Intermittent Calorie Restriction: How to Lose Fat While Dieting Just 2 Days Per Week

A simple way to lose fat slowly and steadily:

Eat as you normally do five days per week and then eat basically nothing but 150–200ish grams of protein (or 1-1.2 g/lb if you want to be more precise) and maybe a serving or two of fruit or vegetables two nonconsecutive days per week.

Just make sure you don’t accidentally eat more than usual in the five regular-calorie days to compensate for the two low-calorie days.

Technically, this approach is known as intermittent calorie restriction (ICR), and studies show that when the size of the weekly calorie deficit is matched, ICR can work just as well as a small daily deficit, or continuous calorie restriction (CCR), for losing weight.

And in some people, ICR can work even better because they find it easier to heavily restrict their food intake two days per week rather than moderately restrict it seven days per week, resulting in a larger average weekly calorie deficit (and thus fat loss).

Another variation of ICR with scientific support is a period, usually two or three weeks, of aggressive CCR (60-to-70% of total daily energy expenditure) followed by a period, usually the same, of maintenance calories.

In some people, this method may be superior to CCR by mitigating some of the negative side effects associated with dieting, including metabolic adaptation.

The post Intermittent Calorie Restriction: How to Lose Fat While Dieting Just 2 Days Per Week appeared first on Legion Athletics.

https://ift.tt/dKQHliu August 17, 2026 at 06:00PM Legion Athletics

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