Daily or Weekly Calorie Intake?

I look at a week at a time, and I don't freak out if it's a little over because my real data point is "the last 30 days."

I do weekly. I have 1840, I usually eat 1500 daily M-F and Sunday's. Which leaves me Saturday to not log and eat whatever. That is the day the BF makes waffles for breakfast, I drink the beer I want, if there's a dessert I've been wanting or dinner out. It's been working. I range between 148-153. I'm 5'11 and 36 years old.

Weekly is what works best for me. It's a lot easier for me to eat low M-Th and then not watch so carefully on the weekends.

I recommend doing whatever will work for you for the long haul. Maintenance is all about maintaining the habits that help you stay within goal range. For me, imposing too many rules and "shoulds" on myself is a recipe for disaster as I tend to rebel against anything too restrictive; thus, I fit my nightly ice cream cone into my macros. Having that to look forward to (and pre-logged) helps me say no to other temptations throughout the day. I look at it daily so as not to go too far over, but as long as it averages out across the week, I'm happy. I usually eat more on the weekends, but workouts tend to be longer, so it all works out.

I kind of do both, but that's because I'm not a rule follower. I aim, most days, for about 140 calories under maintenance, because technically I need to lose more. I lost 125ish a couple of years ago, and sort of stalled. But I'm happy where I am, so that's okay. So anyway, I aim for about 140 under maintenance, and usually hit that about 5 days a week. I often end up around maintenance most weeks. Recently, I've been having good weeks and bad weeks. One week I end up about 1400 under maintenance, and then the next I eat way too much, and end up close to maintenance over two weeks instead of one. I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a recipe for disaster, but I've been doing this for the last year and my weight has fluctuated, but not gotten out of hand.

Ultimately, I'd say do what makes you feel the most in control and the most responsible. I think keeping that attitude of commitment to the cause is important. If you can do that spreading it out over a week, or even more, that's fine. If you feel like your slipping, take it a day at a time.

I also maintain around 1400 (5'0 short, 108lbs), I do a bit of 4/3 fast because during the weekends I have a very low appetite, so Saturdays, Sundays & Wednesdays I eat 1000 calories and then the rest of week I eat like a tall person hahahahaha!

Weekly is best for me, If i mess up on Tuesday i can fix it Wednesday, it makes it easier for me. Or you can plan meals ahead of time like pizza if you wanna low carb some days. Hope this helps

sijomial wrote: »

Do what suits you now and for the rest of your life.
Eating to the same calorie limit every day would be horribly restrictive to me.

Must say your maintenance of 1400 is incredibly low!

sijomial - It looks pretty reasonable to a short chick like me! (My TDEE on a day without exercise is 1450.)

May - I think that sijomial's advice is pretty good. If you eat too many calories one day, don't eat as much the next day. Yesterday, we had Cream Cheese Chicken Croissants for dinner -- carby and fat-filled and so yummy I ate 3! And I was 250 calories over. Today, I burned 400 calories exercising and only had about 1300 calories total. I'm not taking out a calculator, but I figure the two about even out. If, at any point, I notice I'm putting on weight or losing too much (HA!), I'll be more strict with my caloric intake, but I'm not going to stress too much about things.

All the many people telling you it's a continuum are right. When you've hit a weight you're happy with, yes, be careful that you don't fall into bad eating habits, but there's no sense in worrying about hitting a certain calorie goal every single day. Too stressful.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Weekly has always worked best for me through weight loss and maintenance

Must admit I am struggling to see how 1400 can be a maintenance level though

That’s cause you have 8” on them. A 5 foot 108 pound woman maintains at 1395/day according to IIFYM. Exercise 3 x per week bumps that up to 1595 though, so it sounds a lot better…

Anyway, I go for daily, except for if I have a day where I’m either more or less hungry than usual - then I amortize my calories across a few days. Doing what works best for you is the way to go!