Can you carry calories over from day to day?

no. haha

Can you eat them? I don't see why not. If I go over by a fair bit one day, I will try to be a little under the next few days. If it averages out to a deficit of 3500 calories in the week, the average loss should still be approximately 1 pound (so the theory goes... the reality is more complicated, as always).

But if you're asking if you can eat them and have your diary not say that you went "over" your calorie goal for the day, I don't think so. So it's sort of an "unofficial" carry-over.

Weight Watchers and several other programs use a "banking" method like you are asking about. The idea there is to take the week as a whole. However, those programs also stress that you only weigh once a week for the same reason.

Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend that you routinely bank extra calories. Instead accept that you will have some days when you go over and attempt to keep them to a bare minimum. Weight loss is accomplished both day by day and in the long haul.

I don't think you should. That is why everyday starts at your calorie goal without carrying the last day over.

My doctor told me that weight loss is just calories in and calories out. She said that how much you weigh is your lifetime overages and deficits. So losing weight is just about creating a deficit in the long run. If you want to roll them over, go ahead. Just know that (as long as you are eating enough to keep your metabolism up) bigger deficits means faster loss, smaller deficits means slower loss, and any overages means the scale will go up.

For me, when I have extra calories I leave the deficit alone. And when I go over (it happens to the best of us) I work harder that day or the next day to burn them off so I never leave an overage for long. But I have a lot of weight to lose and a hard goal so I want to lose it fast. Good Luck!

I use myfitnesspal on the computer and I also have the iPod app. The app has a feature on the home page that gives you your average weekly summary of net calories. It helps me to go back and see how many net calories I averaged over or under and how much I lost that week in weight. I don't see the harm in it as long as you are tracking it diligently. If you find it doesn't work and you go over too much, then switch to every day mode. :flowerforyou: Good luck!

I generally take each day as its own and try not to go over, but if I do go over, I don't stress because some days I am under.

I know it sounds kind of anal, but I'm a numbers person, so what I did was put my daily deficits and overages in an excel spreadsheet and take the average over time. That way I can see whether I have more over days or under days and make sure that they average out to zero most of the time. It's a little bit of work to set it up, but I think it's worth it.

Hope this helps you

I don't...and wouldn't. Tomorrow is a new day to make better choices

This.

I do it all the time, and I've lost 28 pounds so far. My max calories I can eat a day right now is 1,490. During the week, I eat around 1,200 calories a day, and I usually do that Monday - Thursday. That way over the weekend I can "cheat" a little bit and go out to eat, etc. I always make sure though, that my average for the whole week, is under my total weekly limit. Myfitnesspal will still calculate you as being over in calories for that day, but as long as you are under your limit for the week, and log everything you eat, you should lose weight.

Also it's good to zigzag your calories. If you eat less some days, and more other days, it tricks your metabolism. If you stick with the same exact calories each day, it puts you at a standstill.

you would have to look at your calories for the week, instead of per day, so long as you dont go over for the week then you will still be on target for your goals that you have set up. if this is something that you have happen on a regular basis, you might want to look at zig zagging your calories, this is where you take your total calories for the week and some days the calorie intake is extremely high ( I believe what you would consume for maintance, the regular calorie intake for weight loss, and the least calorie intake for function) something like that,,,,google to find out a better explanation and there are calculators that will spill it out for you.

There area lot of incorrect answers here.
YES, you absolutely can "carry over" calories day to day - as long as it is within the week. Your calorie deficit is for the week. If you know how many calories total you should be eating for the week, then you can spread out those calories however you want.
If you want to eat 1300 today and 1600 tomorrow, that is up to you - as long as at the end of the week you've stayed within your total calories. It is called Zig zagging calories and it is 100% ok to do.

However, I would not suggest eating well below 1200 calories on a regular basis.
Typically, I eat out on Friday night and go at least 400 calories above my daily goal. Then, throughout the week, I eat a little less each day to make up for that and at the end of the week, I'm within my calorie goal.

Read this for further explanation: http://www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/team_messageboard_thread.asp?board=0x10128x39350594