Bank calories

If I eat 1,200 calories a day and burn 400 calories I’m left with 800. For the day. My general plan is to bank calories so I can have a splurg day a week? With that math how do I do that? Do I take 1,200 * 7 take that number and subtract the number I get from 800* 7 and the remainder is how much I have at the end of the week to use if so that means by the end of the week I’ll bank 2,900 calories?

Please let me know how that works?

Replies

  • suerlewis2
    suerlewis2 Posts: 126 Member
    Would be glad to hear some wisdom on this too, I'm sure you'd have to take your basal rate into account too.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Mfp is set up to give you a calorie goal without exercise. 1200 is your calorie goal to lose however much per week you chose (which could be too fast, depending on your stats).

    You could eat 1200 ever day, and bank exercise calories for the weekend.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Approach it logically.
    Do you want to lose, maintain, or gain?
    How will your splurge day affect that goal?
    Do you approve of this plan?



  • delgrand
    delgrand Posts: 108 Member
    your weakly supposed requirement to lose weight is 7*1200=8400 calories.
    you eat 800 calories for 6 days so that's 4800 calories
    8400 calories - 4800 calories = 3600 calories on your "splurge" day
  • Editme12
    Editme12 Posts: 71 Member
    Yes, you can look at calories from a weekly point of view. If MFP tells you to eat 1200 a day, you should do that. If you then exercise and add additional calories to your day, you can save them for another day.
    1200 is fairly low, so I personally wouldn't try to eat under that amount. Also, there's a place on the app you can view your calories in a "weekly" view where it will show if you were over or under for each day, and net calories for the week.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    I am a supporter of banking calories generally, but I don't agree with doing it when you're on 1200 cals given that it's such a low amount.
  • WhereIsPJSoles
    WhereIsPJSoles Posts: 622 Member
    I wouldn’t bank that amount. Feels like you’d be setting yourself up for some binge and starve patterns. I’ll bank like 100 for 6 days and have 600 leftover for 1 day.
  • Slasher09
    Slasher09 Posts: 316 Member
    I feel like finishing every day with a net of 800 calories is just not sustainable with that level of working out...unless you are like 4ft 9 or something.
  • 4theking
    4theking Posts: 1,196 Member
    I used to use a calculation of a little under or just at bmr for 6 days and 2x bmr for one day. It worked quite well.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    edited December 2017
    If I eat 1,200 calories a day and burn 400 calories I’m left with 800. For the day. My general plan is to bank calories so I can have a splurg day a week? With that math how do I do that? Do I take 1,200 * 7 take that number and subtract the number I get from 800* 7 and the remainder is how much I have at the end of the week to use if so that means by the end of the week I’ll bank 2,900 calories?

    Please let me know how that works?

    If MFP gives you 400 extra calories you get to eat those back (or at least half of them). You can bank 200.

    MFP lets you view your weekly Net Calories.

    Diary>Nutrition>Calories>Week View.

    Under the chart, you'll see your Net Calories Under Weekly Limit. This is where you can see what you've got banked.

    You're supposed to eat your Goal amount, and this should be the same as your Net Average (daily calories every day averaged out for the past 7 days).

    Here's an example

    ahezyuqvjnlq.jpeg

    I use kilojoules but you can get the gist.

    For that week I was 102 kj over my limit (25 calories) over for the week, which is negligible.

    Some days I ate less, some days I ate more.

    My Net calorie/kilojoule limit is what determines my weight. You need to stick to your Net Calorie limit whether you're trying to lose or maintain weight.

    Unless you're morbidly obese and your weight is life-threatening and a doctor and dietitian are monitoring you, eating 800 calories every day is far too little.