Weekly or daily calories?

crazy1992

Hello All,

I have done a similar diet to this before and it has worked for me (only this one is free). What i would like to know is do you count your calories daily or weekly i.e if i was going out for a meal i could save 100 calories a day to count towards my meal, without going over for the week. Hope that makes sense.
Thank you in advance

JDHINAZ

You should track your calories every day. But , if I go over 50-100 calories on any one day, then I try to make up for it on the next several days by cutting back some on those days, or exercising a little more.

CrystalT

You should be okay to do this. If your goal is to lose a pound a week, you need to have a 3500 calorie deficit. It doesn't really matter if one day your deficit is 100 calories and the next is 300 as long as it adds up to 3500 calories at the end of the week. You will just want to make sure that you don't have too much of a deficit in a single day, but 100 calories a day should be fine.

klybarger

I've done other programs too and actually like that there's no "banking" of cals for the week. It keeps me a little more honest. Besides my memory regarding logging food/exercise seems to be right about 24 hours! But I believe you can seriously go into starvation mode pretty quickly and I'd rather deal with it daily than weekly.

Hope you enjoy this simple approach to weight loss as much I have! Good luck

Brenna

When you say a deficit of 3500 calories- which number do you take it from? Is it the number of calories you burn total throughout the week, working out and daily functioning calories that we burn, minus 3500?

If so, do you know how to figure out how many calories are burned just by daily living so I can add them to my workout calories to see if I'm adding up to 3500?

Hope this made sense- hard to write the question!:laugh:

jam0525

The Fit for Life diet counts calories by the week and so you can bank. I lost weight with it when I was in my 20's and kept it off until I had children. I'm back on it now and have lost 18 lbs in a year. So, you should be OK. The only thing is to remember the starvation mode guidelines and don't accidently get to where you trigger it.

Good luck,

JAM

AwMyLoLo

I am interested in responses here.

stormieweather

When you say a deficit of 3500 calories- which number do you take it from? Is it the number of calories you burn total throughout the week, working out and daily functioning calories that we burn, minus 3500?

If so, do you know how to figure out how many calories are burned just by daily living so I can add them to my workout calories to see if I'm adding up to 3500?

Hope this made sense- hard to write the question!:laugh:

Normally, in order to maintain your weight, you need to eat the same amount of calories as you use up. There are various calculators online that will help you find out what your 'maintenance' is, ie: how much you burn just living life. Google maintenance calories or TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

To lose 1 pound, you need to use up 3,500 calories MORE than you take in (eat/drink). Vice versa will cause you to gain a pound also, by the way. It's usually recommended that you subtract 500 calories from your maintenance, which will work out to about a one pound a week loss (-500 x 7 days=-3500). If you are very obese or very active, you can probably subtract 1000 calories for a 2 pound a week loss. Just want to be careful not to go too low as that slows down your metabolism and makes it harder to keep up for long periods.


To the original question, I would think that as long as you aren't saving huge amounts of calories and then using them to 'binge' later, you should be ok.

CrystalT

When you enter your info into MFP, you chose and activity level. This should take care of the calories you burn by daily living.

I'm no expert, but I do a lot of reading. This is the way I understand things, but if I'm wrong please feel free to correct me. For this example we will assume that this person needs 2,200 calories to maintain their weight at their normal activity level. That's 15,400 a week. In order to lose a pound a week, you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories. You can do this either by reducing your calories by 3,500. You can either keep the same amount of calories and burn those 3,500 by exercise, or you can just reduce your calorie intake by 3,500. MFP automatically reduces your calories, which is why you get to eat your exercise calories. MFP also spreads that deficit evenly through the week, so you have a deficit of 500 calories a day. So, this person would get 1,700 calories a day according to MFP. But, you don't HAVE to keep the same deficit everyday. If this person wanted to eat 2,200 calories one day, they could just spread their deficit across the other 6 days of the week. You just want to make sure that you are lowering a single day to the point of starvation. For this person, the 1,600 calorie days shouldn’t be low enough to go into starvation mode. At the end of the week she will have eaten 11,800 calories which is a 3,600 calorie deficit for the week. So, if you want to have a 600 calorie deficit 6 days a week and 0 deficit the other day, it should not be a problem.

I see this as a way to make this life style change manageable. We all have things that come up like birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc. that cause havoc on our journey to lose weight. Being able to shift around your calories like this gives you the freedom to enjoy those days without worrying as much about how it will affect your weight.

AwMyLoLo

What I have been doing is this (I'm really not too concerned with losing much more weight, just conditioning for cardio and toning up and building muscle)

MFP has my maintenance calories at 1680/day so that's 11,760/week. I eat NET 1450/day Monday thru Friday and around 2000 on Saturday and Sunday. That equals a total of 11,250 net calorie intake per week for me. So that's about a 500 calorie defecit per week. Slowly but surely I should still be losing a little weight. I am still trying to lose fat and gain muscle, which I've read you can't really gain muscle when at a calorie defecit. So for me I think having a very small defecit is good, and since I always always eat more calories on the weekend, I am going to go by my weekly intake rather than daily.

The only thing I worry about is confusing my body and making it rebel by jumping up 600 calories every weekend. (by eating 1450 thru the week and 2000+ on the weekends)? What do you guys think?

