Calories to spare, do you eat them the next day?
moonangel12
Posts: 971 Member
Had a glitch with my Garmin not transferring over a workout from today (Ultimate Frisbee - so fun!) and I didn’t notice until just now so I have a couple hundred calories left, but at 11:22 PM I am not about to eat a snack (heeelllooo reflux). Normally I go day by day, but I know some people on here keep track more by the week... eating light a couple days prior to a bigger planned meal. It’s a mental hurdle to eat those calories tomorrow when I “earned” them today. Would like to hear thoughts and opinions. That GF donut sure would be good with breakfast tomorrow! 
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Replies
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Eat then tomorrow. Or be a rebel and have them Monday or Tuesday even.
I am one who “banks” calories to have a day with bigger intake. Today (Saturday) I am having some of last Monday’s calories. In the form of a donut. It was delicious.9 -
I eat them all throughout the week0
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If I'm say 500 calories or less below my daily goal I let it slide if I'm feeling full etc... so that I have padding for my week. If by the end of the week I'm again 500 or so calories below goal I dont worry about it.
If on the other hand daily but especially weekly calories are extremely below goal I will try to make it up.2 -
It is just calories. Really and truly.
It is up to you to manage them for nutrition, satiety AND satisfaction, even fun. But always keeping goals in mind.
If it becomes so hard you're no longer willing to put in the effort, then your likelihood of failure increases.
If you just ignore repeat warnings and over (or under) eat excessively, there will be a price extracted... and you may even find yourself in the getting started section down the road! Not based on one or even two days! But repeatedly.
Be a rebel. Embrace the red and the green and the black. On the occasion when *you* want to!
You can manage by the day, by the week, or even by the 10 day.
Much past that I think it becomes part of your broader weight management and the focus there is no longer directly on intake and expenditures but on their results on your scale weight instead.
<And of course there are exceptions to everything, and there's even a forum regular who keeps a spreadsheet with ongoing monthly balances which she has occasionally posted from!>8 -
If your gosl is 2 lose wt and go under your cal goal on a particular day (wk or month), why would you then want to overeat the next day (wk or month)?
Makes no sense 2 me
I treat each day (wk or month) separately and do not "bank" any cals. Some days I am under and some days I am over and I measure my wt everyday to keep track of my progress. Lost 40#in 6 months and maintained/lost additional wt over the following 3.5 yrs doing it that way
If your goal is to lose wt and u r doing it "right", you will eventually lose wt w/o the need to penalize or reward yourself for overeating or undereating, respectively, and if you are not doing it "right", you will gain wt and will then have to adjust your cal limit lower in order 2 eat less.
It's not rocket science. Don't make the process more complicated than need be.6 -
If your gosl is 2 lose wt and go under your cal goal on a particular day (wk or month), why would you then want to overeat the next day (wk or month)?
Makes no sense 2 me
I treat each day (wk or month) separately and do not "bank" any cals. Some days I am under and some days I am over and I measure my wt everyday to keep track of my progress. Lost 40#in 6 months and maintained/lost additional wt over the following 3.5 yrs doing it that way
If your goal is to lose wt and u r doing it "right", you will eventually lose wt w/o the need to penalize or reward yourself for overeating or undereating, respectively, and if you are not doing it "right", you will gain wt and will then have to adjust your cal limit lower in order 2 eat less.
It's not rocket science. Don't make the process more complicated than need be.
Your weight loss is already built into your calorie goal. You don't need to "go under it" to lose weight. Eat at your goal and you will lose around the weight of loss you are targeting (within reason).
As to the OP - it really depends. Sometimes I will, sometimes I won't. Sometimes I'll save it for several days down the line. It really depends on how I am feeling that day and how much energy my body needs.6 -
You can, but you don't have to. In the long run, a few hundred calories isn't a big deal.3
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If your gosl is 2 lose wt and go under your cal goal on a particular day (wk or month), why would you then want to overeat the next day (wk or month)?
Makes no sense 2 me
I treat each day (wk or month) separately and do not "bank" any cals. Some days I am under and some days I am over and I measure my wt everyday to keep track of my progress. Lost 40#in 6 months and maintained/lost additional wt over the following 3.5 yrs doing it that way
If your goal is to lose wt and u r doing it "right", you will eventually lose wt w/o the need to penalize or reward yourself for overeating or undereating, respectively, and if you are not doing it "right", you will gain wt and will then have to adjust your cal limit lower in order 2 eat less.
It's not rocket science. Don't make the process more complicated than need be.
There's nothing wrong with having a weekly goal. In the past I would bank 100 calories or so each day to use on the weekends. That helped me with adherence. More recently I calorie cycle, I eat less some days and more other days deliberately to hit a certain calorie goal over a week. I never look at one day in isolation. I found this not only helped with adherence but workout performance as well (since they ended up being higher carb refeeds).
You found what works for you, there are other ways that work for different people.12 -
I'm running a lot at the moment, training for an ultra.
As the mileage goes up I find it helpful to spread it out over a few days, the runger is real and it helps to keep a bit more on track.7 -
I used to be allowed to on weight watchers but not this one
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estherpotter1 wrote: »I used to be allowed to on weight watchers but not this one
What’s stopping you? I’m not sure MFP has the power to stop you! 👮🏻♀️😂6 -
If I'm extremely active one day I'll often move some of that exercise to the next day and eat those calories then.
For example, yesterday was Saturday and I was out in the woods doing trail maintenance, practiced yoga, half of it vigorous, and had a long cook-fest. (I see the first hour of cooking I do in a day as part of my normal activity, but consider everything after that up for logging.)
I left quite a few calories on the table, and will eat some of them today.2 -
I don't do a strict "I was 300 calories under yesterday, so I'm going to eat 300 extra tomorrow" type thing. But, I if I was low one day I'll be a little less concerned about that doughnut the next day. As long as my weekly average is at or below* my goal and I'm losing weight, I figure I'm doing well.
*I tend to aim for a weekly average of a couple hundred below my goal since I know even with consistent food scale use, I'm probably undestimating my consumption.3 -
If your gosl is 2 lose wt and go under your cal goal on a particular day (wk or month), why would you then want to overeat the next day (wk or month)?
Makes no sense 2 me
I treat each day (wk or month) separately and do not "bank" any cals. Some days I am under and some days I am over and I measure my wt everyday to keep track of my progress. Lost 40#in 6 months and maintained/lost additional wt over the following 3.5 yrs doing it that way
If your goal is to lose wt and u r doing it "right", you will eventually lose wt w/o the need to penalize or reward yourself for overeating or undereating, respectively, and if you are not doing it "right", you will gain wt and will then have to adjust your cal limit lower in order 2 eat less.
It's not rocket science. Don't make the process more complicated than need be.
This definitely isn’t an emotional response to over or under eating for myself, I don’t reward or punish, I was just asking what others do because, other than those rocky first couple of learning weeks, I had kept a pretty good check on the ebbs and flows of daily calories with and without exercise. I get 1470/day so it’s not too often I have the wiggle room for a 300 calorie donut, ya know? I didn’t want to “waste” it
Not trying to make the process more complicated, just asking about what others do specifically since I had seen various practices mentioned in the forums.
In response to your first comment on why I would choose to over eat the next day if I was under goal, I know if I don’t properly refuel, it will set me up to be overly hungry on a normal day’s worth of calories... I don’t aim to be drastically under goal each day just to lose more weight, to me that is more of an example of not trusting the MFP process than the benign question I asked. Normally I plan ahead and go day by day with my allotted amounts and goals, just caught it too late last night. So for me, day to day is a winning strategy, just asking about how others make it work.7 -
It sounds like you know what works for you.
I cannot remember a day ever where I ate less than my goal, other than less than 100-200 calories here or there. I'll always eat until...because of exactly what you just posted.In response to your first comment on why I would choose to over eat the next day if I was under goal, I know if I don’t properly refuel, it will set me up to be overly hungry on a normal day’s worth of calories.
Then I get into a teeter totter situation that's hard to balance out again.
Every day is a new day to me. I don't borrow calories, bank calories, "listen to my body," or whatever else. I've been at this too long and know what works.2 -
No I dont keep the calories as cmriverside says tomorrow is another day if anything I try to stay at my calorie limit or slightly under while I'm losing weight the just above when I go into maintaining.1
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I rarely eat more than 20 cals under my goal, because I usually end the day with as many 43 calorie Dove chocolates as needed to hit my number LOL, but occasionally it does happen. I don't eat them the next day, or eat less the next day if I go over either. I really like having each day be "the first day of the rest of my diet" - clean slate, no baggage, just get up, weigh in, work out, and try to hit my number.3
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That’s pretty much what I was attempting to convey, I just couldn’t find the wordscmriverside wrote: »It sounds like you know what works for you.
I cannot remember a day ever where I ate less than my goal, other than less than 100-200 calories here or there. I'll always eat until...because of exactly what you just posted.In response to your first comment on why I would choose to over eat the next day if I was under goal, I know if I don’t properly refuel, it will set me up to be overly hungry on a normal day’s worth of calories.
Then I get into a teeter totter situation that's hard to balance out again.
Every day is a new day to me. I don't borrow calories, bank calories, "listen to my body," or whatever else. I've been at this too long and know what works.
running on fibro fog lately. That’s why I normally do day to day, last night was an anomaly for me and part of me was disappointed I missed out on an extra treat (I skipped the sweets at breakfast because I didn’t know what the day would hold), but also knew it had potential for me to want to over eat today. Just trying to balance the teeter totter in a way outside of my norm...
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moonangel12 wrote: »
That’s pretty much what I was attempting to convey, I just couldn’t find the wordscmriverside wrote: »It sounds like you know what works for you.
I cannot remember a day ever where I ate less than my goal, other than less than 100-200 calories here or there. I'll always eat until...because of exactly what you just posted.In response to your first comment on why I would choose to over eat the next day if I was under goal, I know if I don’t properly refuel, it will set me up to be overly hungry on a normal day’s worth of calories.
