Weekly Total vs Weekly Net Calories

raegan724
raegan724 Posts: 14 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all,

This week I went to dinner with my family right before going back to university so I decided to indulge in a more decadent meal than I usually would.

Currently I eat 1700 calories to maintain my weight, which is about 100-104 pounds depending on the day. I’m a 5”2 female who exercises about 4 days a week.

I typically calculate calories on a weekly basis, so I try to stay at about 50-70 total calories under my weekly goal each week.

However, this week I went over my total by 465 calories. However, my weekly net calories are still under by 1590. Will going over my weekly allowance by almost 500 make any noticeable difference if my net calories are still under?

Thanks!

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    Strictly speaking, it depends somewhat on whether the exercise/activity that made the difference between gross and net calories is accurately estimated or not. Has your weight been steady when you stay under your net calories? That would give you a hint.

    Personally - speaking as someone who's been in maintenance for 6+ years now - I wouldn't worry about 500 calories over in one week, even if I knew it was rock-solid gospel truth delivered via stone tablets on a mountaintop.

    500 calories is roughly one-seventh of a pound (65 grams) of body fat. Your activity variation (not exercise, daily life) is probably bigger than that from one week to the next sometimes.

    If you don't eat over maintenance often, but do so on a rare occasion, there's a chance that the extra eating will perk your energy level up afterward (next hours or day), and make you burn a few extra calories without even noticing, besides. (If I materially overeat - and I do, sometimes - my resting heart rate is usually up a little the next day, for example.) I'm not swearing that kind of thing will happen for you, but it can.

    Bottom line: I say don't worry about it, just keep an eye on the scale. If you did gain a seventh of a pound (65 grams) of fat, would you even notice amongst routine water weight fluctuations? I wouldn't.

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