Saving up calories?

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juggalotus
juggalotus Posts: 227
in Health and Weight Loss
I know a lot of people probably asked this, but I don't feel like searching through hundreds of threads.

Ok, so my question is...I have about 600+ calories left for today. I'm not feeling hungry at all. BUT. I will be traveling to Detroit for a concert tomorrow and will probably be eating like ****. I probably won't even log tomorrow. We're going to be going out to dinner and getting food on the way and all that good stuff. I will eat healthy as possible. But It's inevitable. This is the biggest show of the year and I want to have a good time. So, can I save my 600 calories for tomorrow so it's less of a blow to my body? Will it all balance out by the end of the week? My weigh in days are on tuesdays by the way....thanks! :)

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  • significance
    significance Posts: 436 Member
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    As long as you are eating enough each day to feel healthy (i.e. not starving, weak, headachey, faint or cranky), yes, you can save calories. It's the average over the course of a week that's important.
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
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    I do this practically every week, special event or no - just happen to eat under goal on weekdays and more on weekends. I average out over the course of the week and it's fine.
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
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    Yes. I calorie cycle (a/k/a zig-zagging) every week. I have days when I'm not as hungry and I bank those calories to enjoy when I am more hungry for some reason or am going to a special event. I think it has helped my weight loss and made this not seem like a diet at all as I can have several small or one bigger splurge a week and still lose. I like having those splurges to look forward to. Eating more of healthy food or eating a truly splurge item like a fine pastry, ice cream, whatever and still staying within my calorie goal and still losing is a precious gift and new way of eating that is truly a lifestyle change and not just a diet.

    However, I do log my splurges and would encourage you to not skip logging in what you've eaten. It's not bad to have a day where your calories are in the red (over your goal) as long as they average out through the week to being within your goal range. If you don't log, you won't know where you stand as it's possible you might eat even more than 600 calories over your goal if you don't log. If you find you went more than 600 calories over during the concert day, you will know how much you need to cut back over the next day or two to keep your weekly average at your goal.

    If you use MFP on an Android phone, the weekly report actually gives you the numbers you need to know. I don't know why the website doesn't do that, too.

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