Can you collect your ex. cals and eat them all in one day?

SolidGoaled

I have searched to see if anyone has asked this and couldn't find a query that would grab any relevant posts.

If you are set to a 1200 calorie diet - could you "save up" your exercise calories for a once a week cheat meal, or an "off" day?

You would then net under 1200 calories most days of the week, however, you would have one day where you would eat them all up, then your total calories for the week would balance to what they should be.

What would be the possible drawbacks to this? And the possible benefits?

I have been reading a lot about the "spike day" method, and I wondered if this would be a method of determining how many calories could go into the spike day. In fact, I think someone may have asked this, but I never did see an answer.

psmd

That's sort of how weight watchers works, you can use your extra points throughout the week as you wish. Not sure if it works or doesn't work though. If I am planning on going out to dinner one night, I try extra hard not to go over cals the other day and it seems to be okay so far for me.

mumof5

HA HA HA...THATS FUNNY, NO YOU CANT DO THAT, ITS CHEATING AND YOU WONT LEARN ANYTHING FROM IT. THIS IS THE MFP WAY...ANOTHER WAY IS - MY FRIEND WHO IS A DIETTICIAN TELL ME TO HAVE AROUND 1600CALS PER DAY AND ONE DAY A WEEK HAVE 2000 - SOUNDS LIKE THE DIET YOU WANT TO GO WITH! AS LONG AS YOU KNOW ITS A 'TREAT' AND DONT TREAT YOURSELF EVERYDAY. GOOD LUCK.

becky2967

ive lost 25lbs doing this. i eat about 1,500 cals aday, ( my goal asctualy is set at 1,750) but exercise so im usualy deficit of about -900 aday ( on average ) and on a sunday i eat my 1,500 & occationaly more ( add in a treat not every weeek) . of course this has no effect on my weight loss because im very deficit the other days. i lose about 2-3lb most weeks.

taqefu

It's not like your body had some magic reset button, that resets your calorie needs everyday at midnight. So, yes, you can do that. Many people here (including me) watch their weekly caloric intake instead of their daily allowance. The MFP android app even has a feature for that.

Depending on the number of exercise cals we're talking about here, I wouldn't recommend eating ALL of them in one day/meal though. Eating 2000+ cals in one meal doesn't sound like something fun or healthy to do.

SolidGoaled

It's not like your body had some magic reset button, that resets your calorie needs everyday at midnight. So, yes, you can do that. Many people here (including me) watch their weekly caloric intake instead of their daily allowance. The MFP android app even has a feature for that.

Depending on the number of exercise cals we're talking about here, I wouldn't recommend eating ALL of them in one day/meal though. Eating 2000+ cals in one meal doesn't sound like something fun or healthy to do.

Ha ha, yes, of course- I am a daily exerciser, so my ex cals for th week could be up there and would probably give me a tummy ache if I ate them all in one sitting!

Interesting responses so far

MaximalLife

Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!

Rae6503

Yes you can. I pay more attention to my weekly average than my daily totals. Somedays I'm way over and make it for it by being under on other days. Some people do this to an extreme and have a 5000 calorie "spike" day. Like someone said, you body doesn't work on a 24 hour clock.

SolidGoaled

Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!

THIS is exactly what I am fearful of. Hmm....

SassyCalyGirl

in the voice of Jillian Michaels-No You Cannot!
(those of you that know Jillian-this should totally make you laugh):laugh:

tenax

i think physically, you can..but mentally if it caused me to gain weight that day, i would be disappointed. if i maintained weight, i'd be ok. discipline has been my achilles heel, so better i stay within my intake numbers always.

therealangd

I wouldn't do 1200 calories. I'd add a couple hundred depending on what type of calories you are burning during exercise. My worry would be burning lean muscle as well. My other concern, personally speaking, is that if I do a hard workout and I don't eat enough that day, I am STARVING out of my mind the next day. That leads me to not make healthy choices.

jmehere

I would think you could, because it's about net calories consumed over the course of week. That's why the spike day, calorie shifting, and maybe even carb cycling work. Those days that you eat more calories raise the threshold of your metabolism and help you to burn more.
As long as you stay under however many calories you are allotted over 7 days, you should still lose weight. But don't expect to step on the scale the day after that big meal and see yourself down.

twoscimitars

I think it depends on how many extra calories we're talking about. I can't imagine 6 days of 1500 calories and 1 day of 5000 can feel good. I think you can maybe splurge one day and go a little over - this helps prevent that feeling of being deprived. But overdoing it is just going to mentally reset your cravings for the bad stuff.

GBO323

Solid, YES you can do this. Think about the science of the numbers. It takes a net loss of 3500 calories PER WEEK to lose one pound. It doesn't take into account when you lose those those calories. I've done this on occasion with great continued success (60+ pounds lost).

As a second motivator, if I go over my calories on Monday by 300, then I can either do 300 calories in exercise that day(usually don't want to do this) or take off 100 calories for the next 3 days OR exercise for 100 calories burned the next three days.(and don't add it back into the eatable food for that day).

So relax and enjoy. This method is good for spike metabolism AND to give yourself permission instead of not thinking that you've failed ONE day. Average it out and enjoy your journey.

Kimsied

Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!

