Does "banking" calories work?
Replies
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workinonit1956 wrote: »
I use an iPhone and can view my last 7 day info by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of my diary and click 'nutrition'.Intentional_Me wrote: »I'm also wondering if there is a way to view your week as a whole. I use android app but would hop on the computer if viewing weekly is possible .
Found it! Thank you1 -
yes, that's what I've been doing and it still allows me to enjoy life.1
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I'm doing this next week to account for Thanksgiving! I'm banking every other day that week so make room for dessert and to not be stressed on Thanksgiving. I want to sit back and enjoy a nice meal with my family and not agonize over measuring and guesstimating calories (I'll be at someone else's house--no way to accurately measure).2
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I do this but in reverse. If I go over my calorie allotment one day I'll cut back over the next few days to make up the difference. I find this works better for me than cutting back before hand when I don't know exactly how much over I will be.4
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Skyblueyellow wrote: »I'm doing this next week to account for Thanksgiving! I'm banking every other day that week so make room for dessert and to not be stressed on Thanksgiving. I want to sit back and enjoy a nice meal with my family and not agonize over measuring and guesstimating calories (I'll be at someone else's house--no way to accurately measure).
Ahhhh! It IS next week! Criminy.
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trigden1991 wrote: »Someone said your body doesn't reset at midnight or Monday, but by doing this you are assuming it resets weekly??? That doesn't make sense.
No one is assuming it "resets" at all. The philosophy is to look at your calorie intake as a rolling average and realising that daily increases/decreases are not of great importance. A week is a nice round chunk that everyone can easily go by.
exactly...0 -
Intentional_Me wrote: »I really should start banking too but I'm set to 1200 a day for 10 more pounds so I hate the idea of getting to eat even less some days. Maybe I should just cut 100 6 days a week so I have an extra 600 to play with on Sat or something. Plus I could add more with working out
If you are down to the last 10 lbs, you should have your goal set to 0.5 lb/week rate of loss which would be a deficit of only 250 cals/day from maintenance (excluding exercise if you're using MFP NEAT method). If you aren't already set at these goals, then that might give you some extra calories in your baseline target which makes the ability to bank cals easier when you have higher goal to start with. Going under 1200, even if you plan to eat the cals back later in the week, can be challenging since you really need every one of those calories to fill your day.0 -
To the OP, yes, I bank cals during the week for more indulgent weekends. I often end 100-200 cals below my goal (sometimes more if I'm really saving up but I'm in maintenance and my TDEE is 2200 so I have wiggle room) and save 500-1000 or so for the weekends. I used this approach while losing and now even more while I'm maintaining.
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WinoGelato wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »I really should start banking too but I'm set to 1200 a day for 10 more pounds so I hate the idea of getting to eat even less some days. Maybe I should just cut 100 6 days a week so I have an extra 600 to play with on Sat or something. Plus I could add more with working out
If you are down to the last 10 lbs, you should have your goal set to 0.5 lb/week rate of loss which would be a deficit of only 250 cals/day from maintenance (excluding exercise if you're using MFP NEAT method). If you aren't already set at these goals, then that might give you some extra calories in your baseline target which makes the ability to bank cals easier when you have higher goal to start with. Going under 1200, even if you plan to eat the cals back later in the week, can be challenging since you really need every one of those calories to fill your day.
I still have 85 or so to lose. Sorry for any confusion. I meant I am still set to 2 pounds a week for about 10 more pounds before I go to 1. 5 a week and so on.
And I'm 5 '3 so I'm thinking my maintenance may be around 1500 if I'm not actively working out. Makes me sad. Lol0 -
Intentional_Me wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »I really should start banking too but I'm set to 1200 a day for 10 more pounds so I hate the idea of getting to eat even less some days. Maybe I should just cut 100 6 days a week so I have an extra 600 to play with on Sat or something. Plus I could add more with working out
If you are down to the last 10 lbs, you should have your goal set to 0.5 lb/week rate of loss which would be a deficit of only 250 cals/day from maintenance (excluding exercise if you're using MFP NEAT method). If you aren't already set at these goals, then that might give you some extra calories in your baseline target which makes the ability to bank cals easier when you have higher goal to start with. Going under 1200, even if you plan to eat the cals back later in the week, can be challenging since you really need every one of those calories to fill your day.
