You need to post your stats in order to get good replies.  What's your weight/height, how many calories do you eat, how many calories do you burn, etc.

Original Post by madetoshine:

You need to post your stats in order to get good replies. What's your weight/height, how many calories do you eat, how many calories do you burn, etc.

Okay, I'm 28, 199 lbs, 5"3, exercise three times a week at an aerobic class.  I have already lost 42 pounds. I was doing a 1200 calorie program and lost another 13 lbs but then stopped.  On a high day I eat about 1400 to 1500, on a low between 1100 and 1200. 

I'm bumping this because I don't know the answer and am curious myself.

Hitting a weight loss plateau is common for most dieters and is one of the most frustrating stages. Basically what happens is your body becomes accustom to the lower calories each day and the same old exercises. When this happens your body stops working as efficiently at burning calories.

The good news is that you can overcome a plateau by following a few simple steps:

• Add variety to your exercises - Aeorobics class is great, but you need to diversify your workouts by including other aerobic activities such as biking, swimming, jogging, dance, step class, etc.
• Increase the intensity of your workouts - Increase the duration of your workouts and increase the cardio level. Also, exercising 3 days a week is good, but you should plan on increasing this to 4 or 5 days a week to get over this plateau.
• Incorporate anaeorbic exercises into your workouts - Anaeorbic exercises include strenght-building activities that tone and muscle. Muscle burns fat even at rest, so the more muscle you have the faster your fat metabolism will be.
• Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day - Your muscles work more efficiently when well hydrated and water is really good for your health in general.
• Keep your eating habits in check - Make sure you are staying on track with you calorie consumption. With all the new exercise you should be doing, aim for between 1800 to 2000 calories a day. Also, make sure to include enough protein in your diet for your muscles.

I have plateaued a number of times and each time I have overcome it by following these steps. Good luck, I hope this helps.

From my understand, plateaus are from monotony.  Hence some people choose to zig-zag calories for a while.  Heavy exercisers/Weight Lifters will stop, significantly increase, or revamp their exercising routine.  I would not expect much change while your zig-zagging calories.  You may see a gain one day, and a loss the next but the weight should hopefully stay pretty stagnant (depending on how much your increasing your calories on the uptick or increasing sodium intake).  I, fortunately, lost 50 lbs with my own modified zig-zagging technique.  I watched everything I ate until it got to Friday nights, when I would indulge on wings and beer which would be about a 2000 cal or more hit at one sitting (Lotta wings, lotta beer, lotta sodium).  If your unlike me and not willing to indulge 1 meal a week, I would only zig-zag your calories for 1 week, then go back to your routine.  

Are you exercising along with counting calories?  If so, also try to increase or change your exercising routine if you have the time.  if your walking, try swimming.  If your using the elliptical machine, try the bike.  By using different muscles than normal your body will notice the change and then make it's own changes to your metabolism, just another way of giving yourself a kickstart.

someone posted this site about a month ago and I found it quite useful for Zig-Zag.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm#

At the bottom of the information box is the Zig-zag information

Hope this helps you

I naturaly zigzag I cant help it im much too scatty and never have the same sort of day twice, my shifts at work dont help with this much.

I find I lose between 1 - 2lb a week eat between 1100 kcal and 1900 kcal a day and burn between 1800 kcal - 3000kcal a day. Im 5'5 and 168lb.

I dont think my body has a clue what im going to do next I dont think I do either ha ha. So far I haven't hit a platue which is a good thing but I do wish I could be a bit more normal and regular with my eating.

Every time I go up or stay the same I usually have a completly rational explantion. My weight is all over the place during the week but I dont thinks thats unusual from what iv seen on hear and I tend to see by weigth loss results after low sodium days regardless of calories.

I have lost 25lb with this method but there may be a pattern in there somewhere that even I don't know.

Hey becomingjessie,

I have been zig-zagging on purpose for the last couple of months and found that although I do bop all over the place during the week (could be as much as a kilo difference between two days) the overall trend is that the scales are moving downwards.  Usually the days I exercise the greatest don't match with the days I eat the most - I just make sure that there is a weekly deficit of around 3,500 calories.

I started because I also found myself plateauing, and since having begun the zig-zag schedule, I have steadily lost weight - starting the week I began this method.  It was encouraging after not seeing the scales move for about a month.

Let us know how you get on!  (Oh, and I use that link that halizabeth posted - very handy!).