Yo-yoing Calories

MrsCCLL
MrsCCLL Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone else do really well during the week and then blow all that progress on the weekend? This is pretty much my story every Monday morning.

I'm 5'7" and 149 pounds. I exercise 5-7 times a week (running, spinning, barre, weight training, etc.) and I have a sedentary desk job. I have limited myself on paper to 1100 calories but I almost always go over. My weekday average calories (not net calories, but total calories) is probably right around 1,200 but my weekend average is more like 2000. If I average my daily calorie intake for the last month, its 1488. Net calorie average is 1169.

HOWEVER, over the last month I have lost and gained about 3 pounds in either direction each week and now I'm up 2.5 pounds from where I was 30 days ago.

Is my yo-yoing calorie intake to blame?

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    If I were eating 1100 calories I would blow it too. But I suspect if your average net is 1169 that you logged you are probably eating more than you think...do you weigh your solids? log everything?

    Why are they so low? The goal here should be to eat as much food as you can and still lose a reasonable amount of weight. And with 11lbs to lose 1/2lb a week would be a reasonable goal.

    I am 5 ft 7 as well...weigh 153lbs and workout 5-6x a week which includes a lot of lifting heavy weights, cardio and HIIT. I ate on average 1850 calories last week and lost 1/2lb...
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    Plan for your weekends ahead of time so you could stay within your calorie range. There is nothing wrong with saving calories for the weekend. Another option is eat at your maintenance calorie level on weekends. If you only have 11 lbs. to go then set up your MFP profile for 1 lb. weekly weight loss goal and eat back at least half of your exercise calories because 1100-1200 is too low for the amount of exercising you do. You still need to eat enough to meet your body's nutritional needs.

    As a rule of thumb, the following weekly targets would give a balance between minimizing negative side effects and seeing a reasonable weekly weight loss:
    More than 75 lbs: 2 lbs/week
    40-75 lbs: 1.5 lbs/week
    10-40 lbs: 1 lb/week
    Less than 10 lbs: 0.5 lb/week

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • MrsCCLL
    MrsCCLL Posts: 9 Member
    You're both right. I'm probably overdoing it even more than I think on the weekends (and not tracking EVERYTHING) and I'm probably also needing to weigh foods more consistently.

    I'm going to get stricter about measuring food... and I'll try to go with my "maintain" calorie range on the weekends and cut a deeper deficit on the weekdays.

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