That's what I'd be afraid of, too. I would imagine you could probably be a little under every day and have that one day where you are at or slightly above maintenance with no problem, but that might depend a lot on how aggressive your deficit is. This may work okay for someone aiming for a .5 to one pound a week loss, but with a very large deficit I would be worried about getting into the area where you are burning lean mass going too much under. I have no idea where that area of lean mass burning exactly is, so I would probably err on the side of caution. But different things seem to work for different people. I seem to have good progress when I have a day or two where I am not dieting but still being reasonable (not crazy binge), but my rate of loss is slow. I exercise most days as well.

becky2967

Solid, YES you can do this. Think about the science of the numbers. It takes a net loss of 3500 calories PER WEEK to lose one pound. It doesn't take into account when you lose those those calories. I've done this on occasion with great continued success (60+ pounds lost).

As a second motivator, if I go over my calories on Monday by 300, then I can either do 300 calories in exercise that day(usually don't want to do this) or take off 100 calories for the next 3 days OR exercise for 100 calories burned the next three days.(and don't add it back into the eatable food for that day).

So relax and enjoy. This method is good for spike metabolism AND to give yourself permission instead of not thinking that you've failed ONE day. Average it out and enjoy your journey.

i totaly agree with you!!

dbrightwell1270

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aqua_zumba_fan

This is what I do to some extent - I go by my weekly goal rather than daily and eat back all my exercise calories. I have seen it said that changing the amount of calories you eat each day can help you lose weight.

xcrushx28

Use your calories that day or don't use them at all. Saving for a whole week may just make it easier to binge etc and fall off track. Ultimately you can do whatever you please. I'm just not sure if something like that would be "optimal" for you, even if it seems to "work".

Tenoreo90

HA HA HA...THATS FUNNY, NO YOU CANT DO THAT, ITS CHEATING AND YOU WONT LEARN ANYTHING FROM IT. THIS IS THE MFP WAY...ANOTHER WAY IS - MY FRIEND WHO IS A DIETTICIAN TELL ME TO HAVE AROUND 1600CALS PER DAY AND ONE DAY A WEEK HAVE 2000 - SOUNDS LIKE THE DIET YOU WANT TO GO WITH! AS LONG AS YOU KNOW ITS A 'TREAT' AND DONT TREAT YOURSELF EVERYDAY. GOOD LUCK.

...That's almost entirely what this person described. Also, a lesson in internetiquette- take off the caps, it's seen as 'yelling'. ;]

MellowYellowGem

I've read before a bit of a spike day can be good for your metabolism, sort of giving it a shock so it doesn't get complacent! Don't know how much truth there is in it, but I still lose & have a treat day (within reason)

jdevrich

I've always allowed myself 1 cheat day per week. You have to treat yourself every so often.

dbrightwell1270

Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!

This doesn't make sense to me. If you add fat for your cheat day, then there is fat to be burned on your collection days.

bcampbell54

Well, I'm glad that we're all of one mind on this!

naia16

hmmm....doesn't seem like anyone can agree on an answer.

ArroganceInStep

Taken to extremes it's probably not a good idea. I mean if you burn 1000 cals a day, eat 500 cals on those days, but then on your off day have a 14000 calorie bonanza that's a bit much. However if it's a small amount, like 1200 instead of 1400 and you burn 200 cals a day then on your off day you have that extra 1000 calories or whatever.

Everything in moderation. Try to make sure you aren't starving yourself on the collection days, but a scheduled cheat day is definitely not a bad thing.

fj211

I had my only cheat day yesterday and went over by 300 calories. I felt so guilty that I got on the treadmill last night and took half of it back.

NicoWoodruff

I hear some people say the "cheat day" thing works for them, I have a friend who does the "Carbohydrate Addict Diet" and says it gives you an hour each day to have anything you want including refined carbs but after your "hour" you're supposed to be strict. She says when she follows it she does lose and it's the only diet that works for her.

Cheat days do not work for me though, I think it would just make me more likely to eat poorly more often and after eating clean for a long time most of the things people eat on their cheat days don't really appeal to me that much anyway.

However I do sometimes eat light to "save up" calories a little bit over the day to have some treat that I know will be a fairly high carb load.

mogadad

Let's just say you can yo-yo somewhat and keep your body from adjusting. If you have an extra calorie mentality maybe you should work on staying in the present. Just for today I'm going to try my best. Tomorrow I have no control over.

Cheating, at least for me, sets up craving and thoughts about what I can get away with.

WifeMomDVM

Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!

This doesn't make sense to me. If you add fat for your cheat day, then there is fat to be burned on your collection days.

It has to do with the glycogen stores in your liver (to some extent) and what you eat. If one is under on calories all week long, it is quite possible the person is not getting enough protein in their diet - the body needs protein to function and when in short supply it gets it where it can - when not available in the diet - the next place to get get protein is from breaking down your own muscle tissue.

Most people want to maintain their muscle tissue as it is very metabolically active and helps burn fat.

On the day the person eats a large volume of calories, the body can only process so much at one time - and then yes, the excess energy is stored - usually as fat - once glycogen stores in the liver are full again.

And while yes - you can treat yourself here and again and it won't derail your efforts or may even confuse your metabolism and keep you on track - moderation is key.

The way the OP suggested sounds a bit extreme (IMHO) and from a biological standpoint - I do think you are risking losing muscle mass/storing fat with this PARTICULAR strategy.

I think a better idea would be to eat 1400-1500 NET calories most days (I'm just not a fan of 1200 - ever - sorry) and then treat yourself to the guilty pleasure of your choice once a week to stay sane (but treat within reason).

Good luck everyone!