Is it better to go by daily calories or weekly calories?

imamonster2000

I used to go by daily calories but lately I have been thinking of going by weekly calories. Some days I am hungrier that others. So for example if my daily goal is 1,300 and I ate 2,000 calories today but then tomorrow I may be less hungry and only eat 600 calories. Would that still work for losing weight?

jwdieter

It might. Or you might back yourself into a bad situation. I'd recommend just trying to achieve the daily target, and being ok with slightly high or slightly low each day.

SwellyStyles

I try to stay focused on the day, thinking about the week beginning on Monday could be kind of dreadful, or on the other hand it could be more motivational. If I stay healthy by the day I'm adapting to a more healthy lifestyle instead of feeling like the alcoholic who salivates over the weekend bliss of drinking all week while working. If I slip up one or two days during the week then I can reflect on my week as a whole and make healthier decisions for the remainder of the week in order to reach my goals. It helps me mentally because I can't predict everything that's going to happen, and if I'm having a good and healthy week, a co-worker asks me to go out to eat and I comply, then I don't feel guilty because I know I've maintained a healthy diet before that time and can continue to stick to my count thereafter. I like to monitor my weeks progress as I go so I can be more mindful if need be. Also try not to be too strict on yourself, if you feel like your stressing out way too much about it do whatever feels more comfortable, but eating big one day and then trying to scramble and make up for it by starving yourself the day won't teach you very good/healthy habits.

michaelmadonna

This is an "argument" I used to have with a nutritionisi I was seeing several years ago. She would say that it didin't matterif I ateover my calorie goal on a given day if I mad up for it the next .. my arguement was how does your body know day to day week to week what fuel it needs, she never had a good answwer ... I stopped seeing hr mainly for other reasons though... my best guess and that's all it is from what I've read here and other places is to go by the week. Try to meet your macros and caorie goal daily but if you can't and make them by the week it should work out.. depending on you personal experience of course... just 2 cents no science.

bert16

I'm a distance runner, so my exercise burn varies wildly based on each given day's run. For instance, I ran only 4 miles this morning, but will run 12 a few days from now; a couple months from now, my long runs will be 18 and 20 miles once per week. I don't always feel like eating waaaay more on the days I run long, so I use the TDEE method based on an estimate of my weekly burn. That way, I generally eat about the same number of calories each day.

If you're consistent with your workouts, there's no reason you can't go by weekly calories instead of daily. But if you can't effectively predict your weekly burn because you hop around in terms of your burn, you may be better off with the daily method. Just find what works for you!