We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

"Saving" exercise calories

lswain1970
lswain1970 Posts: 58 Member
edited January 26 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.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories