If you eat over your calories for the day, which do you do

brianpperkins

Were you over or under your maintenance level?

leahcollett1

i ate majorly over saturday andf sunday for my birthdat treat, went out lots of food, resulted in a 3 hour food coma sunday afternoon, lol was really wild. anyway i drawn a line and started fresh monday. i have been doing body combat every day though to try limit the damage..

SingRunTing

I do B, but I'm going to say that its really a personal choice.

The reasons I do B are:
- I try to focus on being successful today. I really try to not get caught up in my failures of the past and try to do today right. It's what has helped me stick to this in the long run and not feel guilty or feel like I'm always starting over. It prevents the "what the hell" effect for me and giving up and saying that I'll try again on Monday.
- If I try to restrict today to make up for yesterday's calories, I'm setting myself up to fail. I'll overly restrict and end up binge eating.

It's all about what works for you. I know a lot of people do well with looking at calories on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis.

NotGnarly

I do B. I also focus on weekly totals and not day to day.

nordlead2005

Neither.

My week starts on Monday. My weekly goal is more important than my daily goal. If I'm under on Monday, I may intentionally eat more on Tuesday. Or, I may save them and intentionally eat more on the weekend. I've only been over on Monday once, and that was while on vacation, so you can see it works for me as I can bank any extra calories from Monday and not feel bad if I go over any other day of the week.

If I go over for the entire week, then the next week starts clean, it doesn't matter. Most weeks I'm under my net weekly goal, and the most I've ever been over is 850 calories (on vacation).

But, that works for me. As I tell my wife. If you want to eat it, go right ahead. Just log it, and know that if you are over your goal for the week you won't lose as much weight as planned and you'll know why.

Francl27

Your regular deficit will wipe off your extra calories in a few days. Personally, I'll eat less the next day if I'm actually less hungry, but it doesn't happen much... I'll try to lay off the treats for a couple days though.

TimothyFish

If your goal is weight loss, your existing deficit will make up for it over time, it will just take longer to lose weight. It is different when you are maintaining. If I know I've gone over, I might leave a bit more on other days. Ultimately, it will show up on the bathroom scale and I may be forced to set my calorie goal lower for a while.

aliciamariaq

I would just log it on the same day and then move on. So definitely B.
The whole point is to be honest and accountable for what you eat every day, not fudge the daily calorie count so that you stay within your daily numbers.

When this happens to me, I try to even it out by eating less the next day or exercising a bit more so that by the end of the week I am back on track.

shadowconn

It's a not a big deal unless you notice a trend. If I eat a few over, I just log it and move on. If I eat a lot over, I burn part or all of it off through exercise. It's really up to you.

Soopatt

I try to save up for the days when I know I am going to eat over calories and it just feels more comfortable to do it that way - a little cut back each day causes very little pain and as it was the week before, not the week after, I can still wake up the day after the big eating event and forget about it.

If I eat over calories without planning for it, I log it and forget about it, getting back on track the next day. Logging it is painful and not much fun, but worth doing, so I don't sulk later in the week when I weigh or get amnesia about what I ate.

It is all about not punishing myself. Preparing, by saving up calories does not feel like punishment, but anything done after the day would certainly feel that way to me.

AlisonH729

brianpperkins wrote: »

Were you over or under your maintenance level?

This is what I go by. If I'm still under maintenance I don't really worry about it. If it's over I just make a mental note and try to make up for it over the rest of the week- maybe by not eating back exercise calories, or if I have a few calories left at the end of another day I will forego the after dinner treats I sometimes use those for.

PinkPixiexox

If I eat over my calories for a day, I say "Oops, that was naughty " and make better choices the following day(s)

BoxerBrawler

I look at my weekly average vs. daily, although daily is important too... but when I do that I just say "Eh, whatever, I'm human" and I make up for the it the next day through proper nutrition and exercise.

BoxerBrawler

I look at my weekly average vs. daily, although daily is important too... but when I do that I just say "Eh, whatever, I'm human" and I make up for the it the next day through proper nutrition and exercise.

earlnabby

purplishblue wrote: »

A ) Carry the extra calories over to the next day, so that both days end up averaging out to the caloric amount you eat

B ) Say whatever, and just go back to eating at your caloric amount the next day

I'm trying to figure out which I want to do. Yesterday I ate over, so I just added it into today's amount. Kinda sucks though cause now I'm hungry :P Maybe that will help deter me from going over though in the future.

Depends on how I feel. Usually if I eat a lot one day, I am not as hungry the next so I eat under my calories. Occasionally I either ate too much to make up or I am still hungry so I just aim for each day's goal on that day. The one thing I try never to do is severely undereat one day because then I can get really hungry and am setting myself up for a late night binge. Better to aim for my daily target.

Lounmoun

Depends on how far over it is.
If I ate at maintenance level then I would just eat my regular calories the next day.
If I went way over then I might spread the excess calories out over the whole week instead of shorting just one day or exercise more that week.

jamaica111

i have a question? When you work out, and they tell you have more calories to eat to make your daily calorie intake. do you eat them??
I don't really understand. Should i just make my calorie max and just be happy that i worked out.

PinkPixiexox

jamaica111 wrote: »

i have a question? When you work out, and they tell you have more calories to eat to make your daily calorie intake. do you eat them??
I don't really understand. Should i just make my calorie max and just be happy that i worked out.

I don't eat back my exercise calories because I can't be sure I burned the amount totted up on the App. Instead, I worked out my TDEE and subtracted 250 for a 0.5lb per week loss. This already accounts for my 4 work outs a week. I find it easier that way

arl1286

I do option B. I find it works a lot better for my mental well-being to just take it one day at a time.

MrPriolos

I look at the week all the time. MFP has "Reports" then choose "Calories" as the report. Look at the week. This daily calorie count stuff stresses me out. Plus I "intermittent fast" throughout the week. daily counts would be "unhealthy" during those days anyway.