Can I Stock-pile calories?

jennafluff

Hi everyone, I'm new this week and have a question:-) This is sort of fuelled by the topic "so let me get this straight' where the member is confused about eating exercise calories. I found it a little hard to get my head round but it makes sense now - I have 1200 calories a day and if I burn 500 that takes me down to 700 calories (which seriously isn't enough to live on) so I need to eat 500 to get back to 1200!!!! My big question is this: Can I save some calories up for the weekend??? We have family dinner on Sunday and I LOVE dessert!!!! By only eating 1100 calories for 4 days before hand I have 400 calories to 'spend' on dessert - is that right??

seekingstrengthX2

I suppose technically the answer is yes. The math works out, you would still be good for the week. I just wouldn't weigh that next morning. You will be way off that day.

mrsgroove

Sure!! Lots of people go by weekly calorie amounts instead of daily. Enjoy the dessert!

YMark

This sure isn't something you want to make a habit of for a couple of reasons. It screws up your metabolism for one thing. It can also cause you to hold on to fat.

Look at it this way... you state you have 1200 calories to eat in a day. This could easily be accomplished by eating an unhealthy breakfast, say a Denny's Grand Slam or some other concoction of garbage. But for grins, lets say whatever it was, it was 1200 calories. Then for the rest of the day, you eat nothing. You stayed within your caloric limit, so no harm right? Not quite.

Your body can only process so many calories before it starts storing excess as fat. Inversely, if you deprive your body of calories, it thinks you're starving it, and your metabolism will begin to slow.

Stock-piling a few calories for the weekend dessert or a couple glasses of wine isn't going to kill your progress. But I sure wouldn't make this a weekly habit.

If one can't ever enjoy a dessert, that would really suck. So enjoy.... in moderation.

Sidesteal

Basically yes, you can bank calories. I wouldn't worry about any metabolic effects unless you are planning multiple day fasts. This assumes a reasonable deficit over time.

ohpilot

I guess that makes sense. Or you could just go for a walk after you eat.

mamitosami

Yes, absolutely you can do that! I know a lot of people don't love Weight Watcher's here, but that's what they do. You get 'bonus points' for the week and you can 'spend' them how you want. It's a sustainable way to enjoy desserts and whatever treats, or save it for extra healthy foods as well.

As long as you aren't saving all your vital calories for treats, it's sustainable. Some people can eat all of them, some people can't, you have to see what your body can handle (they give 49 extra points, which is 1960 calories approximately for the week, on top of your daily allotment, which has a deficit built into it already).

Danny_Boy13

Yes stock piling is ok but not recommended on a regular basis. Usually when someone saves those extra cals during the week and then when it comes to the day for them to spend those saved up cals typically the individual will go over that limit considerably. I would say this would be ok as long as you do not make it habit 1, and 2 if you do be absolutely sure that you stay under your alloted cal count that day.

jennafluff

This sure isn't something you want to make a habit of for a couple of reasons. It screws up your metabolism for one thing. It can also cause you to hold on to fat.

Look at it this way... you state you have 1200 calories to eat in a day. This could easily be accomplished by eating an unhealthy breakfast, say a Denny's Grand Slam or some other concoction of garbage. But for grins, lets say whatever it was, it was 1200 calories. Then for the rest of the day, you eat nothing. You stayed within your caloric limit, so no harm right? Not quite.

Your body can only process so many calories before it starts storing excess as fat. Inversely, if you deprive your body of calories, it thinks you're starving it, and your metabolism will begin to slow.

Stock-piling a few calories for the weekend dessert or a couple glasses of wine isn't going to kill your progress. But I sure wouldn't make this a weekly habit.

If one can't ever enjoy a dessert, that would really suck. So enjoy.... in moderation.

Thanks, that helps:-)

dinosnopro

This sure isn't something you want to make a habit of for a couple of reasons. It screws up your metabolism for one thing. It can also cause you to hold on to fat.

Look at it this way... you state you have 1200 calories to eat in a day. This could easily be accomplished by eating an unhealthy breakfast, say a Denny's Grand Slam or some other concoction of garbage. But for grins, lets say whatever it was, it was 1200 calories. Then for the rest of the day, you eat nothing. You stayed within your caloric limit, so no harm right? Not quite.

Your body can only process so many calories before it starts storing excess as fat. Inversely, if you deprive your body of calories, it thinks you're starving it, and your metabolism will begin to slow.

