Carrying calories over

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vet272
vet272 Posts: 183
in Health and Weight Loss
If you eat too few calories on say, a Monday, does that mean you could go over on the Tuesday? And vice versa ie eat too many one day so reduce by that amount the following day.

Hope that's not as difficult to decipher as I think it is :embarassed:
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Replies

  • rowanwood
    rowanwood Posts: 510 Member
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    Some people do a weekly calorie goal instead of a daily one. If it works for your body and you have the energy you need and the results you want, I don't see why not. That being said, I'm not much of a fan of the fasting eat/stop/eat business because I think that's like trying to find the right temperature in your house by alternating the thermostat between 95 and 45 and hoping for 75.
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Weight loss is an ongoing process and there isn't a stop and go at midnight. So if week to week and month to month you are in a deficit, you will lose weight. Doesn't matter if you are 500 over one day and 1000 under the next you still have 500 for the two days. Problem is it can be hard to maintain a routine.
  • wareagle8706
    wareagle8706 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    your body doesn't automatically reset at midnight, so why should your calories? Short answer, yes, you can carry them over. Just check per week to make sure you're still keeping at or below your calorie goal.
  • erulasse
    erulasse Posts: 141 Member
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    Time is a man-made concept. Our bodies don't work by the 24hour day.

    As long as you check in every week or so to make sure you're not overdoing it, it should be fine.
  • kathrynkatana
    kathrynkatana Posts: 90 Member
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    I think I agree with everyone so far. If you have it equal over the long term, a day here or cross over there shouldn't be a problem. I think the only issue I would run into is keeping track of it. It just seems easier to have the daily calorie count that resets at midnight. But if you can keep track of it, might as well.
  • vet272
    vet272 Posts: 183
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    This has been great news. I've had a TERRiIBLE day, making horrendous choices. At least now I feel I can take back control and adjust things over the next few days . Hopefully I'll still be on track by the end of the week!

    Thanks all
  • Jetta1492
    Jetta1492 Posts: 47 Member
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    I do a weekly calorie goal rather than daily & it does help when you do have a bad day because as long as you stick to an overall deficit, you will still see results:)
  • honeylissabee
    honeylissabee Posts: 217 Member
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    Suppose you need to eat 2,000 calories per day to maintain your weight. If you cut down to 1,500 calories a day, you should lose 1 pound per week by creating a 3,500 calorie deficit over the course of the week.

    Now, suppose you eat 2,000 calories on Friday. As long as you stick to your goal for the rest of the week, you should still maintain a deficit, and should be able to lose about .8 pounds. However, if you add an extra bit of exercise and burn an additional 250 calories on Saturday and Sunday, you should break even.

    That does not, however, mean you will lose 1 pound that week. You could still gain, but it shouldn't be a fat gain. It might just be extra fluid retention from the salty high-calorie meal on Friday, or the extra workout over the weekend. Heck, you can be perfect all week and still gain weight.

    I think it's important not to go too overboard though. If you eat an extra 1000 calories, you shouldn't try to cut back on your food and overexercise the next day. However, it is nice to know that if you overeat at a party on Saturday, you probably didn't undo all of your progress- unless you either overate every other day that week and/or you ate around 5,000 calories at that party (based on the scenario given).
  • vet272
    vet272 Posts: 183
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    I ate about 1000 over. Stopped logging it because I felt so disgusted with myself. Thought maybe cut back 250 cals per day over the next few days
  • SarahSmilesCA
    SarahSmilesCA Posts: 261 Member
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    Actually our hormones are regulated by a 24 hour cycle and this came as a result of our human development and adaptation to a 24 hour day. Melatonin and Growth Hormone are both really critical to weight management, and they renews every night and so are so many others hormones and they are regulated on a 24 hour period so my advice is...before careful with that mindset, also get your sleep in daily and if you do go over on a regular basis be sure you exercise.

    I can go over my target within a few days, but not 7 days..not without feeling bloating and gaining weight.

    Food not burned as energy is converted to fat. Period.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,454 Member
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    I ate about 1000 over. Stopped logging it because I felt so disgusted with myself. Thought maybe cut back 250 cals per day over the next few days

    You can spread the calories over the week. But in the situation you're describing above, I find it easier to put the extra calories down to experience.

