Ok, we’re talking past each other, then.
My best success has been with either the protein-sparing modified fast (whey protein powder every 3 hours, plus multivitamin and green veggies 1x/day, and a weekly 1-meal refeed), *or* zigzag diet (800-1200 calories one day, 2400-3000 calories the next, lifting weights on high-cal days), and never going above 200 g of carbs a day.
That second one fools your hormones so that your metabolism doesn’t drop off a cliff on the low-carb days.
The protein sparing died always gave me chapped, cracked, skin, due to lack of fats & fatty acids.
Dann you autocorrect, in advance.
I follow something similar to your zig-zag manner of caloric cycling.
I try not to follow an exact schedule, as natural organisms seem to thrive on random occurrences.
Nassim Taleb writes mostly on financial markets and risk, but it applies to natural order as well.