Then I get into a teeter totter situation that's hard to balance out again.
Every day is a new day to me. I don't borrow calories, bank calories, "listen to my body," or whatever else. I've been at this too long and know what works. running on fibro fog lately. That’s why I normally do day to day, last night was an anomaly for me and part of me was disappointed I missed out on an extra treat (I skipped the sweets at breakfast because I didn’t know what the day would hold), but also knew it had potential for me to want to over eat today. Just trying to balance the teeter totter in a way outside of my norm...
I mean, I really don't think it much matters for a day here and there.
It's just if it starts to become a pattern of, "Rob Peter to pay Paul." I've seen enough eating disorders that use this mindset to know it's not a good plan but I don't think a day, two days, a week is enough to really set off any dysfunctional behavior. It happened and now you move on in whatever way you think is right.
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I have only banked calories a couple times for Thanksgiving and Christmas....on all the other days, I eat ALL my calories including ALL exercise calories.0
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Oof that's a good idea, i've never thought about it.0
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For me, it would be an it depends. If I were hungrier the next day I would eat them. If I know I have something special coming up where extra calories would be beneficial I'd save them for that. If it is something that happens rarely and neither of those applied I'd just shrug it off.
Also, if you want to use them later and don't like seeing numbers in the red you can do a quick add that day with those calories and then add them when you want to eat them as exercise under 'banked calories' or something.2 -
I've never done this. I have plenty of days that I am low because I have to stop eating at 7 PM due to GERD, but, often, workout later. I just see each day as stand-alone.
I do the same thing in my budget. If we only spend $100 in December eating out, we still get $120 in January, not $120+$20.0 -
bold_rabbit wrote: »I've never done this. I have plenty of days that I am low because I have to stop eating at 7 PM due to GERD, but, often, workout later. I just see each day as stand-alone.
I do the same thing in my budget. If we only spend $100 in December eating out, we still get $120 in January, not $120+$20.
There is a difference between the 2 though. If you save that $20 (or more) every month then it is a positive outcome as your accessible assets increase. If you are doing the same with your calories and regularly have some saved you open yourself up to the possibility of health risks from undereating. If it is a rare event that you have any calories of significance leftover then ignoring them and starting the next day afresh is quite viable but if it happens often it isn't. This is why I'd always say an 'it depends'.
I am saying this as someone who regularly had spare calories at the end of the day. I lost weight too quickly and see some of the pitfalls of doing so, both physically and psychologically. I wouldn't want others to do the same thing and would prefer that they learned from my mistakes instead. This is not directed at the OP who seems to have a fantastic approach to weight loss, but at others who are reading this and come away thinking eating less regularly is a good idea.7 -
The whole concept of eating less than my allotted daily calories is one I cannot wrap my head around. 😉6
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I don't have reflux, so when I check my calorie counts in the evening and I'm 100 under, I have a little ice cream cup or small bit of chocolate. That means I don't crave them because I have them a couple times a week, but also I'm not making them a regular habit.
I give myself one day a week where I don't bother counting and I eat lavishly, but that's because I've found that keeps me losing weight instead of plateauing. And it means I'm able to not eat onion rings today because I can eat them on Saturday. (And often by the time I get to Saturday I don't want them any more!)1 -
theleadmare wrote: »I don't have reflux, so when I check my calorie counts in the evening and I'm 100 under, I have a little ice cream cup or small bit of chocolate. That means I don't crave them because I have them a couple times a week, but also I'm not making them a regular habit.
I give myself one day a week where I don't bother counting and I eat lavishly, but that's because I've found that keeps me losing weight instead of plateauing. And it means I'm able to not eat onion rings today because I can eat them on Saturday. (And often by the time I get to Saturday I don't want them any more!)
This will generally only work until it doesn't. Most people find it waaaay too easy to wipe out the entire week's deficit (and then some!) by one day a week of eating 'lavishly' without also keeping an eye on the caloric cost of things.
If it's working for you right now, that's awesome! But if and when it stops, you'll know exactly where the issue lies.
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I save up calories during the week so I can eat out on Friday (when I don't get to exercise due to scheduling issues). It has been working for me.0
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moonangel12 wrote: »Had a glitch with my Garmin not transferring over a workout from today (Ultimate Frisbee - so fun!) and I didn’t notice until just now so I have a couple hundred calories left, but at 11:22 PM I am not about to eat a snack (heeelllooo reflux). Normally I go day by day, but I know some people on here keep track more by the week... eating light a couple days prior to a bigger planned meal. It’s a mental hurdle to eat those calories tomorrow when I “earned” them today. Would like to hear thoughts and opinions. That GF donut sure would be good with breakfast tomorrow!
To be honest, the calorie counts on food labels and calorie burns from activity trackers have an allowed error in them. One cannot realistically measure calories in and out +/- 10%.
If you don't feel especially hungry no need to eat them back the next day.1 -
I eat 1500 calories a day, even though my goal is closer to 1700 so that I can eat some more on the weekend or save for going out to eat without feeling like I've lost my deficit for the week.2
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