Weekly calories (banking?)

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disneyprincess29
disneyprincess29 Posts: 10 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm trying to find a different approach as I feel too restricted at the weekend.

I can stick to the plan more easily in the week and feel like a treat at the weekend, so without going too overboard I'm trying to come up with a (simple?) plan to stick to.

For the past couple of weeks my target has been to net about 1400 a day. I had my account linked to my fitbit and was eating back the extra most days, or saving for the weekend. I averaged about 1900 a day (1400 net) My fitbit says I burnt an average of 2000 a day. I feel restricted on weekends though and am overthinking all the time and trying to juggle numbers.

Would it work where I have 1500 mon-thurs and 2000 fri, sat, sun. I would like to lose about 0.5 pounds a week. (7-10 pounds left to lose). I wouldn't eat any extra from exercise, just keep doing the same but not adding it in.

I'm thinking to unlink my fitbit as feel all the numbers are overcomplicating things. So as long as I continue to burn 2000 a day and spread the calories like that should it work? (Have I worked out the numbers ok?)

I hope that all makes sense. I know there's lots of appoaches to this and I'm a thinker that keeps overthinking it all!

Replies

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    You've been doing it that way for ~3 weeks. Have you detected a loss of weight yet? Is your loss of weight mathematically greater than 3% in those 3 weeks? Less? Let that be an influence on your plan. For instance, if your previous 3 weeks have shown a loss of less than 3%, then it would be counter-productive that you start consuming more calories on the weekend. If you consume only 500 extra calories on the weekend days, that's a tiny retrograde motion, but if you let your weekends become unlogged eat-it-alls, you will gain weight. If your previous 3 weeks have shown a loss of more than 3%, you can easily add 500 extra calories on the weekend days. Enjoy.
  • disneyprincess29
    disneyprincess29 Posts: 10 Member
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    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    You've been doing it that way for ~3 weeks. Have you detected a loss of weight yet? Is your loss of weight mathematically greater than 3% in those 3 weeks? Less? Let that be an influence on your plan. For instance, if your previous 3 weeks have shown a loss of less than 3%, then it would be counter-productive that you start consuming more calories on the weekend. If you consume only 500 extra calories on the weekend days, that's a tiny retrograde motion, but if you let your weekends become unlogged eat-it-alls, you will gain weight. If your previous 3 weeks have shown a loss of more than 3%, you can easily add 500 extra calories on the weekend days. Enjoy.

    Thank you for your reply.

    I guess I haven't stuck to a plan for very long before trying to change it up. I've lost a pound a week on average. I just feel like I'm thinking about food all the time at the weekends. I'm in this for the long term, it's a lifestyle change so trying to think of a way to stick to it as I still need treats.

    Maybe it's a habit that needs breaking, weekends for me have always been when treats creep in. I wouldn't make it a free-for-all, I realise that's just being in denial. Something I've learnt from here is to log everything and remain accountable.
  • seantnash
    seantnash Posts: 77 Member
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    I do banking of my calories and it definitely hasn't hindered my weight loss. However, I do impose a few rules to my banking:

    1) No more than 100 calories banked a day. This means I can have up to 600 calories extra on one day if I wanted them. It limits the chances of feeling deprived on any one day but also prevents me binging on any one day.

    2) I cannot end the week with more than 100 calories in the "bank". This makes sure I'm not starving myself in the (false) hope of speeding up my weight loss.

    3) Banked calories cannot be carried over into my next weight loss week (they reset to 0 once I've had my weigh-in).

    4) I can bank the calories before or after the day I need them. My weight loss week starts on a Saturday so if I went over my allowance on Saturday by 600 I could then bank 100 calories a day to claw it back.

    These are self-imposed rules but work well for me as it doesn't encourage any extreme thinking or drastic measures.
  • disneyprincess29
    disneyprincess29 Posts: 10 Member
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    seantnash wrote: »
    I do banking of my calories and it definitely hasn't hindered my weight loss. However, I do impose a few rules to my banking:

    1) No more than 100 calories banked a day. This means I can have up to 600 calories extra on one day if I wanted them. It limits the chances of feeling deprived on any one day but also prevents me binging on any one day.