    First of all, 1000 calories over isn't as much as it seems - it depends on your deficit. If you have a 500 calorie deficit already, then 1000 calories over your goal is only 500 above your TDEE. If you stick to your goal the next day, you'll cancel it out. All it will mean that you won't have made weight loss progress over those two days. Two days is nothing in the scheme of things.

    Second, you don't want to be feeling disgusted with yourself and making your goal even less achievable by cutting 250 calories. It's easier just to keep going, and try to keep to your goal on the other days. I feel that it needs to be as easy as possible if you're going to stick to it long term.

    Third, it might be a sign that your goal is too low for you and that's why you're being tempted to overeat. It might be worth looking at it and see if you could get by with a higher goal.

    Best of luck!
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    The thing is where do you stop? You then over eat on your weekly goal ands carry it over to the month? How about a yearly goal? I think you need to draw the line somewhere. I would chalk it down to experience and move on.
  • CdnPgnMom
    CdnPgnMom Posts: 172 Member
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    I just started doing this recently because I work overnights and found the daily goal just wasn't working for me. Keeping track of it weekly (on a spreadsheet) works so much better for me. But everyone is different. :)
  • jen_zz
    jen_zz Posts: 1,011 Member
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    The thing is where do you stop? You then over eat on your weekly goal ands carry it over to the month? How about a yearly goal? I think you need to draw the line somewhere. I would chalk it down to experience and move on.

    Agree. Used to hv this rollover concept before and it would do my head in, and drove me to restriction and binges. Now I just focus on day to day and tomorrow is always a new day.
  • Chairman_Davey
    Chairman_Davey Posts: 5
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    I've come to do it weekly, with the cut off on Sunday - basically because the app makes it easy to view my calories like this. As long as I am not 3500 over my allowance by the end of the week (which would = maintenance) I'm a happy bunny.
  • mliraj
    mliraj Posts: 1 Member
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    One other point that may of interest is that for most people weight loss should probably be seen as a lifetime activity, not a short duration one. Goals will change over your life, hopefully from weight loss to weight maintenance, but if you tend to gain weight easily you´ll always have to control your calory input/output ratio.
    The way I put to my daughter is that we are on a 500 km race, not a 100 m one. If you try to do a diet to win a 100 m race, you´ll quite probably lose your 500 km one... slow and long duration is much more manageable than fast and short.
    Of course if your goal is getting back to a certain weight at a certain date for some reason, you may have to try to Usain Bolt your diet, but if you don´t take care later you´ll have a huge chance of losing all your effort.
  • latepaul
    latepaul Posts: 49 Member
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    I'm doing IF 5:2 which is effectively a roll-over of the deficit because you only eat back your calories on non-fast days. However because MFP isn't set up for different goals on different days I end up keeping an eye on the weekly total. I do still try to keep to my daily goal but it's more of a guide.

    Also I know myself and psychologically if I allow myself to roll-over too often then it can be a slippery slope. I think this is one reason why IF is working better for me than a simple diet with "cheat days" because the cheats got out of hand.

    YMMV obviously.
  • Velum_cado
    Velum_cado Posts: 1,608 Member
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    I used to do a weekly calorie goal and it worked really well for me. I still do it, but I'm not logging calories for the time being. It's just naturally easier for me to eat fewer calories during the week and then indulge a big at the weekends. I logged everything and kept track of my calories for the week on a spreadsheet and found that my weekly average was still around what it would have been had I been eating my exact calorie goal every day of the week. It's a system that works really well for me, and I attribute a huge portion of my success so far to eating that way. I would have given up a long time ago if I had to keep myself to the same goal every day of the week.
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I've come to do it weekly, with the cut off on Sunday - basically because the app makes it easy to view my calories like this. As long as I am not 3500 over my allowance by the end of the week (which would = maintenance) I'm a happy bunny.

    Yup... a push is a win some weeks :)
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    that is really the skinny trick... balancing it out and not buying into a daily crazy calorie counting obsession. I used to always eat under during the week and eat more on my weekends.. it worked.

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