Calories to spare, do you eat them the next day?

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Replies

  • FisherGT
    FisherGT Posts: 55 Member
    Oof that's a good idea, i've never thought about it.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    For me, it would be an it depends. If I were hungrier the next day I would eat them. If I know I have something special coming up where extra calories would be beneficial I'd save them for that. If it is something that happens rarely and neither of those applied I'd just shrug it off.

    Also, if you want to use them later and don't like seeing numbers in the red you can do a quick add that day with those calories and then add them when you want to eat them as exercise under 'banked calories' or something.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    I've never done this. I have plenty of days that I am low because I have to stop eating at 7 PM due to GERD, but, often, workout later. I just see each day as stand-alone.

    I do the same thing in my budget. If we only spend $100 in December eating out, we still get $120 in January, not $120+$20.
  • I don't have reflux, so when I check my calorie counts in the evening and I'm 100 under, I have a little ice cream cup or small bit of chocolate. That means I don't crave them because I have them a couple times a week, but also I'm not making them a regular habit.

    I give myself one day a week where I don't bother counting and I eat lavishly, but that's because I've found that keeps me losing weight instead of plateauing. And it means I'm able to not eat onion rings today because I can eat them on Saturday. (And often by the time I get to Saturday I don't want them any more!)
  • DanyellMcGinnis
    DanyellMcGinnis Posts: 315 Member
    I save up calories during the week so I can eat out on Friday (when I don't get to exercise due to scheduling issues). It has been working for me.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    edited December 2019
    Had a glitch with my Garmin not transferring over a workout from today (Ultimate Frisbee - so fun!) and I didn’t notice until just now so I have a couple hundred calories left, but at 11:22 PM I am not about to eat a snack (heeelllooo reflux). Normally I go day by day, but I know some people on here keep track more by the week... eating light a couple days prior to a bigger planned meal. It’s a mental hurdle to eat those calories tomorrow when I “earned” them today. Would like to hear thoughts and opinions. That GF donut sure would be good with breakfast tomorrow! ;)

    To be honest, the calorie counts on food labels and calorie burns from activity trackers have an allowed error in them. One cannot realistically measure calories in and out +/- 10%.

    If you don't feel especially hungry no need to eat them back the next day.
  • julebrus2020
    julebrus2020 Posts: 26 Member
    I eat 1500 calories a day, even though my goal is closer to 1700 so that I can eat some more on the weekend or save for going out to eat without feeling like I've lost my deficit for the week.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    I usually aim for plus or minus 200 on calories, so if I'm under one day, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat them the next
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited December 2019
    I did when I was losing weight, not necessarily the next day, but usually in the next few days. I deliberately ate every single calorie in my allowance including exercise. If I left calories uneaten and didn't compensate soon it usually backfired with days of unexplained hunger and loss of control.

    Now that I'm maintaining, I have a different strategy. I'm logging much more loosely so any uneaten calories make up for that, and they help make up for days when I'm over calories, so instead of deliberately eating them like I did when I was losing I just keep them as a buffer. They don't cause the same issues because a few hundred calories off of 2200 is not the same as a few hundred off of 1700.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Never. I'm on the Groundhog Day plan. Every time I wake up, it's the first day of my diet. I don't use leftover calories from the previous day, or eat less to make up for going over the previous day. Whatever happened in the past happened; all I can control is what happens NOW. Weigh in, work out, try to hit my calorie target, go to sleep. Start all over in the morning.

    Lots of people have success with banking calories, though.
  • auntiejojorocks
    auntiejojorocks Posts: 3 Member
    I've lost 136lbs.....I never eat the calories I've burned working out and I never "bank" calories.
    I've worked with nutritionists/dietitians Doctors and personal trainers to help me get this weight off.
    Eating the calories you have lost will more likely help you maintain your weight not loose it. With that being said you don't want to be in the negative either.
    Calories are usually better being counted daily. It's easier to keep track of, less chance of large amount of calories all at once which increases your blood sugar which also increases cravings and hunger.

    Everyone is different and the reasoning can go back and forth and on and on but I would say no to banking.
  • CorineJN
    CorineJN Posts: 13 Member
    I don't bank calories and I don't "eat back" exercise calories.

    Today is today and when it's past it's past and if I'm not hungry I don't need to force myself either.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    CorineJN wrote: »
    I don't bank calories and I don't "eat back" exercise calories.

    Today is today and when it's past it's past and if I'm not hungry I don't need to force myself either.

    I am curious how successful you will be with this approach once you reach maintenance. Once you have reached your desired weight taking each day as it comes can easily lead to weight gain or weight loss if you do not have some idea of how many calories you are burning through exercise and how your calories look over a period of time rather than a single day.
  • CorineJN
    CorineJN Posts: 13 Member
    Why wouldn't it be succesful? Once I determine my maintenance intake, that is what I'll take in. If I eat less than that on a day it's not going to make too big of an impact over the long term.
  • richardgavel
    richardgavel Posts: 1,001 Member
    I generally consider every day a new day and don't carry over. Mainly because I've learned that letting myself go one day can lead into excuses for the next and the next. If I've been solid in maintaining my habits, I would go ahead and do it, but I've had to start over a few times.
  • CorineJN
    CorineJN Posts: 13 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    CorineJN wrote: »
    Why wouldn't it be succesful? Once I determine my maintenance intake, that is what I'll take in. If I eat less than that on a day it's not going to make too big of an impact over the long term.

    In the right context, I think it can be successful: Why not?

    I believe you mentioned - I think on another thread - that you monitor your intake & scale weight as well as food logging, and adjust intake based on results. That seems fine. Implicitly, it takes exercise into account.

    I do think that just saying it's fine not to eat back exercise, on a site where the standard process is intended to involve eating back exercise, is potentially confusing for new folks.

    In the regrettable cases where someone has already picked an over-aggressive weight loss rate (which is all too common), and is doing a lot of exercise on top of it, it could even be unhealthful advice.

    Thing is, people act as if "eat back your exercise calories" is the gold standard in weight loss and fitness. It is not. It appears to be something lots of people have accepted as the gold standard though.

    And with trackers being notoriously unreliable and people not being perfect creatures where it comes to weighing and logging calories in, it is often the case that using your own body and it's response to food (as I and many others do, outside of MFP and MFP forums) as a measure, what you do becomes sustainable for life. It teaches you what your body does.

    People very succesfully lost weight pre-trackers by listening to and observing their bodies sec. I miss that a lot in advice given to people.