Deficit, fitness pal graph and treat day weight gain

maggleberrypie
maggleberrypie Posts: 29 Member
edited November 18 in Food and Nutrition
hi all,

I'm hoping you can help me to understand deficit and the nutrition graph on my fitness pal. And the impact this has on weight gain for the rest of the week following a little treat.

When I eat a deficit all week and it gradually builds up, I may decide on one day to 'use' some of those calories for a treat meal. I track this calorie count on the nutrition graph. At the moment, my fitness pal is set to the bare minimum weight loss for me being sedentary when I actually watch what I eat and exercise nearly daily. So I usually have a lot of calories 'under' for the week. When I weigh myself (always first thing in the morning), understandably I've lost more in the week then planned so I treat myself well within the limits stated by my fitness pal (e.g. I have done a lot of activities this week so the graph says I am under 4000 calories. Remember, Iv set it to bare minimum) so last night I ate 1000 calories extra. When I weigh myself the next morning, I'm 4 pounds heavier than the day before. And have to diet again all week just to lose that 4 pounds. Iv seen people write on here that they don't treat themselves as they don't want to undo their hard work of the week so is it right that although my fitness pal says you're way under, if you did eat some of those calories, you do put on weight and have to diet again from your minimum weight loss goal set to the app?

I just wanted to know who uses this nutrition graph and who uses it to calculate a treat and then what they expect their weight/weight loss plan to be like the week following a treat.

Thanks!

Replies

  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    If you've weighed yourself with a 4000 calorie (weekly) deficit, then that weight is also taking into account the extra deficit, some of which you'll obviously put back on if you eat part of it. NOT that this is a bad thing! Just something you need to take into account when you eat back your "extra" deficit.

    Also, you won't put on four pounds from an extra 1000 calories. One pound is 3500 calories, so to put on four pounds of fat, you'd need to eat 3500 calories x 4... Which is a lot. Most of it is excess sodium, water, glycogen, and waste. These things take a while to come off, but as long as the overall trend is downward, it really doesn't matter. :)

    Using your weekly net calories is a great idea for banking treats, whether daily or weekly, and a lot of people do it--You just need to relax and not let the fluctuation bother you if you're weighing daily. Otherwise, if those fluctuations drive you crazy, weigh the day before your treat day every week, and don't weigh the few days after it.

    All the best!
  • unsuspectingfish
    unsuspectingfish Posts: 1,176 Member
    You'd have to eat a 3,500 surplus to put on one pound, so what's probably happening is that you're simply retaining more water or something because of the extra food.
  • lulufee317537
    lulufee317537 Posts: 50 Member
    This always happens to me when I eat more. If you think about it, food has weight also. How much does dinner weigh? Almost a pound? It could be simply the weight of the extra food that you eat on your treat day. Also, during the week when you're exercising, a person can lose up to 4 lbs in sweat! Maybe during the week since you're working hard every day, your body doesn't have time to retain water. Like, the other poster said, if the trend over numbers of weeks is downward, then everything's OK.
  • xesixb
    xesixb Posts: 165 Member
    Well, you did eat 1000 extra calories the night before. That food didn't magically disappear. It takes 6-8 hr for food to get digested.

    I don't recommend weighing yourself daily. Weekly could be better.
  • maggleberrypie
    maggleberrypie Posts: 29 Member
    Sorry I may have got the calculation slightly wrong as I never talk in pounds. I've put back on 1kg which I think is 2 pounds. I know what the calculations are and I guess I have a slow metabolism or something as usually after a treat (usually I'm way under that 4000 calories deficit figure. 1000-1500 calories is my treat. Which by the way, still leaves me in the green figures as I burned so many calories that day) I tend to always put on 2 pounds the day after that treat and spend all week trying to lose that again.

    I'm still weighing less than this time last week so the deficit works. I'm just kind of bummed that a treat usually means such a gain for me and then working extra had to lose it again. I have lost my minimum weight loss as calculated by the app.

    Maybe it also is about water which I still need to figure out. I use a heart rate monitor so my calories burned is quite accurate and I scan everything I eat and hugely overestimate anything I don't know like a curry takeaway.
  • maggleberrypie
    maggleberrypie Posts: 29 Member
    Does anyone else use this to plan treats?
    How much weight to do they expect to put on? At first I expected to maintain if it was planned like this or if my figures for the day were high calories but still green (due to exercise) it would maintain but I'm starting to see that each time I do this, I do put on weight but I still lose my minimum calculation for that week (as calculated by the app)
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