am i setting up bad habits for life?

dryfli

hello,
i work 3 long long days per week that it is virtually impossible for me to fit in exercise. (i am up at 6, get the kids fed, lunches packed, to school, commute in, to work for me, and my day ends b/t 7 and 8.) most of the time i am getting home at 8 or 9 pm and there is just nothing left on those days and no energy or time to exercise. and i'm ok with that. (i generally eat and go to bed within an hour or 2 after getting home). MFP has me set at 1200 cals per day to lose weight. on those days i stick (most of the time) very tightly to the 1200 cals. on the days i am home, i generally work off another 500-700 cals working out etc. i am eating up those calories to keep my metabolism running well. am i setting my self up for sabotage? am i setting up bad habits going back and forth b/t the 2 extremes? i worry that i will start eating like i do on my exercise days on my off days. generally, i allow myself just about anything to eat as long as it is within my caloric intake for the day. should i find a happy medium as far as my daily intake??

t_rog

it sounds like you're definitely working around your situation well. plus, there are a lot of people that swear by zigzagging calories, so that's also in your favor. i think you'll be fine!

healthyliving_girl

I zigzag my calories, too. It's not necessarily by choice, but there are two days I can't workout...unless I opted not to sleep and got up at 4:30am. Uh, not an option. HAHA.

I've only been doing MFP for two months...and the last month has included the zigzagging calories with no workout 2x/week. Some days I eat 2000 calories (workout days), other days 1600. I've still been consistently losing weight, so I think it works.

I've heard it's better to zigzag. I don't know the arguments back and forth, but as long as I still keep losing weight, I'm good.