Calorie Cycling

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the_conspicuous_quesadilla
the_conspicuous_quesadilla Posts: 168 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So.. the day before yesterday I was already over my daily caloric budget and had a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. That put me yet another ~1,200 calories overboard. The next day I put myself into a deficit of about 1,100 calories to try and make up for that. Does anyone else do similar things, to make up for meals or to be able to indulge in something later on? Or would you consider this straight-up abuse of your own body and unhealthy?

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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,397 MFP Moderator
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    There is nothing inherently wrong with what you are doing. When i have excessive days or a weekend, i will do the same thing.

    There will also be periods where i will calorie cycle to support training. So lifting days will be very high carb and closer to maintenance, and non lifting days i will be either low carb or keto and run around a 500- 1000 calorie deficit.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,429 Member
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    I eat less some days to eat more on future days ("banking" calories), but don't normally eat less after going over.

    The "make up for it" approach seems to imply that eating is some kind of sin that requires expiation. It's not. Also, making up for it after can make a future indulgence more probable, by setting up a binge/restrict cycle. (When banking calories beforehand for a special event, the event itself becomes the "catch up", and leaves one at balance.)

    If I were less hungry the next day, I might eat less accordingly, but not require strict calorie parity. I don't think restricting after is necessarily unhealthy, if not frequent or extreme, but personally I found it unhelpful and potentially counterproductive during weight loss.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    the_conspicuous_quesadilla wrote: »
    Great responses. Thanks :)

    @kimny72 Do you think you would have handled yourself better if you were to "bank" your calories for a future Indulgence, rather than making up for a past one?

    @AnnPT77 I agree on the difference in perspective. It may be psychologically healthier to "bank" calories for a future treat rather than restrict oneself for a past indulgence as though punishing oneself.

    I am a small female, so part of the problem is I simply didn't have the calories to work with. If I ate at an 1100 calorie deficit one day it wouldn't leave me with much more than lettuce and the smell of cooking chicken :lol:

    I do try to bank calories when I know an indulgence is upcoming, maybe 100 cals or so a day for a couple of days. (Of course that only applies to planned events, not an "oops I ate the whole thing" moment!) I agree with Ann that banking calories feels less like punishment than after the fact though. And for some people who don't have hangups associated with their diet or weight, it probably isn't a big deal regardless.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,616 Member
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    I reeeeeeeally don't like depriving myself of food so what I do when I end up eating more than I planned is divide those extra calories up into how many days of the week are left and log the amount on each day. This tends to happen over the weekend and I try not to go over like 600 calories so that extra bit of deficit is still small instead of taking such a hit on one day.
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
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    I shoot for a 30% deficit for the week, so some days my calories are higher and some are lower. Some days I am less hungry, some days I am more hungry, and this way it doesn't turn in to punishing myself for what I am eating.
  • jakea1963
    jakea1963 Posts: 23 Member
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    I do this all the time. Has worked great for me.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    it sounds like you are setting yourself up for binge cycles by punishing yourself for going over your calorie allowance - if its a routine thing, maybe evaluate are you in too steep of a deficit? if its a rare thing, treat it like a special day and move on - one day won't make/break your weight loss journey

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