Counting Calories Daily or Weekly ?

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Flo131LB
Flo131LB Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can I ask - is it ok, if I know that I am going out at the weekend and know, I will be eating more calories, am I alright, if I cut down, say 200 calories a day, throughout the week, so at the weekend, I know I have an extra 1000 calories, to use ?
Is there anybody else, that counts calories, by the week, or does everyone, count daily and does it make any difference to weight loss ?
Thank you

Replies

  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
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    I mainly pay attention to my macros (fat/protein/carbs), but with them & my calories & salt intake I just try to keep it on average. So if I eat a little over one day and a little less a couple of other days, I figure it's good enough in the big picture.

    There are obviously minimums you need to meet unless you're fasting. So if you're already eating really low calories, cutting out 200 may be significant and may cause you some problems. Like a woman on an 1800 calorie diet might be able to go a week on 1600, but a woman eating only 1100 per day should probably not push it down to 900 for a whole week.

    So if you cut 200 calories and find yourself getting hunger headaches and struggling, you should probably listen to your body and go back to your usual.

    I think in the long run, if you can, planning extra physical activity the week before & after an indulgent occasion is probably better than cutting calories. That will help balance out the indulgent day without hurting you during the rest of the week.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,115 Member
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    A weekly view is perfectly valid :smile:
    It's called 'calorie banking' actually, to eat a bit less on some days so you can eat more on others.

    I don't have a set rhythm myself, but I use a weekly view too.

    What you need to keep in mind:
    - be attentive to your body - eating 200 calories less when you're already set at (fast) weight-loss could potentially trigger binges from excessive restriction. It will depend on how aggressive your weight-loss rate/deficit is and your personal sensitivity.
    - eating more calories over the weekend = more food waste in your system and potentially more water weight from carbs and salt = potentially higher weigh-ins right after the weekend. That doesn't mean you're gaining weight, it just means you need to 'keep your nerve' if you weigh in right after the weekend.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,624 Member
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    Count, daily, figure weekly. There is a place that a MFP tells you what your weekly calories are. This is the most important number when pursuing Fatloss.

    Fatloss is a product of a consistent weekly calorie deficit
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,514 Member
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    Results come from what you do on the majority of your days.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,154 Member
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    I calorie bank in maintenance, but not as much as 200 calories daily. I agree with the comment above that you don't want to get your routine daily calories/nutrition too low just to have more calories on the weekend.

    The problem isn't with managing by the week, which is fine: The problem would be with getting too extremely low on too many other days, if that's happening.

    In a similar vein, if you do that one rare week to prepare for a special and unusual weekend, that's less of a risk than making it a routine weekly plan.

    If you're trying to lose weight quite fast (more than 0.5%-1% of your current weight per week, ideally more like 0.5%), and you're not severely obese with a high calorie goal for that loss, 200 calories is possibly quite a high fraction of your daily average weight loss goal calories.
  • ChrisF132023
    ChrisF132023 Posts: 3 Member
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    I look at it by the week, so much easier to maintain and fix if needed.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    All of this happens on a continuum. There is no hard reset button on your body at midnight. Your weight management results will be a result of your calorie intake over weeks and months and whatever that consistently is.
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 907 Member
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    I count weekly. I have my diary customized to have different calorie goals on each day. I did make my days off work a bit higher and days at work lower because it’s just easier for me to restrict on days that I work.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,960 Member
    edited October 2023
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    The problem I have with this method is that it is like robbing Peter to pay Paul and I tend to get too hungry and over-shoot my plan. I find I can't cut below a certain amount on one day without over-eating the next couple days...so, you'll have to find out if it works for you. For me it sets up a very unhealthy binge/restrict cycle that's always about trying to, "balance the books."

    I do better just allowing a day here and there where I'm over my calories. It doesn't amount to any significant weight problems.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,523 Member
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    Personally daily. IMO, it's much easier to make small adjustments daily than it is to try to fix whatever calorie mishaps are at the end of the week. Say I'm 500 calories over on the last day of the week. Then I'll have to compensate somewhere in that day. However if I was over 100 calories the day before, it's not as bad a reduction over the next 3 days.

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    Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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