2541 calories banked!

katysmelly
katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I go into tomorrow with 2542 extra calories (earned from exercising). Add on the 1250 I'm "allowed" every day, and that means 3791 calories for the day, provided I do nothing but sit on my bum and do nothing. (And, that's what I'll be doing. It's rest day.)

I've been eating a good amount of food. I have good, full meals full of real, nutritious food, and I make a point of eating snacks. (My diary is public for anybody who is curious.) I've just avoided eating much in the way of cakes or sweets and - most of all - I've been exercising a LOT.

Anyway, I'm not sure that I'll be able to eat that much... but I am really looking forward to having a piece of cake at the museum's opening day tomorrow. (Also curious to see how it affects me - my mood and energy levels.)

I admit that I feel a bit uneasy about this. Is it BAD to eat so much in one day? I'm thinking it may be very bad to eat too much sugar - like it could mess me up metabolically or something.

Replies

  • almonds1
    almonds1 Posts: 642 Member
    Id be diving into a 900 cal Burrito lol....
  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
    One day isn't going to hurt you much. You might take on some food weight and water weight so if scale numbers bothers you I'd not step on the scale the next day or two after that.
  • bachooka
    bachooka Posts: 719 Member
    I love banking calories... and then going out to a restaurant or for drinks with my ladies. :)
  • almonds1
    almonds1 Posts: 642 Member
    I love banking calories... and then going out to a restaurant or for drinks with my ladies. :)
    Thats a lot of Rum and diets at 65cals a pop
  • 198601
    198601 Posts: 33 Member
    Dont do it! Once the day is over I don't bank anything from day to day. Dont get me wrong I will save calories for an evening with friends from that days total calories. I have found this is a way of life now that I will need to continue when I reach my goal. I feel almost sick when I eat too much at a time now that my body is used to smaller more frequent eating. I would eat the cake.... but stay within your limits! This has worked for me 7 pounds in just over 4 weeks! Good Luck!
  • BLy82
    BLy82 Posts: 33 Member
    If you try to increase your calorie intake tremendously in a single day, there's a possibility you'll get an upset stomach from it.

    Heck... just a little earlier today I was really hungry and made a bigger meal for myself than I normally would, got 2/3 of the way through and realized there was NO hope I was going to be able to finish it.

    Your stomach just gets used to a certain volume of food at a time, and trying to push way beyond that can end up making you feel bloated and miserable.

    Enjoy your cake, though :) I'd suggest trying to eat something else beforehand that has some fiber to slow the digestion of the cake so that all that sugar won't hit your system at once. Blunt the sugar rush and crash effect a bit :)
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    One day isn't going to hurt you much. You might take on some food weight and water weight so if scale numbers bothers you I'd not step on the scale the next day or two after that.

    Good point! I may weigh myself tomorrow just out of curiosity, but I did my check-in today.
    Since Sunday will be my rest day and Cake Day, I think I'll do my weekly check-ins on Sunday am rather than Monday, as a lot of people do.

    What matters is the change from week to week. :)
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    If you try to increase your calorie intake tremendously in a single day, there's a possibility you'll get an upset stomach from it.

    Heck... just a little earlier today I was really hungry and made a bigger meal for myself than I normally would, got 2/3 of the way through and realized there was NO hope I was going to be able to finish it.

    Your stomach just gets used to a certain volume of food at a time, and trying to push way beyond that can end up making you feel bloated and miserable.

    Enjoy your cake, though :) I'd suggest trying to eat something else beforehand that has some fiber to slow the digestion of the cake so that all that sugar won't hit your system at once. Blunt the sugar rush and crash effect a bit :)

    Good advice on trying to blunt the sugar rush with fibre. Don't know how I'd do it, but I'll think about it.

    I think it's possible that I won't be able to eat that much. I'm certainly not going to TRY to eat that much. I mean, I'm not going to go "Oh, gotta eat more cake... ugh... gotta eat it..."

    I'm definitely curious to see how it makes me feel to eat more and to eat more sugar. I had some milk and cookies before bed last night and I can't say that it felt that great.

    But, I have enjoyed a bigger breakfast than normal this morning.
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    Dont do it! Once the day is over I don't bank anything from day to day. Dont get me wrong I will save calories for an evening with friends from that days total calories. I have found this is a way of life now that I will need to continue when I reach my goal. I feel almost sick when I eat too much at a time now that my body is used to smaller more frequent eating. I would eat the cake.... but stay within your limits! This has worked for me 7 pounds in just over 4 weeks! Good Luck!

    I don't think running a weekly deficit of 6000 calories is a healthy way of life.

    If I find that today's higher intake of calories and cake makes me feel yucky, then what I'm likely to do is eat more of my exercise calories back day-by-day.
  • Merrilies
    Merrilies Posts: 32 Member
    I don't think 'banking' calories is a good thing to do - just like banking your alcoholic drinks isn't either.

    It's far better to balance them out and eat your proper allowance everyday - if you eat too few, your body may go into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow down, reserving what you do eat and you won't lose anything.

