Could you diet only 4 days a week and still lose weight?

sdc4828
sdc4828 Posts: 1 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
If you were to create your 3500 calorie deficit solely in the first four days of the week (for example) and then eat calories to maintain your weight in the next three days, would you still lose weight? (To maintain I'd assume you'd just eat 500 over what MFP suggests to lose 1 pound a week).

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    If you have a 3500 calorie deficit, why wouldn't you lose weight?
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    edited October 2017
    Yes if you were actually eating maintenance the other days you would still lose. It would go slower though. :) You would have to experiment to find your actual maintenance calories. It's different for everyone. MFP is just a guideline and not a hard/fast rule.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I did 5:2 to lose my weight successfully.
    Five days at maintenance and two days at a big deficit.

    I found splitting up the two days easier than doing them consecutively.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    smantha32 wrote: »
    Yes if you were actually eating maintenance the other days you would still lose. It would go slower though. :) You would have to experiment to find your actual maintenance calories. It's different for everyone. MFP is just a guideline and not a hard/fast rule.

    Not if they're still creating a 3500 cal deficit for the week.

    OP, this strategy actually makes good sense from a physiological standpoint. Have a read of the thread titled 'Of refeeds and diet breaks' a few posts down on this forum for more on that.
  • Sunnybrooke99
    Sunnybrooke99 Posts: 369 Member
    SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
    Sunnybrooke99 wrote: »
    Depends. You could lose a lot, or you might just gain weight slower.

    Depends on what? If you have a 3,500 calorie deficit each week, you will lose one pound a week, no matter how those calories are spread out during the week.

    Okay I didn’t see the math there at the end. I was thinking that it can’t just be assumed based on cutting 3500 from the first part of the week alone. Depends on how many calories the person eats the rest of the week.
  • Athena98501
    Athena98501 Posts: 716 Member
    You could, and you would lose weight, but it could also set you up for trouble down the road. Spending that many days eating for your current maintenance level could make it more difficult to adjust to the maintenance level at your goal weight, which could really be a problem when/if you stop logging. Why not even those days out a bit more? Working your intake gradually down to where it will eventually need to be is statically proven to improve the long term odds of staying near the goal you've worked hard for.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    If you can safely sustain a nearly 900-calorie deficit on those days, sure
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    That would mean you're running a very high deficit 4 days in a row which could have numerous undesirable effects. But mathematically you would lose weight.
  • ccjlgrider
    ccjlgrider Posts: 49 Member
    Isn’t this what calorie cycling is? Do a search for that or a search for “weekly calories.” Yes, this is a thing that people do and have lost weight doing.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    sdc4828 wrote: »
    If you were to create your 3500 calorie deficit solely in the first four days of the week (for example) and then eat calories to maintain your weight in the next three days, would you still lose weight? (To maintain I'd assume you'd just eat 500 over what MFP suggests to lose 1 pound a week).

    Assuming you're in the obese category and should be having a 3500 calorie weekly deficit, then yes, that's one way of losing weight.

    Here's the thread @Nony_Mouse recommended about the science of losing weight while having regular maintenance days:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks#latest
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,756 Member
    Yup. I tend to do this albeit unintentionally most weeks
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