Net calories by day or week that counts?

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dujennifer
dujennifer Posts: 162 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I tend to undereat during the week when I am extra good and pack good for me foods in my lunch, don't go out, exercise lots, and don't drink. But then on the weekends I tend to cut loose and enjoy myself. Do my net calories for the week matter, or must I behave every day?

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  • DBranchaud
    DBranchaud Posts: 827 Member
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    From what I've read before (sorry) but Net cals matter. You CAN cut loose on the weekend but just watch by how much. So if you have your cake, you gotta work it off too :laugh:
  • SandraBro03
    SandraBro03 Posts: 8 Member
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    I had gone to a registered dietician and participated in a 12 week program that specifically focused on weekly net calories. I lost 22 lbs this way, so it definitely works. What I did was I figured out what my daily calories should be, mine are 1659 then I took that number and multiplied by 7 for my weekly calories. I was also able to "bank" my calories and plan ahead for Thanksgiving so if I indulged a little bit, it didn't hurt me. I put everything in a spreadsheet and just recorded my calories from fitness pal in the spreadsheet to see what my remaining weekly calories are. I also did the same for calories burned to make sure I was burning the amount of calories for the week. I tend to workout real hard during the week but I'm less motivated on the weekends so this worked out great for me. I hope this is helpful!!
  • rachale83
    rachale83 Posts: 5
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    Mathematically, it the total amount of calories you take in over time that matters. It's not really measured daily or weekly, that's just something that we use to keep track of how we're doing. Our weight will constantly fluctuate depending on how we're taking care of it. An important thing to remember (and what I'm guilty of myself) is that you can be good all week, but if you unload on the weekend with drinking and eating, you will basically cancel out all the hard work you put in over the week. A night of eating out for dinner and drinking can easily rack up an extra 1000 calories. If you do that twice on the weekend, then you would have to do 4-5 hard workouts to cancel that out and then what you normally do to get ahead. Another thing to remember is that when you're drinking, your body will metabolize the alcohol first and store whatever else that's in your system as fat (until all alcohol is metabolized). That's why women tend to gain weight faster from drinking...because we metabolize alcohol slower than men.

    I know people say you need to quit drinking to really lose weight but I'd like to be realistic. It sounds that you are in the same boat as I and I'm not willing to give up my social life. I've been sticking to wine or low calorie cocktails and having a light dinner if I know I'll be drinking.

    Good luck!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Well, it's probably not that cut and dried. Most food is digested and used within 48 hours of consumption (there are a few exceptions but for most things that's the rule), which means, skimping on one day, then 3 days later eating extra doesn't work. What will most likely happen is that your metabolism will slow down for a few days during the week (it takes your body a few days to adjust to a lower calorie volume), then you'll eat extra on the weekend where you'll end up storing a little extra fat.
  • HonestOmnivore
    HonestOmnivore Posts: 1,356 Member
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    Our wellness nurse (I work for a hospital system) says that it's the week's calories that matter - but the catch is that you don't want to go more than a couple days at a super low level or your metabolism will shift down. She recommends (depending on your ability) to have two low cal days a week to offset one high calorie day. I try to make my low calorie days Monday and Wednesday because those days work for me, and Thursday is a night I have dinner with friends so I "save" my extra calories for that meal. The rest of the week I try to hold to 1200/day.

    I also "bank" within the day. I am not a breakfast person so I eat around 100 calories for breakfast, 400-500 for lunch and divide the remaining calories between snacks and "dinner". I say "Dinner" because often it's more like a snack. I get home after 8 most nights and my dinner is a glass (or two) of wine with an oz. of cheese while I relax by the fire.

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