    Also, too much exercise isn't good for you either - even if you are super fit it can strain your heart, other areas of your body and muscles.

    If you want a day off, have a day off - one day of eating cake and no exercise won't do much damage to your overall plan, but don't bust a gut exercising like mad to bank your calories - it's really not good.
  • Merrilies
    Merrilies Posts: 32 Member
    Just looked at your diary - yesterday you apparently saved 2340 calories from exercising.

    I'm sorry, there's no way anyone could burn off that many calories in one day! A 30 minute run uses up about 300 calories, so you'd have had to be in the gym for about 6 hours to work all that off - I know all about this as I used to be a fitness instructor.

    If that's what you did, I'd advise you not to because you are at risk of serious injury.

    That's not a sensible approach at all, and isn't good for other people to see in case they do the same thing. Exercise is good for you - in moderation, the same as everything else. Overdo it and you are putting your body at risk.

    Just checked your exercise diary and on one of the days you have that you walked at 4mph for 35 minutes which burned 235 calories, then later you again walked at 4mph for 36 minutes, but that only burned 197 - so an extra minute burned less? - hmm something's not quite right there!
  • iceqieen
    iceqieen Posts: 862 Member
    Just looked at your diary - yesterday you apparently saved 2340 calories from exercising.

    I'm sorry, there's no way anyone could burn off that many calories in one day! A 30 minute run uses up about 300 calories, so you'd have had to be in the gym for about 6 hours to work all that off.

    If that's what you did, I'd advise you not to because you are at risk of serious injury.

    That's not a sensible approach at all.

    Actually it is easy to burn that much and a few of my MFP friends do a few times each week.

    Heck, I had to stop myself from going to the gym every day this week cause I took up a new workout and didnt want to burn out but when I get used to a regular ~1200 cal burn just to get to and from work I will probably start adding a gym session to it if I feel like it. Just because you use 300 cal per 30 minutes, does not mean another person will. People's exercise level is different ;) and you will notice that her huge burn was from a looooong hike. Well done OP!

    Dont "bank" calories myself, but I dont think it is a bad thing to have a big day once in a while. As long as you dont overeat and feel sick from all the food hehe ;)
  • Merrilies
    Merrilies Posts: 32 Member
    Yes everyone's exercise levels are different of course - mine will differ to an athlete for example, all I was saying is she'd have been exercising for a good 3+ hours to burn that and it really isn't good for your body - unless you are an athlete in training.

    Just because lots of your friends do it, doesn't make it right! If they all stuck their heads in the oven would you do it?

    I don't want people to get the message that if you exercise like crazy it'll be good, because it isn't. If you aren't superfit, it can put your body under incredible strain and risk of serious injury.
  • iceqieen
    iceqieen Posts: 862 Member
    Yes everyone's exercise levels are different of course - mine will differ to an athlete for example, all I was saying is she'd have been exercising for a good 3+ hours to burn that and it really isn't good for your body - unless you are an athlete in training.

    Just because lots of your friends do it, doesn't make it right! If they all stuck their heads in the oven would you do it?

    I don't want people to get the message that if you exercise like crazy it'll be good, because it isn't. If you aren't superfit, it can put your body under incredible strain and risk of serious injury.

    Check out her activity. It was a long hike. Are you going to say that is a bad thing? To go hiking?

    310 minutes = roughly 5 hours. A nice day out in nature is what I'd call that :)

    Ofcourse you should always be carefull with your body, and an intense day outside or at the gym should be accompanied by appropriate rest, stretches and all that too. But saying "she'd have been exercising for a good 3+ hours to burn that and it really isn't good for your body - unless you are an athlete in training." is plain wrong. Have you never gone out for a day of hiking, skiing, swimming, skating, horseriding.... etc, with family and friends and come back home really tired? Or do you stop yourself and think "no I'm not a pro athlete, I shouldnt go skiing for an entire day". If you do.. then that is your choice, but dont tell others not to ;)

    edit for spelling.
  • Merrilies
    Merrilies Posts: 32 Member
    No of course a day out hiking isn't a bad thing - but strenuous exercise over several hours if you aren't very fit is, that's all I'm saying. I'm not telling anyone what to do - or not do in this case - just advising people to be careful.

    Some people who don't know much about exercising might think they can do several hours of exercise and be okay - if they aren't used to it they won't - even hiking for 5 hours with a 10lb pack can damage them if they are unfit.

    I'm only trying to save anyone from hurting themselves - like you said we are all different and some people aren't very fit at all. I'd hate them to get injured as that will really set them back.

    You obviously know better than me, so I'll let people take note of what you think instead and bow out of this.
  • iceqieen
    iceqieen Posts: 862 Member
    No of course a day out hiking isn't a bad thing - but strenuous exercise over several hours if you aren't very fit is, that's all I'm saying. I'm not telling anyone what to do - or not do in this case - just advising people to be careful.

