Variable Daily Calories

LilRock25

Is there anyone else who varies their daily calorie goal? How do you have yours set up? The same heavy vs low calorie days each week? Change them up based on needs but focus on the weekly goal? What is working best for you?

I've discovered if I keep my calories the same each day I plateau very quickly. I currently work 2 jobs, 1 of them very active, so I'm currently not working out too much (sales floor at Lowes compared to FT job being behind a desk). I try to pay attention to the weekly calorie goal & change my heavy vs low calorie days based on what's going on. Some weeks I have my heavy days back to back some are spread out. Days I work both jobs tend to be lower calorie days because I'm eating on the run & don't have time to snack.

I do best when I have 2 calorie heavy days, 2 light days, & 3 normal days. This has broken a month long plateau and has the scale consistently moving in the right direction.

mtaratoot

I try to get very close to my goal on average over a weekly basis. I can go way over or under on any given day as long as I get very close on average.

It sounds like you might benefit from looking at a WEEKLY calorie budget and work on that rather than a daily one. Then you have to be vigilant to make sure you have room left as the week comes to a close. It would be very difficult to eat all your calories the first three days and then have nothing left for the other four.

If you vary your goal every day, you might be able to do just fine. The trick is to make sure that the "heavy" days aren't so heavy that they erase any deficit from the deficit days.

tomcustombuilder

It’s personal preference. It’s overall weekly calories that count the day-to-day calories don’t really matter that much because everybody has a different schedule different activity level different exercise schedule so it’s really up to the individual to decide how they want to spend their weekly calories and when. Some people even fast for one day to keep the weekly calorie count down so there are just so many ways to do it

LilRock25

mtaratoot wrote: »

It sounds like you might benefit from looking at a WEEKLY calorie budget and work on that rather than a daily one. .

Is there a way to do this on MFP without Premium? Or even with Premium? I'm considering switching to premium for a few different reasons. This would definitely be a huge factor.

tomcustombuilder

Go to Nutrition on the free version then on that page select CALORIES the look at NET CALORIES and that is your 7 day average which is the most important number to look at as far as being in a deficit or not

SafariGalNYC

I do a 5:2 schedule for weekly calories.
5 days lower cal, 2 days slighter higher cal.

spiriteagle99

My calorie goal is based on exercise. I run 5 days a week, so some days I get an extra 500+ calories. Since I go to bed quite late, that usually ends up being snacks in the evening: fruit and/or bread and cheese. It works for me.

AnnPT77

I use the MFP method, logging exercise when I do some, and eating those calories, too. That automatically means I have a different calorie goal on different days.

Also, I'm in weight maintenance now post-loss. My base (pre-exercise) calorie goal is around 100-150 calories (-ish) less than my actual estimated maintenance base calories. I do that to create a "calorie bank", so that I can have an indulgent meal or day occasionally (no particular specific frequency), something that's important for me personally as part of a happy, balanced life.

I admit I don't manage that "bank account" with any great precision these days (year 8 of maintaining). I just keep an eye on the scale-weight trend, and reduce the indulgences if it starts to creep up. This suits me better at this point than being more exact, or using the weekly average.

I was much more meticulous during loss, but would allow myself to eat at maintenance or above sometimes for the hedonistic reasons. Sometimes I literally did the math: If I was losing on average a pound a week, I knew that meant I had about a 500 calorie daily deficit. I could think something like "is it worth it to me to delay reaching goal weight by 4 days to eat an extra 2000 calories over goal?", because I knew I'd wipe out that day's deficit plus 3 more days. If it was my birthday, or an unusual meal at a special restaurant, it might be worth it. If just some routine temptation, maybe not. Now, the calorie bank serves a similar purpose.

Different things are going to work for different people.

LilRock25

@AnnPT77 - that's kind of my thoughts with it. The days I'm going over my MFP set calorie goals are days I'm grabbing dinner or drinks with friends or family.

I've attempted weight loss several times and had good success when younger. I've had some non weight related health things come to which sadly have made losing the weight harder, and even caused some or my weight gain.

Varying tends to work great with Mr lifestyle as far as allowing me the freedom to feel like I'm not actively trying to focus on my weight 24/7, help keep the scale moving in the right direction, and overall just works for my brain.

I'm still tracking everything so I can discuss with my doctor next month, but I'm hopeful in time I'll get used to thi as and not need to be as strict at tracking.