    2) I cannot end the week with more than 100 calories in the "bank". This makes sure I'm not starving myself in the (false) hope of speeding up my weight loss.

    3) Banked calories cannot be carried over into my next weight loss week (they reset to 0 once I've had my weigh-in).

    4) I can bank the calories before or after the day I need them. My weight loss week starts on a Saturday so if I went over my allowance on Saturday by 600 I could then bank 100 calories a day to claw it back.

    These are self-imposed rules but work well for me as it doesn't encourage any extreme thinking or drastic measures.

    Thank you for your reply. It's given me some ideas!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    I don't know if this is something you're willing to consider or not but I'll tell you my approach: I do long hikes or bike rides on the weekend. I can't do them all week because I have to go to work. They control boredom, take me away from tempting foods, and they burn a lot of calories so when I get home I can eat a lot more than I'd have been able to otherwise. Win/win/win.
  • TheCupcakeCounter
    TheCupcakeCounter Posts: 606 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I don't know if this is something you're willing to consider or not but I'll tell you my approach: I do long hikes or bike rides on the weekend. I can't do them all week because I have to go to work. They control boredom, take me away from tempting foods, and they burn a lot of calories so when I get home I can eat a lot more than I'd have been able to otherwise. Win/win/win.

    Same here. I rarely eat back my exercise calories as I have MFP set to 1lb/week and then hope to get another .5-1lb through exercise. Because of this I usually have some banked but I also usually get significantly longer and more intense workouts on the weekends. Those calories I will eat (or drink) back.
  • Emily3907
    Emily3907 Posts: 1,461 Member
    edited May 2017
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    I am a calorie "banker"....kind of.

    Basically, I do not eat back exercise calories unless I am REALLY hungry on a particular day (usually around TOM). Even then, I only allow myself to eat back half of my exercise calories.

    But, like you I found that it was easier for me to stick to a lower calorie goal through the week and have more calories on the weekend.

    What I did is I took my MFP "goal" and multiplied by 7 - so 1750 x 7 = 12,250.

    So 12,250 was my total calories to work with for the week. I then proceeded to change my calorie goals to 1600 M-Th and then 1900 F-Su.

    1600 M-Th (x4) = 6400
    1900 F-Su (x3) = 5700

    6400+5700 = 12,100 - so that put me a little under my weekly calorie goal of 12,250
  • disneyprincess29
    disneyprincess29 Posts: 10 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I don't know if this is something you're willing to consider or not but I'll tell you my approach: I do long hikes or bike rides on the weekend. I can't do them all week because I have to go to work. They control boredom, take me away from tempting foods, and they burn a lot of calories so when I get home I can eat a lot more than I'd have been able to otherwise. Win/win/win.

    Love this idea thank you! I really enjoy hiking, just need to drag someone with me! Hopefully now the weather is picking up I can do this more often.
  • disneyprincess29
    disneyprincess29 Posts: 10 Member
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    Emily3907 wrote: »
    I am a calorie "banker"....kind of.

    Basically, I do not eat back exercise calories unless I am REALLY hungry on a particular day (usually around TOM). Even then, I only allow myself to eat back half of my exercise calories.

    But, like you I found that it was easier for me to stick to a lower calorie goal through the week and have more calories on the weekend.

    What I did is I took my MFP "goal" and multiplied by 7 - so 1750 x 7 = 12,250.

    So 12,250 was my total calories to work with for the week. I then proceeded to change my calorie goals to 1600 M-Th and then 1900 F-Su.

    1600 M-Th (x4) = 6400
    1900 F-Su (x3) = 5700

    6400+5700 = 12,100 - so that put me a little under my weekly calorie goal of 12,250

    Sounds very similar to my idea (but put in a better way!) Do you find it easier to stick to? I find it harder at TOM.
  • alves_patricia
    alves_patricia Posts: 16 Member
    edited May 2017
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    I always focus on weekly calories versus daily calories. I aim for a weekly deficit or surplus and YOLO it, just making sure I hit protein minimum daily or almost. And yes, I do weekly banking even with a 2.7-3K maintenance. It's great ! :)

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