saving calories as a strategy for sustainable maintenance

rheddmobile

Here's one way to do it within the app:

Create a food entry called "Calorie bank in." Make it 100 calories per serving.
Create a cardio entry called "Calorie bank out." Make it 100 calories per 10 minutes at your preferred weight.

When you undereat by 200 calories, add two servings of "Calorie bank in" under snacks. Then go to the day of your event and log 20 minutes of "calorie bank out" under cardio. When you reach that day, the "exercise calories" will be already logged and waiting for you to eat them back.

Latima58

rheddmobile wrote: »

Here's one way to do it within the app:

Create a food entry called "Calorie bank in." Make it 100 calories per serving.
Create a cardio entry called "Calorie bank out." Make it 100 calories per 10 minutes at your preferred weight.

When you undereat by 200 calories, add two servings of "Calorie bank in" under snacks. Then go to the day of your event and log 20 minutes of "calorie bank out" under cardio. When you reach that day, the "exercise calories" will be already logged and waiting for you to eat them back.

wow, this is a really good idea! Thank you - I will definitely try it out.

Thanks to everybody else for comments as well. Hopefully, someday I will be able to break my weightloss-binge cycle and enjoy being in maintenance Or calorie saving will just become a habit like money saving - I have an app where I track all my income and spending till the last cent for many years already. I like the idea (I read it in one MFP thread recently) of approaching your calories like money - most of us just do not spend more than we have un account or wallet.

PAV8888

You asked a few times about potential pitfalls when it comes your new strategy.

It is one thing to be balancing a couple of hundred calories a day over two or three days, or a week, creating a small deficit, and blowing them on a couple of nights out.

It is another to be "saving" 400-500 Cal a day for three weeks and then going on a week long eating streak.

The first is somewhat balancing your intake along some "enhanced" natural variation of days of plenty and days of not so plenty.

The second creates a full on weight loss and regain cycle.

To me it sounds as if both your deficits and overages are too large and until you manage to narrow this oscillation you may well continue to struggle.

There is always the hope that if you are not too restrictive during the diet phase but instead use the opportunity to be just slightly more selective then you will develop the ability to remain somewhat selective instead of feeling the need to go all out at your events during maintenance as some sort of reward.

Sort of like "one of each appetizer" to try everything... as opposed to multiples of everything.

ahoy_m8

OP, I think you can make it work. I appreciate all the comments that’s it’s a little extreme, but you yourself commented rather eloquently about differences among people.

For about a year, I ate at a 150 cal daily surplus 2 weeks after ovulation (when my testosterone was higher and when I progressed weights lifted) and 2 weeks equivalent deficit upon menstruation. Net neutral for recomp. Sort of mini-bulk-cuts. What you describe sounds similar. Best of luck.