Do you count calories by the day or by the week?

KrazyKrissyy

I've heard some people go by a weekly allowance as opposed to daily. Am considering doing this. What's your intake/experience?

afatpersonwholikesfood

Basically by the day, but if I want to use more for some reason or need to do the math after a spontaneous late night snack, I care about the weekly total.

TavistockToad

I look at my weekly goal instead of just daily.

I try to be 100-200 cals under goal on Monday-Thursday so that I can eat more at the weekend if I go out etc.

Lounmoun

Usually I go by daily because I am a pretty consistant eater unless there is a holiday or special occasion. The weekly calorie goal is more important than the daily goal.

zyxst

I go by daily counts.

powered85

Daily

workinonit1956

Daily, but sometimes I take a 7 day average just out of curiosity. Vast majority of days I'm under goal but very occasionally I go a bit over and then there are those days right around goal.

JessicaMcB

I go by daily but mind the weekly numbers as well

85Cardinals

Funny you ask, I stay up late, lots of post-midnight eating etc., so I sorta go by groups of days, usually 2 sometimes 3. In my mind, that is. And what is a "day" anyway, when you think about it.

msalicia116

Both. I know what my daily goal is to stay on track for my weekly weigh in and average. If I only looked at it by the day, and I veered off course, I would probably think I already messed up why not totally blow it. With a weekly goal in mind, there is no all or nothing thinking.

wagnerpe123

I enter my calories daily, but think in weekly terms. Sunday through Friday, I usually have a deficit in my MFP allowed calories. Then I "spend" those calories on Saturday.

nowine4me

wagnerpe123 wrote: »

I enter my calories daily, but think in weekly terms. Sunday through Friday, I usually have a deficit in my MFP allowed calories. Then I "spend" those calories on Saturday.

Me too!

grammageegee

Me three. Great minds tnink alike!

law102189

I do both. I enter daily and stay under my allowance every day (mostly), but save my exercise calories for Friday and Saturday so I can enjoy wine in the evenings. We also often get takeout pizza or Chinese food on Fridays, and have a nice dinner on Saturdays, so I need to bank as many calories as I can. This way I don't feel deprived or even as though I am dieting; it's more of a life-long lifestyle commitment.

cmriverside

I log food daily, with a small deficit (like 200 cals/I'm at maintenance.) Then at the end of the week when I weigh in I record my weight and the week's average calories.

I usually have a couple days when I eat over maintenance, so it balances out but it isn't a specifically planned day.

Seffell

I do daily but all I really care is weekly. Life happens so I prefer to indulge when I want to.

sardelsa

Both I guess. When I am tracking I try my best to hit my daily goals but I will sometimes eat less/more during the week to make up for overeating/undereating on weekends

SusanMFindlay

Daily, but I have a range I'm happy with and I keep an eye on the monthly average (automatically calculated in a spreadsheet I keep) to make sure it doesn't go *too* high.

jennypapage

both i guess. i stick to my daily goal, but if i go over a couple days in the week, i don't sress because i know i had another 2 or 3 days where i was lower than my goal. so weekly it evens out.

RoxieDawn

Log daily.. I can tweak the diary daily to eat less or more but still meet the weekly goal.

selina884

Both - I try to keep daily controlled but ultimately what matters is the weekly target achieved.

Habiteer

By the day. There's only so much micromanaging I want to do and I just like to listen to my body. If I need to eat over my goal one day, then that's fine as I probably needed that food to function or I had plans on doing something difficult later on.

I'm not gonna purposefully under-eat just because I overate the day before in order to stick to some almost arbitrary guideline. I do track weekly weights though, which tells me whether I should be eating more on the higher end of my daily goal (if I'm losing weight too fast) or if I should be cutting back (if I'm not losing weight or losing it too slowly).