Stressful week; maintenance calories or deficit?

soccerkon26
soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
edited November 15 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm aiming to lose .5 lbs per week, because I only have about a few pounds to go.
This next week I have a lot of assignments and deadlines that I have to meet, resulting in a very stressful week.

I usually exercise 7 days per week but I won't have time at all for the next 4 days.

I'm wondering if I should try hard and continue to eat at a deficit (to lose .5 lbs per week), or eat at maintenance to cut myself a little slack? I'm just nervous I'm giving myself an easy way out.

But I need to focus on my work. Ahhhhhh

Replies

  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    Relax.

    One week will not kill progress.
  • Angierae75
    Angierae75 Posts: 417 Member
    Eat at maintenance. Life happens.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    Doesn't matter. I'm eating at maintenance right now because I started getting that "I want to eat all the food" feeling, which for me is a sign that it's time for a diet break.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Why not eat at maintenance? It's fun.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    .5 lbs is only 250 calories per day. Why not continue eating at a deficit? What are you going to do when you reach your goal and have a stressful week? Eat more and gain weight. If you can teach yourself to keep going even when stressed, you have a better chance of success.
  • hislittlelights
    hislittlelights Posts: 21 Member
    You know, would it be possible to pre-plan and then pre-log your meals for each day? You would be able to better aim for your standard deficit, but then if you feel you need a snack or whatever later, 250 calories would be sufficient, and you'd still be at maintenance. At least this way your meals are pre-planned, which I find for myself makes all the difference in a stressful day -- one less thing to have to think about!

    As far as the exercise goes, don't stress it. Sleep is more important anyway. =)
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    TimothyFish wrote: »
    .5 lbs is only 250 calories per day. Why not continue eating at a deficit? What are you going to do when you reach your goal and have a stressful week? Eat more and gain weight. If you can teach yourself to keep going even when stressed, you have a better chance of success.

    250 calories can be a lot, thus it can be extremely beneficial to actually be eating at maintenance to help elevate mood and reduce stress over one's weight loss attempts. And eating above maintenance periodically while continuing to eat at maintenance the rest of the time will not make OP suddenly gain weight again.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    edited March 2015
    I'm going to be the dissenter here and agree with TimothyFish and say that if you can, you should stick to your calorie goal. Why? Not because eating at maintenance once in a while is such a bad thing, 'cause it's not. But mostly because you seem to want to eat more as a response to stress.

    Stress eating is a dangerous trap to fall into and an even tougher trap to climb out of -- speaking from experience here.

    Instead of thinking "oh, I'm stressed out, I should give myself permission to eat more", try thinking of other ways to cope with stress. Go for a run, or punch a bag, or have a movie marathon of 80s teen flicks... whatever works for you. Just stop associating food with stress relief. Because it doesn't help. And because life is gonna happen moving forward, and having other coping mechanisms for stress besides food will help you keep the weight off, long term.

    Save the deliberate maintenance days for times when you want to really enjoy something -- a special occasion, a holiday, a special meal -- and not for times when you're trying to use food as stress relief.
  • soccerkon26
    soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
    hislittlelights wrote: »
    You know, would it be possible to pre-plan and then pre-log your meals for each day? You would be able to better aim for your standard deficit, but then if you feel you need a snack or whatever later, 250 calories would be sufficient, and you'd still be at maintenance. At least this way your meals are pre-planned, which I find for myself makes all the difference in a stressful day -- one less thing to have to think about!

    As far as the exercise goes, don't stress it. Sleep is more important anyway. =)

    I do pre plan already :) but my stress makes me crave everything! Ha ha :)
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