I still have 85 or so to lose. Sorry for any confusion. I meant I am still set to 2 pounds a week for about 10 more pounds before I go to 1. 5 a week and so on.
And I'm 5 '3 so I'm thinking my maintenance may be around 1500 if I'm not actively working out. Makes me sad. Lol
Ahh, makes sense. Sounds like you are taking the smart, stepwise approach. Are you eating back exercise calories today? Are you losing at 2 lbs/week currently?
For what it's worth, I'm 5'2, and I have a high TDEE, not because of strenuous exercise but because I've worked to raise my daily activity level in addition to exercise. My maintenance is 2200, and that's mostly from walking (15K steps/day) and some light circuit training. So it's definitely possible to still be able to eat more even when petite!
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WinoGelato wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »I really should start banking too but I'm set to 1200 a day for 10 more pounds so I hate the idea of getting to eat even less some days. Maybe I should just cut 100 6 days a week so I have an extra 600 to play with on Sat or something. Plus I could add more with working out
If you are down to the last 10 lbs, you should have your goal set to 0.5 lb/week rate of loss which would be a deficit of only 250 cals/day from maintenance (excluding exercise if you're using MFP NEAT method). If you aren't already set at these goals, then that might give you some extra calories in your baseline target which makes the ability to bank cals easier when you have higher goal to start with. Going under 1200, even if you plan to eat the cals back later in the week, can be challenging since you really need every one of those calories to fill your day.
I still have 85 or so to lose. Sorry for any confusion. I meant I am still set to 2 pounds a week for about 10 more pounds before I go to 1. 5 a week and so on.
And I'm 5 '3 so I'm thinking my maintenance may be around 1500 if I'm not actively working out. Makes me sad. Lol
Ahh, makes sense. Sounds like you are taking the smart, stepwise approach. Are you eating back exercise calories today? Are you losing at 2 lbs/week currently?
For what it's worth, I'm 5'2, and I have a high TDEE, not because of strenuous exercise but because I've worked to raise my daily activity level in addition to exercise. My maintenance is 2200, and that's mostly from walking (15K steps/day) and some light circuit training. So it's definitely possible to still be able to eat more even when petite!
I am down 75 pounds since April so pretty close to target. I eat back 1/ 2 of my exercise calories to account for inaccuracies
I'm hoping my energy will keep increasing and it will be much easier to increase my daily activity. I'm a stay at home mom right now so aside from cleaning the house, the occasional walk and working out I'm pretty sedentary.
You definitely give me hope though!0 -
Intentional_Me wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »I really should start banking too but I'm set to 1200 a day for 10 more pounds so I hate the idea of getting to eat even less some days. Maybe I should just cut 100 6 days a week so I have an extra 600 to play with on Sat or something. Plus I could add more with working out
If you are down to the last 10 lbs, you should have your goal set to 0.5 lb/week rate of loss which would be a deficit of only 250 cals/day from maintenance (excluding exercise if you're using MFP NEAT method). If you aren't already set at these goals, then that might give you some extra calories in your baseline target which makes the ability to bank cals easier when you have higher goal to start with. Going under 1200, even if you plan to eat the cals back later in the week, can be challenging since you really need every one of those calories to fill your day.
I still have 85 or so to lose. Sorry for any confusion. I meant I am still set to 2 pounds a week for about 10 more pounds before I go to 1. 5 a week and so on.
And I'm 5 '3 so I'm thinking my maintenance may be around 1500 if I'm not actively working out. Makes me sad. Lol
This will be me too, I have one day a week I eat at 1500. I have until next summer to get to goal weight so one day a week for the next 8 months I get to eat what I'm going to be able to eat for the rest of my life. Of course I can up my calories a bit with workouts.1 -
Intentional_Me wrote: »I'm hoping my energy will keep increasing and it will be much easier to increase my daily activity. I'm a stay at home mom right now so aside from cleaning the house, the occasional walk and working out I'm pretty sedentary.
How old are your kids? While I'm not "working out" when I'm with them, I find my two boys keep me on my feet! So, unless we're talking about an infant who mostly sleeps, feeds and poops, I'd be surprised if a stay at home mom was truly "sedentary".1 -
Of course it works. It's all cumulative. Over the period of a year I lost 115 lbs, I can tell you from experience that was not all linear. I gained some, lost some, stayed the same weight at times. Overall, in those 365 days I was successful (very). When holidays or events came up, I would bust my *kitten* a little harder working out and increase my deficit for the days prior to and after those events. The result was no lasting gains. Just don't do it so that you can fit in cheat days on regular basis, that's setting yourself up for failure long term.
In the next year I expect to stop logging all together, so I will know what I can eat and what I shouldn't eat, when I can eat it, and what I probably should do to 'pay' for it if I over indulged. It's a system of checks and balances I'm trying to teach myself now in maintenance. It's not much different than what I did while I was dieting at all, and yes, that meant banking some calories from time to time.0 -
I do this for one meal a week eating out at a restaurant. I'll eat ~ 100-200 fewer than my alloted calories the day or two before, and I eat very light the day of leading up to the delightful meal out. I'm sure it works. However - be warned, that eating something very salty or sugary will cause temporary water weight gain, and that can be discouraging. If you weigh yourself every day, you get to understand these temporary fluctuations and they won't freak you out. At least, that works for me!
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Someone said your body doesn't reset at midnight or Monday, but by doing this you are assuming it resets weekly??? That doesn't make sense.
No one is saying that either, but a week is a nice manageable chunk.
Look at it this way, when you could day-to-day and you run into a day where you're way over, you might count that day as a fail.
If you look at it weekly, and you go way over one day, you are able to make it up over the course of the week.
You could even look at it monthly if you wanted, but a lot of people would likely find that too be too long a period to track over.2 -
On mobile go to More, Nutrition, Calories, weekly view It will spit out a printout of calories per "meal" and day as well as a weekly average and if you are over or under your weekly goal...this will change daily as the 7 days is the last 7 days. But if you bank in advance you should see how many you have left.0
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SusanMFindlay wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »I'm hoping my energy will keep increasing and it will be much easier to increase my daily activity. I'm a stay at home mom right now so aside from cleaning the house, the occasional walk and working out I'm pretty sedentary.
How old are your kids? While I'm not "working out" when I'm with them, I find my two boys keep me on my feet! So, unless we're talking about an infant who mostly sleeps, feeds and poops, I'd be surprised if a stay at home mom was truly "sedentary".
3 & 1. Maybe not sitting all day but certainly not up moving around a lot either.
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Intentional_Me wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »Intentional_Me wrote: »I'm hoping my energy will keep increasing and it will be much easier to increase my daily activity. I'm a stay at home mom right now so aside from cleaning the house, the occasional walk and working out I'm pretty sedentary.
How old are your kids? While I'm not "working out" when I'm with them, I find my two boys keep me on my feet! So, unless we're talking about an infant who mostly sleeps, feeds and poops, I'd be surprised if a stay at home mom was truly "sedentary".
3 & 1. Maybe not sitting all day but certainly not up moving around a lot either.
Lucky! My boys are also 3 and 1, and I spend a lot of time picking up children and moving them somewhere else - either because it's mealtime or diaper change time or because the 3 year old is squishing the 1 year old with hugs (which are nice, but the 1 year old needs some freedom to crawl and play and learn to walk). We also walk a lot and go to the park a lot.1
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