Weekly totals vs Daily Allowance - help

caroline_mason42

Hi

I am back on MFP after gaining back 40 of the 80Lb I lost, over the past 3 years and need to get back to 168Lb, so my question is on the daily totals.....I know I should diet every day but this realistically is not possible with two small perople and a challenging job, so I work very hard in the week keeping between 500 - 750 calories below my target (I do in excess of 20000 steps a day so get back exercise calories to help with this), as I know I will have a few treats and cheeky glasses of wine over the weekend. My question is, will this work or will my metabolism slow down in the week and I will then blow it at the weekend. I did not have thyroid and anemia issues last time around so did lose the weight much easier.

Any help / advice and guidence very much appreciated as I really would like to know if I can work on a weekly total rather than daily ones

ell_23

Metabolism only slows down after a long period of eating very little - I understand.

If you're asking if sticking to MFP 5 days a week and going over goals 2 days a week then you will still lose weight as long as there's a deficit.

If you need to eat below 1500 calories a day to lose weight, for example, and have a daily net of 1000 (1400 food and -400 exercise, for example) for Monday to Friday, then go crazy and eat over 2000 at the weekend then your weekly average will still only be about 1400 calories…meaning that's the equivalent of just eating 1400 calories per day.

If you mean you'd only eat a net of about 500 in the week and eat thousands at the weekend, then that doesn't sound healthy or good to me. But as long as you ate decently during the week and were active (hence naturally burning lots of cals running around) then you should still be able to lose weight fine….

caroline_mason42

Thank you very much for coming back to me, I have a target of 1200 calories per day and then I get about 1000 from exercise, I average 1500 calories consumed per day leaving me this 700 ish calorie deficit per day for 5 days giving me an extra 1000 ish calories per day over the weekend to indulge a bit

This is great news

cincysweetheart

Weight loss comes from a calorie deficit over time. As long as your weekly totals are at or under your goal… you'll be fine. However… if you are weighing daily, you may see slight gains over those few days due to extra food in your stomach or water weight. Just know that's what it is and don't get hung up on it. Besides those daily fluctuations are normal.

sugaraddict4321

Just play with it for a few weeks and try not to overestimate your burns just so you can splurge on the weekends. I used to do that and I learned that MFP overestimates my burns by a lot - so now I only log half of my exercise, if any. Also make sure you log every bite and sip of your splurges so that you are staying honest with yourself.

caroline_mason42

Hi thank you very much for this, I am using a fitbit so it is only counting steps and as I run 7 miles on a cross trainer every morning I hope I am actually burning more calories than I am being allocated not less but i beleive the fitbit should be quite accurate

Sued0nim

caroline_mason42 wrote: »

Hi

I am back on MFP after gaining back 40 of the 80Lb I lost, over the past 3 years and need to get back to 168Lb, so my question is on the daily totals.....I know I should diet every day but this realistically is not possible with two small perople and a challenging job, so I work very hard in the week keeping between 500 - 750 calories below my target (I do in excess of 20000 steps a day so get back exercise calories to help with this), as I know I will have a few treats and cheeky glasses of wine over the weekend. My question is, will this work or will my metabolism slow down in the week and I will then blow it at the weekend. I did not have thyroid and anemia issues last time around so did lose the weight much easier.

Any help / advice and guidence very much appreciated as I really would like to know if I can work on a weekly total rather than daily ones

fine to average over the week - use a mobile app and you get much handier reports which give you an overview for the last 7 days - I use this a lot and will eat over my allowance if I have built up excess calories.

metabolism doesn't work like that

get your thyroid and anaemia issues sorted medically

Sued0nim

caroline_mason42 wrote: »

Hi thank you very much for this, I am using a fitbit so it is only counting steps and as I run 7 miles on a cross trainer every morning I hope I am actually burning more calories than I am being allocated not less but i beleive the fitbit should be quite accurate

fitbit monitors intensity too - it is quite accurate I've found

caroline_mason42

good news about the Fitbit so around 1100 calories per day from excersise should be quite accurate , I am under a doctor for the issues, on meds but up and down a bit so still struggling to get control at this stage which is still a little challenging, but thank you for your help