General calorie intake questions

faithjones83
faithjones83 Posts: 28 Member
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Ok can your calories sort o carry over to the next day. What I mean is if I have 300 calories left over at the end of the day but tomorrow I go over by 100 could I still be ok? i know that it couldn't be extreme for instance the calories I did not use on Monday make a binge on Friday ok, but I was just wondering about a few calories the next day?

Replies

  • wan2b21
    wan2b21 Posts: 147 Member
    Its up to you! I say yes.. I do that all the time.. Its more of a guideline for daily counting I feel, so you could technically be counting calories for the week or whatever.. -its just easier to count them by the day i think.
  • cuddlegrl
    cuddlegrl Posts: 101 Member
    I am by no means an expert and have several questions of my own.

    with that said I have learned that you need a minimum amount of calories (1200) to avoid a dangerous low that results in the opposite of what your working towards. So long as you dont go below that and your only talking about a few hundred calories in a few days time I think it all balances out :smile:
  • summerblunden
    summerblunden Posts: 184 Member
    I wouldn't...because by those standards then cheat days should subtract calories for the next day. Your body doesn't work like a bank, it needs a certain number of calories every day.

    If you DO choose to do that, I would not recommend saving them up though. "If I save 100 calories everyday, I can have a big mac on Friday!" mentality is not a good way to go about this.
  • ghostlystate1980
    ghostlystate1980 Posts: 27
    This is basically how the weight watchers points system works. It states how much you can eat a day, and then you get an extra amount every day that you can use or not, if you don't use them you are allowed to bank them until the end of the week if you have a party of something coming up that you know you will eat more at. If you can try and stay within your alotted amount, but if you cannot, carrying it over is not the worst thing in the world, plus it will less likely cause you to over eat.
  • lauralynette
    lauralynette Posts: 31
    since I am not an expert in this area I can only give you my opinion, which I wouldn't do it, instead if I go over I much rather go for an extra walk or something physical to help burn off the "extra" calories, using a jump rope is a great way to burn off those calories.
    But part of a healthy diet is balance, and once a week doing a "treat" whether a meal or dessert may help keep you in check the rest of the week, it takes 3500 calories to gain a pound or loose a pound and I doubt you can eat that in one day.
  • fullboost
    fullboost Posts: 53 Member
    The body doesn't know what 'day' it is.
    Generally speaking i give myself around 3 days to correct over eating binges or mistakes, whether this is correct or not i don't know. But hey, it's worked.
  • lizzys
    lizzys Posts: 841 Member
    theri are some diets that do that ,but if your not on that diet its not a good idea
  • faithjones83
    faithjones83 Posts: 28 Member
    ok thank you guys i have a little better understanding. I don't want to go overboard or anthing just have a little peace of mind. For example I usually come nowhere near my allotted calories once I include exercise but my hubby is in town for the weekend and cooked on the grill. I made adjustments such as turkey burgers no bun etc. but was still anxious about my calories for that one day. I had a good week and lost 3.5 lbs and didn't want to undo anything
  • raymj61
    raymj61 Posts: 142
    When I still had a significant amount of wt to lose, I didn't make up my calories the next day because I didn't think being under a couple of days a week was gonna immediately and irreversibly slow my metabolism down so I just used those days to speed up my wt loss. I will say though, that now that I'm close to my goal wt. I do try to get all of my calories in for two reasons. One, because I'm trying to prepare my body for something I can live with after dieting (maintainence) and secondly because I've steadily increased my exercise and I seem to need all of my calories because of this.
  • morozco916
    morozco916 Posts: 1
    Its fine to save calories up during the week, and have a cheat day on the weekend, but just remember calories aren't all the same dont go out eating high fat foods like a big mac, remember you are what you eat if you eat healthy lean foods you will be healthy and lean if you eat lots of carbs and fats you will be fat, just because you eat 1800 calories and are under your calories goal doesnt mean you did anything good unless you carbs, fat, and protein ratio is good
  • faithjones83
    faithjones83 Posts: 28 Member
    thanks guys even on the day when I did go over I did watch my calories, fats, etc and it was just but a little bit but I still felt guilty even though every other day had been really good. I wanted to stop beating myself up which is why I asked.
  • mark_n_kim
    mark_n_kim Posts: 3 Member
    I'm really struggling with this. I've been eating "fat burning" foods but am having a hard time getting my calorie intake right, not eating nearly enough!! then when I do I get on the scale and it jumps 2 lbs in one day! I'm working out alot too, treadmill, lunch time hikes, sit ups.. been working my tush off and for the past 5 days have lost 1lb. Advice?? I have breafast sitting in front of me that consists of 1 low fat yogurt, some tamoto from my garden, coffee and 2 boiled eggs (330 calories). Advice?? want to start progressing again.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    Well, short answer is no, you can't "bank" calories, the body doesn't work that way.

    the longer answer is: It's a slippery slope. it depends on your body, the type of activity you participate in, genetics, the type of foods you are eating, and how much body fat you have available to mobilize. I'd say this, if you're early on and have a lot of fat to lose (say at least 25 or 30 lbs but to be safe lets say 40 or more) then you could probably get away with this once or twice a week, but I would definitely not go more than 12 to 18 hours or so, there's no food that I'm aware of that takes longer than 18 hours to completely digest, which means that you're incorrectly tallying calories if you wait longer than that. Most food takes less than 3 hours to digest (and much takes 1/2 an hour to 1 and a 1/2 to digest) so in general it's not a great way to go about things, but as I said before, if you have some extra fat, the body will put forth it's best effort to compensate for the gap in calories by using fat (and a bit of muscle as well).

    This is also a reason why it's not a great idea to eat most of you calories in one or two large meals by the way.

    -Banks
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    It's a personal choice. I look at the whole week and multiply my calories by 7, then add in whatever exercise and that's what I'm allowed per week rather than just going by the day.

    It's working for me.
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    I go with 12 hours. Frequently I will burn a lot of calories before bed. If I'm overwelmingly hungry the first part of the next day I'll make up some of what I burned right before bed, but no longer than that. Certainly not a week.
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