Why is everything based on weekly?

nicholerein

I'm concerned and confused about why calorie intake is only based on each week? Say like me for example: I was eating whatever I wanted, and drinking alcohol whenever I wanted, up to 7 days a week some weeks. And not just 1 or 2 drinks. Like way to much. So now that I'm counting food calories and cut back to only drinking on the weekends, even if it is more then 1 or 2 most of the weekends... What about counting those calories cut for a month, or a year? Wouldn't me cutting down from that bad of a lifestyle to this still make me lose weight? Instead of just basing it only on each week?

bendyourkneekatie

Firstly, weekly is easier to keep track of.
Secondly, if we're talking as extreme as a year, sure, if I ate at a huge defecit for, say, half the year, and then slightly above maintenance for the rest of the year, I would probably end the year at a lower weight than I began, but I would have been noticeably, measurably, losing and then gaining weight during those periods as they are considerably longer than a week.
I can see working on a monthly defecit, perhaps, say you want 3 weeks defecit 1 week maintenance or something. Ymmv

WalkingAlong

I think MFP is based on daily values, not weekly?

Cutting your intake will cut your size no matter span of time you choose to measure, even none at all.

bendyourkneekatie

There's daily and weekly measures on mfp.

It's kind of, well, that's the way the world works, isn't it? We break years into months, months into weeks, weeks into days etc etc. the goal with long term weight loss is to create a deficit for more than a week, or month, or possibly even year, but the easiest way to calculate that yearly deficit is to break it down to smaller portions, usually daily, sometimes weekly, possibly monthly (but I'd imagine you'd still break the monthly down in some form or another)

lorrpb

All the changes you mention do add up over time. Daily and weekly tallies give us frequent feedback and allow us to make adjustments as needed. You don't want to wait a year to find out you were off!

nicholerein

Thanks. I understand it's easier to break things down weekly. But from all the things I'm reading makes it confusing. I guess what I'm asking is will I lose weight still?

CroneStar

Where can you see weekly goals on MFP?

RodaRose

CroneStar wrote: »

Where can you see weekly goals on MFP?

Go to REPORTS.

AnnPT77

And just cutting your intake will not (necessary) reduce your weight. Cutting your intake so it's below the number of calories you burn, on average - that's what will reduce your weight.

Example: Say I burn 2000 calories a day (job, exercise, heartbeat, whatever), and eat/drink 3000. Obviously, I will've gotten fat. Then I cut back during the week, eat/drink at 2000 for 5 days, 3000 on the weekend. Not gonna lose weight; gonna gain, just more slowly. Whatever time scale I use, in order to lose weight, I have to average eating/drinking less than that 2000 per day that I burn. Could be dropping to 1800 every day, could be 1500 on weekdays, 3000 on the weekend - just have to average less than the 2000. (Your numbers vary, obviously.)

Doesn't much matter what time scale you use - day, week, month, year (though at the long time scales, your weight might yo-yo). What matters is more-or-less regularly eating/drinking less than you burn.

rankinsect

The reason we don't do yearly counts is to not have to read posts in August when people realize they have used up their yearly calorie allotment

But seriously, it's like any other project - if the timelines are too long, there's no sense of urgency. So if you do have a huge project, you should also break it down at least to what you'll accomplish each week or you simply end up procrastinating.

bendyourkneekatie

nicholerein wrote: »

Thanks. I understand it's easier to break things down weekly. But from all the things I'm reading makes it confusing. I guess what I'm asking is will I lose weight still?

I'm a bit confused about what you're asking and how it runs counter to daily/weekly counting.