Going over daily calories for an occasion on maintenance, how does that work?

pumpkinpocalypse

I've heard many people will save up calories for their cheat day/meal or an event, by creating a deficit through the week...but how do you ''prepare'' for a night out or any other kind of special event involving eating more than usual (like going over your maintenance calories by 200, 500, something like that, nothing too big either) when you're maintaining and don't want to have a deficit or restrict yourself before then? Do you *necessarily* have to workout that day or you'll store all those extra calories and gain weight over time?
I just don't exactly understand...Is eating my maintenance calories all week, letting go for one day from time to time (not often of course but y'know), then getting back to eating normally again directly after, gonna store extra calories and build up to a pound at some point since i'm not creating a deficit ? Or will the extra calories just...''disappear'' or vanish after a while? How does that even make sense...Please guide me through this lol.

SherryTeach

I've been on maintenance for 2.5 years. I go over my calories occasionally for a special occasion and I don't do anything about it. But since I don't do it very often, it makes no difference at all in my ability to maintain my weight.

annette_15

I try to compensate by working out more or eating a bit less the next couple of days if I've happened to over eat. Sometimes no fks given tho

jessef593

Don't workout to lose weight. Do it to be healthy, and in the end you'll be able to eat more calories and still maintain just by having a more active lifestyle. Hate the stereo type of exercise is only good for weightloss

arditarose

I eat over maintenance by 700 calories every saturday. I eat 100 or so less every other day. I've also gone over my 700 banked calories, and not gained. I pretty much never exercise more to eat more. Not my thang.

ExRelaySprinter

I go over by 600-800 cals once or twice a week.
I do cardio though at least 5 days a week, so can handle the extra calories.
If you don't really do much exercise, just be a bit careful for a few days after your event and you'll be fine.
I don't think 1 day going over maintanance will make you gain weight to be honest.

pumpkinpocalypse

jessef593 wrote: »

Don't workout to lose weight. Do it to be healthy, and in the end you'll be able to eat more calories and still maintain just by having a more active lifestyle. Hate the stereo type of exercise is only good for weightloss

ExRelaySprinter wrote: »

I go over by 600-800 cals once or twice a week.
I do cardio though at least 5 days a week, so can handle the extra calories.
If you don't really do much exercise, just be a bit careful for a few days after your event and you'll be fine.
I don't think 1 day going over maintanance will make you gain weight to be honest.

Yeah I do exercice around 4 times a week, sometimes more when I can, out of pure fun but I was looking into eating my exercice calories back (i'm going onto maintenance so im currently just trying to figure out what my actual daily calorie needs are, i think they're around 1650, maybe 1800...but yeah when I'll know I'd hopefully like to be able to eat more on days I workout). I was just wondering if you had to fit in an extra workout on said special day in order to make space for the extra calories. Seems like everyone is doing okay by just not minding them and when it happens, it happens, no gain or anything...that's great! I was afraid those evil culurrhriz getting stored would pile up and creep up into a pound as time goes. But I doubt it actually makes a difference in the end, from what you told me. Thanks! (Still open to hearing more of the community's stories though!)

WinoGelato

Keep in mind that maintenance is a range, not a fixed number. Most people have a 3-5 lb range they naturally fluctuate within, not only for situations like you describe but also just hormonal changes, etc.

Long story short if it were me I would probably cut 100 cals off every day leading up to the event, but if not, I wouldn't sweat it.

arditarose

pumpkinpocalypse wrote: »

jessef593 wrote: »

Don't workout to lose weight. Do it to be healthy, and in the end you'll be able to eat more calories and still maintain just by having a more active lifestyle. Hate the stereo type of exercise is only good for weightloss

ExRelaySprinter wrote: »

I go over by 600-800 cals once or twice a week.
I do cardio though at least 5 days a week, so can handle the extra calories.
If you don't really do much exercise, just be a bit careful for a few days after your event and you'll be fine.
I don't think 1 day going over maintanance will make you gain weight to be honest.

Yeah I do exercice around 4 times a week, sometimes more when I can, out of pure fun but I was looking into eating my exercice calories back (i'm going onto maintenance so im currently just trying to figure out what my actual daily calorie needs are, i think they're around 1650, maybe 1800...but yeah when I'll know I'd hopefully like to be able to eat more on days I workout). I was just wondering if you had to fit in an extra workout on said special day in order to make space for the extra calories. Seems like everyone is doing okay by just not minding them and when it happens, it happens, no gain or anything...that's great! I was afraid those evil culurrhriz getting stored would pile up and creep up into a pound as time goes. But I doubt it actually makes a difference in the end, from what you told me. Thanks! (Still open to hearing more of the community's stories though!)