CrystalT

What I have been doing is this (I'm really not too concerned with losing much more weight, just conditioning for cardio and toning up and building muscle)

MFP has my maintenance calories at 1680/day so that's 11,760/week. I eat NET 1450/day Monday thru Friday and around 2000 on Saturday and Sunday. That equals a total of 11,250 net calorie intake per week for me. So that's about a 500 calorie defecit per week. Slowly but surely I should still be losing a little weight. I am still trying to lose fat and gain muscle, which I've read you can't really gain muscle when at a calorie defecit. So for me I think having a very small defecit is good, and since I always always eat more calories on the weekend, I am going to go by my weekly intake rather than daily.

The only thing I worry about is confusing my body and making it rebel by jumping up 600 calories every weekend. (by eating 1450 thru the week and 2000+ on the weekends)? What do you guys think?

Actually, that's not awful for you. In fact, it could actually be good for you. Have you ever heard of zig zagging (or calorie cycling)? The idea is to vary the ammount of calories you eat throughout the week. It is supposed to be helpful to avoid plateaus because your body never gets used to a set amount of calories. Check out the article I've linked to below, it's very informative. I've been doing this for a few months now. I haven't hit a plateau and I've managed a 1 to 1 1/2 lbs loss every week. Except for that one week when I ate whatever I wanted and gained 5 lbs!!!.

http://fitness-review-network.com/fatloss/zig-zag-calories-for-weight-loss/

AwMyLoLo

I've heard of zig-zagging, but was told it should only be a couple hundred calories... mine is a 600 cal difference...

Thanks for the article, I will check it out now!

AwMyLoLo

I've heard of zig-zagging, but was told it should only be a couple hundred calories... mine is a 600 cal difference...

Thanks for the article, I will check it out now!

Also, does it make a difference that I am adding cals 2 days in a row and not like, throughout the week instead?

CrystalT

I've never heard that it should only be a few hundres calories. In fact, the zig zag calculator I use at freedieting.com come has me eating 1824 one day and 2418 the next, which is a 594 calories difference. I'm not sure if 2 days in a row matter. I've seen so many different suggestions for zig zag schedules that I just can't remember. As long as you are eating healthy and you are seeing the results you want, I think you should be fine. If you are concerned, talk to your doctor or an RD.

AwMyLoLo

I've never heard that it should only be a few hundres calories. In fact, the zig zag calculator I use at freedieting.com come has me eating 1824 one day and 2418 the next, which is a 594 calories difference. I'm not sure if 2 days in a row matter. I've seen so many different suggestions for zig zag schedules that I just can't remember. As long as you are eating healthy and you are seeing the results you want, I think you should be fine. If you are concerned, talk to your doctor or an RD.

hmm... I will have to look back at the calculator, I didnt see that. I am actually meeting with a personal trainer tomorrow :bigsmile: I am excited!

Another question is... some sites calculate my maintenance cals around 1900 and MFP says 1680?

CrystalT

I've never heard that it should only be a few hundres calories. In fact, the zig zag calculator I use at freedieting.com come has me eating 1824 one day and 2418 the next, which is a 594 calories difference. I'm not sure if 2 days in a row matter. I've seen so many different suggestions for zig zag schedules that I just can't remember. As long as you are eating healthy and you are seeing the results you want, I think you should be fine. If you are concerned, talk to your doctor or an RD.

hmm... I will have to look back at the calculator, I didnt see that. I am actually meeting with a personal trainer tomorrow :bigsmile: I am excited!

Another question is... some sites calculate my maintenance cals around 1900 and MFP says 1680?

The link I sent isn't for the calculator, that's at www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm#.

I did find an article about zig zagging that does it the way you do, 2 high days and 5 low days, http://www.rippednaturally.com/zig-zag-diet.html.

I don't go by my MFP numbers, but I LOVE the food diary. I’ve been using the calculator at freedieting.com because I’ve been zig zagging. I’ve heard before that MFP tends to be a little low on the calories, though. You can check out some sites like www.mypyramid.gov (the USDA’s website) to see what they say. The Mayo Clinic has a calorie calculator as well. I would just look at a bunch of sites to see what they say and go with an average.

AwMyLoLo

I've never heard that it should only be a few hundres calories. In fact, the zig zag calculator I use at freedieting.com come has me eating 1824 one day and 2418 the next, which is a 594 calories difference. I'm not sure if 2 days in a row matter. I've seen so many different suggestions for zig zag schedules that I just can't remember. As long as you are eating healthy and you are seeing the results you want, I think you should be fine. If you are concerned, talk to your doctor or an RD.

hmm... I will have to look back at the calculator, I didnt see that. I am actually meeting with a personal trainer tomorrow :bigsmile: I am excited!

Another question is... some sites calculate my maintenance cals around 1900 and MFP says 1680?

The link I sent isn't for the calculator, that's at www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm#.

I did find an article about zig zagging that does it the way you do, 2 high days and 5 low days, http://www.rippednaturally.com/zig-zag-diet.html.

I don't go by my MFP numbers, but I LOVE the food diary. I’ve been using the calculator at freedieting.com because I’ve been zig zagging. I’ve heard before that MFP tends to be a little low on the calories, though. You can check out some sites like www.mypyramid.gov (the USDA’s website) to see what they say. The Mayo Clinic has a calorie calculator as well. I would just look at a bunch of sites to see what they say and go with an average.

Great info, thank you so much!

crazy1992

Thanks a lot for all your reply's. When i have done it previously it was worked out weekly so that you could have 'BAD' days and still be in your limit for the week. It worked for me so i think i will stick to that.
Thanks again
Lori