Using exercise calories for weekend cheat meal (s)

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katebeermann
katebeermann Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,
So I recently switched from Weight Watchers. We could use extra calories from exercise for a cheat meal (s) or snacks as long as you don’t go over your points/calories each week.
Is this something you all do as well?
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Replies

  • KristaMac88
    KristaMac88 Posts: 163 Member
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    Following just because I would like to know the answer as well. As far as i knew each day was a new start and you couldnt carry over but that might not be the case at all.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    Yep, agreeing with others. I follow a weekly calorie goal. Occasionally, I bank for the weekend (many people do successfully), but usually I just have some higher days and some lower and let it balance out over the week. No issues with losing or maintenance.
  • HollyPFlax
    HollyPFlax Posts: 79 Member
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    I am in maintenance, but I do this. If you look at your diary and scroll down to the bottom, there's a "nutrition" button. You can see a week view of your past 7 days of calories. My myfitnesspal app is synced to my fitbit, so my exercise calories are automatically removed from the daily totals. I will cheat on weekends as long as my average daily intake is close to my goal (maintenance) for the week. If I'm too far over, I'll cut back over the next week. I always go with the weekly average.
  • Fflpnari
    Fflpnari Posts: 975 Member
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    Yep. I go on a weekly calorie average instead of a daily. it makes living and weight loss much easier and less stressful
  • lin_be
    lin_be Posts: 393 Member
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    Yes, it’s St. Patty’s this weekend in Chicago. Stocking up the cals this week for a fun weekend!
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    I often bank my calories during the week for more indulgent weekends. I don’t call it cheating. That’s just the typical pattern of my social life and my eating habits to have higher calorie days on the weekends.

    I find this works best when you are not working with an exceptionally low target during the week, when you aren’t banking more than a couple hundred cals per day so that your difference is maybe 500-1000 on the weekend. If you go more extreme one way or another it begins to look more like a binge restrict cycle and is harder to recover from.

    @angelsja I believe that’s likely what the issue was with your birthday celebration.
  • katebeermann
    katebeermann Posts: 6 Member
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    Thank you everyone, very helpful!
  • emilysusana
    emilysusana Posts: 416 Member
    edited March 2019
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    angelsja wrote: »
    Well it didn't work for me I had my birthday coming up so did extra exercise (alot) didn't eat them went out for my birthday scale obviously went up but then took 2 full weeks to come back down to pre birthday weight -_- so all that extra exercise was a big waste if time/energy

    Your weight going up for two weeks isn’t an indication that you gained fat through your birthday meal. I was just looking at my trends and I go through a 12-14 day stretch every single month where my weight goes above my lowest recorded weight before I starts dropping to new lows. When I start dropping again, sometimes it will be a full pound or more a day, sometimes two or three days in a row, followed by losing a fraction of a pound for many more days in a row. It all evens out. Those two weeks of “gains” were not gains at all.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    rsj7799 wrote: »
    Yes. MFP doesn't give you weekly points (and exercise calories are added to the day you burn them) but you can certainly save calories on some days and then use them on others. As long as you maintain your overall desired deficit over the course of the week you will be fine.

    you can look at your weekly goal on the app though.
  • CharlieCharlie007
    CharlieCharlie007 Posts: 246 Member
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    My Bday party. Will eat all kinds....Expecting massive water weight. Its fine, my cat peed on my scale and fried it. so, ignorance is bliss....thank you Rocky, rest in peace old man!
  • BattyKnitter
    BattyKnitter Posts: 503 Member
    edited March 2019
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    Yes I'm burning an extra 50-100 calories a day on top of my usual deficit this week so I can have a drink or 2 and a small desert with my salad when I go out for dinner with friends on Friday. I burn between 2000-2300 calories a day so I can afford to have a big deficit but this will go down once I switch to a 250 cal deficit. You don't want to create too big a deficit either, make sure not to go under 1200 net calories.

    It's worked in the past and I plan on keeping this same strategy in maintenance. Of course you have to be ok with your weight going up from water retention/more food in your system for a few days afterwards.
  • angelsja
    angelsja Posts: 860 Member
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    collectingblues wrote: »
    angelsja wrote: »
    Well it didn't work for me I had my birthday coming up so did extra exercise (alot) didn't eat them went out for my birthday scale obviously went up but then took 2 full weeks to come back down to pre birthday weight -_- so all that extra exercise was a big waste if time/energy

    And, as we've discussed many times before, that's part of why you need to get yourself away from this restrict-overexercise-overeat cycle that you're in.

    And why you need to start understanding scale fluctuations.

    I do understand scale fluctuations and my weight trended upwards for a few days then dropped back down but took 2 full weeks to go back to pre birthday weight where I was steadily losing previous to that on 1500 cals per day

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