Saving your workout calories for later?

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eyecandyrayce
eyecandyrayce Posts: 260 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've had people suggest this and I'm curious if it is really doable or if I should stop.

I work out 5 days a week and I don't eat my calories back. So mon-friday I would eat my daily 1460 calories and work out for a minimum of one hour burning 100-500 calories (depending on the day). By the end of the week I would easily have 1500 calories that I never did eat back.

Then, on the weekend, I would go over on my calories and allow myself to eat back those calories I burned.

Is this a bad idea in general or am I ok waiting to eat back my calories later in the week?

Replies

  • Serena272
    Serena272 Posts: 53 Member
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    Bump to read later.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    the point of eating exercise calories back is to ensure you have daily requirements of calories...

    If your goal is 1460 and you do burn 500...you are down to under 1k for that day and you are missing valuable nutrients and fuel for the next workout...

    That being said...weight loss is not linear...as long as you are consistently in a reasonable deficet you will lose weight it doesn't matter when you eat...just how much you eat.
  • jrcrmr
    jrcrmr Posts: 31 Member
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    I agre wtih sezxystef ...if the goal is just to lose weight, then as long as you have a calorie deficit, and not letting your body going into "starvation mode"...then yes, you should be fine

    i kind of do the same thing..although not to the same extreme...I leave about ~300 calories per day during the week (i still eat about 2500 calories during the week)...so the weekends, i don't go over too much if i do go over so that my week is still about ~600 under still...to account for things that are not precise in case I underestimated...

    if you have the mobile app, this is very easy to track...hopefully MFP will add this function to the website..
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
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    Don't save and eat back. If you want to lose weight continue not eating them back but then try and stay near your calorie goals on weekends.
  • bagge72
    bagge72 Posts: 1,377 Member
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    It's not really a bad idea at all, as long as your not hungry, and eating at an extremely low calorie amount. You might hold on to some extra water weight the days that you do eat them back, but you will be fine. People do it all the time with IF.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,191 Member
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    Many people function on a weekly schedule making sure they have an overall weekly deficit. While eating an extra 1500 calories in one day might be a little excessive, there is not a reason it would not work eating at least part of it that day.

    As to not having enough nutrients, I am not sure that is really accurate. I will agree on the fuel end of things, but nutrient wise it is not like they disappear or are used up in the same way calories are. Eating the 1460 filled with mainly nutrient dense foods would result in plenty of nutrition IMHO.
  • punkypenny
    punkypenny Posts: 99 Member
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    Even though the exercise calories are not real accurate. I do enjoy a cheat meal at the end of the week. I would say you could eat back some of those calories then if you stop losing weight reevaluate your diet.
  • eyecandyrayce
    eyecandyrayce Posts: 260 Member
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    I have not dropped any weight ever since I started working out 5 days a week. I had a similar issue last time I lost weight where eating the 1460 calories that MFP suggests caused me to plateau quickly and not move. I've dropped by calorie intake down to 1350 which helped previously but wondered about my weekends as well.

    I'm going to try and not eat as many of my calories back on the weekend. It helps that my fiancee has now joined me on this process so there will be less weekends of "Let's go out to eat" from him lol

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