maybe silly but I will ask

sandy2006

Lets say I burned 700 calories today and plan on resting with no exercise tomorrow. I only eat back 200 calories of my 700 today can I save the other 500 and eat them tomorrow since I wont earn any extras. If not, why not.

cbirdso

That's called zigzagging your calories.

itontae

good question especially the if not why not part.

As I DON'T believe in eating all my exercise calories to help with weight loss , I await the responses of those who do

H_Factor

you can. the idea is to create a caloric deficit for the week.

the only caution I'd throw out there is that if you are relying on MFP for your exercise calories, you should reduce that number by roughly 30%. MFP's numbers are largely over actual calories burnt as measured by folks who have HRMs (me included). Some of the numbers are 10% too high. Others are up to 50% too high. So, if you eat back all of the MFP estimated calories, you probably ate too much.

nellie_88

bump

kristilovescake

Yep.. as long as you're getting the nutrition your body needs (enough protein, etc) and you're not super hungry, then it's perfectly fine.

Your body doesn't lose/gain based on a day, so saving calories for the next day should give you the same overall loss.

sdwelk11

bump

spyork

In order to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you eat, if you train and use 500 calories you may need to eat a few of them back to keep your energy up. If you eat all your burnt calories back you won't really see any weight loss just a more toned body, but this also depends on what you do to burn the calories, walking, running, yoga, weight training, HiiT etc

In a nut shell without getting too complicated just try and burn more than you eat.

Hope this helps, i could go on all night but it would send you all to sleep.

Nomomush

You can't eat or exercise for tomorrow or to undo what you did the day before. After a long period of sleep (at least 4 hours) then you have basically reset your day. So basically plan your calories eaten and burned for each day...not multiple days.

piccolarj

Yes you can!! Look at your calories on a weekly basis and not just a daily basis!! I also agree if you are relying on MFP's numbers for exercise you may want cut a couple hundred calories off because MFP tends to over estimate calories.

NoAdditives

In order to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you eat, if you train and use 500 calories you may need to eat a few of them back to keep your energy up. If you eat all your burnt calories back you won't really see any weight loss just a more toned body, but this also depends on what you do to burn the calories, walking, running, yoga, weight training, HiiT etc

In a nut shell without getting too complicated just try and burn more than you eat.

Hope this helps, i could go on all night but it would send you all to sleep.

Since MFP already has you eating at a caloric deficit (if you've selected to lose weight rather maintain) eating all of your exercise calories will still allow you to burn fat and lose weight.

NoAdditives

You can't eat or exercise for tomorrow or to undo what you did the day before. After a long period of sleep (at least 4 hours) then you have basically reset your day. So basically plan your calories eaten and burned for each day...not multiple days.

This is how I've always looked at it. I would take one or two days off from counting calories each week and had no problem maintaining consistent loss, so I never worried about "saving up" my calories.

kirstiey

I ignore the "day" thing and just make sure I am not over for the week. It's working so far for me lost 24lbs in 25 weeks. So yes, in practice, you can save calories over to another day.

fiberartist219

I say go ahead and do it. I had a trainer once tell me that if he knew he was going to eat out a lot on the weekend, he'd work out more and eat less the rest of the week.

I think you're ok in your plan.

sylvuz323

If it works for your body then go for it, that's exactly how Weight Watchers works and it had worked for me. What personally works for me is eating some of the extra calories I've earned but definitely not all of them. If I'm hitting the gym 5x a week I need to be eating more or else my body goes into starvation mode and I won't lose the weight.