1 day of spiked calories?

rtmitch88

I've read somewhere that having 1 day where your calories are spiked a bit can help with weight loss. I'm not talking about an egg McMuffin for breakfast, 4 slices of pizza for lunch, and baby back ribs for dinner. I'm talking about just spiking your calories for one meal (about 200-300 extra), only ONCE per week, and then the very next day go right back to your strict calorie management. Is this considered helpful to a diet?

Example: Sunday thru Friday I eat 1200 calories. Saturday I go out to dinner and have a 300 calorie dessert (so I'm eating 1500 on that day). The following Sunday, I go back to eating 1200 again.

Any advice is helpful Thanks!

iuangina

I do it and it helps me. I think it depends on your body.

dls06

That's a lot of food even for a cheat day.

rtmitch88

I think you read it wrong, dls06, I wasn't talking about eating a bunch of food for a cheat day. Only 200-300 extra (so basically 1500 instead of 1200).

shakybabe

I do two, sunday cos I love sunday dinner!.. is my spike meal and sometimes I do wed or thurs too, but I don't eat out much as mainly housebound and low carb all week so my 'treat' maybe a small jacket potato with my meal, or a few chips where I don't normally have potato, on sundays its a little yorkshire pudding! .. but I might replace the roasties with carrot & swede mash instead. I also exercise on those days so I still have around a 500cal deficit even with the extra 'treats'.

asyouseefit

At 1500, you'll still be in a calories deficit. I don't think it can be considered as a spike day.

Speedtrap

I was stuck for a while, and it did take a spike day to break it, but the spike was 1000 cal over my allowance.
The next day I started losing again.
Sit you may want to try the egg McMuffin, Pizza and Ribs.

missikay1970

i do this every week. i've lost 23 lbs since august. it's crucial to me! one day last weekend i had two chili cheese dogs & chili cheese fries with a soda. lost 1.5 lbs this past week. a cheeseburger is usually my spike meal b/c i love them so much and that was the hardest thing for me to give-up. but the great part is, i don't feel deprived b/c i know i will be able to have something once per week. one week was my cousin's bday party, so my spike meal was bday cake & ice cream. i actually came in under calorie that day. LOL

hottottie11

I eat at maintenance once a week to increase my leptin levels and maintain my sanity. I love this method.

oeys

At 1500, you'll still be in a calories deficit. I don't think it can be considered as a spike day.

I agree.

Now I don't know much about spiking but I would've thought that to count as a spike day, your cals have to be above maintenance cals, even well above?

Barribomb

i did it this week and still maintained my weight loss from the week, good so far! also, i think it helps with sanity! :happy:

ambut

I find that by allowing myself to have one big meal or one "bad" snack every so often (not sure about how often...maybe twice a week?), I am less tempted to eat poorly the rest of the time and I feel satisfied more of the time. Since I'm okay losing at a normal/slow-ish pace (less than 2 lbs per week), I don't mind being less restrictive if it means I stick with it long term. Friday night I went to a hockey game and had awful (read: delicious) arena food and full-calorie soda, well over my calories for the day. I ate my normal reduced amount the rest of the weekend and weighed in today with a very happy result. If it's working for you and you're getting the results you want (and you're HAPPY...big thing there), then it's a good idea :-)

Russellb97

The trick is to have a caloric surplus. The studies show that 12hours of overfeeding spikes leptin levels dramatically.

I feel like even a very small surplus could do the trick.
Ex.Your total energy expenditure is 3,000, you could eat 3,001 calories. It's just hard to be really accurate with those numbers so my goal is 2X(BMR).
I'm never lower than 5,000, but I've been as high as 8,000 calories. Amazingly enough the week I ate 8,000 calories I still lost 2lbs.

Also it's nearly impossible to gain fat on Spike Day because of depleted glycogen stores.

rtmitch88

Sounds like it works for most people

This past Saturday I had an awful day, this is why I'm wondering if what I did will be okay haha.

I started out awesome, had Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast. Did Zumba and the elliptical at the gym and burned like 650 calories. Ate a turkey sub for lunch, peanut butter toast for a snack, then went out to dinner with friends before going to a birthday party. I ate well at dinner - grilled chicken sandwich and farro salad. Then I had a mini-peanut butter cup for dessert and I netted 1287 calories.

Here is where the cheating came into play. When we got to the party, I had a chocolate covered strawberry martini and about half of an oatmeal cookie martini. Then my supportive friends dragged me to the North End (Boston) for PIZZA at 3am!!! And of course, pizza is my weakness (jerks, lol) and I had 2 slices of cheese. This could've EASILY brought me over 2000 for net.

SARgirl

This generally happens to me anyways during the week (not intentionally) and I am continuing to lose weight. I also have started to pay attention to my weekly calorie trend on here as well. Good luck:)

taramhouston

When I was losing weight and eating 1,200 calories a day I always had at least one day a week that I ate 1,500- 2,000 calories. Worked out great for me and I steadily lost 1-2 pounds a week until I hit my goal weight.

Russellb97

I think it accidentally happens to many of us. But it's a good thing!
Why not plan it out and do it without the guilt next time?

snookumss

You need to take a week of calories... say you burn 2k on maintenance. MFP says eat 1500 calories a day. What you should do is eat like 1300-1400 a day 6 days a week, then make up the difference on your "Spike day".

MFP says to eat 1500 a day (times 7) which is 10,500 calories per week.
f you eat 1350 calories (times 6), by the spike day you will have eaten 8100 calories

10,500 minus 8100 calories leaves you with 2400 calories to eat the 7th day. This is an example of how to fluctuate your calories for your "spike" goal.

