Calorie tracking - daily vs weekly

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patcasullo1
patcasullo1 Posts: 28 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello question,

I do track calories daily and make sure I don’t go over. Often I have left over calories daily; between 200-300. Do I factor these into a weekly calculation? For example with Christmas here I’m surely going to have a few days where I go over my calories but do my shortage last daily balance it out?

Thanks.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Definitely look at your weekly goal, not just daily
  • ryenday
    ryenday Posts: 1,540 Member
    edited December 2017
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    Tracking weekly is how I stay sane and sociable - in some ways it easier (I can bank calories early in the week for a Friday happy hour) BUT it is not for everybody. Some people overdo, then figure they have all week to make it up, but then don’t follow through with making it up. To keep myself honest I allow calories in excess of daily allotment only when I have extra banked from previous 7 days. YMMV
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,984 Member
    edited December 2017
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    I know that there are advocates of weekly weigh-ins and logging but I weigh myself and log all food intake daily.

    Any cals "leftover" on any particular day are just forgotten and considered "gone." No adding them up so that I can go over another day and average out for the week.

    The key to my approach is monitoring my daily weight.

    If my weight (regardless of what I eat) is w/in my maintenance range, no change is required. Just try to eat w/in the same cal limit for the following day, each day thereafter, unless there's some significant change up or down BEYOND my maintenance range.

    If an increase or decrease in weight up to or beyond my maintenance range over 3-4 weeks occurs, then a correction of the daily allowance is required.

    This happened to me recently when my daily weight moved to the high end of my maintenance range at 160-161# and the 7 day moving ave strarted to creep up a 1# to between 159-160.

    I dropped my daily cals by 250 to 1650 from 1900 (which is equivalent to about a 1/2# loss a week) and my daily weight has slowly dropped back to my goal weight of 158 and has backed away from 160-161 back to a more acceptable (to me) range of 157-159.

    Still working on getting the weight more towards 157 than 159.

    This way of tracking weight and intake allows me to "fine tune" my maintenance effort in a way that I do not believe would be possible if I used a weekly approach.
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
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    What matters is a net calorie deficit over time, so do what works for you. It doesn't matter if that deficit occurs every single day, or if you go over on some days and under on others. As long as the overall result is a deficit, you'll keep losing weight.

    Tracking weekly calories is great for the holidays, planning ahead for events, or working in a cheat meal so it doesn't ruin your week. For me it's a lot more in tune with real life (especially once you hit your goal weight) so it's not a bad idea to start looking at it from a weekly perspective.


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