Stock-piling a few calories for the weekend dessert or a couple glasses of wine isn't going to kill your progress. But I sure wouldn't make this a weekly habit.

If one can't ever enjoy a dessert, that would really suck. So enjoy.... in moderation.

all false. your body will not go into "starvation" mode that quickly, Take time to read through the article and all the studies it links.




http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

atjays

Well keep in mind the 1200 calories is already putting you at a deficit for the day, a normal person should eat between 1800-2k calories and hold their weight. So there's really no point in "Saving" calories for a special occasion. Just have dessert or a "bad" dinner. It's not the end of the world and once you're solid on your diet/weight loss, you'd be surprised how little a bad meal effects you.

If you are exercising, as you mentioned burning 500 calories... you ADD those to what your total calories will be for the day. Your tracker will do this automatically if you log your exercise. So on days you workout and burn 500 calories, you're technically allowed to eat 1700 calories and still be totally fine. Just word of advise, that doesn't mean these are "Free" or fill them with snacks. If you're going to "eat your exercise calories" , make sure it's healthy foods that benefit you and your exercise goals.

Lastly, spend some time roaming the forums if you aren't already, you'll learn A TON in a short period of time of what generally works best and what's dangerous.

best of luck!

YMark

This sure isn't something you want to make a habit of for a couple of reasons. It screws up your metabolism for one thing. It can also cause you to hold on to fat.

Look at it this way... you state you have 1200 calories to eat in a day. This could easily be accomplished by eating an unhealthy breakfast, say a Denny's Grand Slam or some other concoction of garbage. But for grins, lets say whatever it was, it was 1200 calories. Then for the rest of the day, you eat nothing. You stayed within your caloric limit, so no harm right? Not quite.

Your body can only process so many calories before it starts storing excess as fat. Inversely, if you deprive your body of calories, it thinks you're starving it, and your metabolism will begin to slow.

Stock-piling a few calories for the weekend dessert or a couple glasses of wine isn't going to kill your progress. But I sure wouldn't make this a weekly habit.

If one can't ever enjoy a dessert, that would really suck. So enjoy.... in moderation.

all false. your body will not go into "starvation" mode that quickly, Take time to read through the article and all the studies it links.




http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

Tell me genius, what part of what I wrote is false? I didn't say any of the above would happen immediately, in fact I said the opposite.

dinosnopro

This sure isn't something you want to make a habit of for a couple of reasons. It screws up your metabolism for one thing. It can also cause you to hold on to fat.

Look at it this way... you state you have 1200 calories to eat in a day. This could easily be accomplished by eating an unhealthy breakfast, say a Denny's Grand Slam or some other concoction of garbage. But for grins, lets say whatever it was, it was 1200 calories. Then for the rest of the day, you eat nothing. You stayed within your caloric limit, so no harm right? Not quite.

Your body can only process so many calories before it starts storing excess as fat. Inversely, if you deprive your body of calories, it thinks you're starving it, and your metabolism will begin to slow.

Stock-piling a few calories for the weekend dessert or a couple glasses of wine isn't going to kill your progress. But I sure wouldn't make this a weekly habit.

If one can't ever enjoy a dessert, that would really suck. So enjoy.... in moderation.

all false. your body will not go into "starvation" mode that quickly, Take time to read through the article and all the studies it links.




http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

Tell me genius, what part of what I wrote is false? I didn't say any of the above would happen immediately, in fact I said the opposite.

well even at once a week or lets call it a "habit" the O.P.'s body would not start holding onto it's fat stores or go into "starvation" mode. even in the long term, Many people do this every day ( I'm going with the you didn't take time to look at any of the studies linked in the article theory). There are also studies out there that show keeping a weekly calorie count is a better way to figure a diet so you don't drive yourself insane worrying that one day over their calorie goal will blow their whole diet.


you said:

Look at it this way... you state you have 1200 calories to eat in a day. This could easily be accomplished by eating an unhealthy breakfast, say a Denny's Grand Slam or some other concoction of garbage. But for grins, lets say whatever it was, it was 1200 calories. Then for the rest of the day, you eat nothing. You stayed within your caloric limit, so no harm right? Not quite.

Your body can only process so many calories before it starts storing excess as fat. Inversely, if you deprive your body of calories, it thinks you're starving it, and your metabolism will begin to slow.

---

in context you make it sound like it happens right away

even the whole Denny's line, what if it were a 1200 calorie breakfast of free range boneless skinless chicken breast from whole foods market?

I'll take the genius line as a complement,