This isn't anything specific. Not saying this is what you should do specifically, but ideally this is an example of how you would set your week up.

dobarber

I usually stay within 1300-1500 calories and 1-2 days a week I let myself get up over 2000(not counting work out calories which I average 800-1000 per workout day 4-5 times per week). On these days I make sure I drink more water than I usually do(I drink 12-14 cups normally and drink 2-3 cups more on high calorie days). This seems to help me out a bit. I haven;t seen many pauses in weight loss since I've been doing this. I hope this helps.

rtmitch88

Thanks so much for your input everyone

And yes, now I won't feel guilty for eating pizza at 3am once in a blue moon I was also celebrating my acceptance into grad school plus the birthday party, so I guess I shouldn't have felt guilty! I went right back on track yesterday, so I think I'll be okay!

Guardien

The answer is YES. As an experienced weight lifter, I've gathered all kinds of information on fitness and nutrition. Sure, up until a few months ago, I was more about gaining muscle, 20 years in the gym has taught me a lot.
Going into a caloric deficit of course does help you lose weight. However, if you stay at (in your case) 1200 constantly, your metabolism will become accustomed to that amount. After a while your body will know you are getting 1200 calories a day, but expending much more, so it will adjust and slow down to conserve energy. Calorie spiking every now and then will confuse your metabolism into thinking the 1200 calories you have been eating is short term, and keep working hard so you don't plateau.
Adding 200-300 calories in one meal once a week isn't bad. It would be better to add an extra 100 to one meal, and 200 to another meal that same day. That way you are getting the caloric spike, but not overloading in a single meal. I would also recommend that you go with a 500 calorie jump one day a month so your body doesn't adapt to the 6 day 1200/1 day 1500 cycle. Again, you would split that added amount over 2 or 3 meals that day.
Best of luck as you continue on your journey!

kmorris246

I may be a pretty bad example to go by, but I spike once a week, and I've steadily lost weight. I reached my goal weight about a month ago, and still spike once a week. And when I say spike, I mean I eat like double my calories. Its totally sickening I know! BUT, it has not seemed to hinder my weight loss in the slightest. I'm very dedicated to healthy eating and exercise for the rest of my week, but on Fridays- WATCH OUT, I CHOW down!

rtmitch88

Thank you, Guardien, that sounds exactly like what I was looking for!

I just used the 200-300 spike as an example. Sometimes I like to chow down, too!

Ambrogio1

Spikes can get nasty. 2-300 won't cut it. Spike that. Double it
listen to my man russell, hes the guru

I have done 4000 cal spikes which is double my caloric intake for the day and lost 1 lb per week every week I did it

ChocChipMuffin

This thread has made me feel so much better about the Chinese I am going to for a friends birthday in a couple of weeks!

kaetra

I think now that the first 25 pounds has come off fairly quickly, I'm going to try out having a higher calorie day each week too. I know that the last 25 pounds is going to be much harder to get rid of than the first 25 were. I want to head off the slowdown at the pass. I really hope I can keep losing!

I also think having 1 higher calorie day a week is going to help me feel more normal. Like, I'm not on a diet all the time. If this is really going to be a lifestyle change then I wanna leave room for the "life" part!

Russellb97

I think now that the first 25 pounds has come off fairly quickly, I'm going to try out having a higher calorie day each week too. I know that the last 25 pounds is going to be much harder to get rid of than the first 25 were. I want to head off the slowdown at the pass. I really hope I can keep losing!

I also think having 1 higher calorie day a week is going to help me feel more normal. Like, I'm not on a diet all the time. If this is really going to be a lifestyle change then I wanna leave room for the "life" part!

Exactly, I call this the Spike Life!
I try and plan my Spike Day's around my social gatherings so I can be "normal"
It's makes dieting much more doable and less evil.

LeCitron

Wow, this post has really opened my eyes to something I should be doing. I have been super frustrated because I'm just stagnating (and oftentimes gaining) around the 155 mark. I am generally under by 300-500 calories per day (I know, bad me, but I really like to exercise and I'm also at university, so unless I want to eat the cafeteria's version of health-problems-on-a-plate I'm forced to stick to low-calorie soups and salads). But this afternoon I am going to go buy some calorie-packed almonds, an avocado or two, and dig into the peanut butter to make sure that I meet my allotted calorie goal AND have something set aside for a spike day. I'm thinking vanilla ice cream sounds good...

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments! THESE are the posts I appreciate reading.

ChanyRae

I am allowed 1500-1700 a day for maitenance..... and I eat whatever I want on Saturday night (have a few drinks too) and Sunday morning. I've done this for years, and always stayed around 110 lbs (im only 5'1)
I don't know if it works for everybody but definitely does for me :happy: Life is too short not to enjoy 'bad' foods once in a while lol

mjbrenner

Spikes can get nasty. 2-300 won't cut it. Spike that. Double it
listen to my man russell, hes the guru

I have done 4000 cal spikes which is double my caloric intake for the day and lost 1 lb per week every week I did it

Did you increase your deficit the other days of the week to make up for the spike day? Meaning that if your goal was 200 calories per day, you'd do six days at around 1650 and then one day at 4000?

abetterliv

Well for the past 10ish weeks i was losing 1-2 pounds steadily and every week I had one day where I ate a lot and then did well the rest of the week (I lost 2 pounds the week after christmas). Last week I didnt spike at all and I only lost .4 lbs. So, yesterday I had a very caloric meal, so I will see how much I lose this week.