    Some people who don't know much about exercising might think they can do several hours of exercise and be okay - if they aren't used to it they won't - even hiking for 5 hours with a 10lb pack can damage them if they are unfit.

    I'm only trying to save anyone from hurting themselves - like you said we are all different and some people aren't very fit at all. I'd hate them to get injured as that will really set them back.

    Now that you reworded yourself, I can agree. You started with a "I'm sorry, there's no way anyone could burn off that many calories in one day!" statement that was very very very wrong and I felt should be corrected.
  • Merrilies
    Merrilies Posts: 32 Member
    I did follow it with 'you'd have to be in the gym for about 6 hours', which was more or less right - well in Katy's case, a long hike carrying a 10lb load, which is still bad for anyone unused to exercise.

    But hey no worries, we are all on here to help each other out and that includes warning them about the dangers of too strenuous exercise if they are unused to it :)

    Have a good day :)
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    Just looked at your diary - yesterday you apparently saved 2340 calories from exercising.

    I'm sorry, there's no way anyone could burn off that many calories in one day! A 30 minute run uses up about 300 calories, so you'd have had to be in the gym for about 6 hours to work all that off - I know all about this as I used to be a fitness instructor.

    If that's what you did, I'd advise you not to because you are at risk of serious injury.

    That's not a sensible approach at all, and isn't good for other people to see in case they do the same thing. Exercise is good for you - in moderation, the same as everything else. Overdo it and you are putting your body at risk.

    Just checked your exercise diary and on one of the days you have that you walked at 4mph for 35 minutes which burned 235 calories, then later you again walked at 4mph for 36 minutes, but that only burned 197 - so an extra minute burned less? - hmm something's not quite right there!

    A) I use a variety of ways of calculating my calories burned, including checking my pulse at various times on walks and using heart-rate-based calculators. I also take into account how much of the time I am going uphill vs downhill vs level for my estimates. And my estimates are generally lower than what the calculators on here would tell you.

    B) Yesterday I hiked 21 miles going up and down steep hills. I checked used a GPS app to track my speed and elevation, and I also checked my heart rate during various parts of the hike to get a feel for what sort of work I was doing on average. Then I used a variety of calculators for hiking and hill walking, averaged them out, and compared them to the information from heart-rate-based caculators.

    Walking 21miles over hills carrying a 12-lb pack at an average moving speed of 3.8 mph WILL burn that many calories.
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
    I say eat up and enjoy! You've earned the right to pretty much eat as much food as you like with that much exercise. It's great to see someone working that hard on their fitness goals too. I wish I had the time to get out and go for a 5 hour hike myself!
    I approve of the 900 calorie burritos also.

    Good work!
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    I did follow it with 'you'd have to be in the gym for about 6 hours', which was more or less right - well in Katy's case, a long hike carrying a 10lb load, which is still bad for anyone unused to exercise.

    But hey no worries, we are all on here to help each other out and that includes warning them about the dangers of too strenuous exercise if they are unused to it :)

    Have a good day :)

    I can understand you wanting to warn others who may think they should do what I do. But, I'm pretty fit. I have a resting heart rate of 60, and my BMI is 21.

    (I don't consider BMI much good except as a rough guide. My waist-to-hip ratio is not so good - I'm an "apple" and I need to lose an inch or two from my abdomen.)
  • dododo123
    dododo123 Posts: 105 Member
    I thought everyone actually had a day in the week where they enjoyed a high calorie food.
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    I thought everyone actually had a day in the week where they enjoyed a high calorie food.

    I think a lot of people do.

    This is my first full week of tracking my calories (food and exercise). I think I'm going to eat more of my calories each day. But, I know I will want to save some because there will be days when I won't be able to exercise. Have had unusually dry weather lately, and that's about to end.

    Ordinarily, I think I could burn about 500 calories a day if I make an effort to make the time.
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
    Well, I didn't eat all of the banked calories, but I ate most of them. I feel a little funny about it.
    Other than a piece of carrot cake and sugary coffee in the afternoon, I felt like I ate fairly normal meals, today. But, I still ate much more than I normally would.

    I don't know how many calories were in my cake, but I picked "Costa Coffee" because I've seen/had that, before, and I know what I had wasn't more than that. Eating non-branded food not prepared at home is tricky that way... it's hard to know what you're really getting.

    And, the cake did make me feel a bit sick. It was delicious, but I crashed not long after and my mood was bad.

    I didn't mean to have so many calories left over yesterday, BTW. I'd originally intended to hike 10 miles to a village, eating a picnic along the way, and then having a snack at the end, while waiting for the bus to take me back where I'd started. When I arrived, the village shop was shut. I didn't feel like sitting around for 2 hours on a bench, and I felt great, so I just walked back. That meant I had double the exercise and less food that I'd intended.

    I don't think I'll have a weekend like this, again.

    I do want to save some calories for Sunday indulgences, but I think I should eat most of my exercise calories on the day. That should keep my energy levels at a more even keel.

    I'm also really interested in seeing how my mood and energy levels are without so much sugar. I may end up giving up sugar except for rare occasions.

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