I mean...they can. That's how people gain their weight back. As you can see most of us at least have some sort of plan even if it seems like we "don't care".

Finding your maintenance calories isn't too hard. You have lots of data. If you're losing .5 pounds per week now pretty consistently, add 250 calories. If you're using the mfp NEAT method, you can still eat your exercise calories back. You can add the calories slowly back to help with extra water weight gain, 100 calories or so per week.

pumpkinpocalypse

arditarose wrote: »

I mean...they can. That's how people gain their weight back. As you can see most of us at least have some sort of plan even if it seems like we "don't care".

Finding your maintenance calories isn't too hard. You have lots of data. If you're losing .5 pounds per week now pretty consistently, add 250 calories. If you're using the mfp NEAT method, you can still eat your exercise calories back. You can add the calories slowly back to help with extra water weight gain, 100 calories or so per week.

Yeah, adding back 100 calories per week is what I'm currently doing...it seems to be going great, my weekly weigh-in on 1500 is tomorrow so I'll know how that went.

As for saving up a few calories during the week prior to the munching, I guess I'll have to think of a plan as well. Determining how much I plan on overeating on average and saving 100 per day for x numbers of days needed , or exercising a day or two without eating those burned calories back...that sounds possible. It's not like I was gonna do it often so it's not thaaat much of a bummer to be a little more restricted on my diet once in a while ^^'

arditarose

pumpkinpocalypse wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

I mean...they can. That's how people gain their weight back. As you can see most of us at least have some sort of plan even if it seems like we "don't care".

Finding your maintenance calories isn't too hard. You have lots of data. If you're losing .5 pounds per week now pretty consistently, add 250 calories. If you're using the mfp NEAT method, you can still eat your exercise calories back. You can add the calories slowly back to help with extra water weight gain, 100 calories or so per week.

Yeah, adding back 100 calories per week is what I'm currently doing...it seems to be going great, my weekly weigh-in on 1500 is tomorrow so I'll know how that went.

As for saving up a few calories during the week prior to the munching, I guess I'll have to think of a plan as well. Determining how much I plan on overeating on average and saving 100 per day for x numbers of days needed , or exercising a day or two without eating those burned calories back...that sounds possible. It's not like I was gonna do it often so it's not thaaat much of a bummer to be a little more restricted on my diet once in a while ^^'

You can also base the amount you bank on what MFP gives you as maintenance. If you're still 100 calories away from what it says, you can add 700 calories to that day right there-if you want to try. Then eat maybe 500 calories less that week. Gives you 1200 calories to play with for the day.

TimothyFish

Going over by a few hundred calories once in a while will take a while before you get enough extra calories to show a significant difference on the scale. Eventually, you'll reach a point at which you realize you need to reduce your weight, so you'll reduce your calorie intake for a while to bring the scale back down into range. Whether you want to make up for over eating during the same week or wait until later is up to you, but you will have to make up for it eventually.

elcollins24

I'd say that you should maybe set yourself a target weight range (a 5 pound bracket or a couple of kilos) and just allow yourself to bounce around in that. If you keep an eye on your weight youll know if you go over your maximum happy weight and should cut down a bit for a week or two. Same way if you go under your weight bracket you can eat more for a week or two. That allows for days when you might want to eat more for unplanned reasons (someone suggests a pizza night etc).
Maintenance should fit into a normal lifestyle where not every calorie can be planned and predicted :-)
Good luck with it and congrats on reaching maintenance!!

intangiblemango

I honestly just don't worry about it. I keep an eye on what I am eating and an eye on the scale. Nothing's creeping up on me. Calorie counting is an amazing tool but it's not perfect. You don't know that you need literally exactly 2018 calories to maintain your weight. Sometimes you'll be over and sometimes you'll be under. Sometimes you will be super lazy and burn less than usual, sometimes you will be absurdly active and burn way more.

If I'm active, eating my veggies, and being reasonable, things work out pretty well. If I hypothetically gained weight, I would know what to do, but it hasn't been a problem at all.