"Saving" exercise calories

lswain1970
lswain1970 Posts: 58 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know there is a ton of threads about eating back exercise calories. And I get it that we "should". However, since MFP only tracks daily net and not over a week, and most weekends are my rest days as well as days I am more likely to eat more because we are at our beach place, what I have been doing is "saving" those exercise calories and allowing myself to eat over my daily goal on the weekends. Similar to how the WW points worked.

I hope that makes sense and I am wondering if anyone has any input on any long term downsides to doing that way. I am "thinking" (hoping) that being at a slightly higher deficit (we are talking 300-400 calories per day for 5 days) during the week won't take me into starvation mode that quickly and the weekend increase in calories may further prevent that.

Thoughts?

Replies

  • ilmb87
    ilmb87 Posts: 216 Member
    If you have a smartphone, the app will allow you to see your weekly totals. Also, this is essentially what I do, since it's much easier to eat less at work, when I'm busy, and "bank" any extra calories for the weekend, when I'm more likely to eat higher calorie foods.

    I can't say it's slowed my progress down. If you get disconcerted with the scale going up a pound or two the next Monday (and quickly back down and lower over the week), you might want to consider eating your calories during the week and not saving them.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
    Sometimes I focus on the day, other times I focus on the week. It depends on my current hunger levels and goal (gain, lose, maintain). Just don't have more than 1 really low day at a time and you should be fine.
  • lswain1970
    lswain1970 Posts: 58 Member
    I have definitely learned not to get on the scale until at least Thursday. I took some shocking Monday weigh ins and a lot of reading on this site to understand the water fluctuations that accompany this way of managing my overall deficit :)
  • henriettevanittersum
    henriettevanittersum Posts: 179 Member
    That's my life in a nutshell... and it works just as well! With me, it's mainly because I like to drink my wine, weekends only. Then every Sunday night we cook in turns and have a big family dinner. So I calculate roughly a 1000 calories for drinks and 1000 for weekend binges into my weekly total... and loose inches slowly but steadily. I try not to look at weight, because on such a program it fluctuates too much. Oh, and I also drink even more water during weekends to offset the wine...
  • EmilyOfTheSun
    EmilyOfTheSun Posts: 1,548 Member
    That's pretty much how I do it. I'm not trying to lose more weight, but I still eat at a (slight) deficit during the weekdays to help balance out my weekend partying. It's been working great so far.
  • iAMsmiling
    iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
    At times I've kept a spreadsheet that averages calories in and out on a one week and two week basis. I found it was helpful for dealing with days I went over to see that, on average, I was doing quite well.
    Since we are talking about a long term approach to weight and health, I still think this is a good idea.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    Sometimes I focus on the day, other times I focus on the week. It depends on my current hunger levels and goal (gain, lose, maintain). Just don't have more than 1 really low day at a time and you should be fine.

    ^ My thoughts exactly.
  • msurads06
    msurads06 Posts: 66 Member
    I will do this especially if there is a day coming up I know I will be going over. I live in North Texas and once a month I go to Dallas with a group of friends for dinner and we usually stop for icecream on the way home. These days I am almost guaranteed to go over so I "bank" my calories during the week that week. I still try to choose healthier options and rarely go over daily goals by more than 1-200 calories. I do the same thing if I have a potluck coming up, I will "bank" my calories and maybe do a slightly longer workout. that day.

    At home I generally eat well and have found healty ways to eat out but if I have a craving of some sort I always try to work it in. Since I usually have 1-300 calories left every day, on the days I decide I want a pizza or blizzard from DQ, etc, I get it and don't worry about the overage as long as I am under for the week.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    I don't see anything wrong with it. Plenty of people do calorie zig zag or IF which is pretty much the same concept but in a shorter cycle. Just make sure you are using them within the week (as WW had you do) and make sure your daily net isn't going too low.
  • coolraul07
    coolraul07 Posts: 1,606 Member
    YMMV, but I've recently started "banking" cals and it's worked well for me. It's not uncommon for me to cardio burn 2,000+ cals 2-3 times a week (high-incline treadmill). I would often have a hard time eating back even 50% of those cals so I end up with a very low, or sometimes negative, net cals count. I learned the hard way a couple of months ago that doing that was counterproductive. I lost a lot of weight in a short period of time and it completely reversed itself within 1-2 weeks (8# in 10 days). Then I plateaud for a couple of months thereafter.
    Nowadays, I'll allow myself to have a low or negative net cal day (low2neg) ONLY IF ALL of the following are true:
    1) I eat at least my BMR cals for the day, preferably my standard goal cals (currently ~2200)
    2) I cannot have back-to-back low2neg days
    3) I cannot have another low2neg day until I've 'withdrawn' at least 50% of my banked cals
    4) I need to 50-75% deplete the deposit within 3 days.
    It sounds more complicated than it is. However, I'm 4.2# lighter than I was both a week ago and 1 month ago; so it seems like the right thing for me... at least for now.
  • demmy2012
    demmy2012 Posts: 16 Member
    I do the same and I don't feel anything is wrong with it. I have days that I don't exercise or I do less workout so I save for those days.I also have my eating naughty days, it all helps to balance up you know ;)
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    I save calories so that I can have one splurge day a week. I average it out over the week. Also, as others have mentioned, the app does have a feature where you can check out your weekly totals.
  • lswain1970
    lswain1970 Posts: 58 Member
    Thanks all. I actually spent some time with the android app and did find the weekly chart that shows the net every day and then the average for the week. Very helpful! Since I use the app more than the site, it will really help seeing my progress on a week by week basis.

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