Counting Calories for the Week Vs Each Day

My daily calorie goal is 1300 which would give me a weekly goal of 9100 calories (net). I've started looking at my week as whole rather than just daily so that if I go over my calories on a day I can balance out the rest of the week and still only net 9100 calories per 7 days.

My question is: Is this still an effective way to track or am I doing myself some sort of metabolic disservice by going over some days and under on others? I generally eat more on work days and less on weekends which would be my balance out time to make up for days I went over during the week.

I do eat my exercise calories back.

Thanks. Feel free to ask me questions if I'm not explaining this clearly enough.

I've heard it is a really good way to track. For me personally, I've been confused of why my weight hasn't been going down at the rate it's "supposed to" and it "used to".

Just yesterday I logged in on my phone using the MFP app and saw that over the past four weeks I've been overeating my weekly goal by a lot. And up until then I'd thought that I was only getting one "cheat day" a week! Turns out that if you eat within 50 calories of your goal and then blow it once or twice by a few hundred on a day or two, you're not actually eating at a deficit.

What is your weekly weight loss set to because this doesn't sound right. At all.

I log daily, but I am more concerned about staying within my calorie goal for the week vs. the day. This allows me the flexibility to live life normally -- if I go out to eat, or it's a holiday, no big deal, I just make sure I stay within target for the week.

I'm quite proud that I've never gone over my weekly goal since I started logging. This could be a big part of why I've been able to maintain successfully for over a year!

TDEE does kinda the same thing you eat your total weekly cals, same number each day regardless if you workout or not. So on days you don't workout your deficit is really small, but on days you do it would be much larger but by the end of the week it would be the same or similar.

say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" or TDEE calculator may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif).

My daily calorie goal is 1300 which would give me a weekly goal of 9100 calories (net). I've started looking at my week as whole rather than just daily so that if I go over my calories on a day I can balance out the rest of the week and still only net 9100 calories per 7 days.

My question is: Is this still an effective way to track or am I doing myself some sort of metabolic disservice by going over some days and under on others? I generally eat more on work days and less on weekends which would be my balance out time to make up for days I went over during the week.

I do eat my exercise calories back.

Thanks. Feel free to ask me questions if I'm not explaining this clearly enough.

I've heard it is a really good way to track. For me personally, I've been confused of why my weight hasn't been going down at the rate it's "supposed to" and it "used to".

Just yesterday I logged in on my phone using the MFP app and saw that over the past four weeks I've been overeating my weekly goal by a lot. And up until then I'd thought that I was only getting one "cheat day" a week! Turns out that if you eat within 50 calories of your goal and then blow it once or twice by a few hundred on a day or two, you're not actually eating at a deficit.

that's basic math. if you only have a 50 calorie deficit 5 days a week then you have a 250 calorie deficit for those days. If you then go over by 200 calories 2 days a week you have a 400 calorie surplus for those days. Net 150 calorie SURPLUS.

I am very confused, are we talking about being 50 calories from the MFP calorie goal to lose say a pound a weight or 50 calories under her TDEE? If you are under 50 calories from your MFP goal 5 days a week and you are set to lose 1 pound per week, then going over 200 calories twice a week, shouldn't do much to inhibit weight loss.

wait . . . wut?

That's basic math. If you have a 50 calorie deficit 5 days a week then you have a 250 calorie deficit for those days. If you then go over by 200 calories 2 days a week you have a 400 calorie surplus for those days. Net 150 calorie SURPLUS.

:huh: It's not a "surplus" unless her daily goal is set to her TDEE and I assume it is not. If you are set to lose one pound per week, your weekly deficit should be 3,500 calories, she'd have a deficit of 3,350 per week with your numbers. Her weight loss shouldn't be dramatically impeded.

I track my calories day by day and not by week. My daily goal is about 1500, so if I go over on Monday, 1500 is still my goal on Tuesday. However, SOMETIMES i'll try to make up for overages by doing more cardio on another day while eating the same as I would on a normal day. I guess that's kinda the same as eating less lol

I always logged everyday on MFP while I was loosing weight just to make sure I was either meeting or somedays under my goal, some weeks I would average around the same calories every day for the week whereas others I would be low somedays and higher others (usually at the weekend) I always averaged out in the end though and kept loosing. Do whatever suits you I suppose, for me I didn't plan to eat more somedays and and eat less others but if I knew I was going to a party or something at the weekend where I would naturally break out a bit I would be more mindful of what i'm eating in advance i.e eating more whole, nutritious foods as they are usually lower in calories anyway so this would keep me within my goal.

i don't really worry about my daily numbers. i focus on weekly and monthly numbers.

i try to get in the ballpark with my macros on each day if i can, but my natural eating patterns are to eat lots of calories some days and not a lot of calories on others. it would be silly for me to change my eating patterns to meet a daily logging goal, so i keep running totals in a separate spreadsheet so that i always know where i stand w.r.t. the week and the month in progress.

Good info here! I just found out how 2 see how many net calories I'm under 4 the week & it's usually quiet a bit so instead of feelin guilty about having a cpl margaritas on the weekend I think I'm gonna have an extra!!! Woo hoo!!! This thread makes me happy!!! :laugh: