in a cheesy typical romantic ending like any other girl. Nothing wrong with that. So in order to keep your body “on the edge of it’s seat” it is smart to zig zag calories every few days to keep it guessing. This is valuable whether you are trying to cut fat or gain muscle because as you work out more, your body will probably need more nutrients to recover faster.

Calorie Zig-Zagging is one of the “usual suspects” you should include in your diet for success.

Not only will you get better results if you zig-zag your calories every 3-4 days, but also it will help you start to understand what type of food load or type of foods you should be eating in order to get optimal energy. The ideal consumption for your body is usually more than you think.

Some Tests

Here are some patterns you can test out to properly zig zag calories:

• 2 days at calorie deficit in carbs
• 1 day at calorie maintenance level
• 3 days at calorie deficit in carbs
• 1 day at calorie maintenance level

The same works for calorie surplus with 3 days of calorie surplus followed by 1 day at your calorie maintenance to zig zag calories.  Here are some other options:

• 2 days at calorie surplus with meat, fat, and veggies
• 1 day at calorie maintenance level
• 3 days at calorie surplus with meat, fat, and veggies.
• 1 day at calorie maintenance level

These are just placeholders and shouldn’t be set in stone. You have to find out what works best for yourself. There isn’t a one size fits all, but the size that fits for you will come down to what your body tells you.

You will be able to tell by a couple factors we talked about in our meal planning post:

• Do you sleep well and get 8-9 hours easily without interruption? This answer should be yes.
• Do you go through the day without feeling groggy or like you should be pounding 5 Hour Energy drinks? This should be a no.
• How is your energy and performance with working out? Can you go longer? Can you move faster? Can you lift more? This should be a yes.

If you run into problems even after zig-zagging, then you could spend 2 consecutive days at your caloric maintenance level before going back to surplus or deficit. Or in plain english go a little lower than normal and then go a little higher than expected. You can also raise your calories by several additional portions of protein and fat across all days for a week or two to see how your body responds.

For some of you the caloric zig-zagging might not work as well or take longer to see results. This is why it is important you test, and test, and test. Think of it like throwing out a few scenes in a movie to a focus group to see how they respond.

Your body is that paying audience that you have to treat well. If you can figure out the recipe to a hit movie, then you will have a huge payday for your health.

About Cade

Cade is the founder of Know My Body. Sorry...no doctor degree, fancy gym, multi-million dollar fitness program, or label as a self-proclaimed health guru of biblical proportions. He is a common guy just like you. Maybe that helps him get you a bit better.

He has worked the past several years trying to get a grasp of "health knowledgeries" from the perspective of a person working a 9 to 5 job and dealing with the normal and not-so-normal challenges that life gives. Visit our About Page to chew on some more knowledge about Cade and how we want to